...Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust in which 11 million people were killed and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this global conflicted resulted in an estimated 50 to 85 million casualties. This made World War II the deadliest conflict in all of human history and marked the rise in civilians as a target. Since then, civilians have become targets in many of the wars that followed; Vietnam war, Gulf war, Iraq war and the various civil wars in the middle east. World War II demonstrated an enormous shift in the technological capabilities of many countries which brought down death and destruction of the civilian populations. (1) Before World War II began, there were advances in military aviation which resulted in bombers capable of devastating cities from incredible heights, rendering anti-aircraft guns almost useless. When the war began, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the neutral United States, issued an appeal to the major belligerents of the war, to confine their air raids to military targets only. The England, France and Germany decided to agree with Roosevelt and Germany explained their reasons for the bombing of Warsaw as it was a fortified city. However after Germany broke their promise on the 14 May 1940, during the bombing of Rotterdam, the British changed their policy a day later and started conducting raids in the Ruhr Area, including oil plants and other civilian industrial...
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... whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_terrorism Terrorism has become a global threat and is not just confined to the theatre of war, it is also not only targeted at nations involved in those conflicts like the United States (9/11) and Great Britain (the July 7 London Bombings) but also with any nation and organization that is seen as an ally of such nations. ESICS Briefing on THE TERRORISM THREAT LINKED TO THE LIBYAN CRISIS states “obviously on the top of the list of likely targets for Colonel Gaddafi are the United Kingdom and France, they are closely followed by the United States (an old and usual enemy of Libya but also by the Arab countries taking part in the coalition, every single national participating in the operations could be seen as a legitimate target.” In stating this the point that I am making is, although , we must take into concideration that Current Situation: STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT Emerging Terrorist Networks “As al-Qaeda has syndicated its ideology and violence, its affiliates and adherents in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula...
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...Command of Bomber Harris ASSESSMENT Assessor: Richard Martin Mark: Comments: UNSHAKEABLE FAITH: THE FLAWED COMMAND OF BOMBER HARRIS INTRODUCTION This research paper will focus on Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris’ wartime command of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Bomber Command from 1942-1945. This analysis will utilize Dr. Ross Pigeau and Carol McCann’s model to evaluate the dimensions relating to Harris’ Competency, Authority and Responsibility (CAR) and to assess the overall balance and effectiveness of Harris’ command. The CAR model was deemed most suitable to dissect pertinent aspects of this complex and controversial commander, allowing for the necessary depth of analysis into his abilities, responsibilities, beliefs, actions and reactions over a specific timeframe. This paper will illustrate that Harris, although highly skilled in many areas and having demonstrated impressive successes at the helm of Bomber Command, had a singular and seemingly intractable approach to war – to obliterate Germany’s war production capacity by area bombing its cities. This inflexible approach inhibited his ability to see the bigger picture with any measure of objectivity and was the Achilles Heel of his leadership, limiting his command capability and resulting in an abuse of his authority -- and ultimately, having a detrimental effect on the Allied offensive. His unshakeable faith became a measure of “obstinacy and...
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...To what extent can the bombing of Dresden (1945) be perceived as a war crime according to international law today? The analysis that is set out hereafter presents the case that there is a strong argument that the Dresden bombing CAN be perceived as a war crime. There have always been elements of controversy attached to it for a few important reasons with the main issue of concern being why this city was chosen as a target after five years of war. Some of the reasons proffered are as follows: a) The city was part of Nazi Germany and therefore could be legitimately attacked in the ordinary scheme of things. The Allied forces were after all at war with Nazi Germany b) There was the belief that the city was being used under the cover of...
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...Project 2: Research Plan and Introduction Susan Palmer Southern New Hampshire University Research Plan Research Question 1: How serious are the health issues of the current survivors? Research Question 2: “What were the health effects of the atomic bombings on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?” Secondary Sources: Sigal, L. (1978). Bureaucratic Politics & Tactical Use of Committees: The Interim Committee & the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Polity, 10(3), 326-364. doi:10.2307/3234412 Miles, R. E., Jr. (1985). Hiroshima: The Strange Myth of Half a Million American Lives Saved. International Security 10(2), 121-140. The MIT Press. Retrieved from Project MUSE database. Historical Context: The strange...
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...3 COUNTERTERRORISM EVOLVES In chapte r 2, we described the growth of a new kind of terrorism, and a new terrorist organization—especially from 1988 to 1998, when Usama Bin Ladin declared war and organized the bombing of two U.S. embassies. In this chapter, we trace the parallel evolution of government efforts to counter terrorism by Islamic extremists against the United States. We mention many personalities in this report. As in any study of the U.S. government, some of the most important characters are institutions. We will introduce various agencies, and how they adapted to a new kind of terrorism. 3.1 FROM THE OLD TERRORISM TO THE NEW: THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING At 18 minutes after noon on February 26, 1993, a huge bomb went off beneath the two towers of the World Trade Center.This was not a suicide attack.The terrorists parked a truck bomb with a timing device on Level B-2 of the underground garage, then departed.The ensuing explosion opened a hole seven stories up. Six people died. More than a thousand were injured. An FBI agent at the scene described the relatively low number of fatalities as a miracle.1 President Bill Clinton ordered his National Security Council to coordinate the response. Government agencies swung into action to find the culprits.The Counterterrorist Center located at the CIA combed its files and queried sources around the world. The National Security Agency (NSA), the huge Defense Department signals collection agency, ramped up its communications...
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...The History of Terrorism This comprehensive description for the history of terrorism analysis provides insight into the French and Russian revolutions expanding the terrorism knowledge to the Irish revolutionaries for political changes. The change of faces in terrorism activities shows as the left wing extremists slowly faded away with the collapse of the communism. The modern right wing extremist have an old history of using religious aspects as an excuse for killing innocent people to gain the political advantages. The future of terrorism takes a newer turn with the introduction for the weapons of mass destruction causing deaths of millions of innocents for the terrorist's statement, and mission. The development of the Department of Homeland Security and United States Patriot Act helped the Intelligence community, government agencies, and law enforcement departments provide viable information toward modern terrorism tactics. The fight for everlasting freedom becomes a combination of information resources working together toward the same objectives. Terrorism Phenomenon According to Jacqueline Carberry (1999), "the global terrorism phenomenon used for political aspirations, sometimes as freedom from oppression, and changing of governmental politics" (685). This phenomenon affects everyone in any city in the United States, and international world. The term terrorism has no boundaries or respect for the national and international world. Every government across the global community...
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...Osama bin Laden (on video) “The acme of this religion is jihad.” — Osama bin Laden (Bergen, 2001, p. 41) Many have asked, “what can we do to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)? ” There have been a variety of suggestions from airstrikes, isolation , establishing a national unity government in Iraq to the feasibility of a counter-offensive using 'local' militia's and only as a last resort U.S. Boots on the ground. These are all worthy ideas; however, it is imperative to get a fundamental understanding of what has caused this problem because ISIS is growing and becoming stronger (even though current air strikes and counter-offensives have been successful). Before a decision can be made a rigorous analysis is necessary, a sociological analysis, so that the United States and the rest of the world can determine what must be done regarding ISIS and why. (Thesis): This paper will argue that the challenge of removing IS lies in our ability to understand and realize that the terror group’s appeal is not its alleged goal of a regression to the glorious past of Islam (as Armstrong put it), nor that Islam is the fundamental cause of this anomaly, but that ISIS's appeal is, as Dorsey and Ali state, “...the opportunity it offers the socially, economically...
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...Cyber terrorism Assignment #10 6/15/2012 TS 5999 Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………2 Introduction…………………………………………………..3 What is Cyberterrorism?....................................................3-4 History…………………………………………………………4 Examples of cyberterrorism…………………………………4-6 Level of cyber terror capability ……………………………..6 Figure 1……………………………………………………….7 Prevention of cyberterrorism……………………………….7-8 Conclusion ……………………………………………………..8 Reference ……………………………………………………...9-10 Abstract Cyberterrorism has increasing become one of the most significant threats nationally and internationally. Being that the internet makes it easier for terrorist to communicate, organize terrorist cells, share information, plan attacks; the internet also is used to cyber terrorist acts. Since the September 11th terror attacks on the US, American have remained on high alert for possibly another terror attack. The government has many action plans ready in the event that they get wind of another attack or an attack happens. Law enforcement has received training in terrorism prevention and detection techniques, granted terrorist are always looking for ways to improve their methods of attack. This paper will look at all the different aspects of cyberterrorism and review the different cases of cyberterrorism nationally and internationally. Introduction The use of computers and the internet have been an important part of our daily lives. Computers and the internet makes...
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...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-terrorism Counter-terrorism (also spelled counterterrorism) is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed. The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments. Not all insurgents use terror as a tactic, and some choose not to use it because other tactics work better for them in a particular context. Individuals, such as Timothy McVeigh, may also engage in terrorist acts such as the Oklahoma City bombing. If the terrorism is part of a broader insurgency, counter-terrorism may also form a part of a counter-insurgency doctrine, but political, economic, and other measures may focus more on the insurgency than the specific acts of terror. Foreign internal defense (FID) is a term used by several countries[citation needed] for programs either to suppress insurgency, or reduce the conditions under which insurgency could develop. Counter-terrorism includes both the detection of potential acts and the response to related events. Anti-terrorism versus counter-terrorism Further information: Detentions following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack The concept of anti-terrorism emerges from a thorough examining of the concept of terrorism as well as an attempt to understand and articulate what constitutes terrorism in Western terms. In military contexts, terrorism is a...
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...ISRAELI TARGETED KILLINGS Sarah Arrasmith INTL 614 - Assassination October 25, 2014 "Consequently, today's threat is just a real from seven thousand miles away as it is from ten feet away," Michelle Mallette-Piasecki, Albany Law Review, 2013. In 1995, Yahya 'Ayyash, otherwise known as "The Engineer," and an expert terror planner for Hamas, answered his last phone call. The Israelis had laden the phone with explosives and detonated while he was carrying it ( Luft, 2003, 2). In that same year Fathi Shiqaqi, the spearhead of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who had organized several suicide bombings against Israelis, received fatal gunshot wounds by Mossad, the often mythical Israeli Intelligence (Luft, 2003, 2). These were not the first nor last targeted killings performed by the State of Israel yet are signatures of Israel's propensity and tenacity to not fall victim to terror attacks. The history of violence and threats inflicted by terror groups and nations against the state of Israel has lead to Israel's development of tenacious military and intelligence capabilities. Due to its geopolitical disadvantage, Israel must utilize aggressive and resilient tactics against terror groups, state, and non-state actors. Are targeted killings a necessary resort? Are other enforcement and intelligence strategies just as effective? Israel has propagated targeted killings as effective and credits this action with saving more lives of the innocent while reducing terrorist incidents...
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...Terrorism came from the word of ‘terror’ which mean to horror and to fear. There is no specific definition about the meaning of terrorism. This is because the field that related inside terrorism is very wide and there are over 100 definitions of ‘terrorism’ according to studies. Terrorism have been existed for many years as a global phenomenon, but only in few decades ago that it has been getting stronger and to influence our daily lives with any costs. In our report, we will explain more details about the relationship of terrorism and transportation. Transportation has always been a target or method for terrorism to transfer their message to the public. While transportation keeps economic moving, nationally and globally, business relies on transport and transport systems at every level no matter transferring goods, transporting customers or staff commuting. From jet airliners to mass transit buses and rail terminals, vehicles and transport facilities are all-too familiar targets of terrorist attacks in all country and abroad. The impact of large-scale disruption of transport infrastructures can be critical for national and global business because transport systems have long been viewed as targets for terrorists groups worldwide. Also we will elaborate more on how terrorism can be spread or being use through the four methods of transportation like rail, road, aviation and maritime. For the incident strikes on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York on September 11, 2001,...
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...section looks at the modern Islamic Fundamentalist threat and the primarily neocon response since 9/11. Whilst the US has withdrawn combat forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, a bipartisan approach has been maintained to counterterrorism. The dangers of such an approach are examined along with emerging threats. Table of Contents * Abstract * Introduction * Define * Role of the Media * Psychology * Modern Terrorism * The Response * Counterview – The Dangers * Looking Ahead – The Next Potential Threats * Another Approach * Conclusion INTRODUCTION “Terrorism has become part of our daily news diet. Hardly a day goes by without news of an assassination, political kidnapping, hijacking or bombing somewhere in the world. As such, incidents of terrorism have increased in the past decade, the phenomenon of terrorism has become one of increasing concern to governments....” Introduction. With the recent high profile terrorist attacks in Sydney and Paris and the ongoing terrorist incidents in Nigeria, Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism has been described as the biggest threat to 21st Century security. However the opening quote was from a RAND paper written in 1980. Terrorism is not a modern phenomenon. Historic Precedence. Terror as a tactic is not new. Some scholars date such actions to the Thugs; Assassins and Zealots. But it...
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...the new operational environment as “complex.”1 To some, this characterization may seem to imply that the socio-political and socio-cultural operational environments in which military forces had to operate previously were not complex; that the operational environments in which such conflicts as the American Civil War, World War I or II, or Vietnam were fought were simpler. Irrespective, the reason the now somewhat voguish term complex may have gained its current ascendancy in the lexicon is that it expiates semantically the frustration strategists and policy makers feel toward pesky conflicts not only in Iraq and Afghanistan waged by resilient adversaries, but emerging conflagrations throughout the Middle East and Africa led by stateless entities such as Al Qaida and the Islamic State that they have not been able to effectively contain. Consequently, policy befuddlement over the seeming intractability of such conflicts and policy failure to deal effectively with them is exculpated by their ‘complexity.’ At this writing, the doctrinal military solutions for dealing with so-called complex environments have settled uneasily on the foundations of relatively recent wartime...
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...on the circumstances. But the key constant to the question is, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear/terror, are perpetrated for an ideological/political goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of civilian targets. The first section of this paper will deal with both views of the changing face of terrorism from pre 9/11, to post 9/11, and to the present day. The next section of this paper will discuss the variables of why terrorism has changed. In conclusion this paper will summarize the study of the changing face in terrorism. Throughout this paper there will be historical facts, evidence, theories, and analysis to support my argument how terrorism has changed over time. The language of terrorism that we, as Americans read it as, on September 11, 2001, two American airplanes flew into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon, while yet another suspiciously crashed in a deserted Pennsylvania field. Blasted on our television screens across America, were images of fire, destruction, chaos and death. Framed in colors of red, white and blue, were news headlines such as “The Attack Against America” But the opposing statement always used is “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” The individuals who flew the airplanes into the World Trade Center and another into the...
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