Expert: U.S. Knew al-Qaida Might Attack
By LAURENCE ARNOLD, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The United States and the international community sat by for a decade as Afghanistan (news - web sites) became "a terrorist Disneyland" where attackers were trained and assaults were planned, a terrorism expert testified Wednesday.
Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told an independent terrorism investigative commission here that U.S. leaders had to know their homeland would eventually be targeted.
"You knew the intention of al-Qaida was to kill American people where they could be found, but still you did not act, and you paid a very heavy price for it," said Gunaratna, the lead-off witness at a full-day hearing on terrorism, al-Qaida and the Muslim world.
The 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has held previous hearings focusing on the events of Sept. 11, including how hijackers took control of four airplanes and why U.S. air defenses did not react more quickly.
The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, said the commission must also take a broader look at the rise of terrorist groups.
"To defeat and destroy our enemy, we must understand more than the crimes it already committed," said Kean, a former governor of New Jersey. "We must understand what drives and motivates it, the source of its power, the resources at its command, its internal strengths and weaknesses."
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