9-11 commissioner stresses terror solutions

American citizens across the country have been asking themselves many questions of who, what, why, when, where and how of terrorism since commercial aircrafts were piloted as missiles in the early morning of Sept. 11, 2001. \nThe Honorable Lee Hamilton, who is the vice chair of the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, which closed Aug. 21, reported a synopsis of the circumstances involved in the 9-11 attacks to hundreds of campus community members Wednesday in the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union. \nIn front of television cameras and flood lights, Hamilton said the 9-11 attacks and the war on terrorism is a terribly complicated story with many dangling questions.\n"Al Qaeda is completely committed to killing Americans. They hate us more than they love life," he said. "We failed to understand the gravity of the threat. Al Qaeda publicly declared war on us in the early 1990's."\nHamilton's lecture was jointly sponsored by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Neal-Marshall Alumni Club, as part of the 15th annual Neal-Marshall lecture series. SPEA Director of Marketing Cassandra Howard  said campus community members were lucky to hear Hamilton speak, because the 9-11 commission's report is such a timely subject.\n"When you're in a large campus like this, you have many opportunities to do all kinds of things," she said. "Even though not a part of a formal education, these kinds of events do help broaden your world." \nHamilton, who served as an Indiana congressman from 1965 to 1999, also highlighted several key solutions the bipartisan 9-11 commission recommended to combat the war on terrorism in the 21st century. He stressed the importance of committing time and energy to the four "I's:" identification of threats, intelligence collection -- "everybody's favorite solution," international support and the integration of American power tools. \n"Who is the enemy? The enemy is not terrorism. Eliminating terrorism as a tactic is a goal that can not be achieved," Hamilton said. "We need to dismantle and destroy (terrorist) networks, prevail over (radical Islamic) ideology and protect ourselves against (future) attacks."\nBloomington resident George Brooks said he believes U.S. foreign policy is the primary cause of global terrorism because of American corporate profits generated from the public misery of less fortunate nations.\n"The U.S. stands for good ideals; we don't always follow them in practice. I think we are causing more terrorism," Brooks said. "People are not born terrorists; people are made terrorists. Terrorists are taught evil; they are not born evil."\nHamilton, who currently serves on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advisory council, said 1,500 people were interviewed throughout the committee's investigation. In addition, 2.5 million pages of documents were analyzed, interpreted and reflected upon. Hamilton said it is impossible to say whether the U.S. government could have prevented the 9-11 attack. \n"The real tragic story of 9-11 is the intelligence community did not coordinate, share, analyze or act on bits of information we had around the government. People did not have clear direction," he said. "People asked: who is in charge? Too often, the answer was: no one. No one connected the dots."\nHamilton, who currently serves as president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the mission of U.S. foreign policy should be aimed at changing the hearts and minds of the 1.2 billion people living in the Islamic world. Hamilton said the faith of Islam does not preach terror.\n"American people today are worried about their personal safety. We need to explain the threat, but not be paralyzed by it," he said. "We ought to know local capabilities to deal with terrorist attacks in the community. The first line of defense is the American citizen, who has to be alert. We must be informed of the danger, not panicked or fearful of it."\nHamilton said no silver bullet exists to defeat the war on terrorism, although the government recognizes the complicated political environments terrorists are often indoctrinated within. Brooks said he recognizes the effort government officials are putting forth to combat terror within the American landscape, although he said he worries the energy is to little to late.\n"I'm not justifying terrorists like Bin Laden or terrorism acts. Children are being raised to believe the U.S. is the whole world's problem," Brooks said. "When people are subjected to hopelessness and terror, and they can point to something in the world as the cause, those are the ingredients of terrorism."\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.