Terrorism Essay -- essays research papers

Terrorism and hostage taking may be as old as civilization itself. There are numerous references to abduction throughout Greek mythology. In midievil times hostages were taken for money or a guaranteed safe passage through a country. In the U.S., Indians on the western frontier terrorized settlers to frighten them away. Throughout the twentieth century, up until the 1970’s various terrorist acts were committed, yet it was not as big a problem as it is today. The new age of terrorism dawned at 4:30 in the morning of September 5, 1972. It was then that members of the Palestinian organization Black September attacked the Isreali Olympic team. Three men were killed on the spot and nine were taken captive. The terrorists demanded that 200 of their fellow Arabs be released from Isreali prisons. They also wanted Isreal disbanded and its territory returned to the Palestinian people. The results of the Munich attack were tragic. Following a gun battle between German sharpshooters and t he terrorists, which killed one German policeman, all nine hostages and five of the terrorists were killed by a hand grenade. The events at Munich proved that a single terrorist action, cleverly planned and daringly executed by a small band of people could accomplish as much as the movement of a large army. That is why the Munich attack was the dawn of a new age of terrorism. From the point of view of the terrorists, the main goal of the Munich attack was to draw attention to the Palestinian cause, a goal that was achieved through media coverage. This accomplishment was a lesson that terrorists everywhere were quick to learn. This is widely shown in that the number of terrorist acts has generally risen, with a trend toward bloodier incidents. The accumulation of terrorist attacks on innocent civilians has caused many changes around the world. There have been thousands of instances of terrorism. Just a few statistics can give one the idea of the seriousness of the problem. Robert Cla rke from the National Security Council put it perfectly when he said "organized crime groups now posses such significant resources that they can almost buy and sell governments" (Morrison 6). The Department of defense estimates that as many as 26 nations may posses chemical agents and or weapons and an additional twelve may be seeking to develop them. Between 1970 and 1977, terrorist movements thr... ...at the problem of terrorism. These new policies have clearly changed many routines and spending of money. Programs have been set up, thousands of people have been hired, and billions of dollars have been spent in order to reduce terrorism around the world. In the past decade, over 18,000 individuals in 50 nations gave been trained in counter terrorism. The U.S. alone gas trained more than 19,000 foreign law enforcement officials from more than 80 countries in such areas such as airport security, bomb detection, maritime security, VIP protection, hostage and rescue, and crisis management. The FBI is moving to reassign 500 of its agents to counter terrorism duty. It is also dramatically expanding its presence overseas. Along with hiring thousands of individuals to counter terrorism duty, governments have set up hundreds of programs to help gain intelligence. Anti-terrorism funding has been boosted by one billion dollars in over four years. In 1986, the Counter-Terrorism Center was set up to collect data about and coordinate strategies toward terrorist groups. In 1985, President Reagan set up a cabinet level commission, known as the Vice President’s Task Force on Combating Terrorism.