Terrorism Violence & threats to intimidate groups or

government Mostly organized groups

Ex: Al Qaeda and The Taliban

Reasons Reasons for terrorist attacks:

Religion Race Political Change To eliminate opposition

Think About It: What might be some other reasons for terrorists to attack?

Examples Hijackings Kidnappings Bombings Random civilian killings

History Religious roots in Middle East

Examples of Groups: Sicari Zealots Thagee

Each killed random people for either money, or for “gods”

Sicari Dagger

History (contd) Got the name “terrorism” in the French

Revolution (“Reign of Terror”) Revolution leader murdered over 40,000 citizens Can also trigger big events

Ex: Assassination of Austrian Leader Ferdinand to start World War I

New Terrorism Vs. Old Terrorism

• Focus on killing innocent civilians to make a point

• Use hijackings, assassinations, and suicide bombs

• Attack for political change, or those who don’t follow their beliefs

• Rarely mass murdered

• Focused on material damage, not lives

• Only used occasional threats and simple acts of violence

•Ruthless in attacks and hatred of specific targets

•Older groups have developed, but still have same goals and ideas

Modern Terrorism Why They Do It

Do it to overthrow national governments make national or global statements Remove forces from country Remove ways of life from country

Also have new targets Used to target buildings: now target humans as well as buildings

Think About It: Why do you think the terrorists have changed over the years?

Reasons For New Terrorism Promote fear and danger of group Make known group’s dominance in politics

and religion, especially Islamics

The Middle East Why it has become “terrorist center of the

world” Close ties, originated there millions of years ago Former/newer attacks assosciated with it

Think About It: What are some other possible reasons why the Middle East is still rooted with terrorism? What is an example of a deadly modern day group located there now?

Middle East Countries/people involved:

Iraq Iran Libya Syria Al Qaeda Osama bin Laden

Major Terrorist GroupsNational Liberation Army

Columbia

1965

Goal- replace government with Marxist regime

3000- 6000 members

Irish Republican Army

Ireland

1969

Goal- remove British forces from Northern Ireland and unify Ireland

Several hundred members: thousands of sympathizers

Peru’s Shining Path

Peru

1960’s

Goal- Replace current democratic government with communist rule

100- 200 armed members

Osama bin Laden

OSAMA BIN LADEN

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1959

Son of a rich businessman; part of very wealthy/ influential family

Soon financed and became leader of Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda:

Public statements showed religious extremismHate for existing

Arab regimes

Hostility for U.S. dominance

On FBI Top Ten Most Wanted list

Al Qaeda Formed by bin Laden in late 1980’s

Based in Afghanistan Several hundred to thousand members Goal- overthrow “non-Islamics” and eliminate

western influence from Muslim countries

Al Qaeda Some famous global attacks

U.S. embassy bombing in Africa on August 7, 1998

Truck bomb exploding under World Trade Center in 1993

Al Qaeda New Al Qaeda terrorist movement has:

Cause Network Not confined to one country Very willing to commit suicide

Al Qaeda Al Qaeda factors of terrorism

Unofficial character claiming to be “upsurge of public opinion

Belief that violent acts on public figures will influence politics

Involved in attacking innocent civilians Underestimated disgust of ordinary people

9/11 Terrorism Attacks Carried out by Al Qaeda

Linked to Afghanistan; global threat

Led by Osama bin Laden Mastermind behind all attacks on Sept. 11

9/11 Terrorism Attacks Four American planes hijacked on morning

of Sept. 11, 2001 19 Al Qaeda member

WTC 2 collapsed 56 min. after crash WTC 1 after 102 min. of burning

Think About It: Why do you think the Al Qaeda terrorists chose to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon? Where else could they have targeted?

9/11 Terrorism Attacks Other plane crashes:

One in Pentagon 184 deaths

One in Shanksville, PA Passengers on plane purposely crash into ground

once determined to be hijacked

9/11 Terrorism Attacks Almost 3000 died

Every passenger on all four flights died 2752 died in WTC buildings in NYC 184 died in Pentagon in VA 40 die in plane crash in PA

9/11 Terrorism Attacks After crashes:

Government issued “ War on Terrorism” Leads to invasion of Afghanistan and overthrow of Taliban Then leads to invasion of Iraq, though no clear evidence to

connection with Al Qaeda Government agencies created: Department of Homeland

Security 22 other gov. agencies created TSA - Transportation Security Administration

Future of Terrorism Terrorist could obtain Nuclear bombs in near

future To make nuclear weapons terrorist only need

students to construct product Example of destruction: if a bomb the size of

a truck was put under WTC and went off could destroy lower Manhattan

As time goes on price may drop an easier-to-makes bombs could appear

Future of Terrorism Estimated terrorist could make a nuke for 100

million $ with somewhat small quantity of enriched uranium or pollution

Effects of nuclear weapons Weak big countries by bombing major cities, NYC,WDC Critically damage small countries Many countries are over protective about Nuclear

weapons, and act quickly

Think about it: What do you think could be some ways future terrorist could use these nuclear weapons?

Recent Attacks December 25, 2009 Plane bound for Detroit

Man-made bomb in pants Suffered severe burns

Went off: not as planned

After WWII and cold war many agreed to end biological and chemical weapon manufacturing

Types of future chemical warfare Chlorine gas Mustard gas Sarin Tabun

Types of future biological warfare The plague Q fever Small pox

Biological and Chemical Warfare

BIG QUESTION!

How do you think terrorism attacks like 9/11 have affected today’s world? How do you think we can stop attacks like this in the future?

VIDEO This video shows the horror of the 9/11

attacks and the falling of the Twin Towers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv4s3fn8jDc