Protection against terrorist attacks
The incidents have been grouped in two basic categories, terrorist or criminal. protection against terrorist attacks Bali-terrorism. There were 282 terrorist cases (54 percent) and 238 criminal cases (46 percent). We define terrorism as "the instrumental use or threatened use of violence by an organization or individual against innocent civilian targets in furtherance of a political, religious, or ideological objective. " Criminal incidents, in contrast, involve extortion, murder, or some other non-political objective. protection against terrorist attacks Terrorism and religion. They are not addressed in this article. Of the 282 incidents grouped in the terrorist category, 263 were selected for analysis because they contained sufficient information to permit cross-case comparison. While most of these incidents took place overseas, 40 percent occurred in the United States. protection against terrorist attacks Protection against terrorist attacks. Contrary to the conventional wisdom about the catastrophic nature of chemical and biological terrorism, actual attacks were few in number, small in scale, and generally produced fewer casualties than conventional bombs. A breakdown of the 263 cases between 1900 and last May is eye-opening: 26 percent were hoaxes or pranks, eight percent involved an apparent conspiracy that did not proceed far, four percent involved the attempted acquisition of dangerous materials, 10 percent involved the actual possession of dangerous materials, 21 percent concerned a threatened attack that did not materialize, and only 27 percent (71 incidents) included the actual use of a chemical or biological agent. Of the actual attacks, 83 percent (59) occurred outside the United States. The largest number of incidents took place in 1995 (16, all non-U. S. ) and in 1998 (15, one-third in the United States). In very few cases did the perpetrators seek to inflict mass casualties-defined as 1,000 or more deaths-and in none did they occur. Among the 71 actual attacks-and again, the coverage is global and the timeframe is 1900 to May of this year-the choice of agent and method of delivery varied considerably. Chemical agents employed included cyanide (by far the most popular), rat poison, VX nerve agent, sarin nerve agent, butyric acid, mercury, and insecticide. Biological agents included anthrax, botulinum toxin, salmonella bacteria, and the HIV virus. The 71 attacks produced 123 fatalities and 3,774 injuries. Of these totals, the sole U. S. fatality was caused by the use of cyanide-tipped bullets by the Symbionese Liberation Army to assassinate an Oakland, California school superintendent in 1973. The foreign incidents that inflicted the largest numbers of fatalities were the contamination of drinking water with pesticide by an unknown terrorist group in the Philippines in 1987, causing 19 deaths among new recruits to the Philippine Constabulary on the island of Mindanao, and the use of an unknown poison gas against a Turkish village in 1994, possibly by Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) terrorists, causing 21 deaths. Of the nonfatal casualties, 1,038 were associated with Aum Shinrikyo's release of sarin nerve agent on the Tokyo subway in 1995. 4To date, incidents of chemical or biological terrorism in the United States have inflicted a total of 784 nonfatal injuries, of which 751 were associated with the Rajneeshee food poisoning case. Other major U. S. incidents involving casualties include the 1989 delivery by racial extremists of a package containing a tear-gas bomb to the Atlanta office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which injured eight; and attacks with butyric acid against abortion clinics in Houston and Florida in 1998, injuring 14 people. Many of the terrorists implicated in the 71 actual attacks were not traditional terrorist organizations like the Irish Republican Army. Twenty-four attacks were perpetrated by religiously motivated groups, 15 by nationalist-separatist groups, and 12 by single-issue groups such as anti-abortion or animal-rights advocates. The rest were committed by lone terrorists, right-wing or left-wing groups, and unknown actors. What factors might account for these patterns? Historically, traditional terrorist organizations have eschewed chemical or biological agents for several reasons, including unfamiliarity with the relevant technologies, the hazards and unpredictability of toxic agents, moral constraints, concern that indiscriminate casualties could alienate current or future supporters, and fear that a mass-casualty attack could bring down the full repressive power of the affected government on their heads. In contrast, individuals and nontraditional groups that have sought to acquire chemical or biological agents tend to be motivated by religious fanaticism, supremacist or anti-government ideology, or millenarian prophecy, and they often have a paranoid, conspiratorial worldview. Such individuals and groups may view chemical or biological terrorism as a means to destroy a corrupt social structure, to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy, to exact revenge against evil-doers or oppressors, or as a form of "defensive aggression" against outsiders seen as threats to the group's survival. Terrorists who contemplate chemical or biological attacks typically lack outside supporters or other moderating influences that might restrain them from engaging in indiscriminate violence. Religiously motivated cults, for example, are cut off from the outside world and are often guided by a charismatic and all-powerful leader, making them less subject to societal norms. Most of the incidents of chemical or biological terrorism in the United States were grossly ill- conceived and ineffective. Two typical examples: In 1972, an ecoterrorist group called R. I. S. E. . , led by two students at a community college in Chicago, plotted to wipe out the entire human race with eight different microbial pathogens and then repopulate the world with their own genes. Their initial scheme was to use aircraft to disperse the disease agents on a global basis, but they eventually scaled down their vision to killing the residents of the five states around Chicago by contaminating urban water supplies. Group members informed the FBI about the plot before it could be carried out, however, and the two ringleaders fled to Cuba. In 1986, a white supremacist Christian Identity group known as the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord sought to overthrow the federal government and hasten the return of the Messiah. They acquired 30 gallons of potassium cyanide to poison urban water supplies, believing that God would direct the poison to kill only the targeted individuals-nonbelievers, Jews, and blacks living in major cities. Before they could act, however, the FBI penetrated the group and arrested its leaders. Why toxic weapons?What specific factors might motivate terrorists to employ chemical or biological agents, as opposed to conventional guns and explosives? Although the desire to inflict mass casualties is one factor, there may be others. Bombs are appealing to terrorists because of the shock, drama, and cathartic effect of the explosion.
Protection against terrorist attacks
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