WASHINGTON_The U.S. government has drawn up its first strategy aimed at limiting terrorists' ability to travel, though acknowledging the U.S. could be years away from successfully clamping down on the threat.
At Congress' request, the National Counterterrorism Center assembled the 60-page document, released Tuesday, to lay out programs aimed at preventing terrorists from traveling in the United States.
Many of the programs have become part of all travelers' routines since the 19 hijackers came into the United States to launch the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: watch lists, airport screening and enhanced passport requirements. Others are less visible, such as newly formed terrorism task forces.
The document, which took almost a year to draft, says that border security organizations need to increase the number of tips they pass on to law enforcement agencies, that information on terrorists' travel needs to be shared with allies and that other countries must be encouraged to shut down illegal immigrant smugglers and document forgers.
Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the counterterrorism center's deputy director for strategic operational planning, called the strategy "a long-term endeavor" and said improving the ability overseas to block terrorists' movements is key.
"No matter how good, no matter how much work, no matter how much money the U.S. puts into all of the different things that we have done and want to do to prevent terrorist travel in the United States, if we don't have really capable foreign partners ... then we are not going to be successful," he said.
The strategy released publicly has less detail than a classified version sent to Congress in February. That document included an intelligence assessment naming the countries about which the U.S. is most concerned.
David Heyman, director of the private Center for Strategic and International Studies homeland security program, said even if the U.S. did everything it could within its borders to prevent the illegal movement of people, authorities would only be tackling about 5 percent of the problem because so much of it stems from overseas.
"The real question is, what are the measures of success and how do we know we're successful?" he asked.
Heyman found it striking that the letter attached to the strategy - from the center's director, retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd - gave significant deference to the importance of protecting civil liberties and privacy.
While there is little in the strategy to back that up, Heyman said, the U.S. can't - in the process of protecting itself - create a long-term problem by alienating the international community, which needs access to the U.S. for business, student exchanges and tourism.
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On the Web:
National Counterterrorism Center: http://www.nctc.gov
