Domestic Terrorism Vs International Terrorism

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, the United States of America was tragically attacked by members of al- Qaeda. Nineteen radicals associated with the Islamic extremist group hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against planned targets in the United States. Of the

Terrorism was traditionally viewed as a term ascribed to others. Prior to the events of 9/11, it was applied to foreign conflicts that were read about and briefly covered by media outlets, thus viewed as an abstract concept and someone else’s problem. Some would argue that the events of 9/11 was the fourth act of terroristic activities on American soil. The first was perpetrated on Native Americans, second would be the horrors and hells of the North American slave trade and third is lynching.

When you hear the words terrorism, what does you mind go to? Most people would say some sort of extremist group because that is what the media puts into our heads but in reality most domestic terrorist attacks are committed by what is known as a ‘Lone Wolf” attacker. These are people who prepare and commit violent acts alone. These cases are much harder to detect because of a multitude of things. For instance laws have been established to protect civil liberties but in the process have prevented investigators from tracking people engaged with hateful speech, unless there is a suspected crime that person may be involved in. It is easier to track and detect international terrorism because often there are many people involved in the attack and often those attacks are committed by different terrorist groups, and the U.S government is constantly tracking and getting new information on those different terrorist groups. Many counterterrorism efforts have been shaped in response to foreign terrorism

Terrorism has been shown in the media to be an planned by a terrorist group which often has been the case in the biggest attacks like on September 11th, 2001. But like other types of crime there are lone wolves and there are terrorist groups. These two

Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover ""domestic,"" as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act ""dangerous to human life"" that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. Additionally, the acts have to occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and if they do not, may be regarded as international terrorism.

National terrorism has been the focus of attention since September 11. But now domestic terrorism is becoming increasingly common among hate groups across the nation. Domestic terrorism can be defined as visible crime, or “street crime.” These acts would consist of violent crimes, (acts against people in which injury or death results) property crimes (acts that threaten property held by individuals or the state) and public order crimes. (acts that threaten the general well-being of society and challenger accepted moral principles) It can also however be described as political crime, (criminal acts by or against the government for ideological purposes) which would include the 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.

The emphasis of counterterrorism policy in the United States since Al Qaeda’s attacks of September 11, 2001 has been on jihadist terrorism. However, in the last decade, domestic terrorists have killed American citizens and damaged property across the country. Not all of these criminals have been prosecuted under terrorism charges. This is not meant to imply that domestic terrorists should be taken any less seriously than other terrorists.

The history of Terrorism in the United States is extensive, with present day being focused mainly on Islamic Terrorist groups and extremists. There have been 2,608 total attacks and 226 fatal attacks in the United States between 1970 and 2011. There have been attacks from within the United States from our own people and attacks that originated from abroad. Religion, political agendas, instilling fear and protesting policy have all been motives of terrorists throughout history. Terrorists will use any means necessary to promote their cause and to receive worldwide recognition and media attention from their acts. Terrorism can also be used, especially in regards to religion, to enforce a system of belief, opinion or viewpoint. The

Domestic terrorism consists of violations against federal and state law that put humans into danger. The purpose of domestic terrorism is to influence or to instill fear into the population and government. Terrorism comes in forms of gun violence, assassinations, and destruction (1). Since 1970, there have been 2,608 attacks and 226 fatal attacks up until 2011 (3). In 1867, the development of dynamite contributed to increasing terrorism, and radicals have used explosives to bring attention to political issues within the country. This invention led to the Haymarket Affair, Los Angeles Times, and the Preparedness Day bombings (2). What has further caused domestic terrorism has been the argument over who is an American. This explains the emergence of the Boston Tea Party and the “white supremacy” of the Ku Klux Klan which both occurred to claim what being an authentic American means (3). After the Cold war, domestic intelligence and law enforcement suppressed terrorist plots, but since the leader of al-Qaeda increased website usage in 2003, more internet terrorist sites have grown. In 2009, the FBI stated that there were approximately 15,000 websites that advocated terrorism with 10,000 sites still active on 80% of U.S based servers. (4) An example of an attack was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 which resulted in 168 people dead and 600 people injured; the motivation for this was to show the opposition against the U.S government by bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal

Terrorism is the use of violence deliberately to achieve a religious and political, ideological objective. This vice poses a significant danger to the American citizens as well as the American government. The American foreign policy has contributed heavily to most of the terrorist acts witnessed in the recent past; it is what they have done such as the overthrowing of governments like in the case of Libya, bombings in Syria and Iraq, assassinations and the promotion of torture (Kaplan, 2006). This evil acts informed by their foreign policies has contributed to what the terrorists view as social, political and religious injustice and hypocrisy, hence proving a foundation for their retaliation against the United states.

What is considered terrorism? There are two definitions for terrorism in the FBI website. The first definitions we get is for International Terrorism “International terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).” The FBI also gives an example that being “the December 2, 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, CA, that killed 14 people and wounded 22 which involved a married couple who radicalized for some time prior to the attack and were inspired by multiple extremist ideologies and foreign terrorist organizations.” To explain the definition that is in the website, what they really mean is International Terrorism is when a group or individual,

In our society today, terrorism is not a word that goes unseen; terrorism can easily be followed back to early history. Though terrorism is well known by many, it is universally hard to define (Brown, 2008). Terrorism as a word can differ from person to person. One can describe it as strategy, while someone else might call it a tactic. Everyone can define what a word is to them based on their status in society. For instance, Someone who is a white male in the middle- class will see terrorism different than a Muslim male in the lower-middle class. Each point of view is incredibly important because this where we start to have opposing views and definitions (Brown, 2008).

What two terrorist attacks were examined in this research study? Briefly outline a synopsis of each attack. The two terrorist attacks that was examined and researched are Domestic and International. Domestic terrorism is involved in violence against the civilian population or setup of a nation-often, but not always by citizens of that nation and often with the intent to be like coerce or influence national policy. Rand addresses national security and critical organization needs through objective research that helps government agencies prevent and lessen terrorist activities and improves disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The international terrorist attack is the government order to decrease the risk from worldwide terrorism to the

Terrorism is the systematic use of violence by a group of people in order to intimidate a population or coerce a government into granting its demands. There are different types of terrorism like, State, Foreign, and Domestic. State terrorism is the systematic use of terror by a government in order to control its population. Additionally, there is religious terrorism which is terrorism that is motivated by religious ideologies. Foreign terrorism is committed outside the US, while Domestic is committed inside the US.

Violent acts of terror have become the norm on today’s day, we often hear news reports about a bombing happing somewhere in the world and several people being killed and it doesn’t faze us any more, is like another day another act of terror. At times, it seems like the public is just content that it did not happened in their respective country, but rather somewhere else far away from home. And these daily barbaric acts beg for the question: What drives citizens to turn against their own countries and help terrorist kill their fellow countrymen? What is the process individuals are undergoing to turn against one’s nation? What methods are the enemies using to brainwash these “martyrs” and get them to commit suicide and kill other people at the same time?