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No event in American history touched the nation or the world more than the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. The destruction caused by 19 hijackers who flew three of four planes into buildings (the fourth never reached its target thanks to passengers who overwhelmed the hijackers), and the loss of more than 3,000 lives, drove home to the United States the true horrors of terrorism.
Yet, terrorism on American soil is not unknown. In fact, the same World Trade Center that was destroyed in 2001 had been the victim of a terrorist attack in 1993. Miraculously, only six people died in that attack, but the damage to the Twin Towers was significant. Moreover, not all terrorism is caused by foreign operatives. The destruction of a government office building in Oklahoma City in 1995 was the work of a former U.S. soldier. And so-called "ecoterrorists" have destroyed buildings and businesses in the name of saving the environment.
The American Heritage College Dictionary defines terrorism as "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Most terrorists are determined to use force and violence almost always without warning and often indiscriminately. Most governments and societies neither condone terrorism nor capitulate to it; yet, attacks still occur. For that reason, society must find ways to protect itself. The question of how to do this is not easy to answer, but failing to address it will not make terrorism go away.
Terrorism can reach the public in a number of ways:
The element of fear is what makes terrorism so difficult to tackle. Once a community has been victimized by a terrorist attack, people become fearful that more attacks will occur. Societies that fall prey to numerous terrorist attacks often develop a sense of resignation, going about their daily business despite any potential danger. For a community that experiences terrorism for the first time, or isolated incidents of terrorism, fear comes from another key element: surprise.
Political and anti-government activism is nothing new in the United States. In 1886, eight labor radicals bombed Haymarket Square in Chicago, killing seven and injuring 70. Labor radicals in 1910 were also responsible for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in California, which killed 20. Anarchists were suspected when a bomb went off on Wall Street in New York City in 1920. The blast killed 34 people and injured more than 200.
Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were infamous for terrorizing individuals during the twentieth century. In 1963, four Klan members exploded a bomb in a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young black girls.
In 1970, anti-war protesters attacked the University of Wisconsin's campus in Madison, killing one person and damaging more than 50 buildings. During the 1970s and 1980s, Puerto Rican nationalist groups claimed responsibility for several bombings, including one at New York's Fraunces Tavern in 1975 that killed four people.
Many consider assassinations as terrorism, depending on the assassin's reason for committing the crime. Two Presidential assassinations could be considered acts of terrorism: Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 at the hands of Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, and William McKinley in September 1901 at the hands of anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
Until the September 11 bombings, the April 1993 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was the most deadly terrorist attack on American soil. The bombing killed 168 people; several victims were children because there was a day care center in the building. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was a Gulf War veteran who claimed his act was one of revenge on the U.S. government for killing members of a fringe militia group in Waco, Texas.
There are numerous environmental groups and animal rights groups whose work and commitment to fostering better understanding about their issues is above reproach. Unfortunately, there are also extremist groups whose goal, far from fostering understanding, is to coerce the public into accepting their beliefs. Two such groups, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have engaged for several years in "eco-terrorism"—acts of arson for the purpose of destroying targets including meat-packing companies, timber companies, ski resorts, and private residences. Federal investigators estimate that groups like ELF and ALF may be responsible for as many as 1,200 such crimes for the period 1990–2004.
Typically, these groups fashion incendiary devices using flammable liquids and other fuels, which they set on timers and use to destroy buildings. Their targets are chosen on the basis of the damage they believe those targets are doing to the environment. For example, destroying the offices of a timber company could save trees, and destroying a meat-packing plant could save cattle. Destroying large private homes, they reason further, keep people from moving into pristine areas and harming the environment.
In January 2006, eleven suspected arsonists were indicted on charges of arson, sabotage, and conspiracy. They were allegedly responsible for seventeen incidents over a five-year period from 1996 to 2001. What makes suspects like these difficult to find and
On October 26, 2001, just weeks after the September 11 attacks, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). which gave the government greater ability to seek out for and combat terrorist activity in the United States.
The PATRIOT Act grants the Secretary of the Treasury with new regulatory powers to fight money laundering from foreign countries in U.S. banks; secures national borders against foreign nationals who are terrorists or who support terrorism; eases restrictions on interception and surveillance of correspondence and communication that may link to terrorist activity; stiffens penalties against money laundering, counterfeiting, charity fraud, and similar crimes; and creates new crimes and penalties for such acts as harboring terrorists and giving terrorists material support.
Civil liberties groups complained that the PATRIOT Act granted the federal government too much power to investigate innocent people or to track private records. Section 215 of the Act, which gives the FBI permission to examine business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations, has been called the "library provision" because some have read it to mean that libraries will be required to turn over lists of who has checked out which books.
As of the end of 2005 certain provisions of the PATRIOT Act were slated to sunset by February 2006, although members of Congress were planning to seek renewal or compromise on certain sections that were controversial, such as Section 215.
Efforts such as the PATRIOT Act illustrate part of the difficulty of confronting terrorism. On the one hand, people want to feel safe in their own communities, not fearful that their lives are in constant danger. Many people believe that safety is so important that putting some minor constraints on personal freedom is worth the price. On the other hand, many people feel that the short-term gains of giving up some freedom could have a long-term impact because there is no guarantee that other freedoms could not be compromised. In the end, it is a matter of striking a balance that provides safety without taking away the rights of the innocent.
After the September 11 attacks, the Bush Administration decided to take definitive domestic action by revamping its security apparatus. President George W. Bush believed that one way to make the nation safer from future attacks was to streamline the government structure by combining several departments under one umbrella cabinet-level organization, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Bush proposed the new agency in June 2002, and it was created in March 2003. The first Secretary of Homeland Security was former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge.
Among the government agencies that were gathered under the Homeland Security umbrella were the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, the Office for Domestic Preparedness, the Environmental Measurements Laboratory, and the Nuclear Incident Research Team. The Secret Service and the U.S. Coast Guard were also located in the Department of Homeland Security, although remaining intact as agencies.
DHS developed a six-point agenda to ensure that its "policies, operations, and structures are aligned in the best way to address the potential threats—both present and future—that face our nation." The department's's agenda includes:
An example of DHS's proactive agenda is its work with other cabinet agencies to make the nation's borders more secure. DHS worked with the State Department and the Department of Justice to create the Terrorist Screening Center, which coordinates terrorist watchlist information across all government agencies, thus making it harder for potential terrorists to sneak into the U.S. as ordinary tourists. Tied to this is the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center, which aims to thwart human smugglers, traffickers, and those who facilitate terrorist travel. DHS and the State Department have reached out to foreign governments to assist in creating an exchange of watchlists and other information that could curb terrorist travel. While screening terrorists out is important, so is tourism and business and educational travel. DHS has recommended extending the length of student visas from 90 days to 120 days and to allow students to enter the country 45 days before their studies begin instead of 30 days. Also DHS worked with the State department to streamline the application process for business and temporary worker visas. A new Business Visa Center helps U.S. businesses that have upcoming travel or events that require people to travel to the United States. At American embassies and consulates in more than 100 countries, DHS has worked to expedite business visas, in part wit the help of local Chambers of Commerce.
As with the PATRIOT Act, there have been critics of DHS's procedures and progress. Systems that were meant to streamline travel have sometimes made travel, even domestic travel, more problematic. The five-color Alert System, meant to let citizens know the current terror threat level based on possible terrorist activity, did not move the public to feel more secure; a disaster readiness program that advocated the use of duct tape to seal windows against poisons likewise did not encourage the public. Yet DHS also introduced US-VISIT, which screens foreign passengers through an integrated database system that spits individuals with criminal histories or possible terrorist connections. From the beginning of 2004 to the end of 2005, more than 45 million people were processed through US-VISIT, more than 970 were intercepted based on their data, and no terrorist attacks took place on U.S. soil.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation enforces antiterrorist action through its Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). As of the end of 2005 there were 100 JTTFs throughout the United States; sixty-five of them were created after the September 11 attacks. The JTTF includes more that 3,700 law enforcement and investigative specialists including FBI agents, state and local law enforcement officers, and professionals (including analysts, diplomats, and linguists) from other agencies including DHS and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Begun in New York in 1980, the JTTF program helps find and break up terrorist cells, trace sources of terrorist funding, and investigate potential terrorist threats.
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is in charge of integrating and analyzing counterterrorism intelligence. It works much line the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in that it comprises employees of several cabinet departments plus the FBI, the CIA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Capitol Police.
Individuals who want information about terrorism and the government's efforts at battling terrorist activities can find additional information at the DHS web site (www.dhs.gov) the FBI web site (www.fbi.gov) and the NCTC web site (www.nctc.gov)
At War with Civil Rights and Liberties, Thomas E. Baker and John F. Stack, Jr., eds. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
In the Name of Terrorism: Presidents on Political Violence in the Post-World War II Era, Carol K. Winkler, State University of New York Press, 2006.
The 9/11 Commission Report: Authorized Version, W.W. Norton, 2004.
J. Edgar Hoover Building, 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20535 USA
Phone: (202) 324-3000
URL: http://www.fbi.gov
Primary Contact: Robert Mueller, Director
Washington, DC 20528 USA
Phone: (202) 282-8000
URL: http://www.dhs.gov
Primary Contact: Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530 USA
Phone: (202) 514-2000
URL: http://www.usdoj.gov
Primary Contact: Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General
