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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Pacific islands share in post-9/11 anxieties

By David Briscoe
Associated Press

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Having to traipse along a muddy path and across an empty parking lot to get to American Samoa's main airport was an irritating reminder of Sept. 11.

On the surface, the harbor at Pago Pago, American Samoa, looks serene. But one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, many residents of the U.S. territory have similar fears of terrorism as those in New York and Washington, D.C. Many feel no island is an island anymore.

Associated Press

It took nearly 11 months after the terrorist attacks 7,000 miles away for authorities to reopen the lot with security searches.

Then, word came from neighboring Samoa that the U.S. Embassy in Apia was closed. Local news media reported that suspicious activity led to the shutdown. The State Department acknowledged only security concerns. A sign on the door blamed "electrical work."

The mood a year after Sept. 11 in this remote U.S. territory is summed up with a paradox: If terrorists are likely to attack where you least expect it, this is exactly where they will attack.

That concern spreads across the Pacific, to this region of scattered palm-lined beaches, coral reefs and clear waters. Once insulated and protected by a vast ocean, the smallest islands now find themselves tied to global events by wireless technologies and the Internet.

Since Sept. 11, no island is an island — particularly not an American-ruled island.

Pacific leaders, meeting Aug. 17 in Fiji, agreed their islands, with miles of coastlines often impossible to patrol, are vulnerable to terrorism "even though we are remote from the main centers around the world."

"Small fragile countries lacking any kind of security services ... have the potential to be easy marks and easy targets," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said at the Fiji forum, where member states signed an agreement to step up cooperation and adopt common laws against terrorism.

The action followed unconfirmed reports that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers had lived in Fiji for six months before the attacks and a warning from East-West Center analysts that future "backdoor terrorist attacks" could be launched against America from remote Pacific islands.

People in American Samoa — where police officers are not required to carry guns, speeding tickets are issued for exceeding 25 miles per hour, and the worst crimes are usually domestic disturbances — have a hard time considering themselves serious terrorist targets.

Yet, American Samoans live with some of the same post-Sept. 11 fears as residents of Washington and New York.

"We're more cautious about strangers. But it's not in Samoans' nature to be unfriendly. We're known as the island with the warmest hospitality," said Cinta Brown, who was in Oregon when terrorism hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a year ago.

Brown is assistant executive director of the territorial office that deals with international intelligence and the terrorism threat.

The islands also have shared some of the post-Sept. 11 patriotic fervor that has spread across the 50 states.

More American flags flutter from homes and pickup trucks. And a Fourth of July celebration at the territory's only McDonald's restaurant featured a Samoan teenager with streaks of gray painted into his hair mouthing the recorded words of President Bush after the attacks.

"God bless America and God bless American Samoa," he added in his own voice.

Tee Masaniai Jr., an ex-U.S. Marine who flies an American flag over his home on pristine Vatia Bay, says he's not concerned about anyone on the island but is now more cautious about travelers from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.

"We have to work together to find terrorist activity from anybody who is planning this kind of evil act," Masaniai said.

Territorial Gov. Tauese Sunia says the fact that American Samoa has no developed tourism industry lessened the immediate and lasting impact of Sept. 11.

Other non-U.S. Pacific island groups, including neighboring Samoa, were harder hit because of sharply reduced Asian tourism.

Regional airlines suffered, including Polynesian Airlines, owned by the Samoan government. The terrorist attacks have brought higher fares for island-hopping and delayed plans to privatize the carrier, airline officials said.

Concerns also have been raised about the impact of future terrorism on fresh fish exports from the islands, cut off for several days after Sept. 11.

American Samoa completed a two-year domestic preparedness plan in November, before most U.S. state governments, said Mike Sala, intelligence agency director who also heads a new Territorial Preparedness Task Force. He said the plan would require $3.7 million in federal grants.

"This amount is reflected upon the reality of the low level of preparedness the territory is in, in terms of a terrorist incident involving weapons of mass destruction," Sala said.

The governor's office estimates that it will cost $7.5 million a year to meet all homeland security needs, increasing government spending by 4 percent.