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The author is a former political-military analyst with the U.S.
Department of Defense and terrorism analyst with the State Department. He is
currently a security consultant, focusing on the mitigation of post-Cold War
patterns of terrorism and political violence.
Key Characteristics
The 1970s - Groups focus on material damage and limited attacks aimed at
killing individuals while an increasing number of urban incidents, using
lessons from guerrilla conflicts elsewhere, occur.
The 1980s - A distinct move toward urban-based attacks with a
subsequent increase in collateral casualties as well as a change in targeting
methodology; civilians become the target. Superpower conflict in Afghanistan
becomes a formative period in the proliferation of weapons and emergence of
militant, fundamentalist Islam.
The 1990s - The trend toward directly targeting civilians continues,
and gains even greater currency as ethno-nationalist, religious, and
religio-nationalist actors fill the void left by the demise or decrease in
leftist organizations. The end of the Cold War and the creation of new states,
the leaving of certain states in unstable or anarchic conditions, give impetus
to the rise of a new set of extremists whose ideology or motivations allow, or
even call for, indiscriminate targeting.
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Definition of Terrorism
"the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against
individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often
to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives."
-- U.S. Department
of Defense publication
In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.,
the threat of militant Islamic terrorism -- rooted in the Middle East and South
Asia -- has taken center stage. While these extremely violent religious
extremists represent a minority view, their threat is real. As pointed out by
RAND's Bruce Hoffman, in 1980 two out of 64 groups were categorized as largely
religious in motivation; in 1995 almost half of the identified groups, 26 out
of 56, were classified as religiously motivated; the majority of these espoused
Islam as their guiding force.
To better understand the roots and threat of militant Islam, here's a closer
look at how modern terrorism has evolved in the Middle East and South
Asia.
The colonial era, failed post-colonial attempts at state formation, and the
creation of Israel engendered a series of Marxist and anti-Western
transformations and movements throughout the Arab and Islamic world. The
growth of these nationalist and revolutionary movements, along with their view
that terrorism could be effective in reaching political goals, generated the
first phase of modern international terrorism.
In the late 1960s Palestinian secular movements such as Al Fatah and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began to target
civilians outside the immediate arena of conflict. Following Israel's 1967
defeat of Arab forces, Palestinian leaders realized that the Arab world was
unable to militarily confront Israel. At the same time, lessons drawn from
revolutionary movements in Latin America, North Africa, Southeast Asia as well
as during the Jewish struggle against Britain in Palestine, saw the
Palestinians move away from classic guerrilla, typically rural-based, warfare
toward urban terrorism. Radical Palestinians took advantage of modern
communication and transportation systems to internationalize their struggle.
They launched a series of hijackings, kidnappings, bombings, and shootings,
culminating in the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of Israeli athletes during
the 1972 Munich Olympic games.
These Palestinian groups became a model for numerous secular militants, and
offered lessons for subsequent ethnic and religious movements. Palestinians
created an extensive transnational extremist network -- tied into which were
various state sponsors such as the Soviet Union, certain Arab states, as well as
traditional criminal organizations. By the end of the 1970s, the Palestinian
secular network was a major channel for the spread of terrorist techniques
worldwide.
Key Radical Palestinian Groups
(descriptions taken directly from the U.S. State
Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): The PFLP, one of
the original members of the PLO, [1] is a Marxist-Leninist group founded
in 1967 by George Habash. The group was against the 1993 Declaration of
Principles; participation in the PLO was also suspended. Participated in
meetings with Arafat's Fatah party and PLO representatives in 1999 to discuss
national unity but continues to oppose negotiations with Israel. Committed
numerous international terrorist attacks during the 1970s, has allegedly been
involved in attacks against Israel since the beginning of the second intifadah
in September 2000. Syria has been a key source of safe haven and limited
logistical support.
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC):
This group, led by Ahmed Jibril, split from the PFLP in 1968, wanting to focus
more on terrorist than political action; violently opposed to the PLO and is
closely tied to Syria and Iran. The PFLP-GC conducted multiple attacks in
Europe and the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s. Unique in that it
conducted cross-border operations against Israel using unusual means, including
hot-air balloons and motorized hang gliders. Currently focused on small-scale
attacks in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.
- Abu Nidal Organization (ANO): Anti-Western and anti-Israel
international terrorist organization led by Sabri al-Banna; left the PLO in
1974. Organizational structure composed of various functional committees,
including political, military, and financial. The ANO has carried out terrorist
attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring almost 900 persons. Targets have
included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, moderate
Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab countries. Major attacks included the
Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in
Istanbul and the Pan Am flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and
the City of Poros day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988. Suspected
of assassinating PLO deputy chief Abu Iyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul in
Tunis in January 1991. ANO assassinated a Jordanian diplomat in Lebanon in
January 1994. Has not attacked Western targets since the late 1980s. Al-Banna
relocated to Iraq in December 1998, where the group maintains a presence.
Financial problems and internal disorganization have reduced the group's
capabilities; activities shut down in Libya and Egypt in 1999.
While these secular Palestinians dominated the scene during the 1970s,
religious movements also grew. The failure of Arab nationalism in the 1967 war
resulted in the strengthening of both progressive and extremist Islamic
movements. In the Middle East, Islamic movements increasingly came into
opposition with secular nationalism, providing an alternative source of social
welfare and education in the vacuum left by the lack of government-led
development -- a key example is The Muslim Brotherhood. Islamic groups
were supported by anti-nationalist conservative regimes, such as Saudi Arabia,
to counter the expansion of nationalist ideology. Yet political Islam, [2] more open to progressive change, was seen as a threat to conservative Arab
regimes and thus support for more fundamentalist -- and extremist -- groups
occurred to combat both nationalist and political Islamist movements.
Meanwhile, in Iran, a turn to revolutionary Shia Islam under the leadership of
Ayatollah Khomeini further eroded the power and legitimacy of the U.S.-backed
authoritarian Pahlevi regime, setting the stage for the Shah's downfall.
The year 1979 was a turning point in international terrorism. Throughout the
Arab world and the West, the Iranian Islamic revolution sparked fears of a wave
of revolutionary Shia Islam. Meanwhile, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and
the subsequent anti-Soviet mujahedeen war, lasting from 1979 to 1989,
stimulated the rise and expansion of terrorist groups. Indeed, the growth of a
post-jihad pool of well-trained, battle-hardened militants is a key trend in
contemporary international terrorism and insurgency-related violence.
Volunteers from various parts of the Islamic world fought in Afghanistan,
supported by conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia. In Yemen, for
instance, the Riyadh-backed Islamic Front was established to provide financial,
logistical, and training support for Yemeni volunteers. So called
"Arab-Afghans" have -- and are -- using their experience to support local
insurgencies in North Africa, Kashmir, Chechnya, China, Bosnia, and the
Philippines.
In the West, attention was focused on state sponsorship, specifically the
Iranian-backed and Syrian-supported Hezbollah; state sponsors' use of secular
Palestinian groups was also of concern. [3] Hezbollah pioneered the use
of suicide bombers in the Middle East, and was linked to the 1983 bombing and
subsequent deaths of 241 U.S. marines in Beirut, Lebanon, as well as multiple
kidnappings of U.S. and Western civilians and government officials. Hezbollah
remains a key trainer of secular, Shia, and Sunni movements. As revealed
during the investigation into the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Libyan
intelligence officers were allegedly involved with the Palestinian Front for
the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command (PFLP-GC). Iraq and Syria were
heavily involved in supporting various terrorist groups, with Baghdad using the
Abu Nidal Organization on several occasions. State sponsors used terrorist groups to attack
Israeli as well as Western interests, in addition to domestic and regional
opponents. It should be noted that the American policy of listing state
sponsors was heavily politicized, and did not include several countries -- both
allies and opponents of Washington -- that, under U.S. government definitions,
were guilty of supporting or using terrorism.
Key Radical Religious Groups
(descriptions taken directly from the U.S. State
Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")
- Hezbollah: Radical Shia group formed in 1982 in Lebanon. Strongly
anti-Western and anti-Israeli. Closely allied with, and often directed by, Iran
but may have conducted operations that were not approved by Tehran. Known or
suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-U.S. terrorist attacks,
including the suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in
Beirut in October 1983 and the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984.
Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of U.S.
and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group also attacked the Israeli
Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and is a suspect in the 1994 bombing of the
Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires. Operates in the Bekaa Valley, the
southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon. Has established cells in
Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and Asia. Receives substantial
amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and
organizational aid from Iran and Syria.
- Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ - Al-Jihad, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad):
Egyptian group active since the late 1970s. The EIJ is apparently split into
two factions: one led by Ayman al-Zawahiri - who currently is in Afghanistan
and is a key leader in the Usama bin Laden (UBL) network - and the Vanguards of
Conquest (Talaa' al-Fateh) led by Ahmad Husayn Agiza. Abbud al-Zumar, leader of
the original Jihad, is imprisoned in Egypt and recently joined the group's
jailed spiritual leader, Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman, in a call for a "peaceful
front." The group's traditional goal is the overthrow of the Egyptian
Government and creation of an Islamic state. Given its involvement with UBL,
EIJ is likely increasingly willing to target U.S. interests. The group has
threatened to strike the U.S. for its jailing of Shaykh al-Rahman and the arrests
of EIJ cadres in Albania, Azerbaijan, and the United Kingdom..
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): The PIJ, emerging from radical Gazan
Palestinians in the 1970s, is apparently a series of loosely affiliated
factions rather than a cohesive group. The PIJ focus is the destruction of
Israel and the creation of a Palestinian Islamic state. Due to Washington's
support of Israel, the PIJ has threatened to strike American targets; the PIJ
has not "specifically" conducted attacks against U.S. interests; Arab regimes
deemed as un-Islamic are also threatened. The group has stated its willingness
to hit American targets in Jordan. PIJ cadres reportedly receive funding from
Tehran and logistical support from Syria.
- Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS): Emerging from the Muslim
Brotherhood during the first Palestinian intifadah (1987), HAMAS has become the
primary anti-Israeli religious opposition in the occupied territories. The
group is mainly known for its use of suicide bombers and is loosely organized,
with centers of strength in Gaza and certain areas in the West Bank. HAMAS,
while condemning American policies favoring Israel, has not targeted the U.S.
directly.
- Al-Gamaat Al-Islamiyya (IG - the Islamic Group, al-Gama'at, Islamic Gama'at,
Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, GI): The IG, begun in the 1970s, is the
largest of the Egyptian militant groups. Its core goal is the overthrow of the
Cairo regime and creation of an Islamic state. The IG appears to be a more
loosely organized entity than the EIJ, and maintains a globally present
external wing. IG leadership signed Usama Bin Ladin's February 1998 anti-U.S.
fatwa but has denied supporting UBL. Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman is al-Gama'at's
spiritual leader, and thus the U.S. has been threatened with attack. From 1993
until the cease-fire, al-Gama'a launched attacks on tourists in Egypt, most
notably the attack in November 1997 at Luxor that killed 58 foreign tourists.
Also claimed responsibility for the attempt in June 1995 to assassinate
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Has a worldwide
presence, including Sudan, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Austria, and Yemen.
The Egyptian Government believes that Iran, Bin Ladin, and Afghan militant
groups support the organization.
The disintegration of post-Cold War states, and the Cold War legacy of a
world
awash in advanced conventional weapons and know-how, has assisted the
proliferation of terrorism worldwide. Vacuums of stability created by
conflict
and absence of governance in areas such as the Balkans, Afghanistan,
Colombia, and certain African countries offer ready made areas for
terrorist training and
recruitment activity, while smuggling and drug trafficking routes are
often
exploited by terrorists to support operations worldwide. With the
increasing ease of transnational transportation and communication, the
continued willingness of states such as Iran and Iraq to provide
support, and
dehumanizing ideologies that enable mass casualty attacks, the lethal
potential
of terrorist violence has reached new heights.
The region of Afghanistan -- it is not a country in the conventional sense -- has, particularly since the
1989 Soviet withdrawal, emerged as a terrorist training ground. Pakistan,
struggling to balance its needs for political-economic reform with a domestic
religious agenda, provides assistance to terrorist groups both in Afghanistan
and Kashmir while acting as a further transit area between the Middle East and
South Asia.
Since their emergence in 1994, the Pakistani-supported Taliban militia in
Afghanistan has assumed several characteristics traditionally associated with
state-sponsors of terrorism, providing logistical support, travel
documentation, and training facilities. Although radical groups such as the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, and Kashmiri
militants were in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban, the spread of Taliban
control has seen Afghan-based terrorism evolve into a relatively coordinated,
widespread activity focused on sustaining and developing terrorist
capabilities. Since the mid-1990s, Pakistani-backed terrorist groups fighting
in Kashmir have increasingly used training camps inside Taliban-controlled
areas. At the same time, members of these groups, as well as thousands of
youths from Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), have fought with the
Taliban against opposition forces. This activity has seen the rise of
extremism in parts of Pakistan neighboring Afghanistan, further complicating
the ability of Islamabad to exert control over militants. Moreover, the
intermixing of Pakistani movements with the Taliban and their Arab-Afghan
allies has seen ties between these groups strengthen.
Since 1989 the increasing willingness of religious extremists to strike
targets outside immediate country or regional areas underscores the global
nature of contemporary terrorism. The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon, are representative of this trend.
Key Groups in the New Phase of Militant Islamic Terrorism
(descriptions taken directly from the U.S. State
Department publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2000")
- Al-Qaeda (The Base): Established by Usama Bin Ladin (UBL) circa
1990, Al Qaeda aims to coordinate a transnational mujahideen network; stated
goal is to "reestablish the Muslim State" throughout the world via the
overthrow of corrupt regimes in the Islamic world and the removal of foreign
presence - primarily American and Israeli - from the Middle East. UBL has
issued three anti-U.S. fatwas encouraging Muslims to take up arms against
Washington's "imperialism." Al Qaeda provides financial, manpower,
transportation, and training support to extremists worldwide. In February 1998
bin Ladin issued a statement under the banner of "The World Islamic Front for
Jihad Against The Jews and Crusaders," saying it was the duty of all Muslims to
kill U.S. citizens, civilian or military, and their allies. Allegedly
orchestrated the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar Es
Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998. Claims to have been involved in the 1993
killing of U.S. servicemen in Somalia and the December 1992 bombings against U.S.
troops in Aden, Yemen. Al Qaeda serves as the core of a loose umbrella
organization that includes members of many Sunni Islamic extremist groups,
including factions of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), the Gama'at
al-Islamiyya (IG), and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM). The group is a prime
suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the U.S.S Cole bombing.
- Armed Islamic Group (GIA): Having initiated terrorist activities in
1992 following Algiers refusal to accept a democratically elected Islamist
government, the GIA has conducted multiple mass killings of civilians and
assassinations of Algerian leaders. While present in areas such as Yemen, the
GIA reportedly does not target the U.S. directly. However, it is possible that
GIA splinter movements or personnel may become involved in anti-U.S. action.
- Aden-Abyan Islamic Army (AAIA): The Aden-Abyan Islamic Army is allegedly
affiliated to the Yemeni Islamic Jihad and has been implicated in acts of
violence with the stated goal to "hoist the banner of al-Jihad, and fight
secularism in Yemen and the Arab countries." Aden-Abyan Islamic Army leader
Zein al-Abideen al-Mehdar was executed for participating in
the December 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists. Four of the hostages were
killed and another 13 hostages were freed when Yemeni security forces attacked
the place where the hostages were being held. In March 1999 the group warned
the U.S. and British ambassadors in Yemen to leave immediately.
- Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM): Formerly part of the Harakat al-Ansar
(HUA), the Pakistani-based HUM operates primarily in Kashmir. Long-time leader
of the group, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, in mid-February stepped down; the popular
Kashmiri commander and second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri, assumed the reigns.
Khalil, who has been linked to Bin Ladin and signed his fatwa in February 1998
calling for attacks on U.S. and Western interests, assumed the position of HUM
Secretary General. The HUM is linked to the militant group al-Faran that
kidnapped five Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one was killed in
August 1995 and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same
year. Supporters are mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris and also include Afghans
and Arab veterans of the Afghan war. The HUM trains its militants in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed): The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JEM) has greatly expanded since Maulana Masood Azhar, a former
ultra-fundamentalist Harakat ul-Ansar (HUA) leader, formed the group in
February 2000. The group's aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. It is
politically aligned with the radical, pro-Taliban, political party, Jamiat-i
Ulema-i Islam (JUI-F). The JEM maintains training camps in Afghanistan. Most
of the JEM's cadre and material resources have been drawn from the militant
groups Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and the Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM).
The JEM has close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban. Usama Bin Ladin is
suspected of giving funding to the JEM. Group by this name claimed
responsibility for the USS Cole attack.
- Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT) (Army of the Righteous): The LT is the armed
wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad
(MDI)--a Sunni anti-U.S. missionary organization formed in 1989. One of the three
largest and best-trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India, it is not
connected to a political party. The LT leader is MDI chief, Professor Hafiz
Mohammed Saeed. Almost all LT cadres are foreigners--mostly Pakistanis from
seminaries across the country and Afghan veterans of the Afghan wars. The LT
trains its militants in mobile training camps across Pakistan-administered
Kashmir and Afghanistan.
[1] Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Al Fatah
The PLO was founded in 1964 as a Palestinian nationalist umbrella
organization
committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. After the
1967
Arab-Israeli war, militia groups composing the PLO vied for control,
with Al
Fatah -- led by Yasser Arafat -- becoming dominant. Al Fatah joined the
PLO in
1968 and won the leadership role in 1969. In 1969 Arafat assumed the
position
of PLO Executive Committee chairman, a position he still holds. Al Fatah
essentially became the PLO, with other groups' influence on PLO actions
increasingly marginalized. Al Fatah and other PLO components were
pushed out
of Jordan following clashes with Jordanian forces in 1970-71. The
Israeli
invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the group's dispersal to several
Middle
Eastern countries, including Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and others.
The PLO maintains several military and intelligence wings that have
carried out
terrorist attacks, including Force 17 and the Western Sector. Two of its
leaders, Abu Jihad and Abu Iyad, were assassinated in recent years. In
the
1960s and the 1970s, Al Fatah offered training to a wide range of
European, Middle
Eastern, Asian, and African terrorist and insurgent groups and carried
out
numerous acts of international terrorism in Western Europe and the
Middle East
in the early-to-middle 1970s. Arafat signed the Declaration of
Principles (DOP)
with Israel in 1993 -- the Oslo Accords -- and renounced terrorism and
violence.
The organization fragmented in the early 1980s, but remained the leading
Palestinian political organization. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, the
PLO --
read Al Fatah -- leadership assumed control of the nascent Palestinian
National
Authority (PNA).
[2] Political versus Fundamentalist Islam
Political Islam, as opposed to fundamentalist or neo-fundamentalist Islam,
posits a worldview that can deal with and selectively integrate modernity. In
contrast, fundamentalist Islam calls for a return to an ontological form of
Islam that rejects modernity; groups such as Al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad are representative of fundamentalist Islam.
[3] A Note on State Sponsors of Religious Terror Groups
Unlike the "secular" national, radical, anarchist terrorism sponsored by states
such as Libya, Syria, Iraq, Cuba, North Korea, and behind the scenes by the
former Soviet camp, most of the Islamic terrorist groups have never been
sponsored by states. Many Egyptian organizations emerged from the Egyptian
domestic landscape. Algerian groups likewise were not sponsored by foreign
states. Hezbollah certainly can be viewed as an Iranian surrogate, but other
movements, while open to state assistance, remain operationally and
ideologically independent.
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