SS474: TERRORISM

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SS474 TERRORISM COUNTERTERRORISMLesson 1
Introduction to the Study of Terrorism
Agenda 1) Course Admin Review 2) Course
Assignment 1 3) Lesson 1 Defining Terrorism
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Course Assignment 1

• Terrorist Group Analysis
• 3-page case study
• Describe a terrorist group, including
  motivations, structure, strategy, etc.
• Due 8 September, NLT 1600
• Your performance on this will determine who is
  selected to go on the DC trip

AB95-5.PPT //
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Course Admin notes

• Tuesday, 22 August E Hour, GEN Downing
• Thursday, 24 August Lesson 2 History of
  Terrorism
• Sunday, August 27 Counterterrorism Fellowship
  reception, with military officers from 32
  countries, at the Thayer Hotel, Lawn Terrace
  See Sign-up Sheet
• Read, read, read like your life depends on it
• Guest lectures are mandatory (esp. GEN Downing)
• No office hours but e-mail me for appointments
• Some class or lecture dates may change Always
  check the course website for latest information

AB95-5.PPT //
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SS474 TERRORISM COUNTERTERRORISMLesson 1
Introduction to Terrorism

• Current Events
• Terrorist Hotspots?
• Reflections on the assigned readings
• Hoffman
• Stern
• Crenshaw
• Ahmad
• Pillar

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Defining Terrorism

• Definitions
• Many
• Ambiguous
• Are terrorists freedom fighters?
• Matter of perception?
• What is the relationship between insurgency and
  terrorism? Are all insurgents terrorists? Are all
  terrorists insurgents?
• AW/UW, 4GW and terrorism

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The Study of Terrorism Implications for the
Education of Military Officers
(According to GEN Downing and GEN McCaffrey)
Officers must have a total grasp of the struggle,
not just the terrorist acts Why is terrorism
being used as a tactic? What are the political
goals? Part of an insurgency?
What are the political, social, economic,
cultural, information dimensions of the conflict
as well as the security and military
aspects. How do these interrelate? Training on
tactics, techniques, and procedures can be
developed but not until the leaders have the
background
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Terrorism Key Terms

• Vision
• Power
• Strategy
• Tactic
• Duty
• Shame
• Freedom fighter
• Self-sacrifice
• Will to kill
• Skill to kill

• Ideology
• Indoctrination
• Radicalization
• Rationalization
• Emotions
• Moral Disengagement
• Communicative Acts
• Facilitators/Causes
• Learning Organization
• Counter vs. Anti
• Hard/Soft Power

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Certain aspects are fundamental

• Political act
• Desire for political change
• Terrorism is typically non-state in character
• (Note the separate but related topic of state
  terrorism typically antithetical to the desire
  for political change.)
• States can terrorize, but they are not
  terrorists.
• Terrorists do not abide by norms
• They target innocents
• They seek psychological trauma

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Defining Terrorism

• Primary Types
• Left-wing
• Right Wing
• Ethno-nationalist (separatist)
• Religious

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Left wing terrorist

• Driven by liberal or idealist political concepts
• Prefer revolutionary anti-authoritarian
  anti-materialist agendas
• Typically target elites that symbolize authority
• Examples?

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Right wing terrorists

• Often target race and ethnicity
• Examples?

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Ethnonationalist/separatists

• Usually have clear territorial objectives
• Liberation/separation
• Popular support usually along ethnic/racial
  lines.
• Examples?

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Religious terrorists

• Believe involved in a struggle of good vs evil
• Acting along desires of a diety audience is
  thus not necessarily human.
• Feel unconstrained by law higher calling
• Complete alienation from existing socio/political
  order
• Support may be diffuse
• Ideologies are supremacist absolutist
• Examples?

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Historical Examples

• Zealots Sicarri 1st century BCE
• Murdered Romans in broad daylight in Jerusalem
• Hindu Thugee
• Thugs originally religious sect that strangled
  robbed victims in ritual sacrifice
• Muslim Assassins
• It is a myth that the word assassin comes from
  the Arabic word haschishin for hashish user.
• Assassin comes from Hassassin -- a follower of
  Hassan Hassan was Persian not Arabic

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Historical Examples

• French revolution
• Use of revolutionary tribunals to prop up the
  French republic.
• Rule by fear/terror Robespierres lists
• Iraq
• Hussein regime uses chemical weapons to subdue
  uprising among Kurdish villages
• Rule by fear/terror
• Contemporary groups using terrorism . . .

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Historical Examples
Irish Republican Army Hizballah ETA (Basque
Separatists) LEHI, Stern Gang and Zvi Irgun
(Jewish extremists) Tamil Tigers (LTTE) Sendero
Luminoso FARC MRTA (Tupac Amaru movement) Al
Qaida Jemaah Islamiya Aum Shinrikyo Moro Islamic
Liberation Front Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Algerian GIA and GSPC Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood Hizb ut-Tahrir Al Qaeda in
Iraq Lashkar-e Taiba (and other Kashmir
groups) Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Italian
Red Brigades Red Army Faction (Baader Meinhof
Gang) U.S.-based militia groups The Order, the
Aryan Brotherhood, Christian Identity, The Sword,
the Covenant Arm of the Lord Many, many others
. . .
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More history of terrorism

• First VBIED (or Car Bomb) terrorist attack?
• New York City, September 1920
• Terrorist Italian anarchist Mario Buda
• Vehicle Horse-drawn wagon
• Target Corner of Wall and Broad streets
  (directly across from JP Morgan Company)
• Attack The wagonpacked with dynamite and iron
  slugsexploded at precisely noon in a fireball of
  shrapnel, killing 40 and wounding more than 200.

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More history of terrorism

• Second VBIED (or Car Bomb) terrorist attack?
• Haifa, Palestine (now Israel) January, 1947
• Terrorists Stern Gang (a pro-fascist splinter
  group led by Avraham Stern that broke away from
  the right-wing Zionist paramilitary Irgun)
• Vehicle Truck
• Target British police station in Haifa
• Attack A truckload of explosives was driven into
  the station, killing 4 and injuring 140.
• (The Stern Gang would soon use truck and car
  bombs to kill Palestinians as well, as part of
  their extremist agenda)

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Basic trends in modern terrorism

• More violent attacks (and increasing lethality)
• Increasing use of suicide bombers (the ultimate
  smart bomb)
• Religious terrorist groups most common (even
  insurgencies and ethnic separatist groups use
  religion to justify violence)

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Lesson 1 Wrap-up

• What is a terrorist?
• Who is a terrorist?
• Terrorists do not want a "terrorist state" so,
  what do terrorists desire and what motivates
  terrorists?
• Why do definitions matter?

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Questions?