After browsing
through Stephen E. Atkins book Terrorism, I soon learned many
interesting
things regarding the history of terrorism.
It seems this form of protest has been
around since
Biblical times. Also, the main goal of a
terrorist is not to do damage to
one peticular
person or place, but to gain publicity for an idea they support. (page 1)
Evidence of this
can be found by looking at the recent past of the United States. The
Oklahoma bombing
was one man's way of expressing his dislike of the government.
The exact
definition of terrorism is not a solid line, it is a very wide line that isn't
defined. The general definition of terrorism is an
attack of some sort against a person or
place that
involves violence and/or destruction of property and is usually politically
motivated. (Terrorism 3)
Our fight against
terrorism became something the terrorists might fear in 1970, at
the Hague
Convention. This United Nations
convention basically defined ...hijacking as a
crime and required
contracting states either to allow the extradition of hijackers to their
country of
origin, or to prosecute them in the state where they were arrested. (The
Terrorists
146) Atkins states that one of the reasons it took
so long to do anything about terrorism is
that it is so
hard to define, and therefore just as hard to enforce. He also says
Declarations and
conventions from the UN have lacked effective enforcement
mechanisms, so
they have been ignored by member states and have been characterized as
'largely
cosmetic. Basically, the UN is doing
this to satisfy the public and little else.
This lack of
understanding of the meaning of terrorism has also been a hindrance when law
8:56 PM
12/14/96enforcement was actually implemented.
Police aren't trained to handle terrorist type
attacks, instead
they handle them like ordinary criminal attacks. (Terrorism 26-27) This gives
the terrorists
exactly what they wanted, publicity for their cause.
The media is a
terrorists best friend. Without the modern
wide-spread media,
terrorism would
be worthless. The human nature that
makes us stop and look at the
horrible traffic
accident is another reason why terrorism is effective. Ask someone 20
years from now
what they remember about the 1996 Summer Olympics, and they will say
the terrorist
bombing. This event was literally blown
out of proportion by the media. It
wasn't a
terrorist attack, there was no one taking credit, and no reason for doing
it. Any
juvenile
delinquent could have easily found this information off the Internet. According to
the infamous
Jolly Rogers, homemade weapons are easy to make. He doesn't gloss over
the fact that
attempting to make these weapons is usually illegal, and dangerous. There
are approximately
50 different types of illegal activities detailed in the text file, which is
over 100 pages
long. This document isn't hard to find
to anyone looking.
(http://space.acm.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rykramer/cookbook.html)
There are usually
a few kids every year who remove fingers trying to build home
made bombs, and
those kids are the lucky ones, many have died making the explosive
kitchen
creations. One example is the tennis
ball bomb. Supposedly, a tennis ball is
cut
open and filled
with broken off match heads. The only
thing the article doesn't mention is
the chances of
filling the tennis ball up with match heads before friction ignites the thing
in
the builders
hands. Another dangerous thing is the
light bulb bomb. This is built by
placing black
power inside a light bulb. The theory
behind it is that the filament will ignite
the power,
thereby sending glass fragments throughout the room. The only problem is
when the builder
forgets to turn off the light switch before screwing in the explosive light
bulb. (http://space.acm.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rykramer/cookbook.html) It is also true that two high school students
built a small
nuclear weapon in a chemistry lab from instructions found on the Internet.
Resources like
Jolly Roger's Cookbook and the Phreak filez are easily available on the
Internet, but
contrary to what most mass-media mediums would like people to believe, the
bomb making
instructions do not suddenly jump up on the user's screen. The Internet
user must go out
and look for the information, and if they are really that dedicated to their
terrorist cause,
the will be able to find the information anywhere, not just the Internet. As
far as the modern
terrorist is concerned, the Internet doesn't have any new information
that isn't
already easily accessible.
Terrorist form groups to make it easier to
get their message across. Atkins has a
very good list of
modern terrorist groups. One group is
the Arab National Youth
Organization for
the Liberation of Palestine. (ANYOLP)
This group was found by the
president of
Libya, Qaddafi. This group isn't as
active as when it started in 1972, but it
was never
officially disbanded by Qaddafi.
(Terrorism 102) One of the most
famous groups is
the Black Panther
Party. (BPP) This was founded in the United States in the
1960's, in
Alabama. This groups wasn't really a terrorist group,
but more a self-defense group that
pushed the lines
of self defense. Most people associate
Martin Luther King Jr.'s name
when they hear
this group because this was a very racially oriented group. (106)
One of
the oldest
terrorist groups is the Irish Republican Army.
(IRA) It started during the 19th
century when
Ireland was fighting for its independence.
Unlike other groups, this group is
respected by many
people because they are trying to unify the island of Ireland. This
group also has a
more radical splinter group called the Irish Republican Army Provisional
Wing. (Terrorism 116-117)
Terrorist groups
have also become very good plots for movie makers. The movie
Delta Force is
based solely on a terrorist taking over an airplane. There has also been a
movie made
recently which shows the Islamic Jihad
group of Iran and their attack in 1983
against Marines
in Beirut. (Terrorism 118) Another movie
that mentions the Islamic Jihad is
"Executive
Decision" This is just another
example of how the media loves dramatic
stories, and why
not, it sells!
I believe
terrorism is a very real and very dangerous threat to the United States.
We spend millions
to support a large "peace keeping" military, but yet a single
terrorist
attack could
easily bring our nation to it's knees.
The media loves the blood and gore, so
it reports all
the details. What paper would print a
cover story about the recent Nobel
Peace Prize
recipients instead of the recent plane that may have been bombed or the
"terrorist"
attack at the Olympic games?
---------------------------------
Works Cited
Atkins, Stephen
E. Terrorism: A Reference Handbook Santa Barbara, California:
ABC-CLIO, Inc.,
1992.
Payne, Ronald and
Dobson, Christopher. The Terrorists:
Their Weapons, Leaders and
Tactics. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1982.
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