THE HISTORY OF TERRORISM Publié avec le concours du Ministère français chargé de la culture, Centre national du livre. Published with the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture’s National Center for the Book. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the Literature in Translation Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which is supported by a major gift from Joan Palevsky. THE HISTORY OF TERRORISM FROM ANTIQUITY TO AL QAEDA Edited by Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin Translated by Edward Schneider, Kathryn Pulver, and Jesse Browner UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON University of California Press, one of the most distin- guished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its ac- tivities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and in- stitutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Histoire du terrorisme. English The history of terrorism : from antiquity to al Qaeda / edited by Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin ; trans- lated by Edward Schneider, Kathryn Pulver, and Jesse Browner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-520-24533-4 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-520-24709-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Terrorism—History. I. Chaliand, Gérard, 1934–. II. Blin, Arnaud. III. Title. 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Contents Preface vii 1 Introduction 1 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 2 Terrorism as a Strategy of Insurgency 12 Ariel Merari PART I THE PREHISTORY OF TERRORISM 3 Zealots and Assassins 55 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 4 Manifestations of Terror through the Ages 79 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin PART II TERRORISM FROM 1789 TO 1968 5 The Invention of Modern Terror 95 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 6 Anarchist Terrorists of the Nineteenth Century 113 Olivier Hubac-Occhipinti 7 Russian Terrorism, 1878–1908 132 Yves Ternon 8 The “Golden Age” of Terrorism 175 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 9 Lenin, Stalin, and State Terrorism 197 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 10 Terrorism in Time of War: From War II to the Wars of National Liberation 208 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin PART III TERRORISM SINCE 1968 11 From 1968 to Radical Islam 221 Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin 12 The Roots of Islamic Radicalism 255 Philippe Migaux 13 Al Qaeda 314 Philippe Migaux 14 The Future of the Islamist Movement 349 Philippe Migaux 15 Suicide Operations: Between War and Terrorism 363 François Géré 16 The United States Confronting Terrorism 398 Arnaud Blin 17 Terrorism in Southeast Asia—Threat and Response 420 Rohan Gunaratna Bibliography 435 Contributors 445 Index 447 Preface Throughout history, power has more often than not been wielded through terror—that is, by inciting fear. All despotic societies have been founded on fear, as have so-called totalitarian regimes in the modern era. Submission to the established order and to force has been most of hu- mankind’s sole avenue to security and, ultimately, to freedom. Without reaching all the way back to prehistory—itself ruled by terrifying inse- curity vis-à-vis nature, wild beasts, and other men—the use of terror to govern began at the very birth of organized society as a means of dis- suasion or punishment. Terrere means “to make tremble” in Latin. The first Mesopotamian empire, that of Sargon of Akkad, was founded on terror. The same was later true of antiquity’s first military empire, the Assyrian, whose brutal methods of reprisal were intended to crush the spirit and break the will. Announced with warlike violence, terror remains suspended like a sword in times of peace over the heads of all who dare to rebel. In the despotic societies that make up the major portion of history’s fabric, it has served as the tool of enslavement and guarantor of mass obedience. State ter- ror, whether implicit or overt, has haunted the centuries as war’s bogey- man, the specter of mass murder. Once unleashed, it can set an example to constrain behavior without the necessity of fighting. The Mongols and Tamerlane used terror in this way to reduce cities without having to re- sort to siege. Historians of terrorism may point out that the word “terror” applies vii viii / PREFACE to the state terror of the French Revolution, but they often neglect to add that, to varying degrees, the phenomenon was a constant of earlier eras and has also been prevalent ever since. Indeed, terrorism, the principal aim of which is to terrorize, is a historically far broader phenomenon than suggested by the term’s current usage, which essentially boils it down to the description or analysis of the illegitimate use of violence in terrorist-type activities. The fact that the most notorious instances of contemporary terrorism have a religious dimension, notwithstanding their political aims, should serve to remind us that this has also been true historically of most forms of terrorism, such as that of the Jewish Zealots of the first century c.e., for example, or of the Isma\ili sect of Assassins from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. Indeed, the religious point of reference was long central to most societies, and this phenomenon has not yet exhausted it- self. Nowadays, terrorism beats out guerrilla warfare as the preferred and practically exclusive weapon of the weak against the strong. Its primary target is the mind. In that sense, terrorism is the most violent form of psy- chological warfare, and its psychological impact is commonly under- stood to be far greater than its physical effects. Stooping to often pathetic means, terrorism is a way of creating power in the hope of seizing from below that which the state wields from on high. Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin Of all the passions capable of enslaving man’s will, none is more incompatible with reason and liberty than religious fanaticism. Robespierre It happened in Washington, D.C., at a conference on terrorism—or, more precisely, counterterrorism—organized by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Most of the participants worked for the di- verse (and numerous) American intelligence services, which had all, to varying degrees, become involved in the war on terrorism. After the Cold War, most of these cloak-and-dagger men had moved into the specialized and growing field of “new threats”—threats that also include nuclear proliferation, weapons of mass destruction, and organized crime. This strange gathering of identically dressed men listened attentively to a se- ries of speakers hold forth on the essence of the counterterrorism strug- gle. Late in the day, however, as the last speaker was about to take the floor, a bizarre figure strode up to the podium carrying a briefcase and a bag. With his long hair and black hat, his thick beard, sunglasses, torn pants, and leather vest, he stood out like a sore thumb from the intelli- gence bureaucrats. Suddenly, opening the briefcase and bag with light- ning speed, the stranger threw two hand grenades into the crowd and pointed an M16 rifle into the paralyzed audience. There was no explosion, and the M16 remained mute. The man calmly took the microphone and began to address the audience. The lis- 1 2 / INTRODUCTION teners, many of them at least, immediately recognized a familiar voice. In fact, it was the director of the DIA, a general who had disguised him- self as a “terrorist” to demonstrate the ease with which anyone could gain entry into the building where the colloquium was being held (on the campus of George Washington University, where no security measures had been installed) and wipe out the cream of the American counterter- rorist crop. Back in uniform, the general had these prophetic words to say: “One day, terrorists will attack a building like this, in Washington or New York. They will kill hundreds of people and deal us an unprece- dented psychological blow. The question is not whether such an attack will occur on American soil, but when and where. It is up to you, gen- tlemen, to be prepared. The security of our territory is in your hands.” The colloquium took place in 1998. Three years later, nineteen deter- mined men killed some three thousand people in the worst terrorist at- tack in history, striking New York and Washington, D.C. The Pentagon itself, headquarters of the DIA, was hit. In their negligence, the American intelligence services had been unable to prevent the operation. In hindsight, this scenario seems almost surreal: first, because of the warning issued by the Pentagon intelligence chief and second, because of his staff’s inability to follow his advice despite its specificity. There was also a disconnect between the quaint picture of a marginal fanatic—prac- tically the living image of the cartoon anarchist in black cape, bomb in hand—prepared to blow the place to smithereens and the speechifying on the imminence of high-tech terrorism, the notorious “hyper-terror- ism” against which all new policies were being drafted.