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I wanted to say that my TLP project is on terrorism, and I am working with Stefano P. from Mr. Hide's class. I found three articles in BBC Newsround. First of all, I am going to tell you what terrorism is.
"Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation to achieve political ends."
Terrorists attempt to change the way the government thinks, and their plan is to terrorize people to behave the way they want them to.
There are several ways that terrorists attack. They have attacked with Anthrax, which was used in the United States in the year 2001. The terrorists sent a white powder containing anthrax in the U.S. mail system. Anthrax is formed naturally and it can kill people. Fortunately, only 22 people were infected and of those, only five were killed.
Terrorists also use bombs and car bombs frequently. Only one mere person with a bomb can scare a whole city. The terrorists usually place the bombs where there are lots of people, such as trains, planes, busses, public spaces, and important buildings. The timer triggers the bomb when the bomber has already fled the place. The picture in the top-right corner shows the effects of a bomb hidden in luggage in a plane. When terrorists plant bombs in cars or vans, etc., they are triggered by timer or even remote control.
Cyber terrorists are those that hack and place viruses on servers to overload the servers that store web pages. They usually commit frauds to steal money.
Hijackers usually take control of planes, boats, and busses to take hostages or use the vehicle as a weapon.
Terrorists also use envelopes in which, when opened, the letter explodes.
A mortar bomb is usually fired by a metallic pipe and flies a very short distance. These bombs can trigger with a timer and are cheap to make.
There are also suicide attackers, called kamikazes, that tie bombs to theirselves and walk up to the target to trigger the explosion. Kamikazes also use planes, cars, or other vehicles to crash into other planes or cars containing highly important people, or buildings. Even in wars they crash into other pilots.
Anyway, these are not the only ways terrorists attack. Another bad thing is that there will always be new ideas to attack.
There are several ways to stop terrorism. It is not easy at all, but these are several ways that have been tried. It is very hard, but not impossible to catch a terrorist, even if you know their faces. New volunteers usually take the place of those who are captured or killed. Osama Bin Laden is still top on the United States' FBI's most wanted list. In Afghanistan, the U.S. and Britain attacked the Talibans for letting Al-Qaeda set bases on Afghanistan. This works because it is almost impossible for terrorists to operate without help. To improve security in airports or public places and making civilians be more alert can be another solution. The problem is that their modus operandi changes constantly, so it's hard to be ready for everything.
Al-Qaeda and E.T.A.
First of all I am going to talk about what I learned about terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ETA. The members of Al-Qaeda are all muslims, or followers of Islam, but they have a lot of different beliefs than those of muslims in other places of the world. They believe that their cause is what is called a Jihad, or a holy war, against enemies of their religion and cause. Al-Qaeda members wish that their attacks will change the way people living in the western part of the world feel about muslims in the middle east. They work the strongest in Arab countries, even though they have other members in countries all over the world.
The current leader of Al-Qaeda is a man called Osama Bin Laden. He was born in the year 1957, he is the 17th son of a family that is very rich, he grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he has more than 50 siblings, and is the man that has begun a Jihad against the "enemies of their religion". He attacks because he thinks that other countries helped the jews during their wars in the middle east. He thinks all americans are against them, or that they are sided with the jews. He is very rich, and has contacts all over the world. Most of his followers would die for their cause. He has attacked the world trade center twice, the first attack being in 1993. He has also placed bomb cars near the United States embassies in Kenya and in Tanzania.
Al-Qaeda's true meaning (of the word) is 'the base'. It began in 1989 after the russian army left Afghanistan. During the 1980's, Arab peoples went to Afghanistan to help the Afghans fight away the russians. They helped them for the mere reason that they were also muslims. The Arabs thought that they were fighting a Jihad. When russia left, the organization stood tall against countries believed to be enemies of Islam. Al-Qaeda has now reached approx. 45 countries. Al Qaeda also has several fronts including Al-Barakaat, Al-Wafa Humanitarian Organization, Benevolence International Foundation, and Global Relief Foundation.
Now, you are probably asking what is Eta. Honestly, I had no idea of that name until I made my research. Eta is a group that wants the Basque country to be an individual group, or separate from part of France and part of Spain. They have attacked several times, by bombings and assasinations. They usually target Spanish officials.
"There are probably about 500 active members."
I think that the information I found is very well detailed and makes its full purpose. Sure, it could have been more detailed, but it is well explained, none the less. I also think that it was very objective, which to me is good, because I like information that doesn't pick sides. It is kind of unfair to do so, but it is hard to be objective with such strong subjects. I think that the people at CBBC did a great job explaining those things.
Next I would like to investigate on the guerilla groups found in Colombia, such as Las Farc or ELN. They constantly kidnap people to accomplish their plans. If some of their members are captured they offer swapping kidnapped people for captured members. I really want to know about those groups a lot, and next week, I think I will.
FARC-EP
- Squad: the basic unit consisting of 12 combatants.
- Guerilla: consists of two squads.
- Company (Compañía) : consists of two guerrillas (i.e. approximately 50 men, therefore a lower level of command than a company in most armies).
- Column: consists of two or more companies.
- Front: consists of more than one column.
- Block of Fronts: consists of five or more fronts. There are seven such blocks.
- The Central High Command (Estado Mayor Central).
"The FARC believes that since the early 1980s it has met the requirements for the recognition of a "state of belligerence" contained within the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 and additional protocols. Their opponents and the Colombian government claim that the practice of civilian kidnapping for ransom and the tax levied on coca crop buyers makes it an illegitimate army and also point to a wide rejection of the guerrilla policies in national surveys."
FARC has a military academy in which it has a two month training program. The program is mostly based on infantry. The trainees are then tested to measure their skill. The ones who rise above the rest may go on to advance training.
In 2005, FARC began a new modus operandi. They began Plan Resistencia to counter-act the country's attempts to stop them. They retreated deep in to the jungle and halted their larger attacks.
When Pastrana was president, they exchanged 70 politics for about 65 jailed rebels. When Uribe became president, he listened to no negotiations that didn't involve a cease-fire. He instead choose to use rescue missions which proved to be succesful, such as the recent Fernando Araujo rescue. Most relatives of kidnapped people by FARC choose not to use rescue missions to save their relatives because of the time that the governor of Antioquia was killed for prompting a rescue mission. Uribe has chosen to trade about 55 captured rebels for all the political hostages. The proposal does not include the ransom kidnapees. The French and Swiss governments supported the plan that the country would free the rebels and FARC would then release the kidnapees, including Ingrid Betancurt who is supposedly out of the country. On March 25, 2006, FARC released two police officers. A prisoner named Juan Ernesto Guevara died because of a heart disease in the year 2005. He had been captured in 1988.
I think that the information displayed on Wikipedia was very detailed. I didn't use it all because I would have you reading for an hour. The article also goes in-depth with its 'See Also' section, which includes the Nogal accident, for example. I think that my next topic will be about other least known terrorist organizations. The only ones people know about are Al-Qaeda, and in Colombia, FARC-EP and ELN. I want to see Farhad's and Gino's work for this week to see what they are planning for the final TLP documentary.
Terrorism
harm, destabilization of an existing government, causing a discontented population to join an uprising, hoping to break the actual state, showing the hardness of a grievance, or drawing attention to a cause that the government has forgotten. Terrorists rarely identify themselves as such, and usually use other terms such as: separatist, freedom fighter, liberator, revolutionary, vigilante, militant, paramilitary, guerrilla, rebel, or any similar-meaning word in other languages. Many political organizations have been using terrorism to reach their objectives as some both right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic, and religious groups, revolutionaries and ruling governments. They usually use explosives or poison, or weapons of mass destruction.to solve big political conflicts such as secessions, or dominance of a territory; dominance of resources by ethnic groups, imposition of a form of government, Economic deprivation, or opposition to a domestic government or occupying army.
I think terrorism is a terrible strategy used to try to get something as I consider it is not necessary to damage others. I agree with Walter Laqueur of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "the only general characteristic [of terrorism] generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence".*1 However, I think there are many acts that include violence that are not terrorist. I also think that as people do not think in the same way neither have the same thoughts, interests and feelings, there will always be injustice. Also, we are always changing our minds. However, we may not use violence or any other means to force others to think or act the way we do.I have never been in a situation of terrorism but I think it would be horrible. I have listened to the news and to the comments of some adults- my parents, my grandfather and others- about terrorism and I know that it is a hard problem to solve. Maybe it never ends, but we have to work hard on not to accept people who use or support it –sometimes we know or heard about people who are not terrorists but seem to agree with their ideas or acts-. The result will always be harm and injuries most of which can never be repaired. Nobody can give the life back to a dead person. On the other hand, I think that many countries have to build new treats that should have to be checked and changed according to the situations in order to be safe.
Terrorism affects us in different ways. For example, we have to think about how technology have influenced on terrorism and on the security and publications against it. Maybe, the way we use the web –as an example of technology-, could help on changing our minds. I agree with one of the philosophers of the Morris Institude for Human Values: "The Double Power Principle." It says that the more power anything has for good, the more it correspondingly has for ill. It's up to us how we use it. Nuclear science has great power for good. It also has a correspondingly great power for ill. *2. We have to analize the way in which we use things.
There’s a lot to know about terrorism, and there are many people who support or are against it. Nobody has the last word. I don’t think it is a matter of patriotism, but of humanity. No one wants to become a victim of terrorism. We cannot give up.
I´m very concerned about terrorism. It really makes me feel worried. I would like to have a magic stick to dissapear terrorism from the mind and hearts of people all over the world, but it´s only a dream. But many dreams can become true. If we learn and study more about it, and if we share our feelings and findings with others, and we begin by trying to solve the problems of our “different ways of thinking” around us, we will be building a better world. If all the governments teach the practicing of peace, we colud breath peace, too. Perhaps, in this way we could find solutions to this problem.
Analizing Terrorism
"the strategy of the weak for weakening the strong" (Roskin and Berry, p. 4);"seeking to further political objectives through the threat or use of violence
usually in opposition to state governments?"(Kegley and Wittkopf, p. 222);
"Terrorist groups, seek the political freedom, privilege, and property they
think persecution has denied them" (Kegley and Wittkopf, p. 222); "usually used
by the powerless against the powerful" (Mingst, p. 178); "the use of violence to
achieve a political objective" (Papp, p. 127); “Using random and horrific acts
of violence against unsuspecting and innocent non-combatants is terrorism, and
moral people will condemn such acts no matter who undertakes them.” ( Michael
Walzer, in Just and Unjust Wars); “Terrorism is a strategy to weaken a hated
political authority. It is a security threat, but almost the opposite of the
nuclear one: little pinpricks instead of a huge bang." (Stanley Michalak ).
And so many others. I have read many definitions and thoughts about terrorism. Also, some interesting things about its history: Why it is called terrorism, when was it used for the first time, the meaning before and the meaning today - a strategy that explicitly targets innocent civilians -, etc. Also, about the opposite ideas abot who are the real terrorist as in the expressions: “One person`s terrorist is another person`s freedom fighter” 1.2. and “One group's 'freedom fighters' may be another group's 'terrorists'".
Reading and analizing and comparing different definitions about terrorism made me learn that we are different.; I mean, everybody is different and we are always going to be different, and people try to reach their goals in different ways. Some of them are peaceful and others are violent as terrorism. I don´t defend neither support any act of terrorism. Based on the definition that terrorism uses violence usually in opposition to state governments or legal rules, I consider that several nations undertake terrorist attacks, too.
Concluding, from all these things I agree on three things. The first one is that although terrorism kills a few number of people, people worry about terrorism as it creates panic. You don´t know where the following attacks will be, how they are going to be, where you and your family and … will be. How would you act if you or one of your relatives are or is the next victim. Worst of all, you don`t know if you will be alive to talk about it. The second one is that I agree with the concept of terrorism is in the eye of the beholder: constitutes terrorism is often in the eye of the beholder and, in this case, killing civilians with a bomb dropped on a building by a warplane is no different than (sic) killing civilians by planting a bomb in a building". 3. It is natural that every one defends its opinion. Several powerful countries define terrorism in a self serving way. And the third one is that I agree with some people who say that defining terrorrism is difficult. I just would like fighting to stop. Violence brings violence. No one was born being violent. I just want to say that terrorism – or the way I definne it: a silent not loudly progressing war that sometimes expresses itself.
as a “boom”-, does not distinguish between civilians and military, and women and children, or the “good ones” and the “bad ones” as we children recognize in a cowboys movie. Terrorism used in a good cause is terrorism - as big or little lies or sins: They are still lies or sins.- and violence against unsuspecting and innocent non-combatants is terrorism, no matter who undertakes it so any act of violence cannot be excused and considered as legal by any justification.
As many people, I want and I hope terrorism to stop for ever. I would like young people to learn about it in order to learn the culture of the no violence. As terrorists use any means to express their incomformity, we can learn to use strategies to work on peace and finding peaceful ways to get our goals but based on values: fairness, respect to others, tolerance, etc. Students from all over the world can work on this by having practices or dynamics of things that occur in our own class. Thus, we can try to use them in our families, in our groups of friends, neighbors, players, etc., as we are always going to find things we do not agree with or like. Of course, we must remember the gold rule “Do not do others what you do not want for you”.
Color-Coded Terrorism Advisory Scale
The scale consists of five colors that represent the levels of threat. They show the probability of a terrorist attack and its potential gravity. Each of these levels trigger specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments, and they affect the level of security at some airports and other public places. The red one states for a severe risk; the orange one states for a high risk; the yellow one states for a significant risk; the blue one states for general risk and the green one states for a low risk. The green and the blue ones have never been used.
The government provides general guidance for civilians and federal agencies, but some of its actions of the different threat levels are not published. These actions include increasing police and other security presence at landmarks and other high-profile targets, more closely monitoring international borders and other points of entry, ensuring that emergency response personnel are ready, and, in some cases, deploying members of the National Guard to assist local law enforcement on security details. *2. And the alert level was raised once in 2004, the tear of the past presidential elections that cause many people to think that the president of the United States government used it for political purposes rather than security ones.
I think it is a good try to have a code of colors for possible terrorist attacks risk, but I am not so sure that the levels of threat are accurate as, for example, “the evidence cited to justify changes in threat levels has been stated vaguely (see below) and its sources have seldom been revealed. This lack of disclosure makes the system vulnerable to manipulation by government officials.” *3. and according to what I have heard on TV. News, some of the actions of the government violate the rights of many people. I think that the risk of a terrorism attack can not be registered in a table as, for example, the Beaufort Scale *4., in which scientists can classify and register the type of wind according to their characteristics such as speed, direction, height, etc., and of course, the damaged caused. Thus, how can the people of the security- or any other-, of a country can determine how terrible will a terrorist risk be, how long will it last, where can it come from, etc.
I agree with the published terror alert that all American citizens, especially the ones that travel in the transportation systems, "to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately." Also, that people have to prepare an emergency preparedness kit and a family emergency plan.
I would like to search and learn more about what common people think about this scale of color for the possible terrorist attacks risk -what they think, feel, and how do they act about it.-, I also would like to know how this new color code affects the life of them.
The younger days, no one cared
My parents’ eyes, they flared
Shooting scolds across all rooms
They hit their targets with sonic booms
Small and insignificant, they never could see
That all they really affected was that little boy, me
Everybody in the world, people from different lands
Did not want to share their wealth, let alone lend their hands
People like me, we were left all alone
No roof over our heads, all alone on our own
Then comes a day when I am given a chance
To redeem myself, putting me in a trance
I will sacrifice myself, with regrets on zero
For I will be remembered and condemned a hero
The crudely wrapped package and its nonchalant ticking
Hides within me, my sweat trickling
I imagine it, the explosion
Astounding,
Signaling my victory, my victory
(((Resonating)))
Resonating for years to come.
This is my main poem for the project and if you can, include the other one as well. If you have any problems with either poem, feel free to change it to whatever you feel is the right thing.
This poem is supposed to be a message poem and what I'm trying to convey is that people need to share and help other people, who are less fortunate and terrorists lead bad lives from the start for them to become terrorists.
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