Terrorism Understanding the Global Threat 2nd

Edition David Whittaker pdf download

https://ebookgate.com/product/terrorism-understanding-the-global-
threat-2nd-edition-david-whittaker/

Get Instant Ebook Downloads – Browse at https://ebookgate.com

Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) available
Download now and explore formats that suit you...

Terrorism Reader Updated Edition D. Whittaker

https://ebookgate.com/product/terrorism-reader-updated-edition-d-
whittaker/

ebookgate.com

Threat Finance Disconnecting the Lifeline of Organised

Crime and Terrorism Shima D. Keene

https://ebookgate.com/product/threat-finance-disconnecting-the-
lifeline-of-organised-crime-and-terrorism-shima-d-keene/

ebookgate.com

What Terrorists Want Understanding the Enemy Containing

the Threat Louise Richardson

https://ebookgate.com/product/what-terrorists-want-understanding-the-
enemy-containing-the-threat-louise-richardson/

ebookgate.com

Biosecurity Understanding Assessing and Preventing the

Threat 1st Edition Ryan Burnette

https://ebookgate.com/product/biosecurity-understanding-assessing-and-
preventing-the-threat-1st-edition-ryan-burnette/

ebookgate.com
Power Generation Financial Modelling and Analysis A
Practical Guide 1st Edition David Whittaker

https://ebookgate.com/product/power-generation-financial-modelling-
and-analysis-a-practical-guide-1st-edition-david-whittaker/

ebookgate.com

Internet The Basics 1st Edition Jason Whittaker

https://ebookgate.com/product/internet-the-basics-1st-edition-jason-
whittaker/

ebookgate.com

Ungoverned Territories Understanding and Reducing

Terrorism Risks 1st Edition Angel Rabasa

https://ebookgate.com/product/ungoverned-territories-understanding-
and-reducing-terrorism-risks-1st-edition-angel-rabasa/

ebookgate.com

The Global Bourgeoisie David Motadel

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-global-bourgeoisie-david-motadel/

ebookgate.com

English as a Global Language 2nd Edition David Crystal

https://ebookgate.com/product/english-as-a-global-language-2nd-
edition-david-crystal/

ebookgate.com
 TERRORISM DAVID J. WHITTAKER

DAVID J. WHITTAKER
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION
‘A CLEAR AND ACCESSIBLE SURVEY ‘THERE IS A NEED FOR A CLEAR,
OF TERRORISTS’ MOTIVES AND CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO
METHODS, STRENGTHENED BY TERRORISM… DAVID WHITTAKER
TABLES, AND HELPFUL CHRONOLOGIES HAS PROVIDED US WITH
FROM 1968 TO THE PRESENT.’ JUST THAT.’
THE ECONOMIST PETER HYLARIDES,
CONTEMPORARY REVIEW

Today, terrorism is everyone’s concern. By untangling difficulties of definition

TERRORISM
Although it is not a new phenomenon and dispelling simplistic notions of
– there have been more than 8,000 what terrorism means, he shows that
attacks over the past thirty years - both word and action have changed
the scale and seemingly indiscriminate over time, and that its meaning is
nature of terrorist incidents have different for every user, whether
escalated in recent years. 9/11 and onlooker, victim, government
7/7 are dates now engraved in the authority or the terrorists themselves.
minds of millions, dates that have
become a short-hand pointing to the David J. Whittaker is a retired
consequences of political instability university lecturer and prolific author.
of the modern world. His recent titles include Asylum
Seekers and Refugees in the
In this new edition of Terrorism: Contemporary World (2005),
Understanding the Global Threat, The Terrorism Reader (2002),
David J. Whittaker explores terrorist and Conflict and Reconciliation
scenarios across the globe, from in the Contemporary World (1999).
Northern Ireland to the United States.
He considers terrorism’s causes and
characteristics, taking on topics as
diverse as religious fanaticism,
global diffusion, terrorist financing
and the possibility of biological

TERRORISM
attack. He also investigates the
successes, failures and possible REVISED EDITION
futures of counter-terrorism.

£9.99

Cover by Heat design

UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT
www.pearson-books.com

1405840854.indd 1 21/8/06 13:35:06

TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page i

TERRORISM
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page ii
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page iii

TERRORISM
UNDERSTANDING
THE GLOBAL THREAT
revised edition
David J. Whittaker
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page iv

PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED

Head Office:
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow CM20 2JE
Tel: 44 (0)1279 623623
Fax: 44 (0)1279 431059
Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk
____________________________
First published in Great Britain in 2002
Revised edition (paperback) published in 2007
© Pearson Education Limited 2002, 2007
The right of David J. Whittaker to be identified as Author
of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4058-4085-9
ISBN-10: 1-4058-4085-4
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Whittaker, David J., 1925–
Terrorism : understanding the global threat / David J. Whittaker. – Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4058-4085-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4058-4085-4 (alk. paper)
1. Terrorism. I. Title.
HV6431.W483 2006
363.325'12–dc22 2006048470
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior
written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying
in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may not be
lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the
prior consent of the Publishers.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06
Set in Goudy by 3
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Bungay
The Publishers’ policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page v

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

11 The meaning of terrorism 7

12 New York and Washington, Madrid, London 25
13 Terrorism around the world 47
14 Motives for terrorism 79
15 Terrorism and religion 99
16 Fanatics and martyrs 117
17 Terrorist methods 135
18 Future types of terrorism 159
19 Counter-terrorism: the piecemeal approach 179
10 Terrorism: international efforts to defeat it 203

Where to find out more 227

Index 231

v
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page vi

BOXES

11 TWA 847, 14–30 June 1985 56

2 Lockerbie, 21 December 1988 74

3 Oklahoma City, 19 April 1995 97

4 Munich Olympic Village, 5–6 September 1972 147

5 Kutu, island of Bali, Indonesia, 2 October 2002 217

vi
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to Christina Wipf Perry and Heather

McCallum of Pearson Education, and to their colleagues, to
Marianne Whittaker for invaluable advice and much time in
reading drafts, and to Jane Thompson for, once more, pro-
ducing faultless copies of the manuscript.

Any errors or omissions are entirely my responsibility.

vii
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page viii

USA UK Israel/Pale
Since 11 September at ‘war’ with Six counter-terrorist Acts provoke Sporadic A
terrorism. Rigorous legislation, discussion over internment, human bring Israel
increased defence spending, rights. Frequent alerts, security Occasional
despatch of military units overseas. searches. negotiation
Thousands of illegal immigrants
rounded up, detained, deported.

Europe
Anxieties as to terrorist threat.
Cooperation over security systems,
intelligence, legislation.

Key

al-Qaida arrests
Latin America, Dubai, Russia,
Kenya, Canada, Somalia,
Spain, Belgium, France, India,
Pakistan, Philippines, Singa-
pore, US, Egypt, Iran, UK,
Malaysia, Italy, Holland, Iraq/Iran
Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan South and Central America Iraq, post-w
Increased political instability since and allies. Ir
Conflict related to September 11 11 September – Argentina’s riots, Laden and T
Sudan, Kashmir, Philippines, civil unrest in Venezuela, worsened ambitions st
Indonesia, Yemen civil war in Columbia. and risk US

Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ countries

Iran, Iraq, North Korea
 TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page ix

Israel/Palestinian territories Arab world

Sporadic Arab terrorist attacks All Arab states formally
bring Israeli counter-measures. condemned the 11 September
Occasional ceasefires, tentative attacks though most criticised the
negotiations. ensuing Afghanistan war.

Russia
Fundamental shifts in foreign
policies move Russia closer to the
USA with far-reaching implications
for the West.

China
US-China relations much improved
now that Washington has a new
enemy.

North Korea
Included in Bush’s ‘axis of evil’
despite their condemning
terrorism. Accused of preparing
mass-destruction weapons.
North-south peace process now
set back.

Afghanistan
US, UK, NATO troops struggle to
oust Taliban, restore peace.

South-East Asia
India/Pakistan Several governments using war on
India moves against own ‘terror- terror as excuse to crack down on
Iraq/Iran ists’ in Kashmir, introduces internal dissenters e.g. US ‘hit
Iraq, post-war now occupied by US draconian anti-terrorist laws. squads’ active against Philippine
nce and allies. Iran, at first opposed bin Pakistan rewarded with US aid for rebels.
ts, Laden and Taliban but nuclear endorsing US Afghan bombing.
ened ambitions strengthen their hardliners India demands end to covert
and risk US confrontation. support of Islamic militants.
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page x
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 1

INTRODUCTION
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 2
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 3

INTRODUCTION

This is a new and up-to-date survey of terrorism written with

a plain purpose – to inform its readers and to help them
understand the nature of terrorism. It has been written with
the events of Tuesday 11 September 2001, and of London on
7 July 2005, very much in mind. That day in September was
a graphic event for thousands of people around the world.
Previously, many of them had shown little direct concern
about incidents attributed to violent political action that had
occurred in distant places such as Sri Lanka and Israel.
Generally, these outrages were deplored if not always dis-
cussed and understood. The horrific toppling of New York’s
World Trade Center and the killing of more than 2,900 office
workers brought into universal focus the real possibilities of
another heartland being menaced by unpredictable and cata-
strophic violence. More directly, the carnage illustrated on
television screens thrust at viewers a number of disquieting
questions. Who could have been responsible for inhuman
violence on this scale? Could some-
thing like this recur? Where might the WHO COULD HAVE BEEN
next bombing take place? And might RESPONSIBLE FOR INHUMAN
we be the next victims? VIOLENCE ON THIS SCALE?

Feelings of outrage and the urge to retaliate are an under-

standable response to tragic, indiscriminate killings.
President George Bush, facing national feelings of revulsion,
hastened to call for an international coalition to deal with
terrorism as it was said to operate globally. Political leaders in
many countries telephoned Washington, readily expressing
support for decisive action to counter a threat that might
break out anywhere. Their endorsement of US action was not
unanimous, however, when it appeared that military strikes

3
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 4

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

against terrorism bases in Afghanistan were being contem-

plated.

The rhetoric from Washington to ‘take out’ global terrorism

is a predictable consequence of grief, anger and feelings of
futility. It does not, however, make it easy to look dispassion-
ately at what took place in New York and at what might
happen elsewhere. The word WAR, for a time in the autumn
of 2001, was starkly prominent in headlines and media com-
ment. US forces harried Afghanistan, the supposed home of
the terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, with intensive aerial
bombing and guerrilla sorties. Yet, war, in a generalized sense,
does not seem a realistic way of pinpointing and containing
dispersed flashpoints, particularly in terrain like the Hindu
Kush mountain range.

Terrorism is more usefully regarded as a most serious breach

of peace in which non-state entities participate. They do so
in widely separated locations. Thus, it is probably impossible
to discern any overall scenario. The picture becomes cloudy
and confused.

Terrorists operate in many differing places. They feel

impelled to act for a variety of reasons. Few of them call
themselves terrorists: many are ‘freedom fighters’ or heroic
defenders of a worthwhile cause. They are frequently admired
trailblazers. Some of them,
FEW TERRORISTS CALL THEMSELVES in Cuba, Kenya, Cyprus,
TERRORISTS: MANY ARE ‘FREEDOM Israel, have made a tran-
FIGHTERS’ OR HEROIC DEFENDERS OF A sition from hunted insur-
WORTHWHILE CAUSE. gent to state president or

4
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 5

INTRODUCTION

premier. Today, there are perhaps even 100 terrorist groups

whose organizations range from simple to complex and long-
lasting. Then, there are a number of states accused as pariahs
because they are sponsoring or harbouring suspected terror-
ists.

A belief much debated after 11 September was that thereafter

the world would never be the same again. There were those
who saw a second cold war developing, one that pitched into
conflict a richly endowed West against a Muslim East where
millions languished in poverty under autocracy and religious
intolerance. Envy and a fierce hatred of the United States for
its closeted wealth and geopolitical intrigues had brought
about the September atrocity and might even induce others
to do likewise. In many quarters, the counter-response of
attack and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan was felt to be
fanning flames throughout Islam. Was the terrorism of 2001
bringing about irreversible change? The best way of beating
the terrorists was to continue to live normally. This was the
injunction of people as diverse as President George Bush and
the novelist, Salman Rushdie. Would it be easy, though, to
reconcile irreversible change and calm normality?

We are soon back where we started, peering at a complex pat-

tern of hostile intent, threat and action, without an umbrella
label and lacking a magic formula to reduce the global inci-
dence of terrorism.

This book sets out to provide, by way of information, an easy-to-

read and concise account of terrorism and, in particular, a
scrutiny of how it has shaped over the past half century or so.

5
TERR_A01.qxp 14/9/06 15:14 Page 6

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

WHY DO TERRORISTS HAVE SUCH The account of terrorism around

AN URGE TO RESORT TO VIOLENCE the world in Chapter 3 has had to
AND WHAT ARE THE COMMON be selective in dealing only with
METHODS THEY EMPLOY? the most prominent terrorist
groups. The questions addressed
will be considered objectively. Is there a good way to define
terrorism? Where does it occur mostly? Why do terrorists,
groups and individuals, have such an urge to resort to violence
and what are the common methods they employ? Is religious
fundamentalism significant? Why do fanaticism and nihilism
appear so extreme and inexcusable? Who provides finance to
encourage terrorists in their action? Then, there is disturbing
conjecture as to the sort of terrorist weaponry that may be
deployed in future.

The last two chapters in this book consider how to counter

terrorism. Nations, affected by terrorism, have long tried to
cope with it as best they could and in a piecemeal fashion.
The need now is for international, decisive action to deal
with terrorism and so the book ends with a brief account of
the counter-terrorism schemes that are being planned.

Finally, there is a section termed ‘Where to Find Out More’.

This lists a number of easily obtainable sources of further
information.

6
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 7

chapter one

THE MEANING
OF TERRORISM
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 8
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 9

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

In the autumn of 2001 the word ‘terrorism’ was on all lips. It

was a term prominent in the press and on television.
Everybody used it and nobody explained it. The terrible
events in New York and Washington on 11 September were
constantly recounted in an atmosphere of incredulity and
horror. It was not long before all the resources of detection
mounted by Washington’s administration shone a spotlight
upon a distant and impoverished Afghanistan, now pointed
out as the refuge of a terrorist group, the al-Qaida. An attack
of a warlike nature would be mounted against those held
responsible for such a tremendous outrage at America’s heart.

Disclaiming any move for retribution, President George Bush

urged all nations to work together to rid the world of something
that looked like a disease of pandemic proportions. This appeal
in a time of trauma was understandable yet it failed to provide
a meaning for the term ‘terrorism’ that the common man could
acknowledge. Even more than politicians, media commenta-
tors have been slow to give the term full attention. They have
neglected an opportunity to throw light on an aspect of human
behaviour that is complex and diverse, something that is so
specific in its extent and in its context that it cannot be
described as a global phenomenon. In the most straightforward
of words, what does the term ‘terrorism’ really mean?

MEANING AND CONTRASTS IN PERCEPTION

Almost certainly, terrorism has a different meaning for those

in authority who are responsible for peace, order and security,
for those onlookers who are television viewers, radio listeners
and readers, for those who are victims or their relatives, and

9
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 10

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

for the terrorists themselves. There are clear contrasts in per-

ception.

In the eyes of a responsible authority, nationally or locally, a

workable definition of what they must cope with might run
like this: ‘terrorism is the premeditated threat or use of viol-
ence by subnational groups or clandestine individuals
intended to intimidate and coerce governments, to promote
political, religious or ideological outcomes, and to inculcate
fear among the public at large’. Thus, terrorism is unlawful
action, going beyond what are regarded as the bounds of legit-
imate protest, going further than confrontation, on to
exceeding the limits of conventional social behaviour.
Terrorism is rated as a criminal offence, wholly dispropor-
tionate to any expression of grievance or any attempt to work
for change. No civilized
NO CIVILIZED COMMUNITY CAN community can tolerate
TOLERATE LICENCE TO KILL AND THE licence to kill and the
SPREADING OF UNCERTAINTY AND FEAR. spreading of uncertainty
and fear. Strong and stern
counter-terrorism is needed
to cope with the targeting of prominent individuals who are
murdered or taken hostage. The state will marshal its police
and its army and stamp on a threat to peace and a threat to
power. Strong-arm tactics of this nature employed in
Argentina, Indonesia and Israel are then seen by liberals
everywhere as an unacceptable means of dealing with popu-
lar protest, however inflamed and violent some of that
becomes. In this context, however, it is worth remarking that
the relationship between state power and terrorist power can
work another way when it may suit the interests of a state

10
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 11

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

such as Libya, Syria or Iraq to give sanctuary to those who

would carry out terrorist initiatives beyond its borders. This is
state-sponsored terrorism and in many respects it gives ter-
rorism a new meaning.

If terrorism, in the eyes of institutional authority, poses a

threat to order, power and peace, then for the onlooker it is a
threat to daily life. It is less political and much more direct in
its possibilities and consequences. Definition may depend
upon circumstances and attitudes and these alter with time.
Terrorism as a label may be used to deplore anti-social behav-
iour which is considered vicious and lethal, for instance, the
hijacking of an aircraft, the detonation of explosives, the
harassing and shooting of a crowd. There is a ready conver-
gence of condemnation whenever, all too frequently, the
press has presented yet another bloody terrorist incident
glimpsed in Northern Ireland or in Israel. Sympathy is
immediately widespread together with a call for remedial
counter-action. For many observers the term ‘terrorism’ has a
wider meaning. The evidence for this is in conversation and
in correspondence with newspapers. From time to time,
activities branded as malevolent are castigated as ‘terrorism’.
These may be as various as the burning down of a school, the
sabotaging of a farmer’s GM crops, the urban rampage of
‘football hooligans’, or simply bricks heaved through the win-
dows of a corporation identified with that popular enemy,
Globalization. This vague-
ness in definition almost THIS VAGUENESS IN DEFINITION ALMOST
certainly encourages preju- CERTAINLY ENCOURAGES PREJUDICE AND
dice and intolerance. All INTOLERANCE. ALL TOO OFTEN A
too often a leader of protest LEADER OF PROTEST IS DEMONIZED

11
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 12

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

is demonized and examples of this have been Jomo Kenyatta

in Kenya, Archbishop Makarios in Cyprus, Yassir Arafat of
the PLO, Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Osama bin Laden in
Afghanistan. This then puts them in a state of iniquity until,
later, compromise is reached, their status is reassessed, and
some of them may even be promoted to head of state.

For the victim, innocent or picked out on account of their

status or position, the definition of terrorism bears a grotesque
finality. It leads to denial of life, of liberty, of privacy, of
human rights. Far more than for any onlooker or security
authority, it represents such a degree of transgression that any
who survive must feel a sense of irreversible vulnerability.
American commentators in 2001, following the horrific
bombing of New York and Washington, have speculated that
the notion of personal attack spreads far across fifty states,
and beyond the bereaved relatives of the lost. In that sense,
all contemporary United States citizens are victims.

For the terrorist, the word ‘terrorism’ may be a misnomer.

The actions of those dedicated to a cause may be seen by
others as destructive and perverse but for those who believe
in what they are trying to achieve the end justifies the means.
Here, once more, we meet with a generalization that fogs a
clear meaning. The sheer variety of terrorist campaigning
down the centuries throws light sometimes on idealists des-
perate to overthrow a tyrant or struggling to bring about at
least some degree of respect and tolerance, a better deal, for
the dispossessed and disenfranchised. Exasperation leads to
turbulence and violence. Elsewhere, the idealist is balked at
every turn and resorts eventually to destructive and inhu-

12
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 13

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

mane action. Most terrorists claim to be MOST TERRORISTS CLAIM

delivering a political message. All too TO BE DELIVERING A
often their methods go further than the POLITICAL MESSAGE.
question and answer of political dia-
logue and they come to depend, however reluctantly, upon
thrusting only an answer at opponents. For most political
activists, among Palestinians, in Latin America, and in
apartheid South Africa, there has always been the vision of a
more secure and beneficial future. Such is the consuming
faith of liberators who are fighting for freedom from dictators,
or imperial rule. In other cases, it is the past which transmits
a myth, of invincibility, or of their right to live as they prefer.
Northern Ireland’s paramilitarists appear prisoners of myths
and of memories of battles lost and won. Terrorism is not a
term that terrorists own to; for the main part their intentions
and actions define a duty they feel they must discharge.
Generally, they are anxious to claim responsibility for what
they do.

HISTORICAL SHIFTS IN MEANING

The term ‘terrorism’ has shifted in meaning through the cen-

turies. Words still used today by way of condemnation –
zealot, thug, assassin – illustrate the changing stress terrorists
have placed upon their objectives. In the first century AD the
Roman province of Judaea was plagued by the hit-and-run
terrorism of the Zealots. There were nationalistic and reli-
gious elements in their activities, as there are in numerous
terrorist initiatives today. They were zealous in their harrying
of Roman officialdom and of Jews whose orthodoxy was
tainted with heresy. What in modern language is described as

13
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 14

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

‘religious fundamentalism’ played a part in the 1,200 years of

terror that the Thugs brought to central and northern India.
The ‘thuggery’ of roving bands was partly religious in carrying
out thousands of sacrificial strangulations to the goddess Kali
and also criminal in its basis of outright banditry. A faint par-
allel to modern intolerance among some Muslims was the
cult of the Shi’ite Order of the Assassins whose followers con-
sidered it a sacred duty to hunt down Christians in Persia,
Syria and Palestine at the
SUCCESS IN THEIR MURDEROUS MISSIONS time of the eleventh- and
WOULD ENSURE THEM A PLACE IN twelfth-century crusades.
PARADISE, AN UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE Success in their murderous
TO THE REWARD IMAGINED BY MODERN missions would ensure
SUICIDE BOMBERS. them a place in Paradise,
an uncanny resemblance
to the reward imagined by modern suicide bombers among
the Hizbullah in the Lebanon and the Tamil Tigers of Sri
Lanka. It could be said that this was the universal and time-
less consequence of violence breeding violence as the
defences of Islam were being violated by the cruelties of the
Christian West. Indeed, the word ‘terror’ (derived from Latin
and meaning ‘a great fear’) was taken further by leaders of the
French Revolution in 1793–94. They believed that a care-
fully organized ‘reign of terror’ (‘la régime de la terreur’) would
enable a fragile revolutionary council to order its new-found
unity by terrorizing opponents. Robespierre, the high priest of
the 1789 Revolution, declared that a democratic France
would be a terrorized France. A state-directed system for con-
taining dissension by the most rigorous of means would
ensure that France in future was in the hands of a disciplined
people.

14
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 15

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

Increasingly, within the modern era, terrorism is given a sec-

ular meaning. Nineteenth-century Russia, more than most
other European states, was a hotbed of political debate and
intrigue. Terrorism there was, in most respects, an intellec-
tual drive to unseat an inflexible autocracy and to replace it
with a democratic society. Serfs would be freed. Vast,
unwieldy Russia, rich in resources (and resourcefulness),
would be liberated and given back to its deserving people. A
challenge to the Tsar and his bureaucrats and court was to be
headed by a group calling itself the Narodnaya Volya, the
‘People’s Will’, who would choose time and weaponry for
terror tactics, as beneficial instruments of delivery. Bomb and
firearm must be used without too much shedding of blood.
The secretive zones of officialdom were to be infiltrated by
spies. The murder of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 was pro-
claimed by his assassins as an example of their belief that such
an act was an example of what they called ‘propaganda by
deed’. Terrorism, enshrined in this way, as it were, recruited
earnest disciples in St Petersburg, Paris, London and Berlin.
Michael Bakunin (1814–76), exiled from his estates in
Tsarist Russia, set up in Paris a revolutionary cell whose
members called themselves
Anarchists, declaring that ANARCHISTS DECLARED THAT THE
the evils of capitalism and EVILS OF CAPITALISM AND POLITICAL
political oligarchy must be OLIGARCHY MUST BE CONFRONTED, IF
confronted, if necessary, by NECESSARY , BY FORCE OF ARMS.
force of arms. Bakunin, in
the 1860s, wrote to inspire fellow-conspirators with his
Principles of Revolution and his Revolutionary Catechism.
There a definition of terrorism was made plain: the political
activist, so frequently alienated from society, was to remain

15
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 16

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

anonymous, a ruthless destroyer of institutions, structures

and, where necessary, of those complacent individuals who
gave in to exploitation and dominance. The term ‘nihilism’
was soon coined by others to describe terroristic methods
which appeared to have nothing but destruction and disaster
as their objectives. Bakunin went to Paris to join Pierre
Proudhon (1809–65), the French writer, who might be
described as an early philosophical terrorist. For Proudhon,
the ownership of property was regarded as theft from the
common people. It murdered individual freedom in his view.
Anarchy, total destruction, would rid the world of privilege
and power, in the army, in the Church, in royal courts and
among businessmen.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY TERRORISM

It was during the 1920s and 1930s that terrorism began to

acquire a new and ominous meaning. In the hands of a deter-
mined clique of power seekers, terror methods could replace
the rulers of a democratically elected state with the representa-
tives of an alternative political or ideological creed. The Treaty
of Versailles in 1918, ending the First World War, gave a final
blow to the old Habsburg and Ottoman empires and brought
into being an array of new democracies in central Europe. A
consequence of the newness and uncertainty surrounding the
creation and growth of new
COUNTRIES SAW TURBULENT centres of power was a time of
CONTESTS BETWEEN ADHERENTS OF uncertainty when expediency
THE OLD REGIMES AND THE POPULAR and power-mongering led to
FRONTS THAT CHAMPIONED THE public unrest and violence in
LIBERATION OF THE MASSES. the streets. Countries as dis-

16
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 17

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

similar as Poland, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria,

Czechoslovakia, saw turbulent contests between adherents of
the old regimes and the popular fronts that championed the
liberation of the masses. Pistols, explosives and incendiarism
ousted the ballot box and revolutionary terrorists were borne
shoulder high as folk heroes. Terrorism was something fought
out between the Black gangs of the political right with their
secret police and snatch-squads and the Red units of the pol-
itical left, manning the barricades and resorting to sabotage.
Terrorism was now something that used newspapers, loud-
speaker vans and radio to spread fear, certainly, and also to
recruit legions of followers in a way that had never been poss-
ible before the development of these technologies of terror.

A further, expanded meaning of terrorism came about in the

mid-1930s as the hopes of the time of Versailles that Europe
would now settle down into peace crumbled into cynicism
and futility. Now terrorism meant war. Fascist-led states such
as Germany and Italy, seeking resentfully and aggressively for
a new order, spilled over into neighbouring parts of Europe
like Austria and Czechoslovakia, and into Abyssinia and
Libya in Africa. Their consolidation of power and the spread-
ing of it depended upon terrorizing opponents at home with
summary arrest and possible execution and, abroad, with
inhumane military tactics. Hitler’s Nazi warplanes blasted
civilians in Spain’s Guernica and in Abyssinia the forces sent
by Mussolini poured mustard gas onto hapless villagers.
Terrorism now included genocidal strikes against Jews and
gypsies in Germany and the despatch of these contemptu-
ously treated people (the ‘Untermenschen’) to those houses of
correction the world was to know as concentration camps.

17
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 18

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

THERE WAS SAVAGE INFIGHTING AS THOSE There was now savage

WHO OPPOSED A DESPOT’S TYRANNY infighting in many parts
WERE CUT DOWN IN RUTHLESS PURGES. of the world, from Berlin
and Bucharest to
Valparaiso and Buenos Aires, as those who opposed a despot’s
tyranny were cut down in ruthless purges. Stalin in the Soviet
Union before 1939 sent many thousands of his political oppo-
nents, writers and scientists to work camps in Siberia, earning
for himself, elsewhere in Europe, the name of ‘Master of
Terror’.

Terrorism, during the long years of the Second World War,

took on new meanings, largely double-sided ones. Terror
methods were employed to grapple with a ruthless enemy.
Nazi inhumanity towards the inhabitants of occupied Europe,
towards so-called ‘open cities’, and in the treatment of pris-
oners of war, has been well documented and the methods
employed reached new heights of barbarism in character and
extent. Those held responsible for such havoc as this were
arraigned at the war trials in post-war Nuremberg. Other
Nazis or their criminal allies were systematically hunted by
the Simon Wiesenthal organisation in the United States, a
group dedicated to the tracking down of those associated with
war crimes. Equally well-known are the cold-blooded devices
of search-and-destroy that the resistance movements in
Europe and South-East Asia were forced to devise and deploy.
Although many of their methods were cruel and lethal, this
resort to terrorism was judged unavoidable and its instigators
after victory earned congratulations and medals. Much more
debatable was the terror from the skies brought by the
Luftwaffe over Europe, the Allied fire-raiding and carpet

18
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 19

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

bombing of German cities, and the nuclear devastation of

Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan which in so many respects
put those military measures beyond the legality of Geneva
Conventions. All-out terrorism bringing civilians into the
front line was becoming a component of all-out, indiscrimi-
nate warfare. The debate over the legitimacy of what seemed
to be terrorism-in-uniform and, again, the plight of civilians
became anguished with the revelation that the United States
had used defoliants and anti-personnel weapons in Vietnam.

Halfway through the twentieth century there was a new

emphasis to the meaning of terrorism as the transmitter of a
political message. Imperial rule in Africa and Asia was col-
lapsing under the attack of determined cadres of well-
informed and carefully organized anti-colonialists. These
were ‘freedom fighters’ in the eyes of stirring masses shaking
off oppression and exploitation. These were ‘terrorists’ as the
colonial establishments in London, Brussels, The Hague and
Paris branded them in a desperate effort to man the defences.
Inevitably, as imperialism was breached, protest erupted into
pitched battles and guerrilla warfare. Everywhere the outposts
of empire were besieged – in Egypt, Cyprus, Algeria, Kenya,
Indonesia (then known as the East Indies) and Malaya.
Unavailingly, the colonial powers in retreat stressed what
they regarded as the primitive malevolence and lack of civi-
lization of those moving for liberation and self-determi-
nation. Eventually, and after much cruelty and suffering, the
states that had clung to their empires compromised and
granted their former subjects their independence. The free-
dom fighters, previously so reviled in the circles of empire,
had for some years earned the approval of the United Nations

19
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 20

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

for their efforts to set themselves free. Their terrorist excesses

were now largely forgotten.

The last two decades of the twentieth century and the begin-
ning years of a new century reveal more than ever the diffi-
culty of trying to define terrorism. Certainly, having
considered some of the changes in substance and meaning
that the term terrorism has undergone, it must be conceded
that it cannot be defined as a global phenomenon. Terrorists,
as movers and
TO DEAL WITH TERRORISTS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO shakers, will only
CONSIDER THEM SPECIFICALLY, CASE BY CASE. be reached, to put
it crudely, ‘where
they are’. To deal with them it is important to consider them
specifically, case by case. The contemporary world presents
terrorism in astonishing complexity and diversity. Equally
perplexing are the perspectives through which contemporary
terrorism is addressed. Russia fights hard to contain pressure
from nationalistic elements on its southern flank, the ‘near
abroad’. More then ever the pressure has become terrorist in
Russian perception whereas in much of the West there is
some sympathy for the liberation movement in Chechnya
though not for its alliance with Mafia elements in Moscow.
Washington struggled for years arming, training and funding
a ‘contra-revolution’ to oust the Sandinista disciples of Che
Guevara, the ‘guru’ of armed revolution by a resolute people,
from Nicaragua and San Salvador. They did so against a loud
chorus of liberal disapproval in Europe and the United States
itself where the American administration was widely
regarded as intervening in Central America and backing
covert terrorist methods.

20
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 21

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

Liberation movements are not slow to gain sympathy and sup-

port elsewhere, although they are forced to use violence, as
with the Palestinians, the mujahidin in Afghanistan, the IRA
in Northern Ireland, and the people of East Timor. There is
generally much more divided opinion as to the degree of any
support for separatists whose despair quickly earns them the
reputation of pitiless desperados. In Spain, unaccountably,
the Basque ETA
appears to prefer a THE BASQUE ETA APPEARS TO PREFER A
continuation of CONTINUATION OF TERROR TO A CEASEFIRE AND A
terror to a cease- MEASURE OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION.
fire and a measure
of parliamentary representation. The Tamil Tigers in Sri
Lanka claim to be supported by an international web of mil-
lions of subscribers to their funds in thirty other countries.
Neither group would find friends outside their own loyal ranks.
Even more generally, as following chapters will illustrate,
there is disbelief and disgust over the extent to which modern
terrorism has gone to destabilise settled communities, for
example, in Israel, former Yugoslavia, Algeria and Northern
Ireland. Terrorism, whatever its nature and its causes, now
covers a host of means to terrify and destroy. It is not so much
anti-social as anti-life itself, when it uses unprecedented
methods which bring about thousands of innocent deaths.

MEANINGS AND THE WAY WE USE THEM

In conclusion, a useful meaning of the term ‘terrorism’ is that

it is usually premeditated and carefully planned in secret
whether it is to carry out one or more dramatic incidents or to
put in place a long-term programme of destruction. A general

21
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 22

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

intention is to coerce a government into accepting changes

that have a political or ideological or even religious signifi-
cance and to force the hands of auth-
A GENERAL INTENTION OF ority. An important objective for
TERRORISM IS TO FORCE THE those terrorists who carry out such a
HANDS OF AUTHORITY. strategy will be to influence the
public not so much through articu-
late appeal as through intimidation and fear. These are the
general assumptions that have influenced the thinking behind
this sample of modern and commonly accepted definitions (in
addition to the one quoted at the beginning of this chapter):

• The use or threat of violence, for the purpose of advanc-

ing a political, religious or ideological course of action
which involves serious violence against any person or
property (British Government).
• Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetuated
against noncombatant targets by subnational groups of
clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audi-
ence (US State Department).
• The calculated use of violence or the threat of violence
to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate gov-
ernments or societies as to the pursuit of goals that are
generally political, religious or ideological (US
Department of Defense).
• The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or
property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civil-
ian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of
political or social objectives (FBI).
• [International terrorism is] the threat or use of violence
for political purposes when (1) such action is intended to

22
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 23

THE MEANING OF TERRORISM

influence the attitude and behavior of a target group

wider than its immediate victim, and (2) its ramifications
transcend national boundaries (Peter Sederberg).
• A strategy of violence designed to promote desired out-
comes by instilling fear in the public at large (Walter
Reich).
• Contributes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a pol-
itical objective when innocent people are targeted
(Walter Laqueur).
• The use or threatened use of force designed to bring
about political change (Brian Jenkins).
• The deliberate, systematic murder, maiming and menac-
ing of the innocent to inspire fear in order to gain politi-
cal ends . . . Terrorism . . . is intrinsically evil, necessarily
evil, and wholly evil (Paul Johnson).
• [Terrorism] is ineluctably about power: the pursuit of
power, the acquisition of power, and the use of power to
achieve political change (Bruce Hoffman).
• [Terrorism] is a tool to be employed, a means of reaching
a goal, for many types of political actors . . . terrorism is
always a method, but under some circumstances in some
groups or movements, it is something else . . . the means
becomes an end (Michel Wievorka).

In a dozen definitions the common ground is obvious. More

‘official’ definitions stress an institutional attitude to offences
against persons and property. Otherwise, threatened action is
thought of as potentially terrorist in intention. The FBI even
includes ‘social objectives’ which might give cause for debate.
Sederberg’s view is rather wider than the others and
Johnson’s definition seems judgemental. Altogether, in this

23
TERR_C01.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 24

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

sample of what has been reckoned to be over one hundred

definitions of terrorism, there is a clear lack of objectivity.

Even a brief historical survey such as this reveals that basic

meanings are complicated by widely varying differences in
character and motivation, and in the perspectives that repre-
sent the viewpoint of those who would define. There is simply
no universal definition, only, perhaps, a consideration of it
example by example.

Terrorism is described by most people as evil, fiendish, irre-

sponsible, unspeakable. It is a cancer to be excised. Given that
meaning, as it comes to us in a state of shock and sadness, we
are quickly judgemental. It is never easy to be neutral and
clearly analytical about something that taxes the emotions. Yet
there is a need for that detachment
THERE IS A NEED FOR THAT if terrorism is to be understood.
DETACHMENT IF TERRORISM IS There have to be reasons why
TO BE UNDERSTOOD. impassioned adherents to violence,
sometimes judged as criminally
insane, resort to cataclysmic incidents or long campaigns of
fratricide in places so different as Rwanda, Bosnia, Belfast, Sri
Lanka, Colombia and Israel’s West Bank and Gaza Strip.

If terrorism is to be lived with, it cannot ever be accepted.

There must be other ways of dialogue – so goes an often
repeated assertion which does not advance counter-terrorism
very far. By way of looking at the problems terrorism raises,
the next two chapters take an enquiring look at the world-
wide spread of contemporary terrorism and some of its fore-
runners. We shall then go on to consider some of the possible
motives that lead terrorists to resort to violent action.
24
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 25

chapter two

NEW YORK AND

WASHINGTON,
MADRID,
LONDON
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 26
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 27

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, MADRID, LONDON

Dates for most of us are fixtures pointing to the inescapable

importance of meetings, assignments, financial obligations
and pleasurable occasions. Dates such as 11 September 2001,
11 March 2004, and 7 July 2005, though, have a salience that
is steeped in horror, death and indiscriminate injury for
people in the United States, Spain and Britain. These were
the dates when, out of the blue, terrorists savagely attacked a
number of great cities.

This chapter outlines the shape of the three attacks, and goes
on to deal with the aftermath of each, mainly thinking of the
‘shock and awe’ of a traumatized public. Government
response highlighting security policies and proposed and
enacted legislation will be looked at in Chapters 9 and 10.

‘NINE-ELEVEN’: NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON

The 11 September incident, in 2001, known the world over

as ‘nine-eleven’, was a harrowing catastrophe. Certainly, it
was America’s ‘Bloodiest Day’ and ‘the Second Pearl Harbor’.
A number of hijackers took control of four US domestic air-
liners flying on internal routes. They crashed two planes into
the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, collaps-
ing its spectacular twin towers. Soon afterwards the Pentagon
in Virginia was struck by a third commandeered plane. A
fourth hijacked aircraft, later suspected of being bound for a
high-profile target such as the White House or the Capitol,
came down into a field in southern Pennsylvania. In this
case, passengers had put up a strong resistance with the ral-
lying cry of ‘let’s roll’, only to be subdued at the point of a
gun barrel.

27
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 28

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

Americans were appalled as the casualty figures became clear.

In all, there were 2,986 fatalities, including 19 hijackers. All
but 400 were the consequence of the World Trade Center
blaze and destruction, where an estimated 200 people jumped
off the towers down to nearby streets hundreds of feet below.
Others, perched on the Center’s roof, waited for helicopters
that never came.

Responsibility for the attacks was eventually pinned down to

agents of al-Qaida, in the view of Washington’s 9/11
Commission. Some of the hijackers whose names were made
known were ‘college grade’ with training in science and flying.
Their devilish competence can never be in doubt. Somehow
they had managed to board aircraft and enter pilot cockpits
without arousing initial concern. Since there were no sur-
vivors from the lethal flights it is not at all clear exactly how
the takeovers progressed save that a number of fragmented
reports from anguished passengers using mobile telephones
were received on the ground and construed by the FBI.

Al-Qaida, after all, had claimed responsibility for several

attacks on US military and civil targets in Africa and the
Middle East. To begin with, Osama bin Laden denied
involvement in the 9/11 affair. In November 2000, American
forces in Afghanistan had recovered a videotape which
appeared to show bin Laden planning the attack in some
detail. Four years later, in November 2004, a taped statement
from bin Laden admitted al-Qaida’s culpability for what had
happened. Whatever the extent of all this, it is only fringe
suspects who have been convicted in connection with the
hijacking. There seems little doubt that the nineteen terror-

28
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 29

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, MADRID, LONDON

ists were entirely committed to an anti-American mission,

whether their own protest related to American ‘defilement’ of
Iraq, Afghanistan or the Palestinian community in Israel.
Their mode of operation incorporated terrorist suicide, plan-
ning that was meticu-
lous, long-term and THEIR MODE OF OPERATION INCORPORATED
carefully coordinated, TERRORIST SUICIDE, WITH THE AIM OF
with the aim of causing CAUSING MAXIMUM AMERICAN CASUALTIES
maximum American AND TOTAL DISREGARD OF OTHER
casualties and total dis- NATIONALS, INCLUDING MUSLIMS.
regard of other nation-
als, including Muslims. Warning was never to be given. As a
team they were clearly acting in the spirit of the bin Laden
‘fatwa’ of February 1998 which enjoined the faithful to carry
out ‘the killing of Americans and their military and civilian
allies [as] a religious duty’. This necessitated the launching of
attacks on ‘the soldiers of Satan’.

Something that puts 9/11 in the most horrific of lights is the

grim, triumphant message of Osama bin Laden taping his
Vision for the World in an Afghan cave as he outlined his
preparation for the attack:

We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the

enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower.
We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three
or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all . . . due to my
experience in this field. I was thinking that the fire from the gas
in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and
collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it
only. This is all that we had hoped for.

29
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 30

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE The American experience

DEMONSTRATES THAT A TERRORIST demonstrates that a terrorist
MAY MOVE BEYOND ALL may move beyond all con-
CONVENTIONAL LIMITS OF HUMANITY, ventional limits of human-
RESPONSIBILITY AND SANITY. ity, responsibility and sanity.
Foiling such designs in
widely separated places certainly taxes everybody’s ingenuity
and resolve. Nine-eleven was to bring about profound conse-
quences in the United States and elsewhere, concerns that
were political, economic, social, cultural, psychological and
military. Ways in which the United States attempts to con-
struct a worldwide coalition against terrorists provide much
scope for debate and will be outlined in later chapters. It is
important here to bear in mind the far-ranging diversity of
‘terrorism’ and of ‘terrorists’ that was pointed out in Chapter
1’s discussion of definition.

MADRID, 11 MARCH 2004

Madrid’s terrorist outrage, ‘Spain’s 9/11’, was entirely differ-

ent from the American experience, smaller in scale but quite
horrendous to Spaniards.

On a spring morning, as commuters and schoolchildren filled

trains moving in and out of three of Madrid’s suburban rail-
way stations, four of the trains were ripped apart by bomb
blast. In a coordinated programme, ten bombs went off, cre-
ating tremendous havoc, killing 191 travellers and injuring at
least 1,900 more. This mayhem would have been worse had
the trains been coming into the Atocha central station or if
they had been disgorging their passenger loads there. As it

30
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 31

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, MADRID, LONDON

was, Madrid’s medical services became severely strained.

Makeshift mortuaries were set up in the city centre.

Security forces immediately sealed off all approaches to

Madrid and within the central shopping area virtually
nobody was able to move far. Forensic scrutinies lasting many
hours revealed that the bombs were relatively small devices,
each ten kilos or so in size. Terrorists must have brought them
to the scene in rucksacks and as each train pulled alongside
the platform to disgorge its load the explosive inside the
backpack would be detonated from a safe distance using a
mobile phone. It was at the Atocha terminus that close cir-
cuit television images showed two men heading for the upper
level and looking back at the billowing smoke of the explo-
sion some way beneath them.

An immediate question was this: who could have been

responsible for these attacks? Could it have been zealots from
the Basque separatist organization, Euzkadi ta Askalasuna
(ETA), whose nationalist fervour had frequently been under-
scored by violence for several decades? It had never been on
this scale, though. Normally, ETA hardliners had indulged in
political assassination and not in indiscriminate acts of this
magnitude. They would be unlikely to wreak destruction in
Madrid’s working-class districts. (A further account of ETA’s
forceful campaigning is to be found in Chapter 3.) Islamic
nationalists, perhaps? Not necessarily from among Spain’s
very large Muslim community but probably from further east,
towards the turmoil of Iraq? Eventually much diligent survey-
ing of the scene and information from ‘informers’ pieced
together a conspiracy scheme bearing down on a North

31
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 32

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

African origin. Then, as cardinal evidence, a stolen van was

found in a Madrid square. Inside there were packs of detona-
tors, rather home-made ones, and a language tape – in
Arabic.

The search was pulling in incriminating evidence. An apart-

ment, raided by police a week after the attack, yielded a video
disc, again in Arabic. There seemed to be a connection with
al-Qaida, confirmed when a chilly voice proclaimed that the
attacks on Madrid were an act of revenge for ‘Spain’s collab-
oration with criminals Bush and his allies’. Spain must pull
troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Otherwise, an inferno
was promised. Another week brought more confirmation of
the conspiracy theories. A London-based Arabic newspaper
reported the stern threat of an Islamic brigade established
somewhere in Spain. ‘Praise be to God’, it declared, ‘to those
who granted us the victory of Madrid and destroyed one of
the pillars of the evil Crusader axis . . .’ The newspaper went
on to give the news of a truce being granted by the brigade to
‘the puppets of the United States’ until such time as it
became clear that Spain’s government would respond posi-
tively to an Islamic request to pull out of Iraq and not to
interfere in Muslim affairs.

The controversy over the originators of the Madrid attack

raged over many months, in Parliament, in the media and
on every street corner. Some calm
MURDER WAS FORBIDDEN BY ensued when Spain’s leading
THE HOLY KORAN AND WAS, Muslims came together to issue a
GENERALLY, ‘OUTSIDE THE ‘fatwa’ declaring specifically that
PARAMETERS OF ISLAM’. Osama bin Laden had forsaken his

32
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 33

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON, MADRID, LONDON

religion. Murder was forbidden by the holy Koran and was,

generally, ‘outside the parameters of Islam’. Even so, the
focus of security operations was a very thorough combing of
districts where North Africans were living. The searching
was ruthless, with seven terrorist suspects apparently blow-
ing themselves up in one Madrid apartment. Snatch squads
took in suspects from Morocco, Tunisia and also Syria.
Interpol liaison with Italy, France and Belgium targeted sus-
pects whose prominence was international. One Moroccan,
known as the kernel of the ‘Moroccan Islamic Combatant
Group’, was charged as team leader with the deaths of all
191 killed, with membership of an armed group, and with
the oversight of a terrorist logistics centre in the Canary
Islands. The youngest of those rounded up on charges of pos-
sessing explosives and of attempted murder was a youth of
sixteen.

Madrid’s experience of attack was different from America’s

9/11 in that those suspected of involvement did not succumb
to suicide but stayed alive. Week after week suspects were
harried, to be hauled before magistrates and incarcerated
before trial. Conviction had to be secured within two years,
meanwhile, passports must be surrendered and there had to
be weekly reporting. A hundred or so suspects were kept
under guard.

For several weeks, tension in Madrid and throughout the

Iberian Peninsula was taut. A regime of ‘high alert’ saw snif-
fer dogs on the boulevards and armed vehicles cruising the
squares. Black mourning ribbons festooned public buildings.
In Seville, in Barcelona, there were sporadic controlled

33
TERR_C02.qxp 31/8/06 11:04 Page 34

TERRORISM: UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL THREAT

THE COLLATERAL OF TERRORISM, THAT CONSTANT explosions of sus-

RAW, NUMBING FEELING OF FEAR AND ANTICIPATED picious packages
SURPRISE HELD MOST SPANIARDS IN SUSPENSE. and evacuation of
whole districts.
The collateral of terrorism, that constant raw, numbing feel-
ing of fear and anticipated surprise with an element of stal-
wart determination held most Spaniards in suspense. It did
not, however, prevent 23 million Spaniards from holidaying
at Easter for, after all, as their radio told them, ‘you can’t lock
yourself up for ever’. Whether in Madrid, or in New York,
day-to-day life will never be quite the same again. Whatever
the degree of security provision a people, once blooded, sense
the possibility of unpredictable, random violence.

LONDON, 7 JULY 2005

In common with 9/11 and the bombing of Madrid, this was

coordinated terrorism. London’s transport system was hit as
the morning rush hour drew to a close. Three bombs went off
in underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and
Edgware Road stations and on a packed train moving
between Kings Cross and Russell Square. An hour later, a
bomb tore off the upper deck of a London Transport bus in
Tavistock Square, killing thirteen of the passengers.

The bombings led to severe day-long disruption of transport

and movement in the capital. Passengers had first been told
that a ‘power surge’ was closing down the underground
system: only gradually did it become clear that the chaos was
due to a criminal act of vast extent. Rescue and medical serv-
ices worked unceasingly and heroically, bandaging bleeding,

34
Other documents randomly have
different content
credit card donations. To donate, please visit:
www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About

Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could
be freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose
network of volunteer support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several

printed editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by
copyright in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus,
we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any
particular paper edition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™,

including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new
eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter to hear
about new eBooks.
Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers
Are you passionate about books and eager to explore new worlds of
knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that
cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to
specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we
have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you
expand your knowledge and nourish your soul
Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more
than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the
timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly
interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books
quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and
a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your
love for reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!

ebookgate.com