Terrorism

Variety of descriptions and definitions

Tactic/strategyCrime/holy dutyReaction to oppression/inexcusable abomination

Depends on the point of view

“the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological”

ViolenceFearIntimidation

“Terrorism is the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance or political or social objectives”

“An anxiety inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi) clandestine individual, group, or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby- in contrast to assassination- the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.”

Criminal act that influences an audience beyond the immediate victim

Terrorists commit acts of violence that draws the attention of the local populace, the government, and the world to their cause

They plan their attack to obtain the greatest publicity, choosing targets that symbolize what they oppose.

Effectiveness of attack lies in the public’s reaction to the act

“one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”

This is misleading. This can make it seem like it is valid. If one commits a terrorist act, it is terrorism regardless.

PoliticalPsychologicalCoerciveDynamicDeliberate

Act is intended to cause a political effect

Cause psychological effect (terror)

Population as a whole, ethnic minority, decision makers in political, social, or military area

Violence and destructionThreat of violence produces intended effect

Demands change, revolution, or political movement

Planned and intended to achieve goals

Specifically selected target, not a random act

Victims are often of little importance

Victims or target can appear random

Information must reach the target audience

More operations are carried out in societies where individual rights and civil legal protections prevail

Usually avoid repressive governments

Exception is a repressive regime that does not have the ability to enforce security

Non-religious goals: highly selective and discriminate acts of violence to achieve the specific political aim

Often keeps casualties at the minimum necessary to attain the objective

Religious: inflict as many casualties as possible

Loss of life is irrelevant and the more casualties the better

Non religious:Targets will be highly symbolic of authority-government offices, banks, national airlines, multinational corporations with direct relation to established order

Targets will be individuals they associate with economic exploitation, social injustice, or political repression

Religious:Tend to connect with a greater physical devastation- and tend to add religiously affiliated individuals, such as missionaries, and religious activities

Common to strike on anniversaries or commemorative dates

BombingsKidnappings/Hostage TakingsArmed Attacks and AssassinationsArsons and FirebombingsHijackings and SkyjackingsCan also include robberies, extortion

Cyberterroism

Can be individuals, groups, or states

A “terrorist” will look, dress, and behave like a normal person, until he or she carries out the mission

Profiling based on personality, physical, or sociological traits would not appear to be very useful

Laws, deportations, enhanced police

Adding traffic barriersPre-emptive military actionIncreased intelligence and

surveillance activitiesMore permissive interrogation

and detention policiesAcceptance of torture as a tool

Transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy’s International Airport

December 21, 1988Destroyed by a bomb- killed all 243 passengers and 16 crew members

11 people in Lockerbie, Scotland, were also killed as large sections of the plane fell in the town and destroyed several houses

Total fatalities: 270Event is called Lockerbie Bombing

Thought to be an ordered attack by Muammar Gaddafi (Libya)

No emergency procedures had been started- explosion made a 20 inch wide hole on left side of fuselage

Disintegration was rapidNose of the aircraft separated from

the main section within three seconds

189 were American citizens, 43 were British citizens

Deadliest act of terror against the U.S. prior to September 11.

At least four U.S. government officials on the passenger list- and potentially a fifth as well

Could one or more of them been the target?

On December 5 (16 days before attack) a warning was given

A Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the U.S. would be blown up within two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization

Warning was taken seriously by the U.S.

In Frankfurt, the warning was found under a pile of papers on a desk the day after the bombing

PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) said extremists might launch a terrorist attack

Several groups claimed responsibility

Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (in retaliation for U.S. shootdown of Iran Flight 655 in Persian Gulf the previous July)

2003 Libya admitted responsibility but did not admit guilt

During 2011 Libyan civil war, ex-Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil stated in an interview that Muammar Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing

February 26, 1993Truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center

It was supposed to knock down the North Tower into the South Tower

Killed 6 peopleInjured 1042In March 1994: four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing

Ramzi Yousef- mastermind behind bombing

He had spent time at Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan

1991 began planning the attackYousef’s uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, gave him advice and tips over the phone, and funded him (the uncle is considered the principal architect of 9/11)

Yousef mailed letters to various New York newspapers just before the attack- claimed to belong to “Liberation Army, Fifth Battalion”

Wanted U.S. to end all aid to IsraelEnd US diplomatic relations with

IsraelPledge by US to end interference

with any of the Middle East countries interior affairs

Yousef and a friend drove a yellow Ryder van and pulled into the public parking garage under the WTC around noon

Ignited the fuse, fledBomb exploded and opened a 98 foot wide hole through four sublevels of concrete

Cut off main power line, knocked out emergency lighting as well

Smoke went up to 93rd floorThick smoke went into the stairwells

Evacuation was difficultHundreds were trapped in elevators when power was cut (17 kindergartners on way down were trapped for 5 hours)

Series of attacksDate of the bombings (August 7, 1998) was the anniversary of the arrival of American forces in Saudi Arabia

Linked to local members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad- Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri

Bin Laden went on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list

Revenge for American involvement in the extradition, alleged torture of four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad who had been arrested in Albania in the two months prior to explosions

Bin Laden initially stated that the sites were targeted because of the “invasion” of Somalia

He told his followers that the genocide in Rwanda had been planned inside the two American embassies

Suicide bombers in trucks with explosives parked outside the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi

Nairobi: 212 people killed, 4000 wounded (Kenya)

Dar es Salaam: 11 killed, 85 wounded (Tanzania)

Suicide attack on U.S. Navy detroyer USS Cole

October 12, 2000Harbored in Yemeni port of Aden

17 American soldiers were killed

39 injured

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack

U.S. judge held Sudan liable for the attack

$13 million in Sudanese frozen assets to the relatives of those killed

Small craft approached the port side of the destroyer and an explosion occurred

40 x 40 foot gash in ship’s port side

400-700 pounds of explosive were used

June 2001: Al-Qaeda recruitment video featuring Osama bin Laden boasted about the attack and encouraged similar attack

September 11 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar helped plan the attack (he was on American Airlines Flight 77, which flew into the Pentagon, killing 184 victims)

Afterward, people in Yemeni parliament were calling for jihad against America

Rules of engagement- kept guards from firing upon the small boat as it neared them without first obtaining permission from the Cole’s captain or another officer

U.S. law states that an attack against a military target does not meet the legal definition of terrorism

In Afghanistan the bombing was a “great victory for bin Laden. Al-Qaeda camps…filled with new recruits, and contributors from the Gulf States arrived…”

Both the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration had been criticized for failing to respond militarily to the attack on the USS Cole before September 11, 2001

“Bin Laden complained frequently that the United States had not yet attacked [in response to the Cole]…Bin Laden wanted the United States to attack, and if it did not he would launch something bigger.”

Began September 18, 2001Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators

Killed five peopleInfected 17 people

Bruce Edwards Ivins: scientist who worked at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland

He was placed under periodic surveillance

Killed himself in 2008

August 6, 2008- federal prosecutors declared Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime (even though they did not have any direct evidence)

First set of anthrax letters had a Trenton, New Jersey postmark dated September 18, 2001

Five letters were mailed at this point: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, New York Post, and the National Enquirer in Boca Raton, Florida

It appeared as a coarse brown granular material looking like Purina Dog Chow

One man died in this wave, and others were ill

Addressed to two Democratic Senators, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont

Daschle was the Senate Majority Leader

Leahy was head of Senate Judiciary Committee

Government mail service was shut down

Second round was more potent than first

Highly refined dry powder consisting of about one gram of nearly pure spores

At least 22 people developed anthrax infections, 11 had the life-threatening inhalation variety

Five died of inhalation anthraxThese have been compared to the Unabomber attacks

Some of the letters were boldedTTT AAT TATEach sequence of three nucleic acids will cose for a specific amino acid

TTT: Phenylalanine (F)AAT: Asparagine (N)TAT: Tyrosine (Y)

Two possible hidden meanings:

1. FNY: verbal assault on New York

2. PAT: nickname of Ivins’ colleague

White House officials felt it was Al Qaeda responsible

We were trying to connect Iraq with it also

John McCain suggested on David Letterman that the anthrax may have come from Iraq

Look at the information about the Beltway Snipers

Review the information about Terrorism at the beginning of these slides

Your journal: Were the Beltway Snipers terrorists or was it murder? Explain your view and support it.