CHAPTER 10 TERRORISM ‘In our assessment, and in light of the result, we have made one of the best achievements of Palestinian commando action. A bomb in the White House … could not have echoed through to the consciousness of every man in the world like the operation at Munich. The Olympiad arouses the people’s interest and attention more than anything else in the world. The choice of the Olympics, from a purely propagandistic viewpoint, was one hundred per cent successful. It was like painting the name of Palestine on a mountain that can be seen from the four corners of the earth.’ StatEMENT BY THE BLACK SEPTEMBER ORGANisatioN PAGES INTRODUCTION On 5 September 1972, eight International terrorist acts terrorists from the Black became a brutal reality during September Organisation the second half of the twentieth stormed the athletes’ village of century. As terrorists sought to the Munich Olympic Games and communicate their grievances took hostage nine members of and change the status quo, they the Israeli team. Images of the engaged in increasingly violent terrorists in balaclavas peering and shocking acts in order to over the balcony were beamed attract attention to their causeSAMPLE around the world by the media and to force governments to give that had gathered to cover the in to their demands. Government Olympic Games. An attempted reactions to terrorism ranged rescue operation ended from complying with the terrorists’ tragically and the terrorists demands, negotiating with them, scored a significant propaganda and military action. However, none victory—the Palestinian cause of these responses eliminated was now at the forefront of the the menace of terrorism, and world’s attention. terrorist attacks seem destined to remain a disturbing fact of life A member of the Black September terrorist group at the Munich Olympics, 1972. in the twenty-first century. 296 297 OVERVIEWOVERVIEW KEY QUESTIONS IN THIS CHAPTER KEY PLAYERS KEY TERMS / ConCEPTS • What is terrorism? ANDREAS BAADER FATah • What are the aims and goals of W HAT IS • Born in Munich in 1943 A political and military organisation terrorist groups? TERRORISM? • One of the founders of the Red Army Faction co-founded by Yasser Arafat; • What methods and tactics do prominent in the Palestinian • Imprisoned for firebombeing two Frankfurt terrorists employ? Liberation Organization department stores in April 1968 as a protest • How effective are government TERRORISM posT- against the Vietnam War; he later escaped, aided responses to terrorism? WORLD WAR II AL-Q EDA by a journalist named Ulrike Meinhof • Do terrorists achieve their Arabic for ‘the base’ or ‘the • After a spate of bombings, was arrested again in June 1972 and aims? THE BLACK foundation’; the loosely organised THE RED ARMY sentenced to life in prison SEPTEMBER AL-QAEDA terrorist organisation founded, FACTION (RAF) ORgaNISATION • After the failure of an aeroplane hijack intended to secure his guided and financed by Osama bin release, he committed suicide in prison on 18 October 1977. Laden W T HAT TAC ICS DO LUTTIF AFIF B LACK SEPTEMBER TERRORISTS USE? • Born in 1937 in Nazareth (then in the British mandate of The terrorist group that killed Palestine) to a Jewish mother and Arab Christian father eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 • Leader of the Black September group that took nine Israeli Munich Olympic Games; linked HWO DO athletes hostage at the Olympic Village in Munich in 1972 to Fatah and the Palestinian GOVERNMENTS Liberation Organization. REspoND? • Communicated the group’s demands and negotiated with German officials PLO • After police opened fire while the hostages were being transfered Palestinian Liberation Organization; DOES TERRORISM from helicopters to an aircraft, Afif killed the hostages using an umbrella organisation that WORK? machine-gun fire and hand-grenades. He was then killed. coordinates the various groups that seek a free and independent PAGESOSAMA BIN LADEN Palestinian nation • Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957 to a billionaire construction magnate from Yemen RAF KEY EVENTS • Organised resistance in Afghanistan against Red Army Faction (or Rote Armee the Soviet Union’s invasion Fraktion in German); the official name of the Baader-Meinhof Gang • During the war in Afghanistan, he set up an 1998 organisation called al-Qaeda (Arabic for ‘the base’ or ‘the TERRORISM foundation’) to carry out jihad, or holy war, against the enemies of The use or threatened use of 1972 20 APRIL Islam violence to coerce a government 1993 Red Army 2000 • While not always directly commanding or ordering, bin Laden 5 or organisation to make specific Faction inspired, encouraged and facilitated terrorist attacks on Western SEPTEMBER announces political changes 1968 26 12 OCTOBER targets all over the world Terrorist 1977 FEBRUARY that it is Al-Qaeda • He was tracked down and killed in Pakistan by US Special Forces attack at SAMPLEdisbanding Bombing of attack on the 2 APRIL Baader and on 2 May 2011. the Munich the World USS Cole in Red Army Ensslin 7 AUGUST S Olympics Trade Aden K Faction commit Bombing HISTORICAL INQUIRY ILLS Centre, New firebomb a suicide in of US York With a partner, generate eight to ten inquiry questions under the heading ‘The causes, nature and Frankfurt prison embassies in F department consequences of terrorist attacks.’ Keep these inquiry questions in mind as you read the information and East Africa O work through the activities in this chapter. Select one question to explore in detail as part of an inquiry store CUS research project. Here are three examples to help you get started: 1. Why do certain individuals choose to become terrorists? 2. Do terrorists achieve their aims and goals? 3. Do counter-terrorist measures do more harm than good? 298 SECTION B: CHALLENGE AND CHANGE TWENTIETH CENTURY 2: POST-WAR CHALLENGES 299 CHAPTER 10: TERRORISM KEY FEATURES WHAT IS TERRORISM? OF TErrorism Non-state actors VLADIMIR LENIN: ‘The purpose of terrorism is to terrify.’ Planned, organised and TERRORISM: A DEFINITION systematic Has a political goal Despite reading and hearing about terrorism in the news on a regular basis, it TERRORISM is a difficult concept to define. Lenin’s typically blunt definition touches on one Uses violence or the Attacks used to attract of the main elements of terrorism—it is designed to inspire fear in the targeted threat of violence media attention population. However, terrorism is much more complex than this, as other human Vladimir Lenin. activities—such as war and crime—can also create a climate of terror. The US Creates a climate of Targets civilians and Maximilien de Department of Defense defines terrorism as: fear and terror non-combatants Robespierre, architect of SOURCE 10.01 the Terror in the French A DEFINITION OF TERRORISM Revolution. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and The unlawful use of violence or threat of violence, often motivated by religious, Associated Terms, US political, or other ideological beliefs, to instil fear and coerce governments or Department of Defense, www. dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/ societies in pursuit of goals that are usually political. jp1_02.pdf A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE This is a useful starting point for working towards a definition of terrorism, as it covers most of the key elements. The US Department of Defense focuses on the While terrorism is often thought of as a recent phenomenon, it has use of violence, or the threat to use violence. All terrorist acts involve destructive a history stretching back centuries. The Zealots were members of a attacks, or the realistic threats of such attacks, on people or installations in some Jewish sect that assassinated Roman soldiers and administrators in way. These acts are considered unlawful as they deliberately target civilians, non- the province of Judea in the first century AD. A radical Shia Islamic The word assassin combatants (soldiers not directly engaged in combat) or neutral third parties. sect called the Order of Assassins carried out surprise killings in the According to Bruce Hoffman, traditional military forces are at least theoretically is believed to come eleventh century. The French Government under Maximilien Robespierre from the Arabic word bound by the rules of warfare which protect non-combat forces from deliberate instigated the ‘Reign of Terror’ in 1793–4 in order to defend the Republic hashishin, meaning 1 PAGES attack. Unlike criminal acts that are purely self-interested, terrorists have specific against internal and external foes. In Russia, a revolutionary group ‘hashish user’, as the political goals—based on political, economic, social or religious ideologies—that called Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) sought to end oppression by Order of Assassins reputedly smoked they seek to realise. Such goals include changing a government’s domestic or assassinating Tsar Alexander II in 1881.2 In the 1930s, Soviet leader Joseph foreign policy, achieving national liberation and self-determination, or replacing hashish before striking Stalin unleashed a reign of terror on political opponents, social classes at their targets. one political–economic system with another. and ethnic minorities that killed and displaced millions of people. However, many As terrorist groups are almost always numerically and militarily weaker than scholars dispute this. their targeted opponent, they rely on surprise, apparent randomness and fear as psychological weapons to bring about the change they desire. Striking at undefended or unprepared targets without warning or a logical pattern creates a feeling that the next attack could come anywhere, at any time and against anyone. The only way to prevent this, in the logic of terrorism, is to give in to the terrorist group’s demands. Lenin’s brother, Alexander Ulyanov, A key aspect of terrorism that the US DepartmentSAMPLE of Defense does not refer to is was arrested and that it is committed by non-state or sub-national actors.