Tomasz Andrykowski Unit 8 Assignment 2 Task 1 (P3)
Methods Used By Terrorists
Terrorism is the use of violence for political ends. Terrorist groups use loads of different methods to threaten the community and the government. Different groups use different methods all depending on a situation, place and target and on what they want to achieve.
Nationalism: Spanish group ETA Euskadi ta Askatasuna as well as Palestinian group PLO they fight independence or self rule.
Political Ideology - Left or Right Wing/Socialist/Communist or fascist groups – Baader-Meinhoff group Germany and The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (Formally Vietnam)
Anarchist – This is where a revolutionary group seek to overthrow an established government
State Sponsored
This is where a terrorist organisation that attacks other countries seems to be fully independent but really they receive funding from their country or political group. An example could be Abu Nidal Organisation (Syria and Iraq). The US Funded freedom fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980’s in their fight against the Soviet Union. These Freedom Fighters developed into the Mujahadin and AL-Qaida.
Anti Capitalist Groups
Some people argue that the anti-globalisation and anti-capitalists protesters fall into this category- Violence at world political and economic meetings.
Terrorist groups operate on 2 different parts of the world national and global. National terrorist groups operate within their country or very close to the borders of their country where as global groups operate far from their country and most often they attack big countries like UK or USA.
National & Regional Terrorist Groups
HAMAS – Islamic resistance movement in occupied territories of the West bank & Gaza Strip in Israel /Palestine aim to establish Palestinian state.
Irish Republican Army (IRA) – aim to create an Irish Republic free of British influence. Responsible for attacks on a Brighton Hotel, Warrington, Manchester, Birmingham and Omagh
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) – Northern Spain aim to create independent Basque nation in NW Spain & S. France
Global Terrorist groups
Al-Qaida – aims to overthrow non-Islamic governments & expel westerners from Islamic countries. Attacks on embassies, UK military & civilian targets such as World Trade Centre
Abu Nidal Organisation (ANO) – aim to establish a Palestine state in the Middle East suspected of attacks in over 20 countries
Hezbollah - aim to establish an Islamic government in Lebanon with bases across Europe, Africa and South America
Areas of Terrorist Activity: Middle East, Northern Ireland, Pakistan
The Threat of International Terrorism
Terrorist attacks occur all around the world for different reasons and by different individuals as well as big terrorist groups. According to MI5 terrorist attacks of all kinds averaged almost 60 month in recent years (world-wide). The threat of terrorist attacks was very low and thought to be easy to control and avoid until the September 11th 2001. Sometimes terrorism is a very good and very effective way of achieving political aims. By cleverly merging political grievances with the calculated use of violence, terrorist groups can receive more public support than they deserve. IRA activists were not widely condemned by the Nationalist communities of Northern Ireland during the 1970’s. This was because, the dire political, social and economical state that they found themselves in made attacks against the British almost respectable. The internet is also very good tool for the terrorist to make their groups bigger and more powerful. They will use it to recruit new members, spread propaganda, threat other people or find information’s which they should not know.
Methods and Types of Threat
Nuclear – Dirty Bomb
This type of bomb has a massive impact on the environment as it can kill thousands of people and destroy whole cities in literally seconds. It’s a mass destruction weapon causing long term contamination as well as causes deaths and loss of property for many people. This weapon has massive impact on a whole country when used but luckily they are very easy for the terrorists to get hold off so it is very unlikely that they would use it.
Cyber Attack
Cyber attack is also a very big problem because everything is now running on computers, the whole country is relying on the computer systems as they hold all the databases, important information’s, country secretes and all the financial information’s of a country. If a terrorist would hack our computer systems we would be in great danger as they might get to very secret government information’s and then they could cause a lot of problems. If one of the terrorist groups would damage the system or cut off the power of the servers then all of the country would be ruined as our system would not be able to run properly without this.
Bombings
The use of traditional bombs is very common weapon used by terrorists as it is very easily made and has a large power. With a single bomb a terrorist could do much damage causing death of many people as well as destroy buildings like schools, hospitals or shopping centres. It’s a very useful tool for the terrorists as they can detonate it from a distance making sure they are ok.
Non Conventional
Non conventional attacks can include hijacking and suicide bombing. Although normal bombing is easy to do the technology has gone forward giving the terrorists easy access to things like flight simulators which would teach them how to fly a plane, they could then go off to an airport and hijack a plane it is that easy.