AUTHOR:
TerrorismCentral Editorial Staff
TITLE:
TerrorismCentral Newsletter - March 20, 2005
SOURCE:
TerrorismCentral, March 20, 2005
TEXT:
Last week marked several anniversaries: two years since the beginning of the war in Iraq, ten years since the sarin gas attack against the Tokyo subway and 17 years since the Halabja poison gas attack. In addition to these historic events, News Highlights reviews key stories from around the world in the past week. The Feature Article reviews key recommendations from last week's Madrid Summit.
1. World
2. Africa
3. Americas
4. Asia Pacific
5. Europe
6. Middle East
7. South Asia
8. Cyberterrorism and Information Warfare
9. Finance
10 Human Rights
11. Law and Legal Issues
12. Transportation
13. Weapons of Mass Destruction
14. Recently Published
FEATURE ARTICLE:
The Madrid Summit
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
The UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate met in Morocco to assess how Member States implement UN counter terrorism measures. The trip to Morocco is the first of on-site country visits. Interpol, the World Customs Organization, the Financial Action Task Force and experts from the European Union also participate in these assessments and are scheduled to visit Albania, Kenya and Thailand in the next few months.
Researchers at the University of Ulster have warned, in an article published in Nature, that a build-up of stress on faults that has followed the December 26 earthquake make it likely to trigger another large quake and possibly a tsunami. Illustrating the scale of the Indian Ocean earthquake, Indian seismologist Dr Vineet Gahlaut reported that India has shifted a few centimeters east, closer to Indonesia. Meanwhile, the means to mitigate the risk of another disaster faces a serious founding shortfall. The Asian Development Bank reports that promised contributions of more than $4 billion have not been forthcoming.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2005/tsunami/default.asp
A worldwide quality of life survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting of London put Luxembourg first in the ranking of personal safety and security. Using New York as the base city, with a rating of 100, Luxembourg ranked 122.5. It was followed by Helsinki, Bern, Geneva and Zurich, which shared second place with a score 120. Least secure was Baghdad, rated at 5. Other areas experiencing political turmoil and low economic growth also ranked at the bottom, including Abidjan (24), Bangui (26.5), Port Harcourt and Lagos (both 32.5). http://www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1173105;jsessionid=5YS1N4OJWNMIKCTGOUFCIIQKMZ0QUI2C
Protests took place around the world to mark the second anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, on March 19.
Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed the Darfur region of Sudan as the biggest, most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world, according the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland. Some three million are in acute need of assistance in a complex emergency that has included as many as 20 different armed actors. Further atrocities have been reported, including kidnapping, torture, mutilation, decapitation, violence against women and even one case in which two girls were boiled alive and eaten in front of their mother. The UN mission promised to bring the perpetrators to justice and also has given rebel militias a deadline of later this month to disarm or face further action.
In northeast Kenya, near the Somali border, a revenge attack between rival Garre and Murule clans killed at least 24 people, including 16 children. Around 1,500 families fled their homes after the attack. Severe drought in the area has led to repeated clashes over control of water and land.
Nigeria has charged 53 football (soccer) players with treason. The banned Biafra secessionist group (Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra MASSOB) had organized participation in a youth football tournament.
Somalia Members of Parliament brawled during a vote against the deployment of international peacekeepers. Prime Minister Ali Ghedi rejected the vote, saying it had been conducted unconstitutionally that that the Speaker, Sharif Hasan Sheikh Adan was responsible for the fight that followed.
Sudan's Darfur region reports a recent decrease in the level of violence but no willingness for either the government or the rebels to enter into good faith talk or actions to support a stalled peace process. The UN has revised the previous estimate of 70,000 non-conflict deaths dramatically, to at least 180,000 who have been killed by illness and malnutrition, not directly through ethnic violence.
Uganda's army says it has rescued 160 kidnap victims, most children, from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) so far this year, but their efforts were undermined by an attack against a northern village this week in which 49 people, most teenagers were taken. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been proceeding with a case against the LRA in accordance with government wishes, but now a delegation has asked the ICC not to issue arrest warrants for rebel leaders so as not to deter them from accepting an amnesty.
Zimbabwe now has the highest child mortality rate in the world. One in eight children will die before the age of five - about 70 percent due to AIDS. International aid to Zimbabwe has fallen sharply because of concern over President Mugabe's rule.
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa has called for presidential elections two years before the end of his term. His economic policies, particularly around exploitation of natural gas reserves, led to widespread and often violent protests. Protestors who installed blockades across the country began to take them down after the lower house of congress raised taxes on foreign energy firms.
Canadians are coming to terms with a not guilty verdict in the Air India bombing case. The tragedy occurred in June 1985. After many years two Canadian Sikhs were put on trial. Following the verdict, families of the victims called for a public inquiry and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) say they are continuing the investigation. Difficulties in obtaining evidence have hindered resolution of the case.
US authorities have detained 103 members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) gang in "Operation Community Shield". Mara-13 members predominantly come from El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. It has about 20,000 members in the US and thousands more in Central America. Drug and human trafficking finance their violent criminal activities.
New York Times reporter Eric Lipton writes (March 16) that the Department of Homeland Security has prepared a "National Planning Scenarios" document that reviews possible terrorist attacks and their consequences. The fifteen scenarios used for disaster planning include:
1. Nuclear Detonation: 10-Kiloton Nuclear Device
2. Biological Attack: Aerosolized Anthrax
3. Biological Disease Outbreak: Flu Pandemic
4. Biological Attack: Pneumonic Plague
5. Chemical Attack: Blister Agent
6. Chemical Attack: Toxic Industrial Chemicals
7. Chemical Attack: Nerve Agent
8. Chemical Attack: Chlorine Tank Explosion
9. Natural Disaster: Major Earthquake
10. Natural Disaster: Major Hurricane
11. Radiological Attack: 'Dirty Bombs'
12. Explosives Attack: Improvised Bombs
13 Biological Attack: Food Contamination
14. Biological Attack: Foot-and-Mouth Disease
15. Cyber Attack
Of these, the impact of the third scenario, a flu pandemic, dwarfs all the others. Based on spreading in months from China to four major cities, it would leave 87,000 dead and 300,000 hospitalized in the US, with an economic impact of $70 - 160 billion.
Chinese President Hu Jintao met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her that the new anti-secession law promotes stability and warning the US not to interfere. Regarding North Korea, he said the US should be more flexible and that China has only limited influence. Talks will continue next week.
Japanese officials and victims of the March 20, 1985 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subway system, gathered to mark the tenth anniversary. The Aum Shrinrikyo cult carried out the attack, which left twelve dead and 5,000 with persistent health consequences. Thirteen members of the cult, including its founder Shoko Asahara, have been sentenced to death but none have been carried out.
Japan's claim to the disputed islands of Takeshima (Japanese)/ Dokdo Korean) has led to protests in South Korea. In addition to official government protests, demonstrators have burned flags and photos outside the Japanese embassy.
A Kazakhstan court has begun the trial of fifteen alleged members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jamoat Mujahedeen ("Community of Holy Warriors") blamed for a series of attacks in Uzbekistan last year.
Kyrgyzstan held its second round of parliamentary elections, following a first found that included a number of serious irregularities and led to significant levels of public protest, including an arson attack by some 10,000 people against a police station. Election observers found some technical improvements and better right of assembly but there were still concerns over lack of diverse sources of information, media bias, restrictions on competition, and inaccurate and poorly maintained voter lists. Despite these flaws, the new parliament will have a significant opposition presence, and the government has said it is ready to negotiate with the demonstrators.
http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?ut=2&id=4776
In the Philippines, a failed jailbreak led to the death of a police officer and 22 prisoners, including Abu Sayyaf leaders Alhamser Mantad Limbong ("Kosovo"), Galib Andang ("Commander Robot"), and Nadjmi Sabdulla ("Commander Global"). Abu Sayyaf says it will retaliate.
Interior Ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK agreed to set up a contact network for exchanging information on terrorist suspects, internet monitoring and theft of weapons or explosives, as well as cooperating on exchange of identification and enforcement data.
Irish by-elections gave Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) more than 12 percent of the vote, an increase of nearly 3 percent, despite the controversies following the murder of Robert McCartney and the Northern Bank robbery.
Kosovo President Ibrahim Rogova escaped assassination when an explosion hit his car. He also had escaped a grenade attack last year.
In northern Italy, the "Italian Unabomber" was blamed for an explosion in the city of Motta di Livenza that injured three. I A device inside an electric candle triggered the blast. Police have hunted the Unabomber for more than ten years.
Russian security services say they paid $10 million to Chechen informants who revealed the hidden location of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, killed last week.
In Northern Ireland, the family of Robert McCartney, murdered by members of the Irish Republican Army, dismissed warnings from Sinn Fein that they were being used as political pawns, and went on to meet with US President Bush and other officials.
Leaders of 13 militant Palestinian groups have agreed to continue the de facto truce. Following this agreement, Israel said it would continue to refrain from offensive military actions.
Iraq's newly elected national assembly convened for the first time on March 16, coinciding with the anniversary of the of the Halabja poison gas attack and accompanied by a series of mortar attacks. A new government has not yet been formed.
In Lebanon, thousands of protestors gathered to demand Syrian withdrawal and resignation of the government. Massive competing rallies involving hundreds of thousands of people have taken place since the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, including one opposition rally that attracted nearly a million. The UN Mission of Inquiry into Hariri's death has completed its investigation and is expected to present a report to Secretary General Annan next week. Meanwhile, Lebanese security chief Jamil Sayyed said his forces were not involved in the killing. Hezbollah
In Qatar, a suicide car bombing killed a British man and injured twelve. This is the first such attack in Qatar and came on the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
Syria has withdrawn its intelligence agents from Lebanon but will not complete the phased military withdrawal until mid-May.
In the West Bank town of Jericho, Israel has begun the phased handover of power to the Palestinians. A similar effort will begin in Tulkarm on March 21.
Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, scheduled for May, have been delayed until September due to technical issues. A bomb in Kandahar killed five and injured four.
In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, three policemen were killed in an attack by a group of about 30 suspected Maoist militants.
Opposition protests in Nepal continued, while Maoist rebels deny claims of an internal rift and deny reports they expelled one of their senior leaders. The government is encouraging attacks by anti-Maoist vigilantes in the southwest.
Pakistani police are investing the bombing of a Shia Muslim shrine in which 30 people were killed. It has been variously reported as a suicide and a time bomb. This is the latest in a series of attacks in Balochistan province. Fighting in the province between security forces and tribesmen continued, including a clash in which three paramilitary troops were killed and eight injured.
8. Cyberterrorism and Information Warfare
Computer crackers hacked into the London office of the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui where they installed keylogging software to capture all keyboard activity and so reveal confidential information. The British National Hi-Tech Crime Unit uncovered the fraud when the criminals were planning electronic transfers of some GBP 220 million. Israeli police have arrested one suspect.
Security researchers with the German Honeypot Project found that networks of about a million compromised computers are under the control of highly skilled criminals. The network of remote-controlled computers, called a botnet, is used to distribute spam and viruses; sniff network traffic for useful data, to launch distributed denial of service attacks, and other nefarious operations. The paper, " Know your Enemy: Tracking Botnets" is online at http://project.honeynet.org/papers/bots/
The US Congress held further hearings regarding identity theft. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearings on "Protecting Consumer’s Data: Policy Issues Raised by Choice Point" while the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs completed hearings begun last week on " Identity Theft: Recent Developments Involving the Security of Sensitive Consumer Information". A range of solutions to mitigate the growing identity theft crisis is being considered, including strengthening current regulations and undertaking new legislation.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/03152005hearing1455/hearing.htm
http://banking.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=144
Data brokers Westlaw and LexisNexis have both tightened restrictions on data access.
A US Senate investigation has uncovered a secret web of at least 125 U.S. bank and securities accounts at Riggs and other financial institutions operating in the United States, that were used by former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet and his associates to move more than $13 million. This network was far more extensive, went on far longer, and involved more banks than previously disclosed and involved failures of many financial institutions to comply with regulations designed to prevent such cases.
http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=PressReleases.View&PressRelease_id=932&Affiliation=C
http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/PINOCHETREPORTFINALwcharts0.pdf
Spanish police working with Interpol and Europol have smashed a massive international money laundering ring involving more than $300 million obtained through murder, drug trafficking, arms dealing and prostitution. Forty-one citizens of Finland, France, Morocco, Russia, Spain and the Ukraine were arrested. The alleged ringleader is a Spanish attorney named Fernando del Valle.
The US Treasury added the name of North Valle drug cartel leader Carlos Alberto Renteria Mantilla ("Beto Renteria") to its list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs), along with 11 front companies and individuals operating on his behalf.
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js2324.htm
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions/
The British Assets Recovery Agency has been given permission to freeze GBP 300,000 of assets belonging to Walter and Finulla Black, based on the allegation that at least a third of the assets were derived from manufacturing alcohol and counterfeiting money. Walter Black was associated with the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
Violations of Somalia's arms embargo will meet further obstacles following the reestablishment of the UN Monitoring Group and a visit by the Sanctions Committee.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8337.doc.htm
A BBC Radio 4 File on 4 program finds that the Provisional IRA has allied with criminal gangs smuggling millions of pounds of contraband cigarettes and illegal fuel across the Irish Sea, using the same structures used to import arms during the Troubles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4349473.stm
The UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) handed over its final indictments. ICTY is to complete trying all defendants by 2008. They are trying only the most serious crimes; other investigations have been transferred to local authorities. The court has asked for cooperation in finding 17 indicted fugitives, including General Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, and transferring them to The Hague.
Brunei Darussalam has become the 191st member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNICEF).
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26428&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
WalMart, the largest retailer in the world, has agreed to pay $11 million as part of a settlement in a lawsuit that it had used hundreds of illegal immigrants to clean its stores. This represents the largest federal penalty paid by the company.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) finds that trafficking in children is on the rise and is a matter of concern for all states throughout the OSCE region.
http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?ut=2&id=4793
At the Yad Vashem memorial, the Holocaust Museum has been dedicated and will open to the public on March 27.
http://www.yadvashem.org/
Murad Elian Al-Amud was indicted with four associates in Jerusalem court for planning a terrorist attack against the Knesset and trying to establish a cell for other attacks.
Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik were found not guilty on all counts, in connection with the Air India bombing that killed 329 people while en route to Canada.
http://www.airindiatrial.ca/index.php?pinPageID=54
Gappal Bannah pleaded guilty in Philippines court to murders in connection with a bombing, for which he supplied the explosives, which killed four people last month. Gamal Baharan and Abu Khalil Trinidad, his codefendants, pleaded not guilty.
Djamel Beghal has been sentenced by a Paris court to 10 years in prison for plotting to bomb the US embassy in France in 2001. Five other alleged militant Islamists received prison terms of one to nine years.
Ljube Boskovski, former Interior Minister in Macedonia, was indicted in the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He faces charges of murder, wanton destruction and cruel treatment connected with the Ljuboten village attacks in 2001.
Moutaz Almallah Dabas was arrested in the UK on a Spanish extradition warrant. He is allegedly linked to the group responsible for the 2004 Madrid bombings.
Irun Hidayat has gone on trial in Indonesia on charges of helping to plan and motivate others to carry out acts of terrorism. He is allegedly connected to the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
Gojko Jankovic, former deputy commander of the military police and a paramilitary leader during the Balkan wars, surrendered to Bosnian Serb authorities and has been flown to The Hague where he has been indicted on war crimes charges connected with alleged torture of Muslim detainees and other abuses.
http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2005/p948-e.htm
Harold Keke, a militia leader in the Solomon Islands, has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2002 murder of Catholic priest and cabinet minister Father Augustine Geve
Frans van Anraat has been charged in the Netherlands with selling US and Japanese chemicals that were used to produce the poison gas in 1988 Halabja attack in Iraq that killed some 5,000 Kurds. Van Anraat is the first Dutch national to be prosecuted for genocide.
A new report into baggage screening in the US finds that there has been progress installing systems, but screening is not integrated with airport baggage conveyor systems, a system that is less than optimal and needs to be reviewed.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-365
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reports that three blatant acts of piracy, including violent kidnappings for ransom, show that violence is on the rise in the Malacca Straits. The captain and engineer of a gas tanker taken hostage last weekend were released but the kidnapped captain and two crew of a Japanese tugboat are still missing.
http://www.icc-ccs.org/main/news.php?newsid=42
Malaysian police have suggested that Indonesian separatists with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) may be responsible. Malaysia is deploying more patrol ships. One of the attacks was against a Japanese gunboat; Japan is considering offering patrol boats to Indonesia to help prevent further piracy.
Singapore and the US signed an agreement to deploy radioactive detection equipment in Singapore seaports. http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/20050310992.htm
The US State Department issued a special advisory, warning against potential terrorist attacks against East African shipping. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1158.html
The Airport, Port and Terminal Security Middle East conference was held no 14-15 March.
http://www.apts-expo.com/ME/page.cfm
A US Senate committee held hearings on "Strengthening Enforcement and Border Security: The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel". Among the issues raised was the difficulty of ensuring visitors leave when their visas expire and whether visitors from 27 visa-waiver countries will be ready with machine-readable passports by the October deadline.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1414
13. Weapons of Mass Destruction
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei warned of remaining vulnerabilities to nuclear terrorism. He said "For those of us in the nuclear field, it has become obvious that our work to strengthen nuclear security is both vital and urgent – and that we must not wait for a 'watershed' nuclear security event to provide the needed security upgrades".
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2005/ebsp2005n003.html
Ukraine's Prosecutor General admits that arms dealers smuggled long-range cruise missiles capable of carrying a nuclear load to China and Iran 1999-2001.
The US Departments of Energy and the Interior have begun inquiries into the validity of data used to demonstrate that a proposed nuclear storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would pose no harm for thousands of years. Email exchanges indicate that key documentation may have been fabricated.
http://www.energy.gov/ http://www.interior.gov/
The World Health Organization, pointing to increasing numbers of human cases of avian influenza, have emphasized the " critical need for full information to assess of the risks of a pandemic that in a worst-case scenario could claim tens of millions of lives worldwide". They point to the need for rapid field investigation of each new case for timely detection and because "Such cases can provide the first signal that the virus is altering its behavior in human populations and thus alert authorities to the need to intervene quickly".
http://www.who.int/en/
Anthrax was detected at three facilities handling mail inbound for the Pentagon. The facilities were closed and prophylactic antibiotics administered. Further testing revealed the scare was a false positive
A new report by the World Wildlife Fund's Global Climate Change Program warms that melting glaciers in the Himalayas could lead to floods followed by water shortages for hundreds of millions of people in India, China and Nepal. The Himalayas contain the largest store of water outside the polar ice caps, and regulate the water supply to the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Thanlwin, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, that are believed to be retreating at a rate of about 10-15 meters per year.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/news/news.cfm?uNewsID=19111
Sustainable world forests create jobs and generate income and also help avert conflict and promote rehabilitation where conflicts have occurred. These are among the findings of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report "The State of the World's Forests".
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/100241/index.html
Eric Cole, et al, " Cyber Spying" Syngress
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1931836418/
Council of Europe, "Human rights and the fight against terrorism - The Council of Europe Guidelines", council of Europe Publishing
http://book.coe.int/sysmodules/RBS_page/admin/redirect.php?id=36&lang=EN&produit_aliasid=1884
Ranier Karlsch, "Hitler's Bomb", Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,346293,00.html
Drew Miller, and Rob Shein, "Black Hat Physical Device Security", Syngress
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/193226681X/
Kevin Mitnick and William Simon, "The Art of Intrusion: The Real Story Behind the Exploits of hackers, Intruders and Deceivers" Wiley
Phil Rees, "Dining with Terrorists: Meetings with the World's Most Wanted Militants" Macmillan
http://www.panmacmillan.com/books/march05/diningwithterrorists/default.html
FEATURE ARTICLE: The Madrid Summit
Last week something happened that many believed impossible. More than 200 world leaders, diplomats, academics and security experts from around the world overcame cultural, social and political barriers to reach a consensus on how best to counter terrorism.
The International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security, organized by the Club of Madrid, took place on March 8-11. The Madrid Agenda expressed the consensus developed during the three-day meeting. It was presented on March 11, the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings in which 191 people were killed and nearly 2000 injured.
The goal of the summit was to explore ways to counter terrorism and encourage democracy and reach a consensus that, at the end of the conference, was presented as The Madrid Agenda.
Working groups focused on four key themes:
* Underlying causes of terrorism
* Confronting the problem of terrorism
* Democratic answers to terrorism
* The role of civil society
Reviewing the theme of the Causes and Underlying Factors of Terrorism relied on the findings of five working groups that covered individual and psychological explanations, political explanations; economic explanations, religion and religious extremism, and cultural explanations. Their work was summarized in the "Underlying Risk Factors" section of the Agenda:
"Terrorism thrives on intimidation, fear and hatred. While authorities have a responsibility to ensure freedom, including religious freedom, leaders, including religious leaders, in turn have a responsibility not to abuse that freedom by encouraging or justifying hatred, fanaticism or religious war. We propose:
* the systematic promotion of cultural and religious dialogue through local encounters, round tables and international exchange programs.
* that authorities and the mass media continuously review their use of language to ensure it does not unwittingly or disproportionately reinforce the terrorist objective of intimidation, fear and hatred.
* the creation of programs, national and international, to monitor the expression of racism, ethnic confrontation and religious extremism, their impact in the media, as well as to review school textbooks for their stance on cultural and religious tolerance.
"While poverty is not a direct cause of terrorism, economic and social policy can help mitigate exclusion and the impact of rapid socioeconomic change, which give rise to grievances that are often exploited by terrorists. We recommend:
* the adoption of long-term trade, aid and investment policies that help empower marginalized groups and promote participation.
* new efforts to reduce structural inequalities within societies by eliminating group discrimination.
* the launch of programs aimed at promoting women's education, employment and empowerment.
* the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
"Terrorists prosper in societies where there are unresolved conflicts and few accountable mechanisms for addressing political grievances. We call for:
* new initiatives at mediation and peace-making for societies which are marked by conflict and division, because democracy and peace go hand in hand.
* a redoubling of efforts to promote and strengthen democratic institutions and transparency within countries and at the global level. Initiatives such as the Community of Democracies may contribute to these goals."
Regarding the theme of Confronting Terrorism, there were working groups on policing, intelligence, military responses, terrorist finance, and legal responses. The Agenda incorporates their findings as follows:
* taking effective measures to make impunity impossible either for acts of terrorism or for the abuse of human rights in counter-terrorism measures.
* the incorporation of human rights laws in all anti-terrorism programs and policies of national governments as well as international bodies. The implementation of the proposal to create a special rapporteur who would report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the compatibility of counter-terrorism measures with human rights law, as endorsed by the United Nations Secretary General in Madrid.
* the inclusion and integration of minority and diaspora communities in all our societies.
* the building of democratic political institutions across the world embodying these same principles.
* the overhaul of classification rules that hinder the rapid exchange of information. the clarification of conditions under which information will be shared with other states on the basis of availability.
* the use of state of the art technology to create regional and global anti-terrorism databases.
* the creation of cross-border preparedness programs in which governments and private business participate in building shared stockpiles of pharmaceuticals and vaccines, as well as the seamless co-operation of emergency services.
* the streamlining and harmonization of national and international tools in the fight against terrorism.
* the creation of clear guidelines on the role of the armed forces in relation to other agencies of law enforcement at the national level.
* the drawing up of national plans to co-ordinate responsibilities in the fight against terrorism, allowing for agencies or organizations with special skills to contribute to a comprehensive effort.
* the United Nations Security Council to initiate on-site investigations where it is believed that a state is supporting terrorist networks, and if necessary to use the full range of measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
* the conclusion of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the strengthening and implementation of the biological weapons convention.
* the continuation of innovative global efforts to reduce the threat from weapons of mass destruction, such as the Global Threat Reduction Initiative and the Global Partnerships.
* increased and coordinated law enforcement and political and civic education campaigns aimed at reducing the trafficking of illegal narcotics, revenues from which are used to finance terrorism.
* the creation of an international anti-terrorist finance center, which furthers research, trains national enforcement officials, and serves as a source of co-ordination and mutual assistance.
* the development of tools to increase the transparency of fundraising in the private and charitable sectors through the exchange of best practices.
* the expansion of ‚'financial intelligence units‚', which facilitate the effective corporation between government agencies and financial institutions."
Three working groups examined the theme of democratic responses to terrorism. They examined human rights, promoting democracy and accountable government, and international institutions. On the theme of civil society, working groups discussed citizens as actors, civil society and political violence, and civil society strategies. These groups all emphasized the need to use freedom and democracy, promoted by citizens, as the only mechanism through which terrorism could ultimately be defeated.
Taking into account all the findings and recommendations of the working groups, The Madrid Recommendations called for supporting the UN Global Strategy for Fighting Terrorism that had been announced by Secretary General Kofi Annan at the summit. The main elements of this strategy are:
1. Dissuade disaffected groups from choosing terrorism as a tactic to achieve their goals
2. Deny terrorists the means to carry out their attacks
3. Deter States from supporting terrorists
4. Develop State capacity to prevent terrorism
5. Defend human rights in the struggle against terrorism
They called for urgent actin, beginning with adopting the definition of terrorism proposed by the United Nations High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change in December 2004. This defines terrorism as:
Any action, in addition to actions already specified by the existing conventions on aspects of terrorism, the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council resolution 1566 (2004), that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants, when the purpose of such an act, but its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.
They also called for countries urgently to ratify and implement all terrorism-related conventions and conclude the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and suggested measures to address the needs of terrorist victims.
To move these proposals forward, the Club of Madrid will present the Madrid Agenda to the UN, in international meetings, and to other institutions and governments. They will use the papers produced for the summit, and the dialogue that took place during the meeting, as a basis for policy and practice that now must be realized in concrete actions.
Further Reading:
Club of Madrid
http://www.clubmadrid.orgInternational Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security
http://www.safe-democracy.org/Open Democracy
http://www.opendemocracy.net/UN Global Strategy for Fighting Terrorism
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sgsm9757.doc.htm
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