Nearly three years ago, Gov. George Ryan created the first ever statewide Illinois Terrorism Task Force.

It began examining ways to better protect our critical infrastructure and prepare emergency personnel to respond to any terrorist attack or natural disaster.

A large crowd attended “From Black September to September 11,” a forum on terrorism opened by Matt Bettenhausen, Illinois Deputy Governor for Homeland Security.

Building state security

“The issue of homeland security affects each and every one of us,” Bettenhausen said.

While Bettenhausen stressed that Illinois has made significant progress in homeland security, he said that officials need to do a better job of communicating among state and local law enforcement officials.

“It is an enormous challenge as the borders of Illinois contain 55,000 square miles, 12.5 million people and vital infrastructure, business and industries throughout the state,” he said.

Illinois currently operates emergency response teams from three zones covering northern, central and southern portions of the state. He said that Illinois is looking to create 18 regions around central population zones in order to reduce response time to a terrorist incident or any other emergency.

The goal is to position these teams so response time to any part of the region would be an hour or less. Illinois also works with neighboring states Wisconsin, Missouri and Indiana to back up law enforcement in case of a terrorist attack.

“We have to look at it as a team-shared approach,” Bettenhausen said. “We are concerned about individual liberties, and terrorism is a vital and critical issue to the state.”

History teaches the future

Reinhard Rupprecht, a German citizen, spoke about his experience as Commander of the Munich Olympic Village Forces in 1972 when the world’s first major terrorist attack took place. He spoke of how the Black September terrorists seized the entire Israeli team at the Village.

He currently serves on the International Advisory Board on Security for the 2004 Olympic Games, which will be held in Athens, Greece. He is also an advisor to the German Ministry of Interior on Afghanistan affairs.

Rupprecht spoke about several terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda and other Islamic radical groups that exist today.

“The structure of terrorism now and 30 years ago has grown to an international level,” he said. “I see change in the appearance of Islamism.”

While he stated that there’s a “growing fear of terrorism, especially in the Western world,” he said cooperation among law enforcement officials worldwide will eventually combat terrorism.

He spoke about which security issues have arisen in his home country of Germany and mentioned that profiling is completely accepted. His country has already taken steps with biometrics, a form of identification through fingerprinting and other identification methods.

“There should be no hindrance of data and personal freedom,” Rupprecht said. “Security and liberty belong together,” he added.

He ended by saying, “The students of EIU are the light for tomorrow in understanding terrorism.”

Strategy for prevention

Jim Burns, Inspector General at the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State, also presented his views on terrorism.

“When we talk about terrorism and prevention, we have to think about perimeters,” Burns said.

He spoke about two types of perimeters: our country’s border and Illinois’ border.

“We have to learn what’s out there and how terrorists got here in the first place,” he said.

He tackled the issue of identity theft and how easy credit cards and bank accounts are being used among terrorists.

“Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing problems in America,” he said.

He also spoke about a bill recently proposed in the Illinois Senate designed to improve the security of state-issued driver’s licenses, enhance highway safety and to verify personal identity. The bill, cited as the “Driver’s License Fraud Prevention Act,” was strongly supported by Burns, who proposed that all 50 states should come in agreement by issuing standardized driver’s licenses to all citizens to prevent identity theft.

The purpose of such an act is to prevent the issuance of multiple driver’s license to the same individual and to ensure that a driver’s privacy and confidential information is protected.

Learning how terrorists operate

Scott Levi, a history professor, spoke about his personal views on the war on terrorism and said “that this can be only achieved by maintaining a two-pronged approach.

“We must improve our security at home by taking steps to prevent terrorists from achieving their goals. We can do this by identifying likely targets such as government buildings, bridges, water treatment plants and improving security at these locations,” he said.

While homeland security seems to be a major issue in America, he stated that the United States can greatly improve by identifying those individuals associated with terrorist groups and also individuals who seek to use weapons of mass destruction to inflict harm to the general population.

“We need to break down the communication barrier between different emergency response units in order to improve their ability to react quickly and effectively when tragedy does strike,” Levi said.

His second approach focused on using foreign policy to undermine and destroy those foreign terrorist organizations who would target citizens of the United States at home or abroad. This would be achieved by sharing military intelligence with other nations and using technology to expose and frustrate terrorists’ communication networks and methods of moving funds across the globe.

He emphasized that the best way to combat terrorism is by preventing people from joining terrorist organizations.

“We can do this by making an effort to understand and change the social and economic situations of those disaffected people who see terrorism as their last resort,” he said. “We can use our influence to give them a legitimate political outlet to voice their grievances,” Levi said.

Carolyn Kinsloe, a sophomore elementary education major, thought the forum was interesting and very informative.

“It took a new view on terrorism as a whole, and not just on September 11th,” she said.

Lauren Carmichael, a sophomore elementary education major, found it informative as well.

“I thought the forum captivated the audience by presenting views from other terrorist attacks other than September 11th and from views of others outside America,” she said.