Paper no. 1083	10. 08. 2004
Terrorists Prosper with Publicity Guest Column-by Hari Sud Terrorists are publicity hungry. They know the value of taking hostages. It is publicity they want and that is what they get. In early seventies, taking hostages and hijacking planes to Cuba and Beirut was in fashion. Common criminals used it to get away from the law. Idealized left leaning youngster generated publicity through hijacking and terrorism. Palestinians, who routinely hijacked planes and set them on fire, obtained maximum mileage out of this act. I agree that they probably had a cause. But no cause is worth the cold-blooded murder, which followed it. They never achieved anything substantial with terrorism. But for them it kept the flame of their cause burning – for others they became the greatest villains. Then came suicide bombers and self-immolating monks. Buddhist priests grabbed world’s attention during the Vietnam War with self-immolation in Saigon. The suicide bombers blowing themselves up to demolish a target is the current fad. The suicide bombers are the preferred tool of LTTE and Muslim terrorists. The LTTE since 1975 has very successfully eliminated scores of politicians using suicide bombers. The Muslim world started its campaign of suicide bombing to counter Israel and US advantage of firepower. The first successful act of suicide bombing in modern times happened 25 years back when Muslim terrorists struck against the American Marines and the French Garrison in Beirut in 1983. It had the desired results. The Americans and the French withdrew in haste. With this success suicide bombing became the Muslim world’s own F-16 fighter jets. Israel and India became the main victims of this reign of terror. Then came the new innovation of using fully fuelled large airplanes to strike high-rise buildings. Osma Bin Laden used this mode when his bombers successfully struck on 9/11. The world learnt about this greatest terror act thru minute-by-minute prime time coverage by the world news media. While the rest of West cried over the human losses, publicity in the terrorist home countries made the bombers heroes. Thereafter each bombing act lionizes the bombers and brings in fresh recruits and money to their cause. No wonders terrorists are prospering. Terror in Ancient and Medieval times Greek authority in India after Alexander left Punjab in 323 BC was subjected to a terror campaign. Chanakya from Taxila lead this campaign. Only a year after Alexander’s departure, his governor and overlord of the conquered territories in India was murdered and Greeks made to flee. Alexander died soon after. His successor, Selucus, who inherited the territories lost the battle of re-conquest and left India for good. Success of this endeavor was achieved with a clever mix of political and military strategy. Master of politics, Chanakya in the absence of present day media, sent messengers from village to village to garner people support. The latter, he used to overthrow the decadent rulers to unify India. Numerous other examples exist in the history. One example in the Muslim history stands out. The Order of Assassins in Persia and Iraq lead a three hundred years war against their co-religionists rule from Baghdad. They relied on hallucinating the young men into believing, paradise after death.  Terror and assassination was their instrument to achieve their goal. Young men joined the Order in droves.  In this way, the Assassin leaders achieved their objective of staying independent of Baghdad Caliphate for three hundred years. This ended only after Helegu of Mongol fame in 1257 put an end to their rule by capturing all of their strongholds. The modern suicide bombers follow this path. Their masters have schooled them into believing paradise after self-sacrifice. The young recruits very willingly enroll for suicide bombing missions. Madrssas recruit youngsters in the same way as Assassins recruited men 800 years back. The Present Cycle of Violence, Publicity and Mass support Thanks to CNN, BBC etc. who provide minute-by-minute broadcast of any terrorist act with on the spot coverage, the world comes to know about these evil acts in minute details. Maximum publicity is the terrorist goal and they achieve it with one single bombing. News organizations are too eager to report. They report these evil acts and its gory details as part of their self imposed mandate of public interest. They are unmindful that terror master at the home base is enjoying the turn of the events and using it to garner more support. The media goes a step further; it seeks out the terror master. He is very willing to talk and denies his involvement. People in the home country believe him and ignore the Western countries plea to rein in the culprits. In this cycle of events the perpetrators succeed. In the West, the media and the press coverage with multitude of analysis, becomes confusing. It helps only to provide fresh recruits to the terrorist organization. In the home countries, Al Zazeera (CNN of the Arab World) beams details left out by the Western media. Support for the bombers grows. Supposing we deny the excessive media reporting of these terrorist acts.   Media of all nationality has to implement a unified policy:   * Not to talk to any terrorist or his organization.   * Deny him images and details, which is oxygen to the terrorist movements.   * Deny media coverage to nations and their leaders sympathetic to terrorist acts.   * Deny technology to news organizations in the terrorist home countries to make them incapable of broadcasting gory details.   * Sanctions on national leaders and their media, should they break the above code. A code of conduct has now become absolutely necessary to stop this madness. Without it, escalation of the violence is in the offing. Political and military solution under discussion will be unsuccessful if the terrorists get an upper hand in the hearts and minds of people in the home countries.   Terrorist of one country is a Hero of the other. None of the terrorist movements in Latin America, Africa and Asia would have prospered without being welcomed in the neighboring country. All leftist leaders of Latin America were welcomed in sixties and seventies in Cuba. In response, all the rightwing movement leaders were heroes in Washington. Britain had its share of becoming a terror headquarters for various outfits in Commonwealth countries. Z. A. Phizo a Nagaland (India) terrorist organization leader was granted asylum and citizenship in Britain under a questionable logic. Sikh terrorists were welcomed in Pakistan from 1979 to 1988. The whole Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership today prospers in Pakistan with their connivance. The Kashmir violence will disappear without Pakistani help. Iraq is key example of terror now. Terror factories run by outsiders are making American occupation and democratization difficult. The newest victim of the terror and exploding suicide bombers has been the city of Tashkent in Central Asia. Pakistani Mullahs who see Central Asian Republics as their next battleground for Muslim supremacy, trained terrorists who struck in Tashkent. All the above could not have happened without official connivance of a willing neighbor. The latter, cleverly disguises it as a moral support. But it is all baloney. Long Range Policy - Deny Oxygen to the Terrorist Movements Terror movements are to be denied support as a part of a new international order. UN has failed to do anything anywhere except to run refugee camps, hence it is an incapable of enforcing discipline. For independent nations of the world it is important that they resolve political issues mutually. Outside support in one form or other usually spoils the stew. Covert aid just like President Reagan’s aid to Latin American terror despots in private and denial in public or present day covert aid of Pakistan to many terror outfits in its midst is to be eliminated. The offending nations are to be denied diplomatic, political as well as trade status. Had covert support to Osma Bin Laden denied by Pakistan & Saudi Arabia and had the media not made Osma Bin Laden larger than life as he is today, then 9/11 would probably not happened. He would have been caught immediately after East Africa bombings. Publicity and media obsession with his organization brought him new recruits, money and infrastructure to strike on 9/11.    Human Rights and Terrorists Human rights angle was the major tool of the West in its Cold War with the Soviets. This tool has been somewhat blunted with Western involvement in Wars in the Middle East since 1991. This change of heart of the Western governments is welcomed. Terrorists prior to that used this tool to their advantage. Chechen terrorist atrocities were overlooked from 1989 to 2002. Civilian murder and beheading by Pakistani sent terrorists in Kashmir from 1989 to-date are not considered while drafting human rights reports. The latter delightfully highlights military responses.  In short, if a terrorist becomes active in any part of the World, the human rights organizations have to be sent packing. Deny Terrorists all Theatres of Publicity and Prevent them from prospering   Media has to self-police itself by not aiding and abetting terrorism in any form. This includes pictures of bombing, sympathetic attitude towards terrorist causes, reporting on terror acts, contacting terror masters, publishing views of sympathetic nations etc. Terrorist is to be denied all avenues, which may make them prosper. Countries, which become home to terrorists, are to be subjected to diplomatic, political and economic sanctions. Internet as a tool of communication is to be denied by restricting flow of information. It is a bit fool hardy to listen to the Western security services flimsy argument that terror organization should be allowed to use it, with the US or other countries listening into it. This argument has been proven wrong recently when US took three years to discover the key Al Qaeda communication cell in Pakistan. For three years the Internet allowed messages to be exchanged and US knew nothing about it. Had, as a policy, all Internet and wireless hookup between terrorists, been snapped then the terror master in Afghan-Pak border could not have communicated with his henchmen.    Conclusions Anarchists are to be denied all outlets of publicity and communication. Media and governments are to play a constructive role by denying them publicity. Political compulsions at home, excessive use of human rights argument and low-grade diplomacy of trying to look for a friend in the hornet’s like America making friend with General Musharraf is to be discouraged. This war on terror is to be won at all costs. It has to include denying terrorist all avenues of propaganda.  (The author is a retired Vice President from C-I-L Inc. and has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. A graduate of Punjab University and University of Missouri; Rolla, USA, the author is a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. The Views expressed are his own. email- harisud@hotmail.com)
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