Terrorism Reading
Terrorism is the attempt to achieve a goal through violent
or destructive acts intended to induce change by instilling
fear among a group of people. Terrorists typically have
little regard for innocent noncombatants. A variety of
motives underlies terrorist acts, including religious, social,
economic, and political motivations. In general, terrorists
are unwilling to negotiate with their perceived enemies, or
are prevented from doing so by political, social, or
economic circumstances.
Despite efforts to provide a universal definition of terrorism,
whether a group considers an act to be a terrorist act is
often a matter of interpretation. Events that constitute
terrorism are often contentious and heavily tied to cultural
perspective. One society may label a suicide bomber as a
terrorist, while another society may refer to the bomber as
a martyr, freedom fighter, revolutionary, or separatist. Such
distinctions even exist in news reports that are designed
for more politically sympathetic audiences.
Terrorists may act individually, as with the case
of the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski, who killed
three people and wounded twenty-two with his
mail bombs), or as part of a larger movement
that has operations around the world, as with
the case of al-Qaeda. Many definitions of
terrorism restrict the label to sub-national
groups.
Governments, however, may promote and
sponsor terrorism at home or abroad with
money, training, protection, or arms. Examples
of state-sponsored terrorism include Adolf Hitler
(1889–1945) ordering the burning of the
Reichstag (the seat of the German government)
in 1933 in order to blame the event on
Communists; Libya’s involvement in the
bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988; and
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan’s support of alQaeda. Occasionally, a terrorist group may
develop such broad support that the group
serves as a de facto government over a
particular region or country, as in the case of
the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Terrorist attacks increased greatly in the twentieth century,
due to the development of more powerful and easily
obtained explosives. Numerous separatist movements of
the twentieth century, including the Irish independence
movement, used terrorism as a means of achieving their
political goals.
Formed in 1913 as the Irish Volunteers, the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) fought for Irish independence from
Britain. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921,
Ireland was divided into the independent Republic of
Ireland and British-controlled Northern Ireland. Successor
organizations of the IRA, including the Provisional IRA,
continued to wage a terrorist campaign for independence
for Northern Ireland. Heavy fighting from 1968 to 1998, a
period known as the Troubles, involved attacks on citizens
in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England. Over 3,500
people died due to the conflict during the Troubles. The
terrorist campaign waged by the IRA, along with its
predecessors and successors, was the longest sustained
terrorist campaign of the twentieth century.
Terrorist attacks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also
dominated the history of terrorism in the twentieth century
and continue today. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s,
Arab and Jewish populations living in the British Mandate
of Palestine fought each other and British troops. In 1946,
Irgun, a militant Zionist group, bombed the wing of the King
David Hotel in Jerusalem that served as the military and
administrative headquarters for the British Mandate of
Palestine, killing ninety-one people.
In 1948, Jewish settlers founded the state of Israel with
support from the international community. After a series
of wars in the mid-twentieth century in which Israel
gained territory, many Arabs lived in Israeli-occupied
areas. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
was founded in 1964 with the goal of establishing an
Arab Palestinian state in Israel. The PLO and other
Palestinian groups employed terrorist tactics, including
suicide bombings, which often targeted Israeli citizens.
Most terrorist attacks occurred during the first Intifada, a
period of Palestinian uprising from 1987 to 1993, and
during the second Intifada, which began in 2000.
Approximately 6,000 Palestinians and 2,500 Israelis
have died in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 1987.
Since the mid-1990s, Islamist extremists have carried out
numerous highly publicized terrorist attacks on targets
around the world. Islamist terrorists generally are
motivated by extreme interpretations of Islam,
sectarianism, anti-capitalism, and a desire to have
foreign troops removed from traditionally Islamic regions.
Most Islamist terrorist groups are active in only small
regions, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in
Israel, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Abu
Sayyaf Group in the Philippines, and Jaish-e-Mohammed
in India.
Other Islamist terrorist organizations, most notably alQaeda, have extensive global networks of terrorist cells.
Founded in 1988, al-Qaeda is a Sunni Islamist
organization that has carried out several high-profile
terrorist attacks, including the 1998 bombings of
American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the suicide
attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and the attacks on New
York and Washington, D.C., on 11 September 2001.
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Islamist group
closely linked to al-Qaeda, bombed a nightclub in Bali in
2002, killing 202 people, and carried out a series of
suicide bomb attacks in Bali in 2005, killing twenty
people. Islamist extremist groups characterized as
independent, al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cells were
responsible for the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings
and 7 July 2005 bombings of the London underground.
Technological improvements and a burgeoning black
market gave terrorist groups new weapons in the 1990s—
chemical and biological weapons. Aum Shinrikyo, a
Japanese religious cult and terrorist organization, carried
out sarin gas attacks on subway systems in Tokyo and
Matsumoto. After a raid on Aum Shinrikyo’s headquarters,
police discovered numerous chemical and biological
weapons, including anthrax spores, Ebola cultures, and
chemicals that could produce enough sarin to kill four
million people. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11
September 2001, governments expressed concern that
terrorist groups might use a radiological dispersal device
(RDD), or dirty bomb, which is conventional explosives
used to spread radiological material. Although no terrorist
group has used a dirty bomb, public concern over the use
of such a device demonstrates that fear remains the most
powerful weapon of terrorists.
In 2009, Yemen emerged as a center of al-Qaeda activity.
One of the poorest Arab countries, Yemen has a fragile
government and faces both a water shortage and a Shi'ite
insurgency. A Yemen-based al-Qaeda group claimed
responsibility for the attempted suicide bombing of the 25
December 2009 flight to Detroit. After the failed 25
December attack, Yemen announced an all-out war on alQaeda, threatening severe consequences for any Yemenis
assisting or harboring al-Qaeda operatives. Yemeni
Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi has called for foreign aid
but opposed any direct military intervention, especially by
the United States. Yemen continued to make progress in
fighting terrorists in March 2010, arresting eleven
suspected al-Qaeda members in a raid on a house in the
capital city of Sanaa.
Support of foreign terrorist organizations from within the
United States appeared to be a growing trend by August
2010. On 4 August, the federal government charged
fourteen people in three states with supplying aid to the
Somali ultra-Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab. The same
day, the United States Department of State released an
annual report on worldwide terrorism. The report noted that
al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen
were attracting increasing support from "radicalized"
Americans.
Despite high-profile cases involving Muslim defendants, a
report released in February 2012 by Duke University's
Triangle Center on Terrorism showed that the terrorist
threat posed by domestic Muslim extremists was vastly
exaggerated. The report showed that only one Muslim
carried out a terrorist attack in the United States in 2011,
and no fatalities resulted. Statistics show that about 6
percent of domestic terrorists in the United States are
Muslim. Meanwhile, the trial of nine anti-government militia
members began in Michigan. The members of the Hutaree
militia are accused of targeting police officers, judges, and
other law enforcement officials. All of the accused are nonMuslim American citizens.
On 2 May 2011, the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama
bin Laden (1957–2011), was killed during a U.S. special
forces raid on his secret compound in Abbottabad,
Pakistan. Bin Laden was the leader of the international
terrorist network al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the
11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States
that killed almost three thousand innocent people. In
announcing bin Laden's death to the world, Obama
declared "justice has been done," but warned "we must
and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad" against
the threat of terrorism. By mid-June, Ayman al-Zawahiri
(1951–), al-Qaeda's longtime second in command, had
emerged as the new leader.
On 3 May 2012, the Combating Terrorism Center at the
U.S. Military Academy released 17 pieces of
correspondence totaling 175 pages. These items were
among the materials seized during the Navy SEAL raid on
bin Laden's compound last year. More documents are
scheduled to be released at a later date. The letters
showed some disorganization among senior al-Qaeda
leaders and disagreement about what its goals and tactics
should be.
The Royal United Services, a United Kingdom–based
foreign policy think tank, released a report on 10
September 2012 based on interviews with high-ranking
Taliban leaders. The study claims that the Taliban is ready
to sever relations with al-Qaeda, agree to a ceasefire in
Afghanistan, and allow the United States to hold several
military bases in Afghanistan in exchange for political
recognition and peace. This is an important step for the farright Islamic movement primarily associated with the 11
September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon.
COPYRIGHT 2014 Gale, Cengage Learning
Source Citation
"Terrorism." Global Issues in Context Online Collection .
Detroit: Gale, 2014. Global Issues In Context. Web. 8 May
2014.