Former spy criticizes U.S. method of fighting terrorism

Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 10:02 a.m.

The next terrorist attack on the United States won't involve a cockpit takeover, former CIA spy Robert Steele said in Las Vegas on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Instead it will come from a Stinger missile or explosives planted in a cargo container, the ex-Marine said Thursday night to members of the Nevada Committee for Foreign Relations.

Steele, while critical of Attorney General John Ashcroft in his speech, said that he believes both major political parties have failed the American people.

"America gets the government and intelligence services it deserves," said Steele, who spent 25 years in covert operations in El Salvador and other places.

The United States hasn't changed the way it gathers or uses intelligence since the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were hit two years ago, Steele said.

"You are no safer today than you were before the 9-11 attacks," he said.

"We should not be throwing rocks in Iraq and Afghanistan until we strengthen our glass house here at home," Steele told about 25 people at the Las Vegas Country Club.

Instead, the federal government should build intelligence centers in every state and every major city, including Las Vegas, for the purpose of gathering information, Steele said.

Las Vegas is particularly vulnerable to an attack on water delivery pipelines or other utilities, he said.

"There's going to be a worldwide war over water," Steele said, pointing out droughts and spots of political unrest on a world map.

Las Vegas is particularly vulnerable if international companies are permitted to buy water and privatize the resource, he said.

The Bush administration is approaching terrorism from an outmoded perspective, as if the former Soviet Union were the only enemy, Steele said. Instead, terrorists, gangs and fragmented attackers are creating much of the violence.

"The answer is not John Ashcroft peeping into every window," Steele said.

Five of the Sept. 11 hijackers visited Las Vegas before the attack, and the FBI has never been able to determine why they came here. It could have been for anything, including selling drugs to raise money for the cause, Steele said.

Many U.S. cities are most vulnerable from a biological attack, such as a bacteria, Steele said.

"We stopped investing in public health 30 years ago," Steele said.

Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate, has paid attention to the multi-faceted threats, Steele said. Stealing a page from Dean's presidential playbook, he said the country should still spend $500 billion on defense, but cut the heavy military budget to $250 billion. Put $100 billion into economic growth, the Peace Corps and environmental cleanup efforts and another $75 billion into public utilities, port security, border patrols and intelligence, he said.