TERRORISM: DC SNIPER

Terrorism: DC Sniper

Terrorism: DC Sniper

Introduction

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City were the first in a series of dramatic and destructive terrorist attacks in which Islamist extremists sought to coerce Western and pro-Western governments into changing at least some of their policies. Subsequently, there were major attacks in the United Kingdom, Spain, Algeria, Egypt, and Jordan by Islamist radicals. Thousands of people perished in the September 11 attacks alone, and hundreds died after trains were bombed in London and Madrid (Primoratz, 2004).

These attacks made terrorism a front-and-center issue in the United States and Western Europe, but terrorism has been a major concern for many decades in many different parts of the world. Israel, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan, for example, have also experienced serious terrorist incidents since the mid-1990s. Indeed, terrorism in various forms has existed for centuries. Perhaps the earliest organized terrorist movement was by the Zealots in the first century. The Zealots used public assassinations as a tactic for frightening Jewish residents into refusing to cooperate with the Roman occupiers of the Holy Lands (Waldron, 2004).

Terrorism was particularly widespread in 19th-century Europe. Anarchist and nationalist groups all resorted to violence against government officials and/or average citizens suspected of collaborating with the authorities. Anarchists sought to topple governments by killing key leaders-hoping that this would usher in an era of self-governance by the people themselves. Nationalists as far apart as Armenia (in the Ottoman Empire), Bosnia (in Austria-Hungary), and Ireland (in the British Empire) used violence against nonmilitary targets, including civilian infrastructure like the London subway, to do what the Zealots had attempted to do centuries earlier: compel an imperial power to withdraw and grant their territories independence. Terrorism is a highly contested concept with dozens of definitions, none of which are definitive. There is to date no globally agreed, unambiguous definition or description of terrorism. Indeed, recently, prominent legal scholars have questioned whether we ought to spend time worrying about precise definitional issues at all, except for specific legal purposes. Notwithstanding the hardships involved in pursuing a canonical definition of such a politically contested concept as terrorism, if we are to fruitfully pursue the timely moral, political, and legal issues regarding the changing character of modern warfare, we must first reach some understanding of what terrorism is. This paper provides a review of the debate regarding the definition of terrorism and presents historical examples of terrorism (DC sniper case) to provide context.

Discussion & Analysis

Terrorism: DC Sniper Case

Washington, DC metropolitan area residents were confronted with a heightened sense of vulnerability in the year leading up to the sniper crisis. On September 11th, 2001, during the worst terrorist attack to take place on American soil, the city became the target of two hijacked airplanes. Three weeks later, anthrax-laced letters mailed to federal government offices arrived, resulting in building closures, mass prophylaxis, and the death of several postal workers. Ever increasing security became the norm, including disruptive street closures and ...