Terrorism

Terrorism Defined: The Bonn Summit      (http://www.milnet.com/milnet/tbonnsum.htm)
The Bonn Summit, in 1978, agreed to sanctions against states which aided and abetted the hijacking of aircraft. In the process of finazling this agreement, the attendees attendees attempted to spell out a legal definition for terrorism.
The result was the following: "Acts of kidnapping, hostage-taking, bomb attacks on innocents, hijacking..."
as well as other activities against the innocent. Another act of terrorism that can have profound effects is the act of assassination. The statistics of terrorist events have declined since the outbreak in the Middle East, but not so much that hardly a day goes by that i some new terrorist event can be found in even the most simple search of news media.

Elite Forces: Counter Terrorist Units      (http://www.milnet.com/milnet/elite.htm)
It is clear that in an effort to combat terrorism, every country responsible to its citizenry has had to raise a special force trained with specific talents and capabilities required in that new battle. As you might imagine, today's counter terrorist units, are also among the world's elite military teams. Thus we are able to list both the Elite Military Teams with the clear knowlege that from these ranks are chosen those who would be combatants in the war against terrorism.
Little is known about the makeup or techniques employed at any given time, so we choose not to speculate beyond what has been made public over the course of the last ten to fifteen years. We are sure these elite military teams are at the cutting edge of technology, techniques and weaponry. Or so we hope.

Below we list the known speical forces units in the world. We note when it is thought the primary or secondary mission of the unit is counter-terrorism, but as was noted earlier, all these units can be called upon to donate members for training in counter terrorism, or may in fact be part of or support of a force performing counter-terrorism actvities.

Name                             Mnemonic               Country                    Description
Alpine Troops                            Alpine                               Italy                                  Special Forces
Army Special Forces                 TSF                                  Thailand                           Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
Army Special Forces                 USSF*                              USA                                  Special Forces, Cntr. Terr.
Carabinieri                                CAB                                  Italy                                   Counter-Terrorism
Death Volunteers                     VPLA                                 Vietnam                            Special Forces
Delta Force                                Delta                                 U.S. Army                         Counter-Terrorism,S.F.
Federal Bur. of Inv.                   FBI                                     U.S.                                   Counter-Terrorism Dept.
French Foreign Legion            FFL                                     France                              Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
(234 Regiment Estranger d'Infantrie)

French Internal Secu.              DSGE                               France                               Internal Security
Gurkhas Field Force                 1/7GR                               Nepal/UK                         Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
Special Weapons and Tactics SWAT                               US                                     Counter-Terrorism
Grenzschutzgruppen 9            GSG-9                               FDG                                   Counter-Terrorism
Israeli 269 Counter-                 UNIT                                 Israel                                 Counter-Terrorism,S.F.Terrorist Unit
LR Amph. Recon Comm.          LRARC                             Taiwan                              UDT, S.F., Cntr. Terr.
Naval Infantry                           NI                                      USSR **                            Special Forces
9/10 Para. Reg.                           9th/10th                            India                                  Para Special Forces
Paratroop                                    le Paras                            France                               Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
Rangers Recon                           Recon                               U.S.                                    Special Forces, paratroops
San Marco Marines                  Marines                            Italy                                   UDT, Special Forces
Special Air Service                   SAS                                   Australia                          Counter-Terrorism,S.F.
Special Air Service                   SAS                                  U.K.                                    Counter-Terrorism,S.F.
Special Boat Sqdn.                    SBS                                  U.K.                                    UDT, Special Forces
Special Forces                           JSF                                    Jordan                               Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
Special Forces                           KSF                                   Korean                              Special Forces, Cntr Terr
Special Service Force               SFS                                   Canada                              Counter-Terrorism,S.F.
SEAL Team Six                       SEALs                               U.S. Navy                          Counter-Terrorism,S.F
Special Operations                   SOG                                  Spain                                 Anti-Terrorism
Group/pre
Spetsnaz                                   Spetz                                   USSR **                           Special Forces, Cntr Terr.
US Navy Seals                         SEALs                                  US *                                  UDT, S.F., Cntr Terr

* = following the disasterous Iranian Hostage Rescue attempt, U.S. special forces has been going through a series of major changes. U.S. Special Forces from all services are now combined in the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), with a General (probably two star or above) officer as the leader reporting, most likely, to the Secretary of Defense and thus only one step from the President of the United States.

** = The breakup of the former Soviet Union has had demonstratitive effects upon all facets of the Soviet military. The remaining Confederation of Russian States has absorbed much of the military units of the former USSR. It is not clear which country has kept Spetsnaz, but odds are that the units are now part of a special forces team in Russia. Whether the reporting structure is to the leader of Russia, or to the leader of the Confederation, it is clear that if such a unit exists, we can probably figure who has the ultimate authority over their activities.

Treaties and Cooperative Organizations
? TREVI (Terrorism, Radicalism, and Violence International), Permanent police liason structure in the EEC member states of Western Europe. Members are all EEC nations except Ireland, plus Israel and Switzerland.
? Hijack Pact between U.S. and Cuba, "...return aircraft, crews, passengers, and hijackers."
? Bonn Summit in 1978 agreed to sanctions against states which aided and abetted the hijacking of aircraft. Countries agreeing were U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and West Germany.