Democracy in Theory and Practice

Overview and Facts on Terrorism

Terrorism

In terrorism, we know there is violence. We also know that with the violence, innocent people are the targets. Although many people view terrorism as a weapon for the weak, many of the terrorist organizations hold terrorist acts in high esteem and relished the perpetrators as martyrs. For the purpose of this curriculum unit, I will offer two terrorism definitions: 1) Louise Richardson, author of What Terrorist Want defines terrorism as "those who deliberately and violently target civilians for political purposes;" and 2) James Fagin author of my classroom textbook Criminal Justice, 2005 defines terrorism as "a use of violence and fear in an effort to panic or punish groups, institutions, or countries that they perceive as perpetrating social injustice." In each definition, the keyword is violence for social or political gain. The terrorist's organization, Al Qaeda who attacked America, feels we are participating in an unjust act by being in Saudi Arabia and our affiliations with Israel. Terrorist are classified as domestic or international. A domestic terrorist signifies a person who inflicts violence upon ones own country for the reasons stated above. An international terrorist is one who inflicts violence upon a country outside of their own country for the reasons stated above.

To complete the act of terrorism, there must be a mechanism or person to carryout the violent act(s). This could be in the form of what is known as a suicide or homicide bomber (hereinafter "suicide"). Terrorists can be male or female. There is no one demographic profile for female attackers. ⁴ According to a survey conducted by the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, in looking at 381 suicide terrorists, 59 or 15 percent were female. As a portion of all suicide attackers whose sex could be ascertained during the period of 1980 to 2003, al-Qaeda employed no female suicide attackers, the Palestinians used 6 female attackers, or 5 percent; the Lebanese used 6, or 16 percent; the Tamil Tigers used 23, or 20 percent; the Chechens used 14, or 60 percent; and the PKK used 10 female attackers, or 71 percent. Although more work is needed to examine this variation, the groups that used the fewest female suicide attackers (al-Qaeda and the Palestinians) are also the most associated with Islamic fundamentalism (which frowns on female warriors in general). ⁵ I find this interesting because my research showed that females are often seen as second-class citizens in many countries. However, being a female second-class citizen who is a terrorist can also be beneficial in surprising the enemy. Females could certainly by advantageous to any terrorist organization. Whether male or female, the terrorist's mind set is not of an irrational person. On the contrary, these individuals are of normal intellect. Their motivation arises out of their feelings of mistreatment and victimization by their oppressors, or in America's case, the American government. They see America as a bully and themselves as the victim. Most often, the reasons for the attacks are to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from a territory that the terrorist consider to be their homeland. ⁶ It is interesting that democratic states are the most vulnerable to such attacks. This is because democracies are seen as civil people and "soft" when attacked, meaning they will not strike back in most cases, and are especially reluctant to retaliate when the possibility to harm innocent civilians is present. These democracies have a high ability to affect state policy. ⁷ The terrorist sees no difference between the gruesome use of a military machine gun and a suicide bomber. They feel that both have lethal weapons to strike their adversary even if there may be a civilian cost. They feel the purpose is the same, and that is to force or demand the enemy to comply. The terrorists and the American military are both trying to convince the other of their positions through violence. American values such as religion, freedom of speech, free elections, voting rights, and capitalism are not the reasons why the terrorist attack. If this were the case, they would have attacked on American soil long before the 1993 WTC bombing or the September 11, 2001 attacks. Their gripe is the occupation of American forces in their Holy of Holies, meaning Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The United States has a foothold in the Middle East. These terrorist see America as uncaring about the values of Islam. They also see other Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt being weak to America. Basically, terrorist see these Arab countries as a "sellout" to the United States.

Besides being suicide bombers, terrorists can use other ways to inflict violence upon the masses. This would include but is not limited to: 1) bioterrorism which is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants; ⁸ 2) narcoterrorism which is understood to mean the attempts of narcotics traffickers to influence the policies of a government or a society through violence and intimidation; ⁹ and 3) ecoterrorism which includes threats to contaminate such things as water supplies or to destroy or disable energy utilities, and practices such as the deployment of anthrax (which was used immediately after 9-11. ¹⁰ (See Terrorism Glossary link - Appendix C)

Acts of terrorism against America have much to do with how the United States is viewed around the world. Imperial Hubris was written by Michael Scheuer who held a career as a "headquarters' officer." For seventeen years, Scheuer's career focused exclusively on terrorism, Islamic insurgencies, militant Islam, and the affairs of South Asia - Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to Scheuer, none of Osama Bin Laden's reasons for attacking America have anything to do with freedom, liberty and democracy. It has everything to do with the United States policies and actions in the Muslim world. According to Scheuer, the war has to do with the "tenants of the Islamic religion," meaning Muslims feel their faith, brethren, resources and land are under attack by the West. ¹¹ One major fact that Scheuer brings to the reader's attention is that the U.S. leaders refuse to accept the obvious: We are fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency - not criminality or terrorism - and our policy and procedures have failed to make more than a modest dent in enemy forces. This says to me that the battle of terrorism is far greater than our government could hope to eradicate. It further says that instead of defeating the Islamic fighters, American policies continue to incensed them more - meaning with the "war on terror," we are creating more enemies than the ones we had prior to 9-11. Even "non radical sympathizers" have fallen to the Islamic fighters. Many of the books I have read on this topic concur with Scheuer in this explanation of terrorist acts by Bin Laden. One such book is by author Noam Chomsky who wrote 9-11. Chomsky agrees that the 9-11 attacks had little to do with "globalization" or "economic imperialism" or "cultural values" - these are unfamiliar to Bin Laden and his associates or radical Islamists. ¹² These terrorist hold grudges from the past and still hold America accountable for their actions. Specifically: 1) the Clinton Administration bombed the Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. Al-Shifa provided medicine for humans and the veterinary in this region. The drugs administered there helped to kill parasites in the herds so that they would not ultimately contaminate humans. After the bombing, many people and animals died (and are still dying, this is a human rights' issue), Bin Laden often mentions this incident in his communiqués; 2) terrorists fault America for the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954, this led to many atrocities; 3) America is blamed for the assassination of Lumumba which plunged the Congo into slaughter that still continues today; and 4) America supported Turkey when they crushed their own Kurdish population. The Clinton Administration gave the Turkish government 80% of the arms for this ethnic cleansing in the 1990s and is scarcely known. These are a few of the issues that offend international terrorist and how they justify their actions against America. ¹³ Regardless of the justification on the part of the terrorist, terrorism is a cowardly act and in my opinion barbaric. No person that would inflict hurt and pain on another under the name of social change, political pressure, religious ideologies or any other reason should be met with understanding. Terrorism will never be an acceptable excuse to kill others.

State Sponsored Terrorism

In his speech at The National Cathedral on September 14, 2001, President Bush talked about regimes or persons that would chose to commit terrorist acts upon America. He stated, "The United States will make no concession to terrorist demands and will strike no deals with them. We make no distinction between terrorists and those who knowingly harbor or provide aid to them." ¹⁴ Those who harbor terrorist in their country are called state-sponsored or rogue states. This is pertinent because if a country sponsors training camps and finance terrorists, they can also help these regimes get weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Countries such as Iran, Syria and most recently the re-development of the Taliban terrorist group in Afghanistan, have all been identified as state sponsors to terrorist organizations. Such terrorist groups include Al'Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden and targets America, Hamas, a Palestinian group that targets Israel and is supported by Lebanon and Syria, Hezbollah, who recently fought against Israel, is also supported by the countries mentioned above. Terrorist are organized in "sleeper cells." Sleeper cells, such as those organized for the 9-11 World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93 can be comprised of four to twelve individuals. These cells may be located throughout different parts of the world or within a certain geographical area without one group knowing about the other. The network is complex and requires extensive and elaborate navigation on the cells as well as those who sponsor them. This would include financial institutions as key players and rogue states. (For additional information on terrorists organizations, see link in Appendix B)

Osama Bin Laden and the Jihad

On September 11, 2001 many people asked the question, who is Osama Bin Laden? They may have thought this was a name somewhat familiar to them, but really did not know of this person and how he came to inflict so much damage to the peace of the United States. Although 9-11 may have been the first time some Americans learned of Bin Laden, others (especially the American government) who was well aware of him. Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957 and the seventh child of 50 brothers and sisters. His father owned a prominent construction company and did the work for the royal family in Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden received a degree in public administration and had a strict Islamic religious upbringing. While Bin Laden attended college, it was not uncommon for terrorist organizations to recruit from higher educational institutions. Bin Laden made connections to the Muslim Brotherhood (now called Hamas), a Palestinian terrorist organization. In the early 1980s, Bin Laden fought against the Soviets in the Afghanistan invasion and supported the mujahedeen. With the support from America, the Afghanistan fighters were successful in pushing back the Soviet forces. The irony of this situation with Bin Laden is that when Bin Laden fought with the Afghanistan fighters and America supported them, he was considered a "freedom fighter," but after Bin Laden attacked America on 9-11, he is now Public Enemy No. 1. During the mujahedeen, Bin Laden had an organized way of keeping track of the soldiers who came and left. The place that he set up was called Al-Qa'edah which means "The Base." ¹⁵ After the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990, Bin Laden called for soldiers to fight, but became more energized when he learned that the Americans were coming. The Gulf War ended in 1991. This is a key development because this is the beginning of Bin Laden's strategies to keep America out of the Middle East. He called for a fatwa and 4000 Muslims went to Afghanistan to be trained to fight. He has either been implicated or took responsibility for terrorist attacks or bombings in Sudan, Yemen, Riyadh, Khobar (in Saudi Arabia) Kenya, Tanzania and the United States. If you read Frontline "Bin Laden the Person" you will get a more humanistic view of him. It talks about Bin Laden as an intelligent, shy person. He finds himself humble in the presence of religious scholars and cooks for many of his members.

Osama Bin Laden has called for a jihad against America. A jihad is a Muslim holy war. ¹⁶ The terrorist see themselves as the victims because they are trying to get justice for America imposing on their land, their ideas, values and morals. But the question of freedom fighter vs. terrorist is a question worth discussing. This question often comes up when teaching about terrorism. When you think of a freedom fighter, you think in terms of an individual or group who fight oppressive forces for the sake of freedom. In this context, the international terrorist freedom fighter would not fit the true meaning of fighting for freedom. Their fight is that of a holy war, a cause superior to that of freedom, because they feel that America is intruding upon their spiritual and sacred law which is a tremendous breach against their religion and Allah. In contrast to the terrorist, the American military may be considered freedom fighters because their purpose is to secure the homeland (which indirectly includes religion, but is not the sole reason for fighting) for the cause of freedom, not for religion.