An Explanation of Terrorism
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
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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
Terrorism is defined as an act of violence that is committed by an organization or a single person in order to be heard. Terrorist acts are usually based on a couple factors such as, historical grievances, foreign policy decision, poverty, and religion. Terrorism is not a new act amongst the world but something that has been around since the beginning. To understand a criminal you must think like a criminal, and understand why they committed a crime or a violent act, then you can prevent and conquer.
This week in Lamy terrorism and human security were covered in chapters nine and ten. LAmy describes terrorism as the use of violence to bring attention to a “grievance”, to get a certain “response”, or to weaken someones moral to elicit “political change”. Lamy explains that terrorism can be done as a result of infractions on culture, economics, and/or religion. One example the book gives is Al Qaeda which is a religious based terrorist group that fight due to an oath of loyalty to Osama bin Laden. This group became recognized as a terrorist group after the incident of September 11. These terrorist acts were done on the premise of the belief in jihad. Like most terrorists, Al Qaeda fights for the beliefs for which there is no compromise;
Terrorism is a word that is widely used in modern society even though most people don’t know the real definition and the meaning behind it.
Background/Cause: The September 11 attacks were largely caused by Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. He held beliefs about the United States leading up to the attacks saying that America was weak. According to his comrade, Abu Walid al-Masri, bin Laden believed that the United States was much weaker than some of the people he was associated with. Bin Laden believed that the United States was a “paper tiger,” a belief not only held because of America’s departure from Lebanon, but also by the withdrawal of American forces from Somalia in 1993 and from Vietnam in the 1970s (Bergen).
The word ‘terrorism’ can be traced back to the French Revolution and the reign of terror committed against the population of France in the 1790s. During this time, thousands of people were killed and the general population was severely oppressed. Also, some of the first instances of terrorist tactics, such as assassination and intimidation, were witnessed in the killing of prominent officials and other opponents of the Revolution. In general, terrorists aim to incite fear in the population through pre-meditated violent acts and gain publicity as a medium in achieving their goals. Such acts include taking hostages, bombings and assassinations, all of which create fear and compliance in a victim or audience. Terrorism can be distinguished from other types of political violence through its disregard for and intentional harming of innocent civilians. Also, terrorists usually adopt a state of mind where one side is always good and any opposition is bad and deserves to be punished. As a result, terrorists will always have some supporters who share the same radical thoughts as them and thus terrorism, as a whole, will always be accepted as a legitimate use of violence. This is the reasoning behind the famous phrase by Gerald Seymour, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”(QUOTE
Terrorism has been around since at least the First Century. Terrorism is a crime in which people or groups of people use, or say they will use, violence in order to get what they want from the government or society. A terrorist is a person who uses violence and fear to achieve political
Terrorism in the twenty-first century has some similarities and differences from terrorism in the twentieth century. Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use or threatened use of violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. Also useful to remember that because the two entities involved, the terrorists and the terrorized, are on the opposite end of the political, religious or ideological continuum, the same act is viewed by them differently. There is much sense in the phrase one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
“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.” Within this definition, there are three key
When one is coming to understand terrorism and all of its components, a generally accepted definition is hard to come by because it tends to be described through the “subjective outlook of the definer” (Ganor, 2002). This idea has best been described as saying that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” (Laqueur, 1987). For example, Osama Bin Laden, the man who is most known in the development of the plans for the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, was most likely seen as a freedom fighter in the eyes of those in support of Al-Qaeda, while Americans and people all around the world viewed his actions as one of a terrorist. Terrorism is not this tangible object that can be defined as one thing and is applied
Purpose: To inform readers of the effects the recent terrorist attacks have on society today.
We define terrorism as using force to influence or change a political decision. Given that there may be an array of situations the U.S. government and the American people are faced with on a daily basis, most would probably agree in saying that terrorism is the most imperative issue we are not only becoming victims to, but are interminably asked to deal with as well as finding a solution for.
terrorism is not a solid line, it is a very wide line that isn't defined. The
Despite the end of the Cold War and the faltering beginnings of a peace process in the Middle East, terrorism still remains a serious threat in many countries, not surprisingly, given that the underlying causes of the bitter ethnic and religious struggles which spawn terrorism pre-dated the Cold War, and most of these conflicts remain unresolved.
The immediacy and the primacy of any truly potent force is the ability to perpetuate itself. Sharp and energetic outbursts have their place, and can be known to have great effect-cataclysmic forces, despite their maximum destructive potential, are temporary in their total effects in relation to some absolute goal. In other words, they are generally limited in scope, and well defined in purpose; there is a tactical objective, which is usually consummated quickly. The more dreaded force creeps along, escalating incrementally, and while it may abide a strategic goal, or even a policy, it is generally open-ended. This sort of ambiguity I am referring to differs from the flexible tactical necessity in that strategic outcomes are very much
U.S. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (F.B.I.) describes terrorism as the unauthorised use of strength or fierceness against people or belongings to frighten or to intimidate a regime, the citizen populace, or a little division thereof, in continuance of radical or public purposes. Violence is not a firmly modern distinctiveness dedicated by limited individuals or assemblies, terror forcefulness and in numerous admirations develops an objective of combat on the detail of the intercontinental community, certainly multiplying the height of violence