terry anderson is free. he was the last of the american hostages held by pro-iranian terrorists in beirut, lebanon. in the beginning of the 90s terrorism was thought to be done. people likely to use terrorism to achieve political objectives were dead, in jail or part of the peace process. a syrian delegation is in washington today, ready to meet with israel to talk about middle east peace. we thought the 90s would be a time of peace. not only was the cold war over, we had won. we have before us the opportunity to forge a new world order, a world where the rule of law governs the conduct of nations. the world was changing, and it was an exciting time for those who really viewed america as the nation that would embrace globalization. but there were many people who didn t like that changing america. in maples, idaho about 40 miles from the canadian border federal marshals are surrounding a cabin, where a fugitive white supremacist named randy weaver is holed
the department of justice and the fbi would find their guy and they would prosecute him. it isn t that that wasn t essential, that strategy. it just meant that we weren t perceiving the threat as something bigger. this is the new face of terror, osama bin laden, the 39-year-old renegade son of a saudi billionaire, an islamic fundamentalist, elusive, mysterious. his academic training was in economics and public administration. he brought the sensibilities of a businessman to terrorism when he creates al qaeda. call it terror inc. private jets, swiss bank accounts. he gives orders via the net. when it comes to issues like motive, money, network, he is one of the few in the world who has all the various components. bin laden, who had been a de facto ally of the united states during the soviet invasion of afghanistan in the 1980s, turned on the united states.