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Technology access will pose war threats

ABU DHABI — William Cohen, former US Defence Secretary, has said that the US-sponsored war on terror would never be over as long as individuals have access to technology.

"We should not call the ongoing struggle a 'war on terror'. As long as individuals have access to this technology, the threat will always be there and this war will never be over," Cohen said addressing the 11th Annual Conference of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), which opened here yesterday.

He said in a paper titled: "New and Future Leadership: Implications for Change" that previously the only concern was about state-sponsored terrorism.

"Now a single individual like Timothy McVeigh can bring down a federal building. Now it is a different kind of terror because information is more readily accessible,'' he pointed out.

"From a defence background, each country has to strengthen national security and consequently will need just laws. In the United States, over time, this has come to mean equality and we are still trying to achieve this ideal. If laws are not just, then the state will be called into question," he said.

Calling for better intelligence, better cooperation and shared intelligence, Cohen said there is no safe place in the world today and terror is a global phenomenon. "This vulnerability is what will drive us to work together."