Hollywood and the CIA by Boyd Barrett Oliver;Herrera David;Baumann James A.;

Author:Boyd Barrett, Oliver;Herrera, David;Baumann, James A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The World Trade Center bombing, 1993

There was international terrorism prior to the 1990s, with such incidents as the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, serving as examples, but the emergence of a threat based on fundamentalist religion surfaced with the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by terrorist Ramzi Yousef, mentored by his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was later to be charged with masterminding the attacks of 9/11 (Wright 2006). The need for stronger CIA strategic participation in response to this threat helped to redefine its role.

As noted by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) (2004), the CIA’s approach to counterterrorism and international relations shifted following the 1993 bombing. Prior to the attack, the CIA’s organizational culture was primarily geared toward fighting the Cold War, in which the agency focused its attention on one or two primary adversaries, on the basis of intelligence collected over years of experience. Following the end of the Cold War, resources that were originally dedicated to the Soviet threat were reduced and the threat of terrorism on US soil was greatly underestimated (9/11 Commission 2004). Conversely, following the 1993 attack, the CIA began to actively recruit individuals fluent in Arabic for its Counterterrorist Center, and forged an alliance with the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. However, peace dividend budget cuts remained in place through 1996. According to the 9/11 Commission, a particular reason for sustaining the cuts was the apparent ease with which the conspirators were arrested and sentenced following the attack, thus contributing to a possible false sense of security.

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