...Terrorism in the United States Terrorism is like a plague. It has haunted the world as well as the United States for years. It is only currently, in light of what has happened to New York and Washington, been threatened by a nation. This newly found hatred for terrorism is not just from a government, it is from the governed as well. It is not as strait forward as one may think. There are many definitions of terrorism. The definition of terrorism depends mostly on the views and occupations of the people who define it. Scholars, politicians and journalists all define terrorism differently. Words and motivations that define terrorism range from violence and force to racism. Although one well known notion that many people are familiar with is, “one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.” The notion, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, over time has become more than a cliché. Senator Henry Jackson commented on this notion at the Jonathan Institute's 1979 conference. The idea that one person's "terrorist" is another's "freedom fighter" cannot be sanctioned. Freedom fighters or revolutionaries don't blow up buses containing non-combatants; terrorist do. . . It is a disgrace that democracies would allow the treasured word "freedom" to be associated with the acts of terrorist. (Netanyahu 18-9) Although there are many definitions of the terrorism, one of the most widely accepted definitions is that of the FBI. The FBI states that terrorism is,...
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...Defining Terrorism Name University Professor CRJ 440, Terrorism and Antiterrorism Assignment 1: Difficulties of Defining Terrorism Today’s world is one where states are increasingly subject to the consequences of globalization, and because of this national security has become a key topic of every roundtable. There’s been no such international phenomenon that has demonstrated such evolve and garnered as much attention as the growth of terrorism. The truth is terrorism has existed throughout time; subsequently, the events of 9/11 propelled the United States into what has become labeled the War on Terrorism. With this, governments worldwide were required to implement protective policies against such attacks or in some cases take military action. With such policies, the development of counter-terrorist strategies require a definition of what terrorism is. According to Clarke (2009), the difficulty in assigning a truly comprehensive definition to terrorism lies in the fact that, not only is it challenging to be specific when motives, targets and methods differ so broadly from case-to-case, but the complexity of untangling the overlaps within each of these categories makes the task virtually impossible. Terrorism as defined by FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies terrorism in three branches: international terrorism, domestic terrorism, and federal crime of terrorism. As referenced in Chapter 113B of the Code 18 U.S.C. § 2331, terrorism involves...
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...Terrorism is a very scary thing to experience and in the United States we have experienced it all too well. Terrorism is when someone or a group of individuals use the unlawful violence or force towards a person or their property in order to try to intimidate the government or to gain power. Terrorism is no stranger in America it didn’t recently start happening terrorism has been happening throughout modern history. When Americans think of terrorism they can relate to one big attack and that was 9/11 which left many American people afraid, hurt and even dead. After this major attack the FBI took a stand to protect the United States this is called the War On Terrorism in this paper the summarization of the goals of War On Terrorism in the criminal justice system will be explained and also the effective and ineffective initiatives that are associated with war against terrorism as well as the historical significance that it may impact. The effective initiatives associated with the War on Terrorism are that it has four goals to protect the United States and prevent further attacks. These four goals are defeating terrorist organizations, the denial of any other further sponsorship support, diminishing the underlying conditions that terrorist seek to exploit and at last defending U.S interest against terrorist attack. When most people think of terrorism they think of the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in New York where many Americans lost their lives. Since that attack the United...
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...Krystal Martinez Professor Rosen 9th May 2014 Extra Credit Attack on Terrorism International terrorism is major problem that is occurring throughout our modern day world and has been going on for a plethora of years. Terrorism stretches back for many of years dealing with various situations. With terrorism many problems arise because of the activities that these terrorist partake in. They take innocent human lives for causes that they believe are right instead of trying to find another way to express their feelings. Terrorism causes fear and anxiety in people because you just never know when the terrorist group is going to attack. And once they attack you never know when the next time there will attack again because they do it unknowingly. International terrorism has to have these three characteristics stated by the FBI: “Involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; Appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping and; Occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. or transcend nations boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persona they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum” One of the major terrorist attacks occurred in our generation...
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...Background Terrorism is a strategy and tactic, a holy duty and a crime, an unacceptable response to oppression and an intolerable abomination. A common definition is that terrorism is an illegal act that affects an audience further than the direct victim. The tactic of terrorists is to perform acts of bloodshed that draw interest of the government, population and the world at large. Terrorists prepare their attack to get the largest publicity, selecting targets that signify what they resist. The success of a terror attack lies, not on the attack, but in the government’s or public’s response to the act (Larry, 2011). There are three views of terrorism; the victim’s, the terrorist’s and the public. The expression “one person’s terrorist is another person’s” freedom fighter’ is perspective terrorists would embrace. Terrorists do not regard themselves as wicked. They consider themselves as fighters, fighting for what they trust in, by any means possible. Victims of terrorist acts view the terrorists as evil with no consideration to human existence. The public’s perspective is the most unbalanced because people view terrorism acts differently. Terrorism is an essential part of mental warfare and requires to be opposed vigorously (Weisburd, 2009). Law makers, scholars and security experts have defined different forms of terrorism. These forms of terrorism vary according to the attack means the attacker uses (for instance biological) or by what they are opposing (eco-terrorism). State...
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...3 COUNTERTERRORISM EVOLVES In chapte r 2, we described the growth of a new kind of terrorism, and a new terrorist organization—especially from 1988 to 1998, when Usama Bin Ladin declared war and organized the bombing of two U.S. embassies. In this chapter, we trace the parallel evolution of government efforts to counter terrorism by Islamic extremists against the United States. We mention many personalities in this report. As in any study of the U.S. government, some of the most important characters are institutions. We will introduce various agencies, and how they adapted to a new kind of terrorism. 3.1 FROM THE OLD TERRORISM TO THE NEW: THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING At 18 minutes after noon on February 26, 1993, a huge bomb went off beneath the two towers of the World Trade Center.This was not a suicide attack.The terrorists parked a truck bomb with a timing device on Level B-2 of the underground garage, then departed.The ensuing explosion opened a hole seven stories up. Six people died. More than a thousand were injured. An FBI agent at the scene described the relatively low number of fatalities as a miracle.1 President Bill Clinton ordered his National Security Council to coordinate the response. Government agencies swung into action to find the culprits.The Counterterrorist Center located at the CIA combed its files and queried sources around the world. The National Security Agency (NSA), the huge Defense Department signals collection agency, ramped up its communications...
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...Organizations CRM 363,professor Ryan Burchnell The Role of the Intelligence Community in the Exploitation of Weaknesses in Terrorist Organizations Ways to help prevent terrorism Cherie Sterling 6/8/2012 Abstract This paper will let you in on what is going on in the intelligence community today and what they are doing to stop the war on terror with all the different agencies and what theories they are using to help fight this battle/war. The role of the intelligence community/agency plays a huge part in the exploitation of weakness among terrorist organizations. In this paper we will see how there are many different theories on how the intelligence community can help stop terrorism or at least calm it down. Also to see how the different intelligence agency work together to help stop the war on terror. We all know that terrorism will probably never completely end, but if we are willing to understand and take charge of the problem at hand maybe, we come to some sort of resolution amongst all the countries. Intelligence agency has been working behind the scenes for many years without any public knowledge on fighting the war on terror. Intelligence agency is behind the scenes type of people they are not out on the battlefield fighting the war so to speak. The intelligence agency is a very tight knit community that works very close with one another they talk with each other and learn from one another. There are...
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...its own citizens, the attack is now known as the Oklahoma City Bombing. The attack claimed 168 lives, which 19 of them were children and several hundred were injured, (FBI). By definition this attack was terrorism; terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or government, often for ideological or political reasons, (Barnett, Reynolds). From researching and studying terrorism and the media this paper will include; the background on Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City Bombing, how it was reported, how it is different from now and the speculations of how the media helped or harmed the situation. Timothy McVeigh grew up living a ‘normal life’, with loving parents and childhood friends but he felt unloved. In third grade he witnessed a neighbor boy drown a bag of kittens in a nearby pond he was so disgusted that day forward he could not bear the sight of death to the point he stopped shooting bull frogs with his bb gun. That all changed when he joined the United States Army and was deployed to the Gulf War. In basic and deployment training his mind set was changed to killing was an act of war, he even declared the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building an act of war, (Michel, Herbeck).It was just a mission and solider are used to carrying out missions that brought pain to others, (Michel, Hebeck). In a way Timothy was trying to be America’s...
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...between government agencies, have access to any phone and email records, and much more. Some of the added government abilities did sound very intrusive, it was stated that these actions the government could take did not apply to 99% of the crimes in the US and that they would only be used to fight the war on terrorism. The Director of the FBI, Robert S. Mueller III, stated in a testimony the extreme benefits of the Patriot Act for the FBI, “for over two and a half years, the PATRIOT Act has proved extraordinarily beneficial in the war on terrorism and has changed the way the FBI does business. Many of our counterterrorism successes, in fact, are the direct results of provisions included in the Act” (Testimony by Robert S. Mueller III). Even though the Patriot Act had been viewed on as an intrusion of privacy, the power it gave government organizations to fight the war on terrorism is...
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...Computers have modernized terrorism in the same way cyber terrorism revolutionized information warfare. There is no distinct definition of Cyber terrorism; however, its threat is as real as waging war but with weapons of automation. Terrorists have begun to exploit the availability of information with the malicious intent to sabotage; conversely, there are those who are not quite sure if information warfare - cyber terrorism is an actual threat. This research paper will briefly explore the history of cyber terrorism, the friend the internet has been to terrorist and how we can make the internet safer through vigilant tactics of prevention and deterrence. It will also expose the truth about cyber terrorism for the skeptic, reasons not to discount the threat, and why it is paramount their mind is changed. Information Warfare-Cyber Terrorism Did you know there were 18 cybercrime victims every second, 1058 every minute, approximately 64,000 per hour, and 1.5 million per day, that affected over 556 million people within the last year (Norton , 2012)? The internet has made it possible for terrorists to gather our public information and use it against us. As the internet matures so does the terrorist, finding ways to cripple and intimidate. The internet and terrorists have become a real hazard to the health of the cyber world. The government has implemented several organizations to help combat cyber terrorism but have not given it a clear concise definition. Skeptics...
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...lost across the divide separating the foreign and domestic agencies of the government.” (The 9/11 Commission Report-Pg. 353) Al Qaeda adapted to the failure of our management operations to gain entrance into the United States. Presented in the chapter is an illustration of how operational management failed in protecting our homeland with the case of Mihdhar, Hazmi, and Salem and their trip to Kuala Lumpur. In brief summary, here are the operational opportunities that the United States missed in this case: “1. January 2000: The CIA does not watch list Khalid al Mihdhar or notify the FBI when it learned Mihdhar possessed a valid U.S. visa. 2. January 2000: The CIA does not develop a transnational plan for tracking Mihdhar and his associates so that they could be followed to Bangkok and onward, including the United States. 3. March 2000: The CIA does not watch list Nawaf al Hazmi or notify the FBI when it learned that he...
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...Brian Stoller Ms. Baker ENG1322-04 4 February 2013 A Murderer by any other name…. During my stay on the fabulous the Fort Hood Military Reservation I had the distinct pleasure to deploy with the 1st Cavalry Division to the desert paradise that is Iraq. I spent the majority of 2009 in the war-torn wasteland and was lucky enough to get my two week vacation near the end of October. While on vacation in the Chicago land area, I received a strange phone call from my boss. He asked me if I was on Fort Hood right now. Thinking it was a strange question, I said “no I’m not, why?” he said turn on CNN and he had to go and abruptly hung the phone up. Thinking how odd the whole thing was I turned on the TV and was shocked at what I was looking at. It was near real time coverage of a mass shooting on Fort Hood. Initial reports were sketchy but what they knew was that there were many dead and/or wounded, and the shooter was in uniform. Later it was revealed that the shooter was an Army psychologist by the name of MAJ Nadal Hassan, that he may or may not have acted alone, and he was a terrorist. This is a term in the US which is attached with a particular gravity, and extreme recourse, for terrorist are not mere criminals, but enemies of the state. There are a number of constitutional powers that are weapons against such an adversary. But is MAJ Nidal Hassan truly a terrorist, or is this just a workplace shooting? As the almighty political media spin machines power up, they were quick...
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...Liberation Front resulted in death of lab animals (fbi.gov). Ever since the 1970’s the terrorist attempted attacks and attacks that happened has become less frequent. During the year of 1982 the president, Ronald Reagan, made the FBI the head agency to be responsible for countering terrorism in the United States. In 1984 the act of comprehensive crime control gave the FBI the authority to make investigations overseas when Americans were taken hostage. The FBI maintained Legal Attaché offices also known as LEGAT in thirty five countries in the world. During the 1990’s alone they opened twenty-three different LEGAT’s. Plans of the FBI are to expand the LEGAT program (fbi.gov). Day by day the FBI expands their programs to keep the United States as well protected as possible. Besides the...
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...civil liberties, aids the War on Terror, or possibly both. While completing the table, consider what each provision means to you on a personal level. For example, Section 218 makes it easier for federal agents to open a criminal case on you or other citizens, should there be significant purpose to do so; yet, the same provision makes it easier for federal agents to gather information on a terrorist, and possibly prevent that terrorist from committing future crimes. |Provision |Risks to Civil Liberties |Aids the War on Terror | |Section 218 |Allows agents to obtain FISA warrants, requiring less |This provision makes it easier for agents to open a | | |evidence of wrongdoing, which can be subject to abuse |criminal case on terrorists, possibly preventing that | | |in domestic criminal cases. Only a significant |terrorist from committing future crimes. Reduces | | |investigative purpose is required to obtain a FISA |barriers between intelligence work and criminal | | |warrant. |investigations | |Section 215 |Upsurges the authority of the FBI under FISA, 50 |It documents investigators wide admission to library, | | |U.S.C.?1861. Whereas before, the FBI might vigor the |bookstore...
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...building April 19,1995, killing 168 and wounding hundreds, the United States of America jumped to a conclusion we would all learn to regret. The initial response to the devastation was all focused of middle-eastern terrorists. “The West is under attack,”(Posner 89), reported the USA Today. Every news and television station had the latest expert on the middle east telling the nation that we were victims of jihad, holy war. It only took a few quick days to realize that we were wrong and the problem, the terrorist, was strictly domestic. But it was too late. The damage had been done. Because America jumped to conclusions then, America was later blind to see the impending attack of 9/11. The responsibility, however, is not to be placed on the America people. The public couldn’t stand to hear any talk of terrorism, so in turn the White House irresponsibly took a similar attitude. They concentrated on high public opinion and issues that were relevant to Americans everyday. The government didn’t want to deal with another public blunder like the one in Oklahoma City. A former FBI analyst recalls, “when I went to headquarters (Washington, D.C.) later that year no one was interested in hearing anything about Arab money connections unless it had something to do with funding domestic groups. We stumbled so badly on pinpointing the Middle East right off the bat on the Murrah bombing. No one wanted to get caught like that again,”(Posner 90). All of these decisions, made at the hands of the faint-hearted...
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