Lecture 1 introduction to terrorism

Title of class: Intro/Concept of Terrorism
Week I

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CRIM- 475
Theory & Politics of Terrorism
Hostes Generis Humani
(The Enemies of Mankind)
Jfeldkam@gmu.edu
Jlfeldkamp@yahoo.com
(541) 510-5148 2011-2012 ©James L. Feldkamp. All rights reserved

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Bona Fides
FBI Special Agent
(IT, FCI)
Naval Aviator
(GW Vet, International Outreach)
MA International Affairs
Diploma Naval War College
Various FBI and Navy Schools
On Middle East/History of Terrorism
US Congressional Candidate 04’ & 06’
Terrorism (CRIM-475)
Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Nashi

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Required Reading:
Lynne L. Snowden & Bradley C. Whitsel,
Terrorism, Research, Readings, and Realities ISBN 0-13-117373-1
Thomas J. Badey (editor), Violence and Terrorism, Annual Editions 13/14 ,
(McGraw-Hill) ISBN 007-8-13-6237
James L. Feldkamp (editor), Theory & Politics of Terrorism
(Cognella 2013) ISBN: 978-1-62661-186-3
Additional resources:
National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
website: www.globalincidentmap.com
The New York Times (on line)
The BBC (on line: http://www.bbc.co.uk)
Al-Jezeera (on line: http://english.aljazeera.net)
Jakarta Globe (on line: www.thejakartaglobe.com )
 This course is all about current events!
Expect to discuss current events as found on above websites.

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Terrorism CRIM-475
Course Requirements:
Class room:
Quizzes * 20%
Attendance 10%
Participation 05%
Team projects:
Paper & Presentation on DT/IT 25%
Mid-Term: 15%
Final Exam: 25%
Total 100%
Chelsea Dawn Gerlach

Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab
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Project due dates:
 1st Week Research project due: November 2nd
 2nd Week Research project due: November 9th
 Pick a Terrorist organization and provide:
1. History of the organization
2. Motivation/Ideology of that organization
3. Funding for the organization
4. Plan an academic attack that is in line with
your groups ideology and modus operandi!
 All papers shall be no more than 6 pages in length and
oral presentation will be no more than 20 minutes

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Terrorism (CRIM - 475)
Class Room Rules:
 Non-Attribution - Say what you want
 If you “Say what you want” be prepared to back it up!
o Nothing supersedes access to knowledge /debate
 No Political Correctness - (aka righteous indignation)!
o Outrage or offended over perceived affronts
• Moral Relativism, Multicultural hypocrisy
 Terrorism is an emotional subject & graphic!
 No F&^%ing Cell Phones!
Mohammed Atta

“Nature abhors a vacuum.”
~Aristotle
“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual
enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and
those interests it is our duty to follow.”
~Lord Palmerstone (circa 1848)

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Terrorism Defined:
1. “The systemic use of murder, injury and destruction, or the
threat of such acts, aimed at achieving political ends.”
2. “The deliberate killing of non-military personnel to pursue
a political goal through exertion of pressure on a society.
3. “Violence or the threat of violence against civilians to
convey a message to a third party.
Recipe:
1. Violence (or threat thereof)
2. Civilians
3. Political
 Can Terrorism Work?
Terrorism 101
Not just Criminals,
Crazy’s and Crusaders!
Imad Mughnaya

In 1940, Shamir sided with the more militant faction, Lehi, headed by
Avraham Stern. Secret contacts with German to open up a military front
against the British in the Middle East in return for the expulsion (rather
than extermination) of the Jewish population of Europe to Palestine.
Shamir became one of the three leaders of the group reforming it as "Lehi".
As one of Lehi's triumvirate, he authorized the assassination of the UN
representative in the ME, Count Bernadotte, who was seen by Shamir as an
anti-Zionist and "an obvious agent of the British enemy.”
7th Prime Minister of Israel
Leader of the Irgun faction. He proclaimed a revolt, on February
1, 1944, against the British mandatory government. He played a
significant role in Jewish resistance against the British control in
the waning years of the mandate, leading the more militant
faction within Zionism.6
6th Prime Minister of Israel
Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we
Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962
arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to
life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison.
President of South AfricaVideo

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Introduction & Concept of Terrorism
Violence Prone Extremists:
1. Adoption of a violent belief system marked by visions for societal transformation
2 . Adopt a separate existence, either or both geographically and psychologically,
from an environing world considered to be corrupted
3. Rejection of normal political channels, as a means for instituting change
Preexisting community organizations often provide a supportive atmosphere in 3 ways:
1. Membership base
2. Communication network
3. Leaders
“Atavistic” - Denotes a general style of worldview that extols a way of ideal
societal existence thought to have existed in some mythical
pristine past……“The Good Ole Days!”
Terrorism; an Introduction

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Understanding the Terrorist Mind-Set
ETA Terrorists
 Ideology
 Framing some unsatisfying event/conditions as being unjust
 Blaming the injustice on a target policy
 Vilifying /demonizing opposing party to facilitate justification for
aggression
1. It’s not Right!
2. It’s Not Fair!
3. It’s Your Fault!
4. You’re EVIL!
 Martyrdom vs. Suicide:
 Heroic vs. Selfish
o Istishad; Martyrdom or self sacrifice in the service of Allah
o Suicide; Selfish, weak and mentally disturbed

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Etiology of Deviant Behavior
 Anomie: State where societal norms are confused or unclear
 People experienced a perceived collapse of societal rules
 Resulting failure or absence of societal norms leads one to engage
in deviant behavior
 Societal interaction
1) “Mechanical” - Follow simple rules of interaction
o Simple society - not too taxing on the individual (tribal)
2) “Organic” - Work, norms, and expectations of individual more complex
o No longer tied to one another by close bonds necessary for mutual
survival
o Social construct becomes more at risk due to factors outside of
ones control

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 Durkheim theory: Fall of Third Empire (Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71)
 Rapid change in societal norms by losing the war
 Believed this upheaval was a causative factor in the rise of suicides
 Coincided with rise of violent anarchist movement in Europe
 Individuals who rely on the existence of social norms, no longer find their
place in society (previously perceived rules no longer apply)
 Social disruption caused greater “anomie” at the individual level
(e.g., economic depression, adverse effects on families)
 Individuals engaged in higher rates of crime, suicide, and deviance
 Sudden, buffeting changes cause violent/deviant states of “anomie.”
 Collapse of adhered-to order can lead an individual to veer off the
straight and narrow path of acceptable behavior (i.e. winning the lotto)

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 Young, educated, but politically, economically dispossessed
 Sense of frustration at those perceived responsible for their misfortune
 Without access to the means to improve their lives (or their families’)
they deviate from the available “legitimate” options available
 Frank Tannenbaum/Labeling Theory:
 Criminal justice system from an individual’s initial introduction to that
system, through the courts, and then into the penal system
 Process is divided into three stages;
1. Individuals engage in behavior through failure to integrate
2. Gradual shift of individual as evil, so all acts are suspicious
3. Change in the individuals own self-concept takes place

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“Act defined as “evil” is actually transformed into a definition
of the actor as evil” ~Tannenbaum
 Society doesn’t like to be challenged, and so excludes and sets the deviant
apart from the group to ensure that order is not threatened.
 Tannenbaum:
 Delinquencies are committed in groups; most criminals live in,
operate within, and are supported by groups
 Significantly, the group is important to individual because reaction
of others is the source of the greater part of the individual’s conduct
 Labeling a gang as “different” or “deviant” or even “criminal,”
becomes a force in individual’s life, where he will seek approval from
(and in competition) with parents, teachers, or other authority figures

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Society’s perspective: Once associated with deviance or with a
deviant group, the individual is viewed as bad and “unredeemable”
 If society has labeled him and his peers deviant, than society has drawn the
lines between itself and those he identifies with
Tannenbaum:
1. Both reformers and punishers, make mistake in seeking to treat
criminal/deviant as an individual rather than as a member of a group
2. Removing deviant person from society to change his life is ineffective
3. Public condemnation is ineffective
4. Assuming that crime is individual in nature (rather than involving
group dynamics), society falsely assumes the criminal is evil in nature
5. Society assumes there is a “good” outcome to punishing the individual
for his presumed evil nature

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 Edwin Lemert: Only humans define, regulate, and control
behavior of other humans
Howard Becker: Considered deviant in one context or environment might be
seen as acceptable behavior in another
 Looked at deviance from perspective of “insiders” & “outsiders”
Most obvious consequence of successful crusade is creation of a new set of rules
1. A new set of enforcement agencies and officials is established
2. Establishment of groups of rule enforcers - crusade becomes
institutionalized
3. What started out as a drive of the moral necessity of a new rule
becomes an organization devoted to the enforcement of the rule

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Edwin Schur: Concept of “retrospective interpretation”
 Public ‘degradation ceremonies’ as the criminal trial
 Once through the “ceremony” and labeled a criminal society reexamine
past events and behaviors
o Will elicits interpersonal or collective reactions that serve to
‘isolate,’ ‘treat,’ or re-interpret to fit their new label of that person
Deviance: Endlessly reshaped outcome of dynamic process of social interaction
 Labeling 3 separate dimensions:
1. Interpersonal relationship
2. Organizational processing
3. Collective rule making
 Applying labeling theory to terrorism;
1. Terrorist engages in labeling to de-humanize his intended target
2. Easier for authorities to identify / discriminate against targets

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“Terrorism” is a word fraught with negative aspects and pejorative
 Some news agencies no longer use “terrorist” instead, they will use
words with less political baggage (i.e. "bombers,” "militants," etc.)
 Generally, illegal conduct can be broken down into two categories:
1. Malum in se; Acts that are evil in their very being
2. Malum prohibitum; Acts that are evil simply because we say they are.
 Marvin Wolfgang:
 Subgroups: Formed by interaction with those who share ones belief
and action, the ‘culture pattern’
o Shared values create the group, not vice versa
 Subculture: “social value system, which is apart from and a part of a
larger or central value system.”

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 Subculture: Major values in common w/ dominant parent culture
1. No subculture can be totally different from or totally in conflict with the society
2. Subculture of violence does not require actors share basic value elements .
3. Willingness to resort to violence emphasizes the penetrating and diffusive
character of this culture theme.
4. Sub-cultural ethos of violence may be shared by all ages in a sub-society, but
is most prominent in a limited age group (late adolescence to middle age).
5. Counter-norm is non-violence.
6. Development of favorable attitudes toward violence in a subculture usually
involve learned behavior .
7. Use of violence in a subculture is not necessarily viewed as illicit conduct
and the users therefore do not have to deal with feelings of guilt.

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 Wolfgang’s theory:
 Many people may be born into a subculture, which indoctrinates
those “naturalized” individuals into that subculture
 “Where the benefits of adhering to the norms of the larger society are
absent or nonexistent, there is no motivation to conform one’s conduct
to those broadly-held norms”
 Examples: Range from inner-city minorities to Amish, Mormons,
ethnic groups, and social classes, and delinquents, prison inmates,
outlaw gangs, etc.

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 Identity: Serve to inform and influence terrorist behavior
though one’s perception of oneself and person’s environment
1. Humans act toward things on basis of meaning that things have for them
2. Meaning of such things is derived from social interaction with others
3. Meanings are handled and modified through an interpretative process
Self Identity:
1. Imagination of our appearance to the other person
2. Imagination of his judgment of that appearance
3. Self feeling such as pride or mortification
 Role taking: Gets inside perspective of another in a particular situation
and “observes” his own conduct from the other point of view
 Only when people take on role of another can they begin to see
themselves as object in their own social environment
Identity and the Terrorist Threat

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 Primary identities:
 Formed through socialization during early childhood
 Secondary identities: Formed later in life after the initial socialization
process (i.e. group member, political activists and worker)
 Validation occurs when social actors recognizes /reacts to that identity
 Fundamentalists: “One who uses religion as a form of identity rather than
as a set of truths” ~ Abdul Karim Soroush
 Religious influence permeates every aspect of member’s day-to-day life
 Religion gives members a sense of self-worth and self-importance by
teaching them that they are special to the deity and the movement
 Not only does this meaning provide the rationale for behavior,
It legitimizes the use of violence!

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(Religious)
 Palestinian Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (aka HAMAS)
 Translate to “Zeal” or “Enthusiasm!”
o Outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood
Founded: December 14, 1987 by Ahmed Yassin
 Created in direct opposition to the PLO and as an alternative for
stone-throwing youths
Israeli/Palestinian conflict:
 Israeli’s violence represents an attack on their freedom, livelihood,
and security
 Palestinian, these acts of violence symbolize disobedience or
empowerment
Ahmed Yassin

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(National)
Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Genesis: Irish immigrants in New York
Founded: 1916 Easter Rising when Patrick Pearse surrender and
signed “IRA” on surrender document
 Catholics vs. Protestants
o Battle of the Boyne and Apprentice Boys Parade
o “The Troubles”
o Bloody Sunday massacre (January 30, 1972)
o Hunger Strikes

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(Revolutionary)
Tumpamaros: Created 1962:
 Campaign of urban terrorism in effort to create more egalitarian society
 Founded by Raul Sendic member of militant socialist party
Chose to wage its assault within the city
 Most of the workers and labor activists from the north had been
replaced by the radical middle-class students of the city
o 1/3 professional or technicians
o 1/3 workers or employees
o 1/3 were students
Attacked symbols of capitalism: Robbed banks, sabotaged power facilities,
torched factories, then attacked the “Oligarchy”
 “Most of Montevideo’s workers viewed the Tupamaros as privileged
students with no real interest in the working class”
Raul Sendic

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 Social and Psychological elements:
 Can be conceptualized as an organizing theme for one’s sense of;
o Self-concept
o Self-worth
o Social image
o Self-esteem
o Self-definition that develop through social interaction, social
o comparison, and inter-group behavior.
 “Individuals performing certain roles have the potential for raising the status of the
position, just as one who becomes upwardly mobile and moves into a position accorded
higher status has the opportunity to enhance perceptions about his or her identity.”
 “Terrorists whose only sense of significance comes from being terrorists cannot be
forced to give up terrorism, for to do so would be to lose their very reason for being”
 “Political violence becomes an integral part of the person’s identity and asking the
terrorist to give up violence is like asking the terrorist to give up who she or he is”
~ Berman (2003)

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What Makes a Terrorist?
Concept of Terrorism
 Assumption:
 Poverty or lack of education were significant causes of terrorism
1: Participation in terrorism is just a special application of economics
of occupational choice
2: Choose to be doctors or lawyers , others pursue careers in terrorism
“Poor economic conditions do not seem to motivate people to participate
in hate crimes.” ~Krueger
Lynching: Great Depression, price of cotton plummeted and economic
conditions deteriorated yet lynching’s continued to fall
 Poll: People with a higher level of education are generally MORE likely
to say suicide attacks against Westerners in Iraq are justified
 Support turned out stronger among those with higher levels of
education

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 Intifada: 250 West Bank militants and associates
interviewed
 None were uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded, or depressed
 Many were middle class (two were the sons of millionaires)
 Almost 60% of suicide bombers had more than a high school education
(compares with less than 15% percent of the general population)
 Hezbollah: Lower poverty rate than Lebanese population (28% vs. 33 %),
and members were better education (47 % vs. 38 %) with higher ed.
 High proportion of al—Qaeda were college educated (35 %)
 Skilled professions (almost 45%)
 Israel extremist group, Gush Emunim, also same

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 Terrorism is a market: Supply side and a demand side
 Supply side of terrorists:
o Committed to goals of terrorist group, desire to make a statement
o Political involvement requires some understanding of the issues
and learning about those issues
 Demand side: Terrorist organization want to succeed. Costs of failure
is high
o “Market for martyrs” diverse motivations
o Nationalism, religious fanaticism, historical grievances, et al
 Focus on demand side, degrading terrorist organization, so there is less
demand for pursuing grievances through violent means

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 International terrorist are more likely to come from
moderate income countries than poor ones.
 Suppression of civil liberties / political rights, increase desire for
terrorism
 Countries with higher GDP were more likely to have citizens involved in
insurgencies than were poorer countries.
 Terrorists care about influencing political outcomes
 Motivated by geopolitical grievances
 Instead of asking who has a low salary and few opportunities, we should ask
who holds strong political views and desires to impose an extremist vision
by violent means?
 Most terrorists are not so desperately poor that they have nothing to live for
instead they are people who care so much that they are willing to die for it

Lecture 1 introduction to terrorism

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