Terrorism - The United States As Terrorist Target

International terrorism, according to the State Department, "involves groups or individuals whose terrorist acts happen outside the US and/or are directed by groups outside the US, or whose activities transcend national boundaries."

The number of terrorist incidents in 1992 was a 35% drop from the previous year. Indeed, the 361 acts of terrorism that occurred that year were the lowest level recorded since 1985.

There was an increase in events in 1993. The State Department reports that the source of the increase was 150 attacks launched by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against Turkish interests. Without such attacks, the number of total incidents would have continued to fall. The year also saw the World Trade Center bombing in February, in which six were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The incident is considered international because of the political motivations of the attack and because the perpetrators were foreign nationals.

The number of attacks increased from 1994 to 1995, driven by attacks in Germany and by the PKK. Anti-U.S. attacks increased from 66 to 99. What might have sparked the increase? Several significant arrests and convictions of terrorists might have spurred their "brethren" on. Pakistan arrested and extradited Ramzi Usef to the United States. Ramzi was a key figure in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Jordan handed an accomplice of his, Eyad Mahmoud Ismail Najim, over to the U.S. Several important convictions took place that year as well, most notably of a group planning a series of bombings at the United Nations on Manhattan — and of Abd al-Rahman, a leader of an organization that had declared a "holy war" on America because it saw the U.S. as a threat to Islam.

What else? America's very presence in the Middle East has been a source of rage among some Arabs. U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia — on Islamic holy ground — is repeatedly cited as a source of the militants' anger. Some in the Middle East view the U.S.-Saudi relationship with very jaundiced eyes. The Saudi princes are thought to be venal and corrupt in many Arab circles. The United States' repeated backing of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian "relationship" is another source of conflict. Some people see their culture threatened by spreading American capitalism, culture, brands. In 1999, a farmer vandalized a McDonalds in France. He happened to be protesting high American taxes on Roquefort cheese, but that such an identifiable American brand as McDonalds should have been his target is something revealing in itself.

But Anti-American interests are elsewhere as well. Attacks against the U.S. surged 52% between 1998 and 1999. They were concentrated in Colombia, Greece, Nigeria, and Yemen, and were largely aimed at commercial interests and an oil pipeline.

In the year 2000, nearly half of all terrorist attacks were directed at the United States. The year 2001 would, of course, see a devastating attack upon our nation. As the world's last superpower, is this unavoidable?

Source: Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1989-2000. Retrieved September 10, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.fas.org.