Terrorism From the History of Terrorism

The roots of terrorism are in the activities of racial and religious fanatics in the 1930s. Many terrorist movements arose in the 1960s as a part of the world-wide student protest against US participation in the Vietnam War. They started with non-lethal activities - demonstrations, occasional arsons or sabotage. Later terrorist tactics were frequently employed and «improved» by racist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and religious and nationalist groups like the Hezbollah ( «the army of God» ). the Palestine Liberation Front, Red Brigades in Italy, Irish Republican Army, etc. The bloodiest operations have been carried out by Arab and Palestinian terrorists since the 1970s: the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, more than 60 bombings and hijacks. The hostages, victims and their targets for extortion were US and European citizens.

Present Day of Terrorism

Today's terrorist activity is different from that of the past. Modern technology, advanced telecommunications and new Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) have changed the nature of terrorism. Nowadays terrorist organizations have a flexible, transnational structure. They work together in funding, sharing intelligence, training, planning, and executing attacks. Terrorist groups in one country or region can draw strength and support from groups in other countries or regions. As the аl Qaida network demonstrates, this multinational enterprise has its; branches in more than 60 countries. Its global activities are co-ordinated through the use of personal couriers and communication technologies - cellular and satellite phones, e-mail, internet chat rooms, videotape.; Members of terrorist groups travel from continent to continent with the ease of a vacationer or business traveller. They pay their way with funds raised through drug trafficking, credit card fraud, extortion, and money; from covert supporters. They use charitable organisations and nongovernmental organisations for funding and recruitment. Money for their operations is transferred through numerous banks, money exchanges. The terrorist organisation's structure, membership, resources (safe houses, training grounds, reliable communication and financial networks) and security determine its capabilities and reach.

Weapons

As we know, a terrorist act can include two, three or more traditional crimes: bombing, murder, kidnapping, taking a hostage, extortion and hijacking, etc. These crimes are usually committed by well-armed and prepared groups. The usual weapons of terrorists from the 1960s to the 1980s were guns, knives, poison gas and car bombs. The ease of intercontinental transportation enables modern terrorist organisations to more easily acquire, manufacture, and deploy chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon, or high-yield explosives. While new instruments of terror such as cyber attacks are on the rise, explosives and bioterrorism ( e.g. the Aum Shinrikyo's efforts to deploy biological weapons and the lethal sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995, the contaminated letters in the USA in 2001) have become the urgent problem for the international community.