TERRORISM: THE BACKGROUND.
It has spread to more than 40 percent of the world’s countries. The war isn’t being waged by the military alone, which has spent a Trillion fighting terrorism since 2001. The State Department has spent $127 billion in the last 17 years to train police, military and border patrol agents in many countries and to develop anti-terrorism education programs, among other activities. According to the Costs of War Project, 480,000 people have died from direct violence and 21 million people have become refugees from post-9/11 wars.
Following the 9/11: It has spread to more than 40 percent of the world’s countries. The war has spent $1 trillion fighting terrorism since 2001. The State Department has spent $127 billion in the last 17 years to train police, military and border patrol agents in many countries and to develop anti-terrorism education programs, among other activities.
TERRORISM IN THE USA
Terrorism, especially a range and diversity is a narrowly defined type of violence, even within the broader spectrum of ideologically motivated violence. Some of them were hailed as the ‘freedom fighters.’ Some called it ‘terrorism.’ Which one’s are terrorism, and which ones are drug induced.
Las Vegas Stephen Paddock, 64, killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 others on October 1 when he opened fire from the Mandalay Hotel music festival.
Gabrielles’ Gift: On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others during a supermarket parking lot meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” in Tucson, AZ. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Loughner was found unfit to stand trial and was given life in prison for the murders of six people.
Virginia Tech shootings: killed 32 people. He injured 23 people. He was suffering from mental illness.
Aurora Movie Theatre shootings: while laying in a hospital bed, I took a keen interest on the Aurora case. James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 people.
The shooting of a lone shooter had links to a Wisconsin white supremacy and neo-nazi group. It was set in Wisconsin by shooter called Wade Page, who killed 6 people and injuring others. I followed the shootings closely. It was in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. I kept an eye on it because my mum was born as a Sikh.
The married couple Jarad and Amanda Miller who killed 2 people. The former, was killed by the police (Jarad). The later (Amanda Miller) by committed suicide.
He killed himself after murdering 9 people and himself.
Robert Dear was accused of opening fire on a Planned Parent facility of killing 1 policeman and 2 civilians. And another 9 others were injured.
Sandy Hook Elementary killed 20 small kiddies and 6 teachers, etc.
I think most of them were on medication, especially Oxycodene.
FORMAL DEFINATIONS OF TERRORISM
The GTD defines terrorism as the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation. In the application of this definition, the database does not include unsubstantiated threats, nor does it include plots or conspiracies that the perpetrators did not attempt to execute. The GTD does not include acts that occurred in the context of a law enforcement operation, such as a traffic stop or warrant execution. The GTD does not typically include violence stemming from interactions that were spontaneous or reactive. This might include clashes erupting at protests or riots, or violent hate crimes. The GTD does not include violence carried out by state actors.
Note that classification of terrorist attacks by ideology can be unclear, particularly when perpetrators of attacks identify with more than one ideological group or perspective, which may or may not be relevant to the motivations for the attack itself. The classification of terrorist activity by ideology does not characterize an entire population or ideological movement as violent.
Terrorism Definitions.
International terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by, or associated with designated foreign terrorist organizations or nations (state-sponsored).
Global Terrorism Database Inclusion Criteria
The GTD defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” (p. 10) To apply this definition, we parse it into a series of inclusion
Mandatory inclusion criteria:
The incident must be intentional; the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator.
- The incident must entail some level of violence (includes property violence) or the threat of violence.
- There must be sub-national perpetrators.
At least two of the following criteria must be met:
- The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion.
- There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
- The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities, i.e. the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the admonition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants).
Domestic terrorism: Perpetrated by individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S.-based movements that espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature. FBI.gov For example, the June 8, 2014 Las Vegas shooting, during which two police officers inside a restaurant were killed in an ambush-style attack, which was committed by a married couple who held anti-government views and who intended to use the shooting to start a revolution.
Global Terrorism Database Inclusion Criteria.
The GTD defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” (p. 10) To apply this definition, we parse it into a series of inclusion criteria.
Mandatory Inclusion Criteria:
The incident must be intentional – the result of a conscious calculation on the part of a perpetrator.
The incident must entail some level of violence (includes property violence) or the threat of violence.
- There must be sub-national perpetrators.
At least two of the following criteria must be met:
- The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion.
- There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger groups audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims.
- The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities, i.e. the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the admonition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants).
- Between 1970 and 2016 terrorist attacks in the United States were motivated by a variety of ideological perspectives. In order to facilitate analysis of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) with respect to ideological patterns of terrorism in the United States, the GTD team conducted supplemental research to generate this auxiliary dataset that classifies attacks in the United States by ideology.
ENVIRONMENTAL: Violence in support of biodiversity and bio-centric equality.
LEFT-WING Violence: in support of a revolutionary socialist agenda and the view that one is a protector of the populace. Characterized by disdain for capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, and by a Marxist political focus.
RIGHT-WING Violence: in support of the belief that personal and/or national way of life is under attack and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent. Characterized by anti-globalism, racial or ethnic supremacy or nationalism. The Irish had the alarming habit of always going into battle stark naked. On the other hand music and poetry were a key part of the local kings pleasures and if their ancient poetry is to be believed so were liberated sexual practices.
BRITISH TROOPS IN IRELAND: Unionists and the British Government referred to the long running political violence as a law and order problem of ‘terrorism’. The London government portrayed the role of state forces as being primarily of peace-keeping between the ‘two communities’.
The death toll never reached 1,000 in a year, making it a ‘low intensity conflict’. At the same time, in the city of Birmingham, the U.K. was also bombed. I heard it. I was petrified.
The conflict in Northern Ireland or most common name was ‘The Troubles’. This name had the advantage that it did not attach blame to any of the participants and thus could be used neutrally. Republicans, particularly supporters of the Provisional IRA referred to the conflict as ‘the war’, and portrayed it as a guerrilla war of national liberation.
Unionists and the British government referred to the long running political violence as a law and order problem of ‘terrorism’. The London government portrayed the role of state forces as being primarily of peace-keeping between the ‘two communities’. The death toll in Northern Ireland, an enclave with a population of about 1.5 million, was considerable, with over 3,500 killed and up to 50,000 injured over a thirty-year period.
Independence from oppressive foreign rule was fuelled all over the world by the 1776 American war of independence, the 1789 French revolution, the liberating of some of the Mediterranean countries from Ottoman rule by the English, notably Greece. In the late 1700’s this gave the Irish, again supported by a French militia, the encouragement to campaign for freedom from the British. These Franco Irish forces were quickly “eliminated” by the powerful English. They were reluctant to give any inkling of a willingness to submit to an agenda of independence. The key was when the English persuaded the Irish Parliament to vote for its own dissolution and under the Act of Union, Ireland became a wholly integrated part of the UK. Thence Irishmen, be they only the Protestant ruling classes (Catholics were not eligible), had seats in the British Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Here is a timeline of some of the worst bomb attacks on mainland Britain by Irish dissident groups in the last 35 years.
February 1974: Coach carrying soldiers and families in Northern England, is bombed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twelve people killed, 14 hurt.
October-November 1974 a wave of IRA bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200.
July 1982: Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London’s royal parks kill 11 people and wound 50.
December 1983: IRA bomb at Harrods department store kills six.
October 1984: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb that kills five people at Brighton hotel during Conservative Party’s annual conference.
September 1989: Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.
February 1990: Explosion at Army recruitment centre in Leicester. Two wounded.
May 1990: Seven wounded by blast at Army Educational Service headquarters, in London suburb of Eltham.
May 1990: One soldier is killed and another wounded by car bomb in Wembley.
October 1984: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb that kills five people at Brighton hotel during Conservative Party’s annual conference.
September 1989: Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.
February 1990: Explosion at Army recruitment centre in Leicester. Two wounded.
May 1990: Seven wounded by blast at Army Educational Service headquarters in London suburb of Eltham.
May 1990 – One soldier is killed and another wounded by car bomb in Wembley.
June 1990: Soldier is shot dead at train station in Lichfield.
February 1991: IRA comes close to killing Prime Minister John Major and key cabinet members in a mortar attack on Downing Street. One of three mortar bombs slammed into garden behind building, exploding within 50 feet (15 metres) of the target.
April 1992 – Huge car bomb outside Baltic Exchange in London’s financial district kills three people and wounds 91.
March 1993 – Bombs in two litterbins in Warrington kill two boys aged three and 12.
April 1993 – IRA truck bomb devastates Bishopsgate area of London’s financial district, killing one and wounding 44.
February 1996 – Two people die when IRA paramilitaries detonate large bomb in London’s Docklands area.
WHY?
1(IRA) also called Provisional Irish Republican Army, republican paramilitary organization seeking the establishment of a republic, the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification of Ireland.
2 Formed in 1969 as the clandestine armed wing of the political movement Sinn Fein, the IRA is devoted both to removing British forces from Northern Ireland and to unifying Ireland.
3 Irish nationalists/republicans, who were mostly Catholics, wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. The conflict began during a campaign to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and police force.
There were literally hundreds of examples of soft targets.
Bloody Friday (July 21 1972)
Bloody Friday was important in demonizing the IRA. Bloody Friday happens within four months of the imposition of direct rule, when Unionists had lost out, when there were people saying, “Let’s call it a day. We’ve had enough violence.” The IRA response to Bloody Friday was that it wasn’t they who got it wrong, that they gave the warnings. It was the authorities who got it wrong, that they did not mean to kill those innocent civilians. Whatever way you look at it, it was a very important event, because what it did was that it distanced those in the Unionist community who might have been prepared to give some thought to doing deals with people in the Catholic community … they said, “All bets are off.” It reinforced the position of the Protestant paramilitaries, and made them a real force in the political game in Northern Ireland. It reinforced the fanatical voice of Protestant militarism, some of those who claim that they were not, or didn’t approve of violence, but used violent language. What it did was that it polarized the situation very, very badly.It persuaded the British government that you cannot do business with the Republican movement. So, for all of those reasons, Bloody Friday had very serious consequences.
The Murder of Lord Mountbatten August, 1979 pbs.org
In August of 1979 the IRA pulled off two of their huge spectaculars with the murder of Mountbatten, part of the British royal family. But they also killed two young boys in the same boat that he was in. So, there were mixed feelings about it. There was great glee in the Republican movement. The British authorities were able to make much propaganda out of the death of the two young boys. On the same day, the IRA pulled off probably their most spectacular military operation when they blew to pieces 18 British soldiers. They happened to be British paratroopers, the people who were responsible for Bloody Sunday. So, among their followers, this was a huge, huge victory. But the downside of that was that the soldiers had been killed on the Irish border. So, the British were able to mount a propaganda campaign, arguing very strongly that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republican of Ireland needed to be sealed, that the Irish government wasn’t doing enough, that the American administration was too soft on the Irish government. It was both a win and a loss, but it became a win later on … at that time, immediately after the tenth hunger striker had gone to his death, the Sunday Times did a poll of the world’s newspapers, and what they discovered was a huge switch in opinion from sympathy with the British government, which had lost Lord Mountbatten, which had seen an attempt to blow up its whole Cabinet at Brighton, and what they saw was an insensitive, unthinking government. So, the death of Mountbatten and all the rest of it actually turned out to be a propaganda coup for the IRA rather than a loss for them.Pbs.org.
Gary Donnelly on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, or Brexit. As the possibility grows of Britain’s crashing out with no deal, so, too, does the likelihood of the reimposition of a hard border with the Irish Republic that many people see as a threat to peace and stability. But Mr. Donnelly has a different take. While he shares a sense of alarm about a hard border, he also thinks talk of its return has brought much-needed clarity to the Irish question.“Brexit” has highlighted the absurdity of partition,” Mr. Donnelly said back. “Others had always been brushing it under the carpet.” Not helping matters, the regional assembly for Northern Ireland, based in Stormont, (Stormont is an estate that includes the Parliament and houses the prime minister of Northern Ireland. It was built in 1928 -32) has been suspended for two years because of political feuds and scandals. And Northern Ireland’s fragile balance of power between Irish nationalists and pro-United Kingdom unionists has been upset, if not altogether destroyed, by the agreement of the conservative Democratic Unionist Party to support Prime Minister in London. That has turned the Democratic Unionists into Northern Ireland’s dominant force in Westminster, despite the party’s by championing Brexit. (The pro-Irish unity party, Sinn Fein, refuses to send elected leaders to Parliament at all.) NY TIMES