Page 127 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Counterterrorism———101

basing rights and permission to launch operations of the residence of the Japanese ambassador. The June
inside a foreign country. The 2001 war in Afghanistan 2002 rescue of two Americans and one Filipino, kid-
demonstrated that discernable terrorist targets (e.g., in napped by Filipino terrorist group Abu Sayyaf more
the form of terror training camps) can be effectively than a year earlier, did not turn out as well. Two of the
destroyed through military operations. hostages were killed in a shoot-out between the U.S.-
trained Filipino troops and the kidnappers; the third
hostage was rescued successfully.
TRAINING
Counterterrorism is and should be a dynamic
The least understood and most important counterterror- enterprise. The threat posed by terrorists will con-
ism resource is training. Following the bombing of tinue to evolve and will require new and creative
the U.S. embassy in Beirut
in 1983 and 1984, the U.S.
Congress enacted the Diplo-
matic Security Act of 1985.
Besides setting up a formal
Diplomatic Security Service
and providing funds to
solidify U.S. facilities over-
seas, the law established the
Anti-Terrorism Assistance
Training Program (ATAP).
ATAP provides a proactive
capability that extends U.S.
force by training foreign
police and senior govern-
ment officials with the skills
to investigate and deter ter-
rorism. Police are trained in
SWAT (special weapons and
tactics), major case manage-
ment, post-blast investiga-
tion, and crisis management.
Measuring the effective-
ness of such efforts is diffi-
cult, but it is worth noting
the apparent progress that
has been achieved since the
debacle by the Germans at
the 1972 Olympics. In 1992,
for example, Singapore
authorities that had been
trained by Israel and the
United States stormed a
hijacked airliner, killed
the hijackers, and rescued
all passengers alive. The
Peruvians enjoyed similar
success in taking down A billboard on antiterrorism created by the American Forces Information Service, the
Tupac Amaru guerrillas in principal internal information organization within the Department of Defense
1997 who had taken control Source: Defense Visual Information Center.