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Cato Daily Dispatch for October 17, 2002

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North Korea Not a Threat to the U.S.
Saudis Continue to Support al-Qaeda
Indonesia Was Real Target in Bali Bombing

North Korea Not a Threat to the U.S.

Confronted by new American intelligence, North Korea has admitted that it has been conducting a major clandestine nuclear-weapons development program for the past several years, according to the Bush administration as reported in The New York Times. Officials added that North Korea had also informed them that it has now "nullified" its 1994 agreement with the United States to freeze all nuclear weapons development activity.

Administration officials refused to say tonight whether the North Koreans had acknowledged successfully producing a nuclear weapon from the project, which uses highly enriched uranium. Nor would administration officials who briefed reporters say whether they think North Korea has produced such a weapon.

Cato Senior Fellow Doug Bandow says, "North Korea's admission that it has maintained a nuclear weapons program likely reflects its international isolation and weakness in what for it is an increasingly hostile environment. Its unverified claim to have developed "more powerful" weapons may be an attempt to deter the Bush administration's announced policy of preemption--an unexpected example of blowback.

"In any case," he argues, "the North poses no threat to America, the world's most powerful nation. With Pyongyang continuing to mix conciliation with belligerence, Washington should step back and let those countries with the most at stake, particularly South Korea and Japan, take the lead in developing policy towards North Korea."

Saudis Continue to Support al-Qaeda

The Financial Times reports, the U.S. effort to cut off funding for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups has stalled because of intransigence by key U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, according to the report of a blue-ribbon task force of former top administration officials to be released today.

In a strong indictment that could further strain U.S. relations with the kingdom, the report from the influential Council on Foreign Relations says: "For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for al-Qaeda. And for years Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem."

"This latest episode shows that with friends like Saudi Arabia, the United States doesn't need enemies," says Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for foreign policy and defense studies. "The lack of cooperation by the Saudi government is yet another reason why the Bush administration should withdraw all U.S. troops from the kingdom. Since the U.S. military presence is a lightning rod for Islamic radicals, Washington's policy of defending the corrupt and authoritarian Saudi regime would be dubious even if Saudi Arabia was important to America's security and the House of Saud was a reliable friend of the United States. But it is increasingly apparent that neither condition is true."

The U.S./Saudi Arabia relationship has also been examined by Cato's Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland in "Saudi Arabia: Friend, Foe, or Neither?" and "Get Out of Saudi Arabia". Bandow profiled the relationship in "Paying a High Price for Befriending Saudi Princes", and Carpenter wrote on the topic with Jerry Taylor, Cato's director of natural resource studies, in "Quit Turning the Other Cheek with Saudi Arabia".

Indonesia Was Real Target in Bali Bombing

Indonesian heads of parliament gave their full support today to President Megawati Sukarnoputri's efforts to create a presidential anti-terrorism decree in the wake of the deadly nightclub bombings last weekend on Bali that killed nearly 200 people, according to CNN.

The move was a bold one in a country that has previously denied organized terrorists were at work there and has been skeptical about speculation that the local Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah was connected with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

"The murderous bombing in Bali, Indonesia was obviously aimed to kill Westerners, most of whom come from countries, especially Australia, that back the U.S.," says Cato Senior Fellow Doug Bandow. "But the real target was the stability of Indonesia, with a larger Muslim population than any other country. A weak government is trying to manage a difficult transition to democracy in the midst of economic collapse and ethnic strife, including widespread radical Muslim attacks on Christians. By wrecking Indonesia's tourist industry, Islamic terrorists, presumably al Qaeda-related, hope to reverse Jakarta's support for the West and bring a fundamentalist government to power."

Wyatt Dubois, editor, wdubois@cato.org