Terrorism Exam #2

Horizontal terrorism

fewer spectacular attacks, more of a slow burn terrorism with more constant lower death count attacks

Vertical terrorism

A few spectacular attacks that have very high death tolls

Why would a terrorist group prefer horizontal terorrism?

They don't want the whole group to turn on them if they conduct a larger attack!!

Explain the difference between terrorism in the 70s and what changed to make it what it is today

in the 70s there were more spectacular attacks but fewer deaths because they wanted people watching but not a lot dead. this changed with the invention of improved communication and 24/7 news because now there are more spectacular attacks with major death tolls

part of the change in terrorist attacks has to do with the level of ....

Violence you are more likely to see between people of a different identity than yours!! If you get to a point where you can dehumanize the another, then you can kill "the other side."

Ie the new left's goal was to get people to convert to what they are thinking and that can't happen if they are killing their own people (shift from ideology driven to identity driven)

what is a main difference between al qaeda and separatist groups

AQ was never trying to encourage support whereas separatist groups do

separatism

an in between thing where it's an identity but also pitching an idea to a global market

palestinians wanted the destruction of israel but also after the six days war it became about

liberating palestinian territory so in that way it was way closer to separatism and AQ movements

IRA: The Irish Republic Army & Michael Collins

- collins was in the original IRA in the 1920s who popularized cell structure

why did the original IRA end

they literally got what they wanted but infighting destroyed them from the inside out

ira resurgence came about in

the 1960s

explain the issue/cause of IRA

- ireland was part of the UK for hundreds of years and god independence in the 1900s after home rule for a while
- it didn't account for the entire island though because you had northern ireland that was still part of the UK because over hundreds of years geographically speaking you'd see northern ireland as close to scotland so basically scots made their way into northern ireland
- Scots were protestant which was very different from the irish there who were catholic
- now there were two different groups and communities plus religious, lineage, and historically different groups (plus divides between the rich and poor)
- what started as a peaceful protest turned into a militant movement

what is the difference with ireland v north ireland

the northern irish gov cracked down hard but violence breeds violence !! they instigated internment

internment

if you are even suspected of being a terrorist you can go to jail indefinitely without trial

ulster

one of the colonial plantations they created in ireland when it was subjugated under the english empire but in the context of northern ireland it is provocative

paramilitary

an organization whose structure, training, tactics, subculture, and function are similar to those of a professional military, but not of a country's official or legitimate armed forces

ETA

- a basque terrorist group that wanted independence; the basque region of northern spain/france is culturally distinct from the french or spanish
- the basque people have the a culturally distinct identity
- killing people at a higher pace during the 1980s but have overall not as high of a death toll
- disbanded like five years ago

european terrorist groups

- FLNC - Coriscan Independence Movement
- FAI - Italian anarchist movement
- Militant popular revolutionary forces - Greek leftist movement

identitarian movement

a pan-european nationalist, far-right political ideology asserting the right of european ethnic groups and white peoples to western culture and territories claimed to belong exclusively to them

true or false: by most definitions, the majority (in terms of number) of terrorist attacks in the US and Europe are religiously motivated

FALSE, the majority is NON-religiously motivated

Anders Breivik

- A Norwegian right-wing extremist who detonated a lethal bomb in Oslo and went on a killing spree at a nearby youth camp in July 2011
- wrote "breivik's manifesto," a white supremacist manifesto

what was breivik's motivation

- he wanted to make a political statement against the party
- he was a real right wing guy and he attacked the pro immigrant guy
- said they are getting ruined by immigrants

are the number of attacks by non muslim groups in europe higher or lower (compared to muslim groups)

HIGHER

is the death toll by nonmulism groups in europe higher or lower (compared to muslim groups)

LOWER

there are so many terrorist groups in colombia (FARC, ELN, M-19, narcos)

- it has has the most violence of its kind by non state actors in the area (the state was dropping people en masse in other states around)
- most of the deaths during the conflicts are by government aligned military groups, but those long running movements b

WHY are there so many terrorist groups in colombia?

1) geography
- you have a country where the andes mountains cut the country off
- large swaths of the country are relatively inaccessible and conflicts are driven by a need for funding
2) drug money
3) democratic countries give more space to these movements as countries open up as opposed to countries taht don't have free speech

FARC and ELN were founded when? What is ELN relative to FARC?

both in 1964 but ELN is like FARCs more radical little brother

M-19 operated where while FARC/ELN operated where

M-19: city
FARC/ELN: countryside

will peace last in colombia ?

there have been peace agreements met with FARC in the last five years that is trying to get them more incorporated into the government, but ELN is harder to corral

M-19 disappeared 20 years ago

PKK

- most prominent Kurdist group fighting for united independent kurdistan
- started as a leftist organization receiving funding from other groups and USSR, but is moderated in terms of marxism
- now they just see themselves as european bernie sanders, social democrat type
- has killed approx 30,000 turks
- there are a lot of opposition groups that sometimes coordinate and have communications w PKK

the beliefs of the PKK

- anti Turkey, anti ISIS
- very into gender equality

where are the tamil tigers (LTTE) from

Sri Lanka

LTTE

- the tamil were repressed throughout most of Sri Lankan history and the LTTE became the most extreme militant group that came in the 80s civil rights movements
- primarily hindu while the majority of Sri Lanka is buddhist

the end of the ltte

- in 2009 they had largely lost and were corned onto a sandbar in sri lanka surrounded by civilians
- the sri lanken military just started lobbing artillery shells onto the strip to get rid of them and thousands of civilians were killed along with them
- after this attack ltte was ended but there is still tensions between groups

Lashkar-e-Taiba (army of the pure)

- a group that shares a common belief system with AQ but logistically or symbolically aren't at all tied to them
- most infamous group in the kashmiri area , but primarily non-kashmiris (at least 300 militants) based in Afg, Paki, and Kashmir
- responsible for a bunch of famous attacks against india
- linked to the pakistani government, sheltered in pakistan, and has ties to ISIS & AQ (who claims to have sheltered members)

East Turkestan Islamic Movement

more important for wider political implications in the region than anything else

israel's founding

- zionism in the late 1800s was a political movement to move back to historical biblical lands after almost 2000 years; the early settlements were under the ottoman empire
- then in 1922 there was a british mandate to govern palestine
- the UN partition plan for palestine was the division into jewish and arab areas
- proclaimed israel as a state in may of 1948

the umbrella history of israel palestine

- 2,500 years ago : two states/kingdoms of judea and israel
- 70AD : age of the zealots/sacarii
- Ottoman empire ended up on the wrong side of WWI and fell apart
- After WWI there were massive amounts violence directed at jews and british authority
- this violence lead to the partition plan by the UN

Breaking down israel-palestine history: 2,500 years ago there were two states/kingdoms

- judea and israel
- babylonians destroyed israel (the northern mst state)
- babylonians destoryed israel, the northern most state
- new testament kind of stories are all in judea
- babylonians destroy the first temple of soloman but are then crushed by the persians who liberate the jews of babylon and rebuild a temple
- the gratitude of having been liberated is still part of jewish tradition
- alexander the Great defeats Persia, dies, and leaves his legacy to generals
- general takes over and turns into the romans

Breaking down israel-palestine history: 70 AD - the age of zealots/sicarri

- the temple is destroyed again and jews spread across the roman empire.
- flash forward another 600 years the last holdout majority jewish city is Jerusalem
- then jerusalem was conquered and taken over , the dome of rock was built over where the temple used to be , and all of this area became part of the different muslim empire as the ottoman empire falls

Breaking down israel-palestine history: ottoman empire ends up on the wrong side of WWI

- the empire falls apart
- rather than fulfilling promises of independence, the british takes over the area as a mandate of palestine

mandate

something bestowed by the league of nations saying you control them until they're ready for independence

Breaking down israel-palestine history: after WWI massive amounts of violence against jews and british authority

- lots of chaos between WWI and WWII
- then WWII happens and there is a lot of collective guilt for what happened to the jews

Breaking down israel-palestine history: the collective guilt of WWII led to the partition plan by the UN

- but not a lot of countries in the UN at this point so more could actually get done
- all of the independent countries voted against it
- 51-49 to the idea of a jewish state

partition plan

- Started by the UN to make western Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. (Splitting up Palestine)
- Adopted november 29, 1947
- supposed to be a two state solution but is rejected by local arab population that came to adopt palestinian title in the next couple of decades
- so immediately this happens and every arab country on its borders starts attacking the fledgling state and jewish attacks

Conflicts Timeline (Powerpoint)

- 1948: arab invasion (war of independence)
- 1956: suez war
- 1967: six day war (captured occupied territories)
- 1973: yom yippur war (this was a surprise attack that jordan sat out because they were tired of getting their butts kicked)
- 1978, 1982: invasions of lebanon (PLO)
- 2006: invasion of lebanon (hezbollah)
- 2009, 2014: invasion of gaza strip

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

- This organization formed in 1964 with the purpose of creating a homeland for Palestinians in Israel
- Founded by arab states in 1964 (fatah = 1959)
- represented a political umbrella for 8 militant organizations

Yasser Arafat - Palestine Liberation Organization

Leader of terrorist organization wanting to evict Israelis, regain homeland, representation for Palestinian people - later becomes political party

the PLO gained prominence after what

- the six day war in 1967 and the rise of Arafat as chairman in 1969
- it grew in the 1970s and set up in jordan in 1970 for operations
- concern rose when the PLO set up shop so they moved to lebanon when they were defeated

What does Arafat do in 1974

decrees future PLO operations will be restricted to israel and the occupied territories

the PLFP and Abu Nidal Organization continued to conduct transnational terrorist acts and represented the most active international terrorists in the 70s and 80s. they were successful enough in 1982 that PLO had to

flee to tunis

where did PLO start and migrate

jordan (1967) -> lebanon (1971) -> tunis (1982)

the first intifada (1987-1993)

- ("Uprising" in Arabic, 1987) uprising against Israeli rule in Palestinian Territories. It included strikes, boycotts, refusal to pay taxes and stone throwing at IDF
- somewhere between peaceful and not like they threw rocks at israeli soldiers and some palestinians were killed by israeli rubber bullets
- this movement is what led to the peace agreement at oslo (oslo accords in 1993) that were supposed to be a road map for peace
- PLO disavows destorying israel

PLO/Fatah dominated the new palestinian authority

- they got painfully close to a paece treaty but then palestinians thought they were giving up too much
- the issue of time tables and the disjointed palestinians in the west bank

the collapse of camp david summit in 2000

- camp david summit was a summit meeting at camp david between clinton, Israeli PM Barak, and Palestinian authority chairman Arafat
- summit ended with no resolution

second intifada (2001)

- much more violent than the first
- massive suicide campaigns against israelis
- killing suspected palestinian leaders, lots of civilians lost in the process
- suicide bombings were very common
- al aqsa martyrs brigade carries out 30% of the suicide bombings
- hamas came out of this period making their names heard w suicide bombings

hamas

- founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the muslim brotherhood in palestine
- goal: destruction of israel and creation of a sunni islamic state of palestine
- wanted palestine to legitimize itself through public elections (but didn't work bc in 2006 a terrorist group (hamas) won the election)
- becomes prominent during the second intifada , carries out 40% of suicide attacks
- infighting w fatah/palestinian authority leads to consolidation of control of the gaza strip and removal from west bank

as part of treatment of palestinians today: walling it off

- forcing palestinians to go through checkpoints in case there is potential for a terrorist plot of some kind
- the wall is in the west bank
- the palestinians say you can do whatever you want with your own territory and make a wall but that isn't what you're doing , the wall is to steal land
- israel said if you aren't going to take this land we are gonna settle on it for strategic depth
- if you didn't build a wall around them, you'd be at the mercy of the palestinians

the palestinian authority stopped with terrorism after the 2006 election because

they needed to gain legitimacy

hezbollah

- ("Party of God") Iranian and Syrian-sponsored Lebanese Shia militia
- founded in early 80s for 1985 lebanese civil war
- blamed for marine barrack bombings in 1983 and a string of kidnappings

is past terrorism by palestinians groups justifiable

- it worked, it got them political concessions
- nobody would know who the PLO was and they certainly wouldn't have ogtten UN observer status had they not launched many attacks on innocent civilians

israel has attacked the gaza strip twice in the past 15 years and invaded lebanon to attack in 2006. are those interventions justified

the nexus of blame might be hamas or hezbollah, but everyone played a part in it

for a solution, israelis want

- SECURITY ! they want to feel like there is no threat to them whatsoever (which is a very maximalist perception)
- the west bank and the gaza strip

for a solution, palestinians want

- a homeland with NO interference of outside influence of where they can put their military and who they can interact w etc etc
- palestinian authority recognizes israel's authority to exist

what do reactionary terrorists want

to keep things the way they are

timothy mcveigh

- In 1995, the Murrow Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was attacked by a large bomb that killed 168 people. The bombing was the act of this right-wing extremist
- inspired by the turner diaries and william pierce (the author) who inspired the attacks

Anders Behring Breivik

- killed 77 people to protest the norwegian labour party's politics of inclusion and multiculturalism
- Declared himself a modern-day knights templar
- Anti-muslim
- Had cosmetic surgery performed in the United States to look more 'Aryan'
- Convicted and still unrepentant
- set up bombs in major metropolitan centers to distract police while he carried out execution on left leaning party island camp

who was the turning point of what inspired modern terrorism

anders breivik

what was breivik's outlook or goal

- kill as many left-leaning people as possible (ie college democrats)
- saw himself as removing future leadership that would be in place

eric rudolph

- doesn't fit the white supremacist mold but is "swimming in it" whatever that means idk woodwell said it
- bombed abortion clinics, lesbian bars, and olympics

why did eric rudolph bomb the olympics

because he saw it as sort of the beginnings of a global order forced by an international society

who is the unibomber

- an isolated man who had a political philosophy against modernity because it was corrupting people
- ted kaczynski
- he said he would stop if they published his manifesto in newspapers and so they published it and he stopped
- like the terrorism literally worked

right wing attacks went out of fashion for a little bit but then what brought the cycle back?

the election of president obama and the anger in from the fringe community then the next election cycle began and has increased in the 2020 year too

what is the christian identity movement

a movement loosely based in christianity that brings in heavy mythology and norse beliefs with its own tenants. it's like you had adam and eve give birth to cain and abel , cain killed abel , and his descendants were white people and some weird twist that uses christianity to create a racist image. the christian identity is weaponizing the idea of being a christian and bastardizing a cohesive religious identity

protocols of the elders of zion

- 1905-Document published in Russia. This work claimed to reveal a world-wide Jewish conspiracy. They were attempting to take over the banking, media, and universities to establish this new world order
- details this made up story about how there is a jewish kabal pulling strings on a national level and controlling world governments and engaging in bloody satanic practices and whatever else
- it is still circulated and believed today:(

the notable white supremacist attacks of the last decades

- 2012: wisconsin sikh temple shooting
- 2015: charleston church shooting
- 2017: charlottesville car attack
- 2018: pittsburg synagogue shooting
- 2019: el paso walmart shooting
- 2022: buffalo supermarket shooting

what is notable about the white supremacist oriented attacks

they are seemingly getting more common! religious is the most segregated society to day and it allows for a tempting target to attack particular groups. like after 9/11 there were more attacks on sikhs than muslims in america because the people who do this aren't that bright or worldly and don't know the difference

notable jihadist terrorist attacks of the last decade

- 2013: boston marathon bombing
- 2015: cartoon drawing contest shooting
- 2015: san bernadino shooting
- 2016: orlando nightclub shooting
- 2017: congressional baseball shooting

"as organizational loyalty has dwindled and the internet has become white nationalism's organizing principle, however, the ideology is best understood as a loose coalition of social networks orbiting online propaganda hubs and forums" - SPLC

- when we go one of those things is social media tying the world together so these groups can come together and spread their message

brenton terrant

- the christ church shooter
- used technology like live streaming his attacks on facebook
- promoted replacement theory

what was brenton terrant's symbolism

he drove a truck through a crowd in stockholm and linked his hijacking to a seemingly endless war of christian civilization against the barbaric forces of islam

inscribed on terrant's gun were

two of the major forces against islam: david the builder and charles martel

what do white supremacists want

- want to affect not just the politics but the political system of the country
- like the KKK stopped at a point because they had won the politics
- the end goals are ultimately trying to hijack the government

what do jihadists want

- to change the western and foreign policy ideas
- they want to get occupiers out of their lands

what type of thinking to most white supremacists share according to byman?

1) white people feel they are the endangered species
2) the conspiracy theory side is almost universal too

conspiracy theories being an almost universal aspect of white supremacy

- lots of conspiracies against jews and muslims
- perpetuating conspiracies and the idea that these groups are pulling the strings

what does the author distinguish white supremacist terror from?

it isn't necessarily aLL right wing terror but it also isn't necessarily special issue terror

what were the three events that caused the three waves of KKK

1) the reconstruction era
2) the birth of a nation
3) brown v. board

why did the first and second waves of KKK subside?

- they saw klan members as already entrenched in the system
- they phased out because they essentially won, the system co-opted by accepting their views
- they got what they wanted
- passed a bunch of restrictive immigration legislation during the 1920s

second wave of KKK (1915-1930)

- Began in 1915, with the goal of "preserving America's white, Protestant nature" targeting African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and Immigrants. Ran as a Business model - sold memberships

Third wave of the KKK

The third wave of the KKK came out during the civil rights movement. This group was made up of a smaller number of members, 35,000 to 50,000. This wave of the Klan use tactics such as assault, killings, bombings, and floggings. However, after a federal investigation, what's the KKK's numbers decreased to 6000.

first wave of KKK (pre 1877)

QUIZLET ANSWER: Confederate veterans found the KKK because they do not want blacks to have any opportunity and also they didn't want blacks to take away from the world that they had in the South. Their mission was to scare blacks from voting by lynching and assaulting them. The first wave of the Klan ended in 1871, when the President authorized the Enforcement Acts.

how does byman portray FBI attitudes and efforts towards the KKK and civil rights groups in the late 50s and 60s? how successful were they?

- FBI COINTELPRO operation to get inside and mess it up from the inside
- FBI started spreading all kinds of lies to foster infighting
- in today's society, the shit htey did would have them before congress for the way they violated civil rights and due process but ultimately they were just going undercover and turning people within the klan against it
- some groups they didn't mess with much because they rather those groups remain small and weak

true or false: the FBI focused on every white supremacist group

false, they only focused on big groups like the KKK because the smaller organizations were often nonviolent and less of a concern

what other factors caused the large-scale demise of the KKK by the early 1980s

- the courts turned against the klan!!
- the klans were being tried in civil cases instead of criminal so they could essentially be bankrupted by these suits
- THE MICHAEL DONALD CASE

the michael donald case

- michael was lynched by two klan members
- one of the two responsible, Knowles, when put on the stand in civil suit by SPLC basically ratted himself and other klan members out
- mom was awarded $7M and basically known for bankrupting the klan

what does byman mean when he argues for the importance of how they were increasingly networked, with group labels mattering less than individual connections?

- even more diffuse than cell structure: leaderless resistance
- with group labels mattering less, the leaderless resistance is more powerful

leaderless resistence

the idea that it is the circulation of ideas and it is do it yourself terrorism that you can't stamp out without stamping out the message

note: byman said this is a harder means of actually getting anything done politically

william pierce

Leader of the National Alliance and author of the Turner Diaries and Hunter

what does the lawyer for the SPLC mean when he says "pierce doesn't build bombs, he builds bombers"

- his turner diaries serves as a recruitment manifesto and attracts people to the cause
- building bombers not by giving them logistical support or training them, but by giving them a message that makes them want to bomb
- soft power of terrorism is easier than hard power of terrorism