TERRORISM AND TECHNOLOGY

Terrorism and Technology

Terrorism and Technology

Introduction

Terrorism is violence—or the threat of violence—used to achieve a political goal. It differs from war, which is a military action formally undertaken by a government. Terrorism may be carried out by individuals or groups that operate by stealth rather than by open assault. But governments also practice terrorism, sponsoring attacks against foreign states or individuals who are seen as enemies. Terrorism is a powerful weapon because it is unpredictable and is often aimed at civilian, or nonmilitary, targets. In most cases, the primary objectives of terrorists are to gain publicity and to spread fear. In addition, the terrorists' real targets are often not the immediate victims of the attacks, but the media, the government, or the population at large. (Babington, 2005)

Terrorist attacks range in scale. Some focus on a single individual, such as former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1978 by a group called the Red Brigades. Others involve large assaults, such as the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Terrorists have come from the ranks of revolutionaries, secret police, independence movements, and both leftist and rightist factions. Their goals have included silencing political opposition, overthrowing governments, making political statements, and advancing change. This paper discusses the use of Technology in modern day Terrorism.

Discussion

As the twenty-first century gets underway, various extremist movements in the United States are stressing the concept of "leaderless resistance" as a vehicle to advance their causes. Right-wing, animal rights, environmental, religious, and antiabortion extremists have all employed this tactic and will likely continue to do so.

Terrorists have a vast array of methods at their disposal. Conventional terrorist techniques, such as bombings and shootings, remain staples of the terrorists' arsenal. Firearms and explosives remain readily available throughout the world, and when combined with surprise and overwhelming force at the point of attack, they are still very potent. In addition, the vast amounts of chemicals available for sale in the civilian market may also be converted into instruments of death, such as Timothy McVeigh's use of a fertilizer to make a bomb which he used to destroy a federal building in Oklahoma Cit in 1995. (Segal, 2005)

New technologies are a threat as well. Nuclear terror may come in the form of nuclear weapons or radiological weapons. Both are destructive; both possess an ability to inflict fear, some experts suggest, in excess of their likely damage. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the loss of control of a nuclear weapon that could be sold on the black market remains a constant fear of intelligence agencies. The mere threat of terrorists releasing radioactive material in a large urban area possesses the potential to terrify large numbers of people. In addition, nuclear power plants are potential terrorist targets both for the damage inflicted in their destruction and the fear raised by the release of radioactive material.

Chemical weapons also threaten populations as tools of terror. Cheaper and more easily made than nuclear weapons, ...