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Chapter 16. Terrorism: War, Crimes, or War Crimes?

Learning Objectives

· 1Trace the origins of terrorism.

· 2Discuss the various ways terrorism can be perceived (e.g., heroic, cowardly, an act of war), and explain how one could see it as anything other than a crime.

· 3Evaluate the war on terror as a general policy, and critique the strategy adopted in pursuit of this policy.

· 4Describe (or prescribe) a sound policy for fighting terrorism effectively.

In February 1993, long before Osama bin Laden became a household name, a yellow Ryder rental van containing a 1,200-pound bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, blasting a 200-foot crater in the basement. More than a thousand people were injured, and six died. Shocked citizens struggled to grasp the idea that a devastating terrorist attack had taken place against a symbol of U.S. economic might and one of the largest and most famous buildings in the world.

Eight and a half years later, on September 11, 2001, the United States watched in horror as the World Trade Center towers were hit again, this time by hijacked commercial airliners loaded with highly volatile jet fuel. The towers burned for a short time and then imploded with an incredible force that rocked downtown Manhattan, killing thousands of people still trapped inside the towers, creating a firestorm of debris, and sending a huge cloud of smoke, dust, and ash skyward that lingered over the city like an eerie, foul-smelling pall for many days.

No one knew in 1993 whether the first World Trade Center bombing was an isolated act or a sign of things to come. Now we know the answer: Terrorist attacks would become a grim reality of life nearly all across the globe in the coming decades (see Table 16.1).

Table 16.1. 

Twenty-Five Year Terrorism Timeline—1983–2008.

April 18, 1983

Suicide bombing of U.S. embassy in Beirut kills 63.

October 23, 1983

Suicide truck bombing of Marine barracks in Beirut kills 241.

December 21, 1988

Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, including 11 on the ground.

February 26, 1993

Bomb in a van explodes beneath the World Trade Center in New York City, killing 6 and injuring more than 1,000.

March 12, 1993

13 coordinated bomb explosions in Mumbai (Bombay), India, kill 257 people and injure some 700.

June 23, 1993

Federal investigators break up a plot by Islamic radicals to bomb the United Nations and two Hudson River tunnels.

March 20, 1995

Members of Aum Shinrikyo release deadly sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in five coordinated attacks, killing 12, severely injuring 50, and causing temporary vision problems for many others.

April 19, 1995

A truck bomb destroys the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 and wounding more than 600. Two Americans were charged and convicted.

November 13, 1995

A car bomb explodes outside a U.S. Army training office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 7, including 5 Americans, and wounding 60 others.

April 3, 1996

The FBI arrests Theodore J. Kaczynski, a Montana hermit, and accuses him of an eighteen-year series of bomb attacks carried out by the “Unabomber.”

June 25, 1996

A truck bomb explodes outside an apartment complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and wounding hundreds more.

July 1, 1996

Federal agents arrest 12 members of the Viper Militia, a Phoenix, Arizona, group accused of plotting to blow up government buildings.

July 17, 1996

A pipe bomb explodes at a concert during the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 1 and wounding