HISTORY OF TERRORISM

History of Terrorism by Jim Heitmeyer
Posted November 22nd, 2007 by jimspolice


Terrorism : Systematic use of violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve an end.

The entire reason for terrorism and war in the Middle East is not because of political reasons, not because of the land, or because of cultural indifferences, it's because some people of the Arab world and most Palestinians want the Jews dead and their country pushed into the sea. The Jews have been the most persecuted people in history. A summary of why is because the Jews were chosen as God's people by God himself .. so this war is all about the evil trying to destroy God's work, and the world itself.

History of Terrorism

The events of 9/11 and daily news from the Middle East might make terrorism seem like a modern problem. Unfortunately, it has a long and bloody history. Terror as a weapon began almost with the history of man. The word terrorism was first used in France in the late 1700s and early eighteenth century.

Leaders of the French Revolution used terror to force people to submit to their authority. In what was called the "Reign of Terror," citizens were locked up, tortured, and guillotined. French scholars of the time defined terrorism as "the system or rule of terror."

The old French definition may seem simple and obvious. But what exactly is terrorism? Its basic element, of course, is terror, or extreme fear. Violence is its primary tool. Perhaps the most scary, baffling thing about terrorism is its lawlessness. Terrorists simply ignore the accepted rules against murder, injury, and destruction. Our systems of law and order strive to protect us from terrible things. Terrorists deliberately inflict them.

Terrorism began as a weapon of war. Early Greek writings tell of the use of fear to defeat an enemy. Rulers also used terrorism as a way of controlling or "cleansing" their populations. The Spanish Inquisition was a so-called religious cleansing, directed by Spain's Queen Isabella. Spanish Jews were the main victims of this 300-year stretch of torture and butchery.

The phrase "War on Terrorism" was first widely used by the Western press to refer to the attempts by Russian and European governments, and eventually the U.S. government, to stop attacks by anarchists against international political leaders. Many of the anarchists described themselves as "Terrorists," and the term had a positive valence for them at the time. When Russian Marxist Vera Zasulich shot and wounded a Russian police commander who was known to torture suspects on 24 January 1878, for example, she threw down his weapon without killing him, announcing that she was a terrorist, not a killer.

What do we refuse to recognize about terrorism?

There are two kinds of terrorism. Rational terrorism such as Palestinian terrorism and apocalyptic terrorism like Sept. 11. You have to distinguish between the two.

The first thing that we fail to recognize is that neither is caused by frustration, disenfranchisement or poverty. That is the big lie of terrorism. That may help explain how terrorist leaders can recruit people to blow themselves up, but it doesn't explain why the terrorist leaders who are wealthy, well-educated and calculating opt for the tactic of terrorism. And the reason they opt for the tactic of terrorism is because it has a proven track record of success, particularly certain kinds of terrorism, and particularly [because of the reaction of"> the European community, the United Nations, the Vatican and some liberal churches.
Anti-Cuba terrorism began with the triumph of the Revolution

Cubans repeated their condemnation of the United States for its terrorist attack on a merchant ship in Havana’s port 45 years ago and accused Washington of having double standards when it comes to acts of terrorism.

In an event commemorating the March 4, 1960 terrorist attack against the French boat La Coubre which occurred while weapons were being unloaded, several speakers commented how Washington’s covert aggression against Cuba began almost immediately after the triumph of the Revolution.

Pedro Sáez, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana, referred to the criminal event as one of hundreds of subversive and terrorist acts perpetrated by the United States against Cuba.

The Empire persists in its efforts to frustrate our social plan, he denounced, but today like then, it will be met by our people’s determination to preserve our homeland forever or to die in our efforts to do so.

Sáez referred to the saying used by President Fidel Castro, who at the funeral of the victims from the attack on La Coubre concluded his speech for the first time with the slogan "Patria o Muerte!"

Nobody can understand how the United States can accuse Cuba of sponsoring terrorism while it sows the seeds of death and practices torture in various places throughout the world, said a junior high student.

Even today, he added, the US government’s hypocrisy is highlighted in its decision to keep five of our compatriots imprisoned, their only crime being to combat terrorism within the United States itself.

The young man referred to Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González, sentenced by a Miami court to prison terms ranging from 15 years to two life terms. The Five, as they are internationally known, were gathering information on groups of Cuban origin, located in the south of Florida, which were carrying out terrorist activities against Cuba with Washington’s knowledge and support.

Alberto Sotolongo, son of one of victims from the attack on La Coubre, gave a horrifying description of the events that he witnessed when he was just 14 years of age. "After helping to rescue victims, I looked for my father everywhere and I could not find him, until finally I went to the morgue," he said. "The first thing I saw was a bundle of clothes and burnt flesh and they told me that it was four people, including a French sailor. That time I was not able to locate my father, so I kept coming to the morgue until on the fourth day I found him," he said.

The explosion on the French boat took place shortly after 3.00pm, while an important consignment of weapons and explosives, purchased from Belgium, and intended for the defense of the new revolution, were being unloaded.

According to research into the event, all guilty fingers point to the CIA that had repeatedly tried to impede this and other Cuban weapon purchases.

Experts explained how the saboteurs operated: they placed an explosive device between boxes of anti-tank grenades which would be activated as the cargo located above it was removed.

Main example of "success" is Palestinian terrorism?

Well, that's the one that worked. You can't think about terrorism without thinking about Palestinian terrorism. Palestinians began international terrorism. It started with them in 1968. They used it as the first resort, not the last resort. They invented it, they perfected it, they benefited from it and they taught the world how to use it and that it would be successful.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has been one of the world's most active sponsors of terrorism. Tehran has armed, trained, financed, inspired, organized, and otherwise supported dozens of violent groups over the years. Iran has backed not only groups in its Persian Gulf neighborhood, but also terrorists and radicals in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Bosnia, the Philippines, and elsewhere.1 This support remains strong even today. It comes as no surprise then, twenty five years after the revolution, the U.S. State Department still considers Iran "the most active state sponsor of terrorism.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. This terrorist act triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and began a personal ordeal for Jimmy Carter and the American people that lasted 444 days.

Some authorities today use this event as the beginning of terrorism, even though terrorism began in the world several years prior. April 18, 1983, A suicide bomber in a pickup truck loaded with explosives rammed into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Sixty-three people were killed, including 17 Americans, eight of whom were employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, including chief Middle East analyst Robert C. Ames and station chief Kenneth Haas.

Reagan administration officials said that the attack was carried out by Hezbollah operatives, a Lebanese militant Islamic group whose anti-U.S. sentiments were sparked in part by the revolution in Iran. The Hezbollah operatives who carried out the attack on the embassy reportedly were receiving financial and logistical support from both Iran and Syria. The U.S. government took no military action in response to the embassy bombing, although, according to retired Marine Lt. Col. Bill Cowan, a covert military team entered Beirut in order to gather intelligence in preparation for retaliatory strikes.

After the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, terrorism spread throughout the world at an alarming rate. October 23, 1983, A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives at a U.S. Marine barracks located at Beirut International Airport; 241 U.S. Marines were killed and more than 100 others wounded. They were part of a contingent of 1,800 Marines that had been sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational force to help separate the warring Lebanese factions. (Twice during the early 1980s the U.S. had deployed troops to Lebanon to deal with the fall-out from the 1982 Israeli invasion. In the first deployment, Marines helped oversee the peaceful withdrawal of the PLO from Beirut. In mid-September 1982
-- after the U.S. troops had left -- Israel's Lebanese allies massacred an estimated 800 unarmed Palestinian civilians remaining in refugee camps. Following this, 1,800 Marines had been ordered back into Lebanon.)

December, 12, 1983, another bombing occurred at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. The American embassy in Kuwait was bombed in a series of attacks whose targets also included the French embassy, the control tower at the airport, the country's main oil refinery, and a residential area for employees of the American corporation Raytheon. Six people were killed, including a suicide truck bomber, and more than 80 others were injured. The suspects were thought to be members of Al Dawa, or "The Call," an Iranian-backed group and one of the principal Shiite groups operating against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

The U.S. military took no action in retaliation. In Kuwait, 17 people were arrested and convicted for participating in the attacks. One of those convicted was Mustafa Youssef Badreddin, a cousin and brother-in-law of one of Hezbollah's senior officers, Imad Mughniyah. After a six-week trial in Kuwait, Badreddin was sentenced to death for his role in the bombings.

It was from this point on in history that the terrorist began kidnapping bombing and spreading their threat worldwide. Since the beginning, numerous terrorist groups merged. Here is a list of some of them.
Islamist
· Abu Sayyaf (1991-present; Islamist separatists; the Philippines
· Based in the southern islands of Jolo, Basilan, and Mindanao.
*Branched off of the Moro National Liberation Front.
*Allegedly partnered with Jemaah Islamiyah and Al-Qaeda.
· n-Abyan Islamic Army (Yemen)
· Adolat - Uzbekistan
· Akromiya – Uzbekistan
· Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Late 1970s-present; Islamists; Egypt)
* Seeks to establish Islamist state in Egypt. Usually targets secular establishments, government buildings, police, the military, minorities, tourists, and “morally offensive” buildings.
· Armed Islamic Group (1992-present; Islamists; Algeria)
* Seeks to establish Islamist state in Algeria. Began operations in 1992 after the Algerian government ignored election results that gave victory to Islamist political parties.
· Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
· Ansar al-Islam (December 2001-present; Islamists; Iraq)
* In Arabic, "Supporters of Islam."
* Also known as "Partisans of Islam or Helpers of Islam."
· Al-Qaeda (1988-present; Islamists; Afghanistan, Pakistan, and worldwide)
* In Arabic, "the foundation", "the base", or "the database" kept by intelligence services of anti-Soviet Afghani fighters.
* Also known as Qa‘idat al-Jihad, Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, Islamic Salvation Foundation, and the Osama bin Laden Network.
* Related: Alneda (former web site), As-Sahab (affiliated public relations organization),
* Cells: Buffalo six, Hamburg cell,
· Asbat al-Ansar (early 1990s-present; Lebanese Sunni Islamists; southern Lebanon)
* In Arabic, "the League of the Followers."
* Acronym for "Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya," or Islamic Resistance Movement.
· Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'al-Jihad/Al-Qaeda in Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Sunni network, operating in Iraq
* on U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
· Bunch of Guys (BOGs) or Group of Guys (GOGs), a counter-terrorism term to describe small, anonymous, self-organizing terrorist cells that have little to no contact with national or global leaders or organizations
· Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement - al-Qaeda linked separatist group in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region aiming to establish an Islamic state. Banned by China, along with related groups East Turkestan Liberation Organization, World Uighur Youth Congress and East Turkistan Information Center
· Egyptian Islamic Jihad - Egypt (active since the late 1970s)
· Fatah al-Islam - Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, Lebanon; splittered from Fatah Uprising in 2006.
· Hamas - West Bank, Gaza Strip. Listed as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, and the United States
· Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM) - Pakistan and Kashmir
· Hizb-an-nusra - Uzbekistan
· Hizb ut-Tahrir - international (legal in Britain and Australia)
· Hezbollah - Lebanon; Listed as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Israel, and the United States.
· Hizbul Mujahideen - Pakistan and Kashmir
· Hofstad Network - Netherlands
· Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain - Defunct
· Islamic Movement of Central Asia - Central Asia (affiliated with Al Qaeda)
· Islamic Movement of Tajikistan – Tajikistan
* Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan
· Jaish-e-Mohammed - Pakistan
· Jaish Ansar al-Sunna - Iraq
· Jama'at al-Jihad al-Islami
· Jemaah Islamiyah - Southeast Asia
· Jihad Rite - Australia (linked with Al Qaeda. Founded in 2001)
· Jundallah - Iran and Pakistan (affiliated with the USA and Al-Qaeda)
· Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - Pakistan
· Lashkar-e-Toiba - Pakistan
· Maktab al-Khadamat - Afghanistan - Defunct
· Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group - Morocco and Spain
· Moro Islamic Liberation Front - (Islamic separatists; the Philippines)
· Palestinian Islamic Jihad - Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip
· People Against Gangsterism and Drugs - South Africa
· RSM or Rajah Solaiman Movement - Philippines
· Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - Algeria
· Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan - Pakistan
· Students Islamic Movement of India - India
· Takfir wal-Hijra - Egypt/Sudan/Algeria
· Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi - Pakistan
· Turkish Hezbollah - Kurdish organization operating in Turkey
· Turkish Islamic Jihad – Turkey

At this time as known, Al Qaeda is the biggest terrorist threat in the world we have today, even though other groups have similar capabilities. Their goal is complete domination over the world and the death of all people who are not Islamic. Terrorism will always be a threat in our world for all time.

The only solution in fighting or preventing terrorism is to detect terrorist plots in their early planning stages. This thinking and our new tactics in fighting terrorist groups seems to have been the most affective means in reducing their success.

Terrorism will never be defeated but most of their actions can be prevented.