WORST TERRORIST THREATS AGAINST U.S. ARE IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE

"If it was a snake, it would have bit you."

That's the age-old response for failing to see the obvious, something right
under your nose. I think of that adage these days as our undivided
attention is riveted on the other side of the world.

The fact is, one of the biggest bastions of terrorism is not a world away,
but right under our nose.

A two-hour flight south from Miami will land you in Colombia, the most
dangerous and terroristic country in the world. Nearby, the tri-borders
area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is a lawless place where members of
Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups linked to Osama bin Laden are probably
huddling to plan their next terrorist attacks. And from the bottom of South
America straight up to Tijuana, El Paso and other U.S. border cities flows
a pipeline of illegal drugs and weapons.

This is not the distant Middle East. This is our neighborhood in the
Western Hemisphere.

As my predecessor, the late Sen. Paul Coverdell, fully understood and often
stated: We ignore our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere at our own peril.
Our foreign policy in this region has been conducted in fits and starts,
driven mainly by crises.

Recently, we have failed to tend to the region, and cracks have appeared in
what just five years ago was an emerging shield of democracy, security and
economic opportunity. Today, Argentina is on the verge of financial
collapse. Oil giant Venezuela has a president who is openly hostile to the
United States. And Nicaragua is on the verge of electing a former Communist
with strong ties to Libya and Iraq.

But what should concern us most is that this region is home to
well-established, well-financed criminal networks -- networks with better
resources than the governments that are trying to stop them. A third of the
world's identified terrorist groups have operations in Latin America.

So, what can we do?

First and foremost, it is imperative we install a strong diplomat for the
top Western Hemisphere post at the State Department. The Senate needs to
send the message that we understand this region and we take seriously the
security threat it poses. It is deplorable that we have stalled in filling
this critical job when our commander in chief and our secretary of state
have been urging us to do so.

We have already increased security along our borders, and not a moment too
soon. Just think what might have happened if authorities had not stopped
the Algerian terrorist at the Canadian border in December 1999 before he
had a chance to carry out his plan -- and Osama bin Laden's plan -- to blow
up a millennium celebration with his carload of explosives.

Now, it is time to obtain better intelligence and greater cooperation among
our allies in the region. We should focus on isolating terrorists and their
backers with economic weapons and strategic alliances. Sen. Coverdell
agreed with current Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairman Christopher
Dodd that we should establish a Regional Security Alliance patterned after
similar arrangements we formed after World War II. I am very encouraged
that the Organization of American States recently passed a similar
resolution of security cooperation in support of the United States. We
should build on this momentum.

We should also hit drug and terrorist groups through strong
money-laundering legislation, such as that passed by the Senate Banking
Committee last week. The Treasury Department is now implementing the "drug
kingpin" legislation passed in the last Congress by Sens. Coverdell and
Dianne Feinstein. This legislation targets American individuals and
companies who willingly do business with drug dealers, terrorists or other
enemies of the United States. Now, we must back up this law with enough
resources to make it a viable tool.

While all eyes are now on the Middle East, the forces of evil to our south
are scheming and stretching their reach around the globe. While Osama bin
Laden is hiding in a cave in far-away Afghanistan, his lesser-known
lieutenants are a two-hour flight away from Miami. Soon, this snake is
going to bite us. It is time to shift some of our focus closer to home, on
these volatile, hostile countries harboring terrorists right under our nose.

Zell Miller is a Democratic senator from Georgia.