Singapore creates new agency to fight terrorism

Singapore creates new agency to fight terrorism

Jacqueline Wong
Reuters/Singapore

Singapore, a major Asian base for Western businesses and a
staunch U.S. ally, is forming a central agency to coordinate its
fight against terrorism, the government said on Tuesday.

The island will create a National Security Coordination
Secretariat (NSCS) to oversee defense and internal security
agencies, and to set national counter-terrorism policy.

"Singapore is a prime target for terrorists and we have to
live with the real prospect of a terrorist attack," Tony Tan,
Coordinating Minister for Security and Defense, told parliament.

The new agency, operating out of the prime minister's office,
will oversee national security and head a committee that groups
the two main security ministries -- Home Affairs and Defense --
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tan said.

"We need to deal with security threats today on a 'whole of
government' basis instead of dividing the tasks into watertight
compartments to be dealt with by separate ministries," he said.

Singapore already boasts Southeast Asia's most advance
security apparatus, but sees itself as a prime target after
foiling plans by Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) to attack Western targets
in 2001. JI is a Southeast Asian militant group that is thought
to have close links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Tan, who is also one of two deputy prime ministers, said the
current system of separating the responsibilities of different
agencies left gaps that could be exploited by terrorists.

"In this new security environment, the danger to us comes from
an enemy without shape or country, and with the capacity to
continually threaten Singapore and Singaporean interests," he
said.

Thirty-seven suspected militants have been detained in
Singapore since authorities foiled the JI plot in 2001 to attack
Western targets, including a train station used by off-duty U.S.
Navy personnel.

The new central planning agency would reinforce tighter
security at airports, ports, critical installations and key
public areas -- parts of the wealthy city-state considered
vulnerable after the U.S. suicide-airliner attacks on Sept. 11,
2001.

But analysts said it was different from the mammoth U.S.
Department of Homeland Security formed.

"It is a modification to the existing structure -- it still
doesn't follow the Homeland Security model," said Andrew Tan, a
security expert at the Singapore-based Institute of Defense and
Strategic Studies.

"It is basically a coordinating unit that will bring all the
strands together," he said. "I don't believe it is a super agency
that has thousands of people working in it."