November 16, 2002

Terrorism in its numerous faces.

“There are planes heading towards the NY skyscrapers! Oh, my God, they hit the buildings!” That was the first thing I heard about century-turning American terrorist act on the radio, driving to college, on September 11, 2001. Definition of terrorism according to Gaston Bouthoul: “All manifestations of conflict, inflexible demands, and ideological hatreds between rival groups, have a tendency to culminate in forms of collective violence (50).” As for another perspective, here is another definition of terrorism by M. Cherif Bassiouni: “Individual or collective coercive conduct employing strategies of terror violence which contain a international element or are directed against an internationally protected target and whose aim is to produce a power-oriented outcome (xiv).” After 9/11 events we all know what terrorism is. It is an act of reckless behavior with purpose to attack and humiliate the victims. Usually, terrorist acts are made to make a statement. They may have political motives or economical. Majority of terrorist groups are extremists. Many of them are Islamists.

It is very important to note that Islamists and Muslims are different things. Islamists are extremists whose religion is Islam. For example, a few of the organizations that are considered terrorist, which are Islamist, are the following: Al-Qaeda (Afghanistan, Islamists), Hamas, Islamic Jihad (Palestinian Islamists), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Palestinian nationalists),  PFLP, DFLP, PFLP-GC (Palestinian leftists), Hezbollah (Lebanon, Islamists), Chechnya-based Terrorists (Russian separatists) (Encyclopedia par. 3). There are numerous acts of terrorism occurring currently in the world, and it has been discovered there is no one way to fight terrorism so far. Yet there are similarities in ways it was fought. A lot of narco-businesses supply their profits to the terrorist organizations, so eliminating narco-business weakens terrorist support. However, it is necessary to find support of all countries to fight united against any terrorist group in the world, because for fighting to become efficient it must be collaborated by cooperation of all countries involved or not involved directly. Also, when intelligence is involved in operations against terrorism, those operations appear to be most successful, be it in USA, Russia, or Israel. One thing we should remember - there is no one face of terrorism, as there is no one way to fight it. Here are some examples of terrorist acts.

 The most memorable USA terrorist act has become an act of aviation hijacking, such as 9/11 – done by Islamists. Particularly, the responsibility for the event was assigned to Al-Qaeda. It was an act difficult to prevent. The US security system was not prepared for such actions, or more precisely for prevention of such actions. There were approximately 3,000 victims and about 50,000 of their relatives affected as the result of this event. There are more figures to come, if the terrorism will not be stopped. The suffering does not pertain to only victims of terrorist attacks, it is also a suffering of the relatives of the victims. They are the ones who will live without their loved ones full with memories of the tragedy. Should there be consideration of human rights of each single terrorist responsible for murder of people, of however many there is on his or her account? The USA does not think so which is obvious through interrogations of Talibans held in prison in Cuba. However, European Union and United Nations do value human rights of each and single individual. Is that the proper way to deal with terrorist? Putting them to trial and imprisoning them? Is there more adequate way to deal with terrorism? It is vital to look at what terrorists have done to the world before deciding how to deal with terrorists. There are no humane ways to deal with terrorists, as there shouldn’t be. I don’t see reason for considering human rights of murderers. So what to do with the terrorists?

            All the more, a successful strategy exists, as there are certain actions to be done in order to prevent terrorism. One of the ways to fight terrorism is to have more intense security system. The checks of people may be made not only upon arrival to airport, as it is made now in other than the airport public and overpopulated areas. However, it is not enough. How did USA approach the terrorist act? They declared war on Afganistan. USA bombed all objects identified by satellite system as formation of terrorists. Yet, terrorism continues. How to stop terrorism?

            There is a way to involve intelligence in the fight against terrorism. Apparently, in USA, they found a way to find precisely the names and locations of some of the terrorist head leaders. In Yemen, there were killed 6 terrorist leaders who were in a car at the moment when remotely controlled plane “Predator” hit their car (Question par. 1). One of the leaders was an Al-Qaeda leader, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, who was one of the top helpers of Osama ben Laden. There were five other terrorists in the car. For that mission, high intelligence investigation was involved. This is a perfect example of a solution to the fighting against terrorism. The procedure is as follows, find out who the leaders are, find the location of the leaders, and use appropriate action to eliminate the enemy. Terrorism occurs in other countries, as well.

            As for Russia, there are numerous terrorist attacks occurring on daily basis. However, the most shocking terrorist attack was the 850 hostages taking in a theatre. Out of them about 100 have been killed while rescue mission. The responsibility for the event was assigned to Chechen separatists, who are also Islamists. Another terrorist event is a “failed plot to kill Russia president Vladimir Putin during a visit to Azerbaijan in January 2001… Russia, also, blames Chechen terrorists for the bomb blast that killed at least 41 people, including 17 children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002 (Chechnya par. 4-5).” Finally, seizure of more than 1,000 hostages by Chechens upon attack on a hospital in Russian town of Budyonnovsk is a cold-blooded crime against humans. All these are only a few out of numerous attacks that occur in Russia on almost daily basis. There are constant shootings on the territory of Chechnya. As soon as the war seems to be over, that’s the time when Chechens strike again. European Union places upon Russia a blame, that there is no respect for human rights for such terrorists as Zakayev, who is right-hand man of the leader of Chechen separatists. Zakayev is currently in Denmark, and Russia claims that he should be put to trial and that his sentence will not be that of a death sentence. Denmark has so far refused to hand him in to Russian representatives out of fear, that his sentence may be one of a death sentence. How long will European Union withhold any actions against terrorism? How long will it take European Union till they realize that terrorists are human machines, who are ready to give up their own lives in order to eliminate others? They have no mercy for children, women, elderly, and any human being whatsoever. Whose human rights should we take in the account, the ones of terrorists, or the ones of the victims? We should think of the human rights of the current and future victims first. What is to be done for Russian terrorist problems?

            There are a few other things to be done to fight the terrorism, but now they are to be done in Russia. To prevent such terrorist acts from happening, there must be a security system that checks possession of weapons. The check should be done constantly, because people may hide the weapons and to find a way to cheat while the checking is done. Russian authorities have done some cleansing operations of Chechen villages, checking, exactly as said previously, for documents, weaponry. The army forces still remain in some quantities on the Chechnya. However, the terrorism still continues. What else could be done?

            There also has been intelligence involved in solution of Russian Chechen problem. The names of some leaders and their locations have been identified, for instance  an Arab named Khattab. This leader was killed. Similar intelligence actions should be performed to find other leaders and most involved terrorists. As for further continuation of identification, Russia claims it should put to trial an important to Chechens leader Zakayev, who is right-hand of major Chechen leader Maskhadov, and Russia intends to give a fair trial to the Chechen leader, but Denmark withholds Zakayev, refusing to extradite him to Russian authorities. All countries must unify in their relation towards terrorism, and they should not be lenient to any terrorist groups, and to give a fair trial to a terrorist, that’s the least international authorities, such as UN (United Nations) and EU (European Union), can do. Zakayev should be imprisoned. As for internationality of the terrorists, the list of countries, where terrorism occurs, is unfortunately incomplete and grows every day.

Visibly, most numerous in occurrences terrorist acts are taking place in Israel. In Israel, there have been as many terrorist acts as there are sand crumbs on the bottom of the ocean. The most memorable are explosion in hotel, killing 150 people. The most recent is a killing of mother and 2 children, age 4 and 5. Mother tried to shield her children from a terrorist, and yet she was mercilessly shot, together with her children (Breigin par. 11). Such a cold-blooded act of crime brings tears to one’s eyes. All three were killed. It was done by one member of the Islamist group namely PLA. Some of the most recent occurrences out of the endless terrorist acts are the following:

November 15: Twelve Israelis were killed and 15 others wounded in Hebron when Palestinian terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at a group of Jewish worshippers and their guards as they were walking home from Sabbath prayers at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks.

November 10, 2002 – Five Israelis were killed, including two children, at Kibbutz Metzer, near Tulkarm. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

November 7, 2002 – Two Israelis were killed when a Palestinian worker fired on them at the Pe'at Sadeh settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.

October 27: Two Israeli police officers and a soldier were killed, and 20 bystanders were wounded in a suicide bombing at a gas station near the settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. The two officers and soldier were killed while trying to prevent the terrorist from detonating the bomb. Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. (Recent par. 1-4)

And the list is and will be endless unless something will be done against terrorists. Is United Nations going to consider human rights of each terrorist who is by miracle caught and subjected to trial with a consideration of these human rights? It is not a rhetorical question. Yes, they will. Do they have to consider? Should there be human rights for killers of children? How many people one must kill before he/she is considered a wanted terrorist? The answers are difficult to find, but not impossible. One can make an educated guess to the answer should child murderers be given a chance to serve in jail, get out and go out to kill more children? Unfortunately, the terrorists can be described only in those terms above. We should not allow recurrence of such violent actions and suicidal bombings. Terrorists must be dealt with harshly. They have no mercy for the children. They don’t deserve mercy while dealing with them. And we are supposed to consider human rights of those individuals. Should we? How is it possible to manage terrorism that occurs already for two thousand years?

            For now, a few things to prevent terrorism from taking place are to be done. The actions to prevent terrorist acts from happening should involve separation of Jews and Arabs. There should be clear borders on where Arabs can live, walk, work, and be. If the borders are well defined, there should be no Arab on Jewish soil, unless given a special permission. There were some counter-terrorist activities done by Israeli’s. They have checked Palestinian population for documents. Also, there were some attacks on Palestinian authority’s buildings. Some Palestinian terrorists were put in the Palestinian jails, however those criminals were released by the Palestinian police. So, terrorism continues. There are other solutions.

            There, as well, has been intelligence-activity going on in Israel. The names of head leaders of Islamists in PLA have been revealed. The intelligence now should find the locations of those extremist leaders, and for that they need access to Palestinian land. The ways to find out the location may be including the writing of a log of all settlers living in PLA. Such action would help to identify names of main terrorist leaders, such as Yaser Arafat. This in turn would aid to capture those terrorists and put them into jails. “And, as the Human Rights Watch study notes, the PLA hasn’t lived up to its international obligations – by failing to use the criminal justice system to stop attacks, and  by compensating monetarily those involved and allowing an atmosphere of hate to prevail (Fagan par. 7).” Even United Nations, which are usually slow to understand, at this point realized worthlessness of PLA. There have been cleansing operations, and a few valuable documents were obtained while the attacks on terrorist buildings of PLA. Those documents will help to identify some of the names of terrorist leaders. The terrorist attacks can be prevented. Prevention of terrorism must be done at the core.

By core, it is meant that it is necessary to kill all the money supporting programs that assist terrorists, before money reaches hands of terrorists. For instance, some illegal activities, such as narco-business, support terrorist organizations. A few statements about narco-business:

The Justice Department said it had arrested suspects in two major drug operations who were planning to use drug profits to buy weapons for terrorists. In the first case, two Pakistani nationals and an American citizen stand charged with plotting to trade tons of heroin and hashish for four Stinger antiaircraft missiles. The suspects allegedly told undercover F.B.I. agents in Hong Kong that they planned to sell the missiles to al-Qaeda. In the second case, authorities arrested four million in cash and cocaine for weapons – including antiaircraft missiles, grenades, grenade launchers, and some 9,000 assault rifles – which were intended for the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group… Since 9/11, American authorities have uncovered several plots to funnel drug money to terrorists, including a U.S.-based methamphetamine ring that allegedly sent millions of dollars to Hezbollah. (This par. 7)

It is not news that dirty drug dealers use their profit to implement their dirty ideological purposes. Elimination of such deals will help in war against terrorism. It means that every country must increase its vigilance with respect to illegal activities and narco-business. Since drug dealers are operating under different international laws, the union of all countries in a war against drugs will help in some way to prevent the terrorism in its birth. Yet, it is hard to know which country will provide the supply for drug dealership. In short, terrorism in its raw form may exist in any country. Any country, any house, any doorway may serve as helping hand to terrorism.

Terrorism does not appear under your window or in your doorway, even though, it could, one needs to go and seek the ones to blame for the events that occur. One should follow rules and guidelines upon capturing the ones to blame for the terrorist acts. The question arises how to do that without harming civilians and following human rights code. The question arises is how to treat the terrorists? Should there be human rights for terrorists? Are all countries ready to participate in the war against terrorism? Or will they sit and allow terrorists to come to their doors, to kill their children and other loved ones? How long will it take before such countries as Denmark and Europe, in general, will realize that we are on one side of fighting the terrorism? Or may be Europe erroneously thinks that appeasing Islamists will never touch them? (Appeasing did not work for Hitler, neither it will work for Islamists.) The answers to these questions are obvious, but not everyone is willing to recognize them. Not every country. Not every one.

There is no one way of fighting terrorism, as there is no one way of describing what terrorism is. The only thing in the terrorism, that makes it so horrible, is the lack of value of human life, including the one of terrorist. Terrorists must be eliminated, for simple reason, they are mentally-unstable merciless cruel killing-machines. They have no respect for anything humane. They have no respect for their lives. They have no respect for your life, whether you are a soldier or a helpless child. They have no respect for life, period. Terrorism must be fought against and eventually eliminated. There are no humane ways to deal with terrorists, as there shouldn’t be. When we think of terrorists’ human rights, we should think of the human rights of the current and future victims first. They have no mercy for the children. They don’t deserve mercy while dealing with them. There is no humane way to deal with terrorism, whether it is in USA, Russia, Israel or any other country. There are ways with which USA, Russia and Israel dealt with terrorism, however they did not eliminate the terrorism, yet. Intelligence, involved in fighting with terrorism, was the most successful strategy, so far. Also, terrorism, usually, gains money for its operations from narco-business, so eliminating narcotics sales is another solution to prevent terrorism. There is a way to eliminate terrorism in all its numerous faces, be it in USA, Russia or Israel, but all countries must act together against it and to prevent terrorists on their soils. However, it is temporizing tactics, or short-term solution. The only long-term solution would be introducing wide-spread education in third-world, especially in Muslim countries. It would teach them the value of human life and human rights along with freedom of choice for every individual. Only then terrorism can be eliminated.

Works Cited

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