DoD Responses to Transnational Threats - The Black Vault

CHAPTER 2. ORGANIZING A DoD RESPONSE
The Threat
A Major DoD Mission
Examples of transnational attacks over the past decade are familiar to all, as illustrated below
in Figure 1. Looking carefully at these events and their motivations, three lessons emerge. First,
some transnational attacks reflect attempts by transnational adversaries to influence American
foreign policy. The 1983 attack on the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon; the attack
on US forces in Somalia in 1993; and the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia are
recent examples.
Lebanon, 1983
Somalia, 1993
Khobar Towers, 1996
World Trade Center, 1993 Tokyo Subway Attack, 1995 B’nai B’rith, 1997
Figure 1. Examples of the Transnational Threat
Second, other incidents illustrate the many capabilities in the hands of transnational
adversaries: explosives, chemical, and biological agents. In 1995, the world witnessed the
release of the chemical agent sarin in the Tokyo subway. While the chemical release killed a dozen
people, well over 5,000 were injured and the release had the potential for far more devastating
loss of life. In fact, the plan was for tens of thousands of deaths. And closer to home, incidents
like the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 bombing of the Murrah Building in
Oklahoma City, and the 1997 incident at the B’nai B’rith building in downtown Washington DC,
which involved a container purported to hold anthrax, show the breadth of weaponry available.
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