Crj 441 Homeland Defense: History Of Terrorism

Q1. Terrorism is an act done by an individual or a group, using violence or the threat of violence to frighten people, in order to achieve a political, social or religious goal. The word “terrorism” comes from the French word terrorisme, meaning “to frighten.” Terrorism was originally referred specifically to state terrorism, which the French Government practised during the years 1793 – 1794 in the “reign of terror.” The roots and practices of terrorism can be traced back to 1st century AD in Judea where there was an assassination of Roman rulers. Terrorist ideology and aims vary from each individual and/or group. There has been over 2000 cases of terrorism driven by religious purposes. Religious terrorism is carried out due to motivations and goals in relations to religions or religious figures. An example of this are extremist groups such as Al Qaeda who justify their attacks by believing that these are commands given to them by the Koran. Political terrorists carry out violent acts to make a point with government leaders. An example of this is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865. Moral beliefs is another aim of terrorism. Moral issues such as anti-abortions have led to attacks, including abortion clinics and their staff in the late 1980’s.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines terrorism as the use of violence, or threatened use of violence, in order to achieve a political or religious goal. Terrorism is committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by a historical wrong. These groups of people will most likely have no formal connection to the government. Terrorism comes from the Reign of Terror initiated by Maximilen Robespierre during the French Revolution. The beginning of terrorism goes all the way back to the first

Terrorism is a word that we are constantly bombarded with throughout the news and social media. Every day we hear reports of different hideous crimes committed all around the world. But what is terrorism? Are terrorist nothing more than inhuman monsters fighting to disrupt our society as a whole?

Terrorism is an act that threatens or carries out violence with the intention to disrupt, kill or coerce against a body or nation in order to impose will. This means that a lot of groups use this method to get what they want. The groups use a variety of methods, groups such as:

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

Now, looking back at the Gunpowder Plot it can be stated that it fits the definition on each point that Symeonidou-Kastanidou (2004) brings about. They were a group of thirteen skilled man, who planned an attack on parliament. Attack was planned over the certain period of time, they had finance and equipment (thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, fuse and a fire) to carry out an attack. Equipped with religious grievances and the intention to kill the King and members of the parliament (symbolic place, that is where all the mischief happened according to Catesby). Death of the king would have had brought change of the regime from the Protestant rule to the Catholic reign or created social dissatisfaction and condemnation (Fraser, 1996). Schmid (1992 cited in Lutz and Lutz, 2013) states that for an assassination to be an act of terrorism, it must involve not only an assassin and its victim but also a wider society, that in case of the

The second Part of Jonathan R. White’s ninth edition Terrorism and Homeland Security deals with the national and ethnic movements of international terrorism, their emergence as well as well as motifs. Ideological terrorist and ethnic separatists are hard to differentiate since they use the same procedures and tactics to get their demands. Although both fall under the definition of terrorism, there is a difference in the definition of their goals and demands. While separatists have defined, achievable goal, religious terrorists have a nihilistic ideology that are from a rational point of view not feasible. Therefore, it is impossible for satisfactorily negotiation

There is no single, universally accepted definition to define terrorism but the U. S. Code of federal regulations define it as any violent act or acts dangerous to human life that violates the criminal laws of the U.S. or any State or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the U.S. or any State. (18 U.S.C § 2331). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) divides terrorist attacks that face the U.S. into two broad categories - international and domestic. (18.U.S.C. § 2331).

To recent times, terrorism has taken a different purpose. Todays terrorism is religiously based. One of the most significant events that has occurred on the United Stated is the attacks of September 11th. These attacks have lead to groups, such as al Qaeda, to bring light to what their goal is, which is trans- or supra-national Islamic rule (Hoffman 2014). Al Qaeda has described their own seven-stage victory, which the final stage states their goal is to triumph over the rest of the world by 2020 (Hoffman 2014). For many of the attacks following September 11th, al Qaeda has shown their seven-stage victory has slowly become true, not only within the United States, but throughout the world. In 2004, attacks on commuter rail bombings in Madrid killed 191 individuals. The following year, suicide bombers on several busses in London, killing 52 people and several other plots that were never followed through with.

The term terrorism is used widely in present day especially in the United States. Terrorism is a double standard, the people who commit those terrorist acts, commit the acts out of beliefs and in their eyes ok. Terrorism can be described as the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective by targeting innocent people (Laqueur, 1987). To me the definition mention above is a great definition to describe terrorism as a crime. To aim for innocent people to prove a point which lead major injuries or death in most cases is to most people would be a crime, no questions asked. According to Martha Crenshaw (1995), “Terrorism cannot be defined unless the act, target and possibility of success are analyzed”. So to think, terrorist are people who commit these acts as a way to get their political or religious point across. If we look at the some of the most famous terrorist acts they are automatically labeled crimes. 9/11 was a crime because the persons affiliated with the act, targeted the

In the movie, “Remember the Titans”, the scene where the Boone family was terrorized by the Klu Klux Klan made a statement, after a burning bottle soared through their living room, sending the family into a frenzied state. Similar situations equivalent to and more severe in this particular scene, has plagued our world since the beginning of time. The argument will be made that, just like the Boone’s, many generations of people have had to live in terror among every day, normal lives not knowing what tomorrow held. Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. Whether the issues be religious, racial, or political; terrorist have felt the compulsion to persuade groups of people to believe their radical ideas are the correct way of life. The word terrorist originated in the late 18th century, during the French Revolution. At this time, the Jacobins employed violence, including mass executions by guillotine, in order to intimidate the regime’s

Terrorism is aswell associated with the Aboriginal and the Second Apple War. This is characterized by the assorted injustices agitated out in Europe. The Holocaust was one of the actual contest that adumbrated the acme of terrorism. Close to 800000 Jews were massacred by the Nazi beneath the administering of the German, Adolf Hitler, because of the abrogating animosity delved appear the Treaty of Versailles, which accused Germany as the agitator of the war. The Vietnam War aswell characterized terrorism. At first, the Vietnamese approved ability from their French colonialists but led to added analysis a part of the locals on political agreement appropriately arch to the Cold War. The war was an arrant admeasurement by the United States to ascendancy communism. However, in accomplishing so, the country accomplished massive agitated attacks that led to the deaths of innocent civilians, which aswell afflicted adjoining nations (Coaty, 240).

Another critique brought about by Jackson is that orthodox terrorism research contains both political and ideological bias’. Research seems to only focus on the conflict with Western states and left-winged terrorist groups, and after 9/11 the main focus became Islamic terrorism. The field neglects to study groups such as right-winged terrorist and state terrorism. Jackson talks about how “the claim to academic objectivity and the failure to acknowledge the politics involved in determining which groups are considered ‘terrorist’ functions as a deeper kind of ideological bias because it obscures the political values which determine who to study and how to study them” (Jackson 2011: 17), this sort of bias is a big deal because it shapes what we get to learn about terrorism. Not including all forms of terrorism creates misleading perspectives, which is how stereotypes that say certain people/religious groups are more incline to be

Even though the Boston Tea Party did not really come to mind that it was an act of terrorism, the then colonialists staged rebellion had intention of threatening the British into changing its taxing policy for their imported tea while on the other hand offering a tarrif-trade to its East India Tea Company, (J. Frederick Fausz, 2006). Boston Tea Party falls in the category of terrorism with its useful exercise for comparing the goals and tactics of different national liberation groups.

Since 1994, the United Nations General Assembly has condemned terrorist actions by stating, "Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them” (U.N.G.A., 2014; Schmid, 2011). The concept of terrorism goes back much further than that, however. The term “terrorism” began to be introduced to the English language during the Reign of Terror from 1793-94, at the time of the French