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Daily Nebraskan
Monday, April 7, 1986
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By The Associated Press
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A wanton war with no rules and little pity is turning the
world, bit by bit, into a free-fire zone. International terrorism is
striking in numbing waves. It left at least 926 people dead
worldwide in 1985, hundreds more than in any year since the
U.S. State Department began compiling statistics in 1968.
So far this year, at least 43 more have died, including five
Americans killed in last week's bombings of a TWA jetliner and
a West Berlin nightclub.
But terrorism has left another casualty as well: the system of
global order, shaken by terrorist assaults that exposed weak
spots in international law and the Western alliance, led the
United States into military conflict, and made vigilantes out of
governments.
A recent series of interviews in the United States, Europe
and the Middle East with security officials and diplomats,
scholars and politicians, alleged terrorists and their defenders
found disagreement over how to combat terrorism and even
how to define it. But almost all agreed that such "free-form"
political violence will spread in the years to come.
"Terrorism is with us now, whether you like it or not. You've
got to adjust your way of life to that," said Scotland Yard's anti
terrorist chief, George Churchill-Coleman.
President Reagan ended a 10-day California vacation Sunday,
returning to work on a renewed campaign against international
terrorism in the wake of another wave of attacks aimed at
Americans.
While stopping short of blaming Libyan leader Moammar
Khadafy for two attacks last week in which Americans were
killed, an administration official accused Khadafy of sponsoring
"a master plan ... to cause terrorist incidents worldwide."
Those interviewed also generally agreed on these other
points:
O As governments strengthen defenses of embassies and
other official installations, terrorists will become more indis
criminate, attacking "softer" targets like the innocent civilians
massacred by Palestinians at Rome and Vienna airports last
December.
O Terrorists probably will escalate to attacks on computer
systems, power grids and other key links of industrial societies.
O Terrorist groups often maintain practical ties with each
other, but are not joined together in a "grand conspiracy"
against the West.
As for defensive strategies, the security experts spoke most
often of a need for better intelligence-gathering, particularly
from within terror groups, and for closer cooperation among
governments.
But many spoke, too, of the need to address the problems
that spawn terrorism.
International terrorist incidents those involving citizens
or territory of more than one country have doubled in number
since 1975, to slightly more than 800 last year, the State
Department reports. Risks International, a U.S. consulting firm
that tracks single-country terrorism as well, counted more than
3,000 major incidents in 1985.
Last year's TWA hijacking and Achille Lauro "seajacking"
were more visible, but 1985's deadliest event was the downing
of an Air-India jetliner over the Atlantic, believed to have been
the work of Sikh extremist bombers. It killed all 329 people
aboard.
Tprrorism is not new. The French dubbed the 1890s. when
anarchists tossed bombs into Parisian cafes, the "Dynamite
Decade."
What is new today is terrorism practiced on an international
srftlfl. a kind of clnhal guerrilla war that has develoned with
, developing technology.
Jet travei and Pen borders, particularly in Western Europe,
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offers them the latest in compact, relatively cheap weapons in
a nuclear age when traditional warfare is too costly. And
instant communications, advances in the news media, give
their actions a "multiplier effect."
"If you see terrorism as theater, then the ability to reach a
worldwide audience enhances the tactic," said a leading theor
ist on terrorism, Brian M. Jenkins of California's Rand Corp.
think tank.
Terrorists' goals can be complex. West European groups, for
example, are believed intent on provoking a police repression
that will antagonize the public and pave the way for revolution.
But, first and foremost, the experts say, terrorists crave atten
tion for their cause. And the causes are proliferating.
The "traditional" groups are well-known: Palestinian mil
itants, Irish Republican Army Provisionals, Basque separatists,
anti-Turkish Armenians, Colombia's M-19 guerrillas, Italy's
right-wing railway bombers, Lebanon's multi-striped car
bombers. But now, ominously, more obscure causes are exploding into
the headlines as well the cause of Tamil separatism, for one,
in whose name 150 bystanders were massacred by gunmen at a
holy place in Sri Lanka last year.
In the United States, too, new-style terrorists strike: "right-to-life"
militants who firebomb abortion clincis, for example,
and terrorist bombers possibly Jewish extremists who
killed an Arab-American activist last year.
Terrorists also are becoming deadlier. Lebanon's anti
Western Shiite Moslem extremists are working with bombs of
power unparalleled for a non-military organization.
"The ferocity is escalating," a U.S. Air Force security officer
in West Germany said of anti-American terrorists there. "They
are not getting the kind of attention they used to get, and they
apparently feel they have to find new ways to get it."
The U.S. administration traces much of terrorism's spread to
state sponsorship, particularly Libyan and Syrian support for
Palestinian terrorists, such as Abu Nidal's widely feared group,
and Iranian support for extremist Shiites.
The Rome and Vienna airport atrocities, blamed on Abu
Nidal, began a new spiral of U.S.-Libyan tension that last month
led to military clashes between the two countries in the Medi
terranean. Terrorism's impact can be seen everywhere. Triple-layer
security surrounds presidents, whether American or Iranian.
Fear of traveling has cut untold billions of dollars from tourism
and other business. The U.S. government plans to spend more
than $4 billion to "harden" its embassies against attack.
But the world also is mobilizing: The 138-nation Interpol
police network, long reluctant to deal with politically sensitive
crime, set up its first anti-terrorist unit in January.
Defining "terrorism" is a politically treacherous exercise.
"There is no value-free definition," conceded a recent Senate
subcommittee report on terrorism.
A half-dozen federal departments offer differing definitions of
terrorism. The State Department version is often cited: "Terror
ism is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated
against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clan
destine state agents, usually intended to influence an
audience."
This would exempt actions by soldiers in uniform, an exclu
sion hotly disputed by Palestinians who say Israeli air force
pilots who bomb refugee camps are seeking to strike terror into
an audience.
Webster's New World Dictionary has a broader definition:
"Use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate and subju
gate, especially such use as a political weapon or policy."
For some, this is too broad. Third World governments at the
United Nations, for example, once offered a definition suggest
ing that anyone fighting colonial, racist or alien domination
could not be considered a terrorist, no matter what he did.
Eduardo Arocena, an anti-Castro Cuban convicted in New
York of 20 bombings and murdering a Cuban diplomat, took
this same ends-justify-means approach at his 1984 sentencing.
"If to struggle for my country and sacrifice everything I have is
to be a terrorist," he declared, "then I am the greatest terrorist
in the world."
A wanton war with no
rules and little pity is turn
ing the world, bit by bit, into
a free-fire zone. Internat
ional terrorism is striking
in numbing waves, killing
hundreds . . . But terrorism
has left another casualty as
well: the system of global
order.
Nebrakkan
34 Nebraska Union
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Editor
Managing Editor
Publications Board
Chairperson
Professional Adviser
Vicki Ruhga.
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Thorn Gabrukiewicz
John Hilgert
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Don Walton. 473-7301
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