OLYMPICS-U.S.: Bomb Brings Back Spectre of Phone Tapping

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Jul 29 1996 (IPS) - As U.S. investigators continue their search for the culprits of the weekend bomb attack at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, U.S. President Bill Clinton argues the incident proves the need to strengthen anti-terrorist laws.

“As Americans, we can and must join together to defeat terrorism wherever it strikes,” Clinton told a group of disabled war veterans at the weekend.

Clinton won the passage in April of a tough counter-terrorism law that enhances federal powers to monitor groups opposed to the government.

“We’ve had some results, preventing terrorist actions, catching people who commit terrorist acts,” Clinton said in praise of the legislation. “We intend to do more.”

Some measures favoured by the White House — notably the expansion of federal wire-tapping and the tagging of chemicals commonly used for explosives — were deleted from the final bill by an alliance of civil liberties groups and the powerful firearms lobby.

The president now is using the Saturday bombing, in which two people died and more than 100 were wounded, and the explosion two weeks ago of a Trans World Airlines (TWA) flight to argue the case for those measures to be implemented.

The White House stepped up security procedures at U.S. airports in response to the TWA explosion that killed 230 people.

Even without explanations in the TWA and Olympics explosions, Clinton is calling anew for laws to allow the FBI “roving” wire- tapping of terrorism suspects. By that system, the FBI can tap any telephone that could be used by suspected terrorists.

The White House also wants to require manufacturers to “mark” chemicals commonly used to make explosives. That step, Clinton says, would help authorities to identify the sources of bombs like the one used in Atlanta.

The Atlanta attack — caused by a crude pipe bomb, easily made from common household objects such as piping and nails — helped to drive home the president’s point before a vast international audience. Even civil rights groups are divided over whether new anti-terrorist measures are needed in what The Christian Science Monitor has already dubbed “the summer of terrorism.”

“The question to ask of increased security measures is, ‘Is it reasonable’?” says Mary Ramadan, legal director of the American- Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). “It’s reasonable that we can expect enhanced security” following the recent incidents, she concludes.

But some critics wonder what security changes would be appropriate, given the murky nature of the TWA and Olympics incidents.

“We’re not prepared to extend wire-tapping,” Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said on CNN Saturday. “There was a judgment made in the Congress that we’re prepared to give up that bit of security for that bit of freedom.”

“There’s a conventional wisdom (in the media) that these incidents prove we need strong anti-terrorism measures,” says Jim Naureckas, a media analyst for the group ‘Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’ (FAIR). “But it seems to be a great over-reaction to say we should be doing anything specifically.”

“In all cases, we have to make sure that whatever measures are taken are transparent,” argues Hala Maksoud, president of ADC. “We must avoid measures that target a whole community.”

Maksoud recalls that Arabs and Muslims were targeted initially following the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, allegedly carried out by members of U.S. right-wing militia groups. Provisions that would allow for suspected anti-government groups to have their phones tapped could be applied unfairly to such communities, Maksoud fears.

Greg Nojeim, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a main opponent of the April legislation, adds that the government does not need sweeping new powers to combat terrorism.

“The American people have repeatedly expressed their opposition to government use of wire-taps, yet the government continues to seek ever-expanded authority to eavesdrop on our conversations,” he argues.

“Law enforcement has all the tools it needs now to prevent and investigate crimes associated with terrorism,” Nojeim says. According to the ACLU, some two million domestic phone conversations were tapped by the FBI in 1994 alone.

Despite that, few wire-tap applications have to do with acts of sabotage. A recent report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts found that less than 0.2 percent of nearly 10,000 electronic surveillance requests between 1985 and 1995 had to do with arson, bombing or firearms. (The majority were for narcotics investigations.) The government itself admits that some 80 percent of tapped conversations are not related to any criminal activity.

Expanded wire-tapping may also not have much effect on attacks like the Olympic bombing, some experts say. FBI sources attribute the bombing not to any professional terrorists, but to a small local group upset by the international spirit of the Olympics.

FBI spokesman David Tubbs said Monday that authorities were questioning Georgia-based anti-government militias as “a routine part of our investigation.”

However, some federal sources have already taken to calling the Olympic suspects “the Bubba bombers”. (Bubba is a reference to Southern, white, working-class males.)

Investigators say a call warning emergency medical officials about the early Saturday morning blast was apparently made by a white U.S. male with a light Southern accent. Another source tells IPS that a group of white observers at the Olympic Centennial Park were seen congratulating each other after the blast.

The suspicion that local groups are involved in the Atlanta bombing has helped to mute media speculation about terrorism, argues Naureckas of FAIR. “The media do not find stories about domestic terrorism as sexy as those about international terrorism,” Naureckas says.