Terrorism/Force Protection
“Freedom and fear
are at war…Either
you are with us, or
you are with the
terrorists.”
President George W. Bush
20 September, 2001
Overview
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History
Definitions
Impact of Terrorism
Objective of Terrorism
Tactics of Terrorism
Effects of Terrorism on National
Security
• Force Protection
History
• Found as early as biblical times
– Jewish and Palestinian groups opposed Roman
rule in 66-73 A.D.
• Word terrorism has roots in French “Reign
of Terror”
– 1773-1794, Jacobins under leadership of
Maximilien Robespierre
• Huge explosion in incidents of terrorism in
latter part of 20th century
Terrorism
• FBI Definition - Terrorism is the unlawful
use of force or violence against persons
or property to intimidate or coerce a
government, the civilian population, or
any segment thereof, in furtherance of
political or social objectives.
Terrorism
• Brian Jenkins - Terrorism is the use or
threatened use of force designed to bring
about political change.
• Vice-President's Task Force, 1986 - Terrorism
is the unlawful use or threat of violence
against persons or property to further political
or social objectives. It is usually intended to
intimidate or coerce a government,
individuals or groups, or to modify their
behavior or politics.
Terrorism
• Walter Laqueur- Terrorism constitutes the
illegitimate use of force to achieve a political
objective when innocent people are targeted.
• US State Department- The term "terrorism"
means premeditated, politically motivated
violence perpetrated against noncombatant
targets by subnational groups or clandestine
agents, usually intended to influence an
audience.
Terrorism
• The calculated use of violence or threat of
violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce
or to intimidate governments or societies in
pursuit of goals that are generally political,
religious or idelogical.
– Joint Publication 3-07.2, Joint Tactics, Techniques, and
Procedures for Antiterrorism
Terrorism
Domestic Terrorism
– Terrorism perpetrated by the citizens
of a country against their fellow
citizens
• Includes acts against citizens of a
second country when they are in the
host country, and not the principal or
intended target
Oklahoma City bombing of Murrah Federal
building on 19 April 1995 in downtown Oklahoma
City killed 168 people and injured hundreds of
others.
Centennial Olympic Park bombing on 26 July
1996, in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1996 Summer
Olympics. One killed, 100+ injured
Sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995 in the Tokyo
subway: Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) cult
deposited two containers containing Sarin poison gas
in the Tokyo subway system.
– 12 killed and up to 5000 hospitalized
– Could have been much worse…air circulation evacuated
most of the gas
Terrorism
International terrorism
– Terrorism in which planning and
execution of the terrorist act
transcends national boundaries
• 5 April 1986 Bombing of Le Belle Disco, a
nightclub in West Berlin frequented by U.S.
servicemen
– Killed two American soldiers and one Turkish
woman. 200 others wounded
– Libya was implicated in the bombing.
• Pan Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland: Pan
Am Flight 103, outbound from London for New
York with 259 people aboard
• Destroyed by a bomb on December 21, 1988 while
over Lockerbie, Scotland.
• All aboard were killed as were eleven persons on the
ground at Lockerbie.
• 1993 World Trade Center Attack: Islamic
terrorists detonated a truck bomb under the
towers killing six and damaging the building.
• 11 Sept 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked four
airliners.
– Two were crashed into the World Trade Center
Towers
– One was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington,
DC
– The fourth crashed in Western Pennsylvania.
Terrorism
• Terror Threat
– The impact on the actual victim of the
terrorist attack is often secondary to the
emotional or psychological impact on an
audience far larger than the victims
– The true target of the terrorist is
society as a whole.
Terrorism
• Objectives
– Attract attention for groups cause
– Demonstrate groups power
– Show the existing government’s lack of
power
– Extract revenge
– Obtain logistical support
– Cause a government to overreact
Terrorist Tactics
–Assassination. A term generally applied
to the killing of prominent persons and
symbolic enemies as well as traitors who defect
from the group.
•On October 6, 1981,
President Anwar al-Sadat
was assassinated during an
annual military parade
celebrating the
"successful" campaigns
during the 1973 EgyptIsraeli war.
Arson
• Less dramatic than most
tactics
• Has the advantage of low
risk to the perpetrator and
requires only a low level
of technical knowledge.
• Arson is often associated
with environmental
terrorists.
• Vail, Colorado: The arson attack
at a Colorado ski resort October
19, 1998, was apparently carried
out by members of the so-called
Earth Liberation Front.
• Destroyed a ski patrol headquarters
building, a skier shelter, a
mountaintop restaurant and several
chairlifts
• Caused some $12 million in damage
• Set to protest the Vail ski resort's
880-acre expansion.
• The improvised explosive device (IED) or
Bomb is the terrorist’s weapon of choice.
– Inexpensive to produce
– Various detonation techniques available, may be a
low risk to the perpetrator.
– Suicidal bombing cannot be overlooked.
• Other advantages include their attention-getting
capacity-ability to control casualties through time of
detonation and placement of the device.
– Easily deniable should the action produce undesirable
results.
– From 1983 through 1996, approximately half of all
recorded terrorist incidents involved explosives.
• MARINE BARRACKS, BERIUT,
LEBANON: On 23 October 1983,
terrorists, using a truck bomb destroyed the
Marine barracks in Beirut Lebanon. 245
Marines, soldiers, and sailors were killed,
and 146 wounded.
• Pan Am Flight 103
• KHOBAR TOWERS: On June 25,
1996 nineteen USAF Airmen were killed by
a truck bomb at the Khobar Towers in
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
• DAR ES SALAAM/NAIROBI EMBASSIES: On
7 August, 1998, bombs exploded almost
simultaneously at the U.S. Embassy buildings in
Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
• Killed 153 and left over 4,500 injured …two bombs
• Severely damaged both installations, and surrounding
buildings.
• USS COLE: The October 12, 2000 suicide attack
on the U.S.S. "Cole" marked the first time a modern
American warship was successfully targeted by
terrorists.
– 17 sailors killed and 39 others injured.
– Destroyer refueling in the port of Aden in Yemen
Hostage Taking.
• This usually is an overt seizure of one or
more individuals with the intent of gaining
publicity or other concessions in return for
release of the hostage.
• On November 4, 1979, student militants
stormed the US Embassy grounds in Teheran,
Iran and held 52 American diplomats and
Marines hostage for 444 days.
• On February 17, 1988 Lt Colonel Rich
Higgins, USMC, was taken hostage while
serving as the Chief, Observer Group
Lebanon and Senior Military Observer,
United States Military Observer Group,
United Nations Truce Supervision
Organization.
Hezbollah released a videotape
in July 1988 claiming to have hanged
Col. Higgins.
Hijacking or Skyjacking
• Sometimes employed as a means for escape,
hijacking is normally carried out to produce
a spectacular hostage situation.
– Although trains, buses, and ships have been
hijacked, aircraft are the preferred target
because of their greater mobility and
vulnerability.
– 2001 World Trade Center Attack Hijackings
– First time hijacked aircraft used as weapons
• On Friday, 14 June 1985, TWA Flight 847
left Athens for Rome. Lebanese terrorists
seized the plane and forced it to land in
Lebanon.
– US Navy diver Robert Stethem killed…body
tossed out on tarmac.
– Hostages released in small groups over the next
two weeks, with the final group released on 1
July, after Israel agrees to release several
hundred Palestinian detainees.
Seizure
• Seizure usually involves a building or object
that has value in the eyes of the audience.
– Some risk to the terrorist because security forces
have time to react and may opt to use force to
resolve the incident.
• In March1977, several Hanafi Muslim
members seized three buildings in Washington,
D.C., the District Building (City Hall), the B'nai
B'rith Building and the Islamic Center.
– They took several hostages. Several were injured
(Marion Barry shot) and one was killed.
Raids or Attacks on Facilities
• Armed attacks on facilities are usually
undertaken for one of three purposes:
– To gain access to radio or television
broadcast capabilities in order to make a
statement;
– To demonstrate the government’s
inability to secure critical facilities or
national symbols;
– To acquire resources (e.g., robbery of a
bank or armory).
• During the 1970’s, the Symbionese
Liberation Army conducted a 22month reign of terror in California
during which time 2 people were
murdered and 3 others were
wounded.
– Gained most of their notoriety by
kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty
Hearst
– Majority of their crimes, which they
financed by robbing banks, involved
bombings.
Sabotage
• The objective in most sabotage incidents is to
demonstrate how vulnerable society is to terrorist
actions.
• Industrialized societies are more vulnerable to
sabotage than less highly developed societies.
• Eco-Terrorists have long used sabotage as a
form of attack.
– Spiking trees (the process of placing a spike in a
tree so that a logger will hit it when downing the
tree)
– Burning buildings under construction, such as the
Vail, Colorado attack
Hoaxes
• Any terrorist group that has established
credibility can employ a hoax with
considerable success.
– A threat against a person’s life causes that
person and those associated with that individual
to devote time and effort to security measures.
– A bomb threat can close a commercial building,
empty a theater, or delay an aircraft flight at no
cost to the terrorist.
– False alarms dull the analytical and operational
efficiency of key security personnel, thus
degrading readiness.
Use of Special Weapons
• Terrorists to date have used chemical
weapons and there is potential for the use of
both chemical and biological weapons in
the future.
– Relatively cheap and easy to make, could be used in
place of conventional explosives in many situations.
• Sarin gas attack in March 1995 in the Tokyo
subway
• 2001 Anthrax attacks
Environmental Destruction
• Although this tactic has not been widely
used, the increasing accessibility of
sophisticated weapons and explosives to
terrorists has the potential to threaten
damage to the environment.
– Examples would be intentional dumping of
hazardous chemicals into a city’s water supply
or the destruction of an oil tanker.
Use of Technology
• Infrastructure technologies provide
attractive targets for terrorists who can
apply a range of rudimentary and advanced
attack techniques to disrupt or undermine
confidence in a range of systems.
– National infrastructure, transportation,
telecommunications, energy, banking, public
health, and water supply are becoming
increasingly dependent on computerized
systems and linkages
Terrorisms Affect On
National Security:
• Today, we face a new enemy…one who
wages a different kind of war
• Asymmetric Warfare
– As the single remaining large superpower, most
of our enemies know that challenging the
United States symmetrically carries too much
risk…therefore, they hit and run…generally
soft targets
•US Strategy…
Counter Terrorism Policy
National Security Strategy
• Current US policy on countering terrorism
was first stated by the Reagan Administration
and has been reaffirmed by every president
since.
1. The US will make no concessions to terrorists
2. The US will treat terrorists as criminals and apply the
rule of law
3. The US will apply maximum pressure on state
sponsors of terrorism
• The Clinton Administration added a
corollary to these rules:
4. The US will Help other
governments improve their
capabilities to combat terrorism.
Department of Homeland
Security
• Cabinet level department…Governor Tom
Ridge of Pennsylvania first secretary
– Charged with coordinating the response
capabilities of over 40 agencies
• Not a new concept
– Costal forts
– Alert fighters
– Ballistic Missile defense
Counter-terrorism/Antiterrorism:
• The DOD program adheres to this policy
while addressing acts of terrorism from
two perspectives:
– Counter-terrorism (offensive measures)
– Antiterrorism (defensive measures)
Counter-Terrorism
• The offensive measures taken to prevent,
deter, and respond to terrorism
– US launched attacks against Libya after the La
Belle disco bombing …El Dorado Canyon
– Attacked targets in Sudan and Afghanistan in
response to the involvement of Usama Bin
Laden in the bomb attacks against the two US
embassies in Africa
– Article 51 of the UN Charter entitles a nation to
defend itself against attack
– “War on Terrorism”
Antiterrorism
• Defensive measures used to reduce the
vulnerability of individuals and property to
terrorist acts
– Includes limited response and containment by
local military forces
– Setting new buildings back from roads and
parking lots
• Khobar Towers actions
– Army limiting access to all of their CONUS
posts…completely open in past
•Counter and Anti terrorism both rely on intel…
•US military policy on
Responding to Terrorism:
– (1) US forces will continue to perform
our missions; and
– (2) Force protection will be a major
consideration in future actions
• US v Allies approach
Counterintelligence
• For our counter-terrorism and antiterrorism
measures to be effective, we must have
some idea of what particular terrorist groups
are attempting to accomplish.
– We gain this insight through an active
counterintelligence program.
– FBI, CIA, NSA, OSI, CID, NIS, ATF,
DEA…
• Force Protection
– The use of forces to protect
resources and personnel with
thorough force protection
measures.
Force Protection
– After the Khobar Towers bombing, the
USAF relocated all of our forces in theater
out of heavily populated areas to an
isolated, defensible, base in the desert
– After the USS Cole bombing, the US
Navy instituted plans to deploy a floating
barrier around its warships in high risk
areas
Summary
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History
Definitions
Impact of Terrorism
Objective of Terrorism
Tactics of Terrorism
Effects of Terrorism on National
Security
• Force Protection
Questions