Chapter 10 Flashcards
- What happened to American Journalist James Foley?
- What was the date of this crime?
- What was it titled?
- Who commited it?
- And why was it carried out?
- the horrific video of American journalist named James Foley being beheaded by a member of ISIS in Guantanamo Bay
- on August 19, 2014,
- with the title A Message to America -
- killed by Mohammed Emwazi, a 26-year-old Muslim from London, England, who traveled to Syria to join the group ISIS.
- it was carried out because Obama authorized military operations against the Islamic State, effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war against Muslims
A Message to America (the video) - signaled a new era of terrorism, how so? What did it also marked?
> It was an act which coupled brutal violence with the sophisticated use of social media platforms to promote extremist causes and recruit new members to these missions.
> The video also marked the arrival of ISIS on the world stage.
What is ISIS and how did it start?
> ISIS is a terrorist group that emerged out of Al Qaeda in Iraq and expanded into Syria in 2011 after the start of the Syrian civil war
> In 2010, protests broke out across North Africa and the Middle East in what became known as the “Arab Spring,”
> but in Syria, the government proved more resilient than the protestors and responded with extreme force.
> This revolution soon devolved into a civil war that pitted a number of opposition groups against the army supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. I
Who was the face of ISIS?
Was he considered the most wanted terrorrist?
When and how did he die?
> Emwazi, the masked man who conducted the beheadings in the james Foley video
became the face of ISIS and simultaneously the most wanted terrorist since Osama bin Laden.
> On November 12, 2015, he was identified leaving an apartment and getting into a car in Raqqa, Syria. As he got into the car, a British and U.S.–operated predator drone launched a missile strike that obliterated “Jihadi John,” along with another member of ISIS.
What ISIS attack occurred after Emwazi’s death?
> Paris attack on November 13, 2015, only one day after Emwazi was killed.
> In that attack, a number of coordinated assaults involving suicide bombers and shooters with assault weapons took place in locations around Paris and included the area around a soccer stadium, cafes, restaurants, and a theater.
> These attacks resulted in 130 fatalities and many hundreds of others wounded.
The rise of ISIS appeared to mark a new resurgent era of terrorism that utilized what? Was it the most deadly?
> that utilized social media to recruit disaffected young Muslims from Western countries and increased attacks on European targets.
> Despite the media attention given to ISIS, it might surprise you that in 2014, when ISIS was at its height, this group was not the deadliest terrorist organization.
What terrorist group was actually more deadly than ISIS when they were at their height?
BKOHAR is the group
> Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group that is largely based in the African country of Nigeria.
> The term loosely translates to Western education is forbidden. Boko Haram was inspired by ISIS and, in fact, had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
What is terrorism like in the modern age?
> global and multi-faceted?
How many definitions of terrorism were created between 1936 and 1983? Is the current number the same or higher?
> one writer identified over 100 different definitions of terrorism?
> current number is even greater
What are two reasons describing why terrorism is so hard to define? What is terrorism considered as a phenomenon?
- terrorism encompasses many different types of behavior perpetrated for many different reasons
- plus it has a complexity and variation in motive
> terrorism is a continuously evolving phenomenon
What behaviour can be perpetrated under terrorism? What must be noted about these behaviours (are they all acts of terrorism? what does it depend on?
INT, ASSA, BMBS, HJKS, TFT, MSA, KNPS, + OTHS
> Includes:
intimidation,
assassinations,
bombings,
hijackings,
theft,
military-style attacks,
kidnappings,
and any number of other violent or threatening acts.
> Yet, at the same time, not all bombings, killings, thefts, and kidnappings are acts of terrorism.
> depends in large part on your particular point of view - may be a matter of perception
- During the 19th and early 20th century, what was terrorism considered, what did it focus on, and what were the targets like?
- What is the character of terrorism in the 20th century changed to include?
- What are the targets like in the 20th century?
- terrorism was nationalistic,
- focused on helping a population group achieve political independence and sovereignty,
- targets of terrorism tended to be military and political leaders who represented the government system in power. - the character of terrorism changed and came to include a broader spectrum of organizations
- had a more indiscriminate in target selection.
Sometimes referred to as “leaderless Jihad,” this new model of terrorism is largely based on what?
> based on informal networks of friends who are inspired to commit acts of terrorism in support of a larger cause or organization to which they have no real connection or ties, except that they share a religious and/or political worldview.
- The word “Terrorist” is what kind of term?
- It has has tremendous power to remove to what
- Governments and politicians often use the word to do what?
- is an inherently a negative term
- to remove whatever legitimacy or moral authority an organization or movement may aspire to possess.
- to undermine the support a group may have among a larger population.
Bruce Hoffman points out that many terrorist groups try to avoid being labeled as terrorists and instead try to link themselves to what? What is a specific example?
> try to link themselves with the concepts and language of freedom and liberation, armies and military organizations, self-defense, and justified retribution
> Ramzi Yousef, for example, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack, asserted in a newspaper interview that he was a warrior.
What are the essential qualities of terrorism that most definitions share and overall that terrorism has?
TIAVA, TIITASG, TUTDV, TPOTITT, TIS.
- terrorism is a violent activity.
- At its core, terrorism is about destruction and harm, whether of people or property or both. (is the preferred method to achieve their agenda and goals) - terrorism is intended to achieve some goal
- the violence is instrumental + rational - for some goal. - terrorism usually targets defenseless victims.
- soft targets - not hard targets. - the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize.
- This is important because terrorist groups want to create a climate of fear within a society - terrorism is systematic.
- a recurring phenomenon.
What is a common victim of terrorism? What are the two most frequent focus of terrorist attacks in the world?
> In military terminology, they are soft targets, also called defenseless targets, as opposed to hard targets that are more difficult to assault because they are better protected. (though both are possible)
> Far more common are civilian and noncombatant targets who are placed in the crosshairs precisely because they are civilians
> private citizens and property are by far the most frequent focus of terrorist attacks around the world.
What is the difference in killing innocent noncombatants and combatants?
> When soldiers or police officers are killed, it is recognized as being a tragedy, but at some level, there is the sense that these victims are part of the sacrifice societies make in protecting its citizens.
> The killing of noncombatants, on the other hand, is often perceived as being more terrible because these victims did not choose to be in harm’s way but were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
What was the single deadliest act of terrorism ever perpetrated and the deadliest single day for Americans since the Civil War?
> September 11, 2001, when the United States was the victim of a deadly series of terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda
Who established Al Qaeda?
> Among the international volunteers was a wealthy young Saudi named Osama bin Laden, who helped cofound an organization called the Maktab al-Khidmat, or the Afghan Services Bureau, which was based in neighboring Pakistan and helped recruit and train Muslim fighters for the war in Afghanistan.
> was a successful military leader
> Al Qaeda soon began providing resources, training, and financing to Muslim terrorist groups around the world.
What three things does Al Qaeda want to do?
1) help to create a unified Islamic world order under the rule of a caliph.
2) Second, the group intends to destroy the United States because it is seen as a foreign and corrupting influence and an impediment to the creation of an Islamic world order.
3) Third, Al Qaeda intends the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state
Al Qaeda issued a manifesto that stated one of its goals- what was it?
> To kill Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al Aqsa mosque and the Holy Mosque [in Mecca] and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.
The definitions provided by the textbook also provide one weakness - what is it?
> They tend to ignore state-perpetrated terrorism.
Why do governments conduct terrorism? What is it referred to?
> Governments engage in terrorism in order to suppress dissent, quash a social or political movement, or intimidate a population.
> This is sometimes termed authorized terror, repressive terror, or even enforcement terror.