NCJ Number
141788
Date Published
1993
Length
23 pages
Annotation
A program to end terrorism must focus equally on revolutionaries and functionaries if it is to counter the kind of immoral violence perpetrated by terrorists.
Abstract
If counterterrorism efforts focus exclusively on the suppression of revolutionary violence, then claims that such policies represent a genuine antiterrorism effort are false. On the other hand, if it is a program designed only to discredit states or particular forms of government, then it becomes narrow and partisan, such that a state's own terrorist behavior and that of its allies continues unchecked. A program of constructive counterterrorism must target all forms of political violence that induce fear, that cannot be validated by societal traditions of law and morality, and that do not respect limits on the pursuit of public policy goals. "Terrorism," regardless of the actor, must be defined as actual or threatened violence for primarily political ends, reliance on means that in themselves (cannot be justified by the end to be served) seem immoral and illegal, and effects that generate fear beyond the victims of violence. Practices that can be unconditionally condemned as "terrorism" are hostagetaking, torture and assassination, hijacking of public transportation vehicles, the use of explosive devices in facilities patronized largely by civilians, the bombing of inhabited areas, reliance on weapons of mass destruction, and covert operations designed to alter governments by interference with self-determination. 5 notes