September 11 attacks and suicide bombing was something new for most Americans but for many terror victims around the world such as Israel, Russia, and Seri Lanka who have lived with it for more than last 50 years, it was sad but not new. Only in the magnitude of the destruction and loss of life was new. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon harnessed modern Technology to the age-old tactic of suicide terrorism. Because the hijackers were willing to die, they could turn passenger jets into deadly missiles and inflict massive casualties.
Suicide bombing is not something new! Most terrorism throughout history have carried a high risk of death for the terrorists themselves. Traditionally the main weapon of the attack was the dagger, and unless the victim could be found alone and defenseless, early terrorists or Guerilla fighters (Guerilla are fighting military, and terrorist attack civilians. This is the big different between the names) were unlikely to return from their missions. And the makeshift bombs used by nineteenth-century anarchists and Russian revolutionaries were so unstable that they had to be thrown from a short distance (that is, if they did not explode first in the hands of the attacker). Those who went on an attack of this kind were fully aware of the risk and many of them wrote farewell letters to their friends and families.
The development of more sophisticated weapons in the twentieth century allowed terrorists to kill from a distance. At the same time, many groups got over their inhibitions about killing large numbers of innocent victims indiscriminately, so close-up targeting became less necessary. These factors made attacks less risky and de facto suicide terrorism less common. But suicide terrorism has reemerged with a vengeance in the last two decades as a favored tactic of certain terrorist groups. Among the reasons these groups choose suicide terrorism is the fear it generates and the ability to execute accurate, large-scale attacks without sophisticated technology.
Suicide terrorism in not linked to any particular religion or Nationality. Far and away the largest number of suicide terrorist attacks in recent years have come from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), a separatist group fighting the government of Sri Lanka. Using suicide attackers, the Tigers managed to kill two heads of state, Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991, and Sri Lankan President,
Ranasinghe Premadasa, in 1993.
The phenomenon reaches far beyond Sri Lanka, however. Other groups that have embraced suicide terrorism include the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish, Marxist separatist group fighting the government of Turkey; Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group of Shiite Islamists based in Lebanon; and al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s network of radical Sunni Islamists. And while not technically terrorism (Since it was Military to Military fight), the kamikaze attacks of Japanese pilots during World War II also showed a willingness to use suicide as a weapon. The concept of self-sacrifice is not specific to any given culture.
The most recent wave of suicide terrorism began with attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1983. The tactic was adopted by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka in 1987, by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Israel in 1994, and by the PKK in Turkey in 1996. Al-Qaeda embraced suicide terrorism in the mid-1990s when the network began planning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and other attacks. The second Palestinian intifada (uprising), which began in 2000, has featured numerous suicide attacks from both religious and secular Palestinian terrorist groups. In May 2002, FBI director Robert S. Mueller III said future suicide attacks on American soil are “inevitable“, It had a clue in Lebanon 1982 by attacked of Suicide bomber driving car to the Marines base in Beirut.
Many times when teaching counter-terror methodology, we face skepticism when we get to the topic of suicide bomber or disarming situations. The truth is, weapon take away or suicide bomber disarming is not something we chose to encounter, it’s a situation that we suddenly find ourselves in, and one from which there is no way out. One more important thing to understand when we deal with suicide bombing is the word damage control. When I was as at the police academy we were always trying to define what a suicide bomber looks like. The theories changed from week to week as reality revealed that he could have long hair, short hair, and short tall, educated, uneducated with children, without children. Once they were sure only young single men, then it became married with children also. But reality slapped us in the face. From experience we know that a suicide bomber can be of any race, religion, man or woman, with or without a family. The external appearance of a suicide bomber turns out to be a lot harder to define than the mental makeup.
Suicide terrorists are not necessarily crazy.
Such terrorists are deeply committed to their causes and see themselves as martyrs. Self-sacrifice is a way of legitimizing a cause, inspiring imitation, and promising individual glory. Terrorism is not just brutal, unthinking violence it often has something behind it. There is almost always a strategy behind terrorist actions. Whether it takes the form of bombings, shootings, hijackings, or assassinations, terrorism is neither random, spontaneous, nor blind; it is a deliberate use of violence against civilians for political or religious ends.
Even though most people can recognize terrorism when they see it, we have had difficulty coming up with an ironclad definition. The State Department in the USA defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” In another useful attempt to produce a definition, Paul Pillar, a former deputy chief of the CIA’s Counter-terrorist Center, argues that there are four key elements of terrorism:
1. It is premeditated-planned in advance, rather than an impulsive act of rage.
2. It is political-not criminal, like the violence that groups such as the mafia use to get money, but designed to change the existing political order.
3. It is aimed at civilians-not at military targets or combat-ready troops.
4. It is carried out by sub national groups, not by the army of a country.
The word “terrorism” was coined during France’s Reign of Terror in 1793-94. Originally, the leaders of this systematized attempt to weed out “traitors” among the revolutionary ranks, terror was seen as the best way to defend liberty, but as the French Revolution soured, the word soon took on grim echoes of state violence and guillotines. Today, most terrorists dislike the label. The oldest Guerilla fighters were holy warriors who killed Romans soldiers. For instance, in first-century Palestine, Jewish Zealots would publicly slit the throats of Romans and their collaborators; in seventh-century India, the Thuggee cult would ritually strangle passersby as sacrifices to the Hindu deity Kali; and in the eleventh-century Middle East, the Shiite sect known as the Assassins would eat hashish before murdering civilian foes. Recognizably modern forms of terrorism back to such late-nineteenth-century organizations as Narodnaya Volya (“People’s Will”), an anti-tsarist group in Russia. One particularly successful early case of terrorism was the 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb extremist, an event that helped trigger World War I. Even more familiar forms of terrorism often custom made for TV cameras-first appeared on July 22, 1968, when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine undertook the first terrorist hijacking of a commercial airplane. Terrorism aimed at an audience. Terrorist acts are often deliberately spectacular, designed to rattle and influence a wide audience, beyond the victims of the violence itself. The point is to use the psychological impact of violence or of the threat of violence to effect political change. As the terrorism expert Brian Jenkins bluntly put it in 1974, “Terrorism is theatre.”
Different types of terrorism
While these categories are not written in stone, experts have
identified at least six different sorts of terrorism:
1. Nationalist
2. Religious
3. State-sponsored
4. Left-wing
5. Right-win
6. Anarchists
Nationalist terror groups seek to form a separate state for there own national group, often by drawing attention to a fight for “National Liberation” that they think the world has ignored. This sort of terrorism has been among the most successful at winning international sympathy and concessions. Nationalist terror groups have tended to calibrate their use of violence, using enough to rivet world attention but not so much that they alienate supporters abroad or members of there base community. Nationalist terrorism can be difficult to define, since many groups accused of the practice insist that they are not terrorists but freedom fighters.
Nationalist terrorist groups include the Irish Republican Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization, both of which said during the 1990’s that they had renounced terrorism. Other prominent examples are the Basque Fatherland and Liberty, which seeks to create a Basque homeland separate from Spain, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which seeks to create a Kurdish state independent from Turkey.
Religious terrorists seek to use violence to further what they see as divinely commanded purposes, often targeting broad categories of foes in an attempt to bring about sweeping changes. Religious terrorists come from many major faiths, as well as from small cults. This type of terrorism is growing swiftly, in 1995 (the most recent year for which such statistics were available), nearly half of the 56 known, active international terrorist groups were religiously motivated. Because religious terrorists are concerned not with rallying a constituency of fellow nationalists or ideologues but with pursuing their own vision of the divine will. These groups lack one of the major constraints that historically has limited the scope of terror attacks. The most extreme religious terrorists can sanction “almost limitless violence against a virtually open-ended category of targets: that is, anyone who is not a member of the terrorists’ religion or religious sect.”
Examples include Osama bin Laden’s al- Qaeda network, The Palestinian Sunni Muslim organization Hamas and The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Some American white-supremacist militias, and the Aum Shinrikyo Doomsday cult in Japan.
State-sponsored terrorist groups are deliberately used by radical states as foreign policy tools as a cost-effective way of waging war covertly, through the use of surrogate warriors or ‘guns for hire. One important early case was the Iranian government’s use of supposedly independent young militants to seize hostages at the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. With enhanced resources at their disposal, state-sponsored terrorist groups are often capable of carrying out more deadly attacks than other terrorists, including airplane bombings
However, could be the nature of terrorism may now be changing. Terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead. But the emergence of religious terror groups with apocalyptic outlooks and the availability of weapons of mass destruction may indicate that inflicting mass casualties has supplanted publicity as the primary goal of some terrorist campaigns. Terrorists want governments and the public to pay attention, and the media provide the conduit. Terrorism is calculated violence, usually against symbolic targets, designed to deliver a political or religious message. Beyond that, terrorists’ goals might also include winning popular support, provoking the attacked country to act rashly, attracting recruits, polarizing public opinion, demonstrating their ability to cause pain, or undermining governments.
Terrorists try to attract media attention for that, terrorists say they design their operations accordingly.
Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, said he chose the Murrah Federal Building as a target because it had “plenty of open space around it, to allow for the best possible news photos and television footage.” The Italian leftist Red Brigades liked to stage attacks on Saturdays to make it into the Sunday newspapers, which had a higher circulation. And the Palestinian group Black September took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Munich Olympics because television sets worldwide were already tuned in to the games and the concentrated foreign press would amplify the story. Terrorist groups study the media carefully, and some groups have their own media operations; the Colombian leftists of the FARC, for example, put out their own radio broadcasts, and many groups have promotional Web
sites.
The media attention help terrorists! The old saying that any publicity is good publicity has often been applied to terrorism, even when an assassin misses or a bomb doesn’t go off, an attack can raise awareness about the terrorists’ cause.
Terrorism, which garners a disproportionately large share of news coverage, can also move neglected issues to the top of the political agenda, as a series of attacks in the 1970s and 1980s did for the cause of Palestinian nationalism. Terrorism can also provoke policy debates and public discussion by highlighting both the terrorists’ radical views and the visceral anger of terrorism’s victims and their families. But other experts doubt that media coverage really helps terrorists. Attacks can spin out of control or have unintended consequences, too much slaughter can alienate potential supporters and sympathizers; terrorist activities have different meanings for different audiences, and even when terrorists’ attack plans work, they cannot necessarily control how their actions are covered or perceived. Finally, being saddled with the pejorative label “terrorist” focuses attention on a group’s methods, not its message, and can delegitimize its cause in the public eye.
Why do the media cover terrorist attacks?
Because terrorist attacks are news, so journalists say. Many terrorism scholars have identified a symbiotic relationship between terrorists, who want attention, and news organizations, which want dramatic stories to boost readership or ratings. Most news organizations, while aware that terrorist groups are manipulating them, want to report on major events without becoming a platform for terrorists. Critics say live television news is particularly susceptible to becoming an unwitting partner in the theater of terrorism.
Can media coverage shape the outcome of a terrorist incident?
Yes, in various ways. Experts say sustained coverage of a hijacking sometimes protects hostages’ lives by building international sympathy for their plight. But it can also prolong a hostage situation since terrorists may hold out until the publicity and therefore the attention fades. When an unfolding attack is covered on television, a lull in real-time developments can make it seem like a government isn’t responding to an attack and lead to pressure on officials to resolve the situation, perhaps prematurely, with dangerous consequences. Media coverage can also disrupt or prevent counter-terrorist operations. It can tell hijackers how their attack is proceeding and even tip them off to a rescue attempt. But it can also lead to arrests. The decision by major U.S. newspapers to publish the anti-modern political manifesto of the Unabomber, a lone serial mail bomber who eluded FBI investigators for 17 years, brought about his identification and capture.
What is narco-terrorism?
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), narco-terrorism refers to terrorist acts carried out by groups that are directly or indirectly involved in cultivating, manufacturing, transporting, or distributing illicit drugs. The term is generally applied to groups that use the drug trade to fund terrorism. However, it has also sometimes been used to refer to the phenomenon of increasingly close ties between powerful drug lords motivated by simple criminal profit and terrorist groups with political agendas, particularly in Colombia. But some experts say that the term is too vague and is mostly used by politically driven Western politicians and journalists out to score rhetorical points. They argue that nearly every terrorist group operating today raises some money from the drug trade, and that while terrorists and drug traffickers often share some short-term goals, they have different long-term objectives (political goals for terrorists, greed for drug lords) and shouldn’t be conflated.
How are terrorist groups connected to the drug trade?
In several ways, some terrorist groups, like Colombia’s FARC, collect taxes from people who cultivate or process illicit drugs on lands that it controls, others, including Hezbollah, Colombia’s AUC, traffic in drugs themselves. Moreover, some terrorist groups are supported by states funded by the drug trade; Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers, for instance, earned anestimated $40 million to $50 million per year from taxes related to opium. The drug trade is also a significant part of the economies of Syria which has funded terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-and Lebanon <http://www.terrorismanswers.com/havens/lebanon.html>, a haven for numerous terrorist groups including Hezbollah and Hamas.
Why would terrorists turn to drug trafficking?
Because they need money-for weapons, equipment, training, computers and other information systems, transportation, bribes, safe houses, forged passports and other documents, and even payroll. Drugs are a handy way to get cash and lots of it.
Is the drug trade lucrative?
Extremely. Heroin, cocaine, and marijuana are uncomplicated and cheap to produce, but because they’re illegal and therefore risky to supply, they can earn more than their weight in gold on the vast international black market. The United Nations estimated in 1998 that the illicit drug business generates about $400 billion per year. Also, because the drug trade is secretive, terrorists can amass large sums of cash without being detected by authorities.
Is narco-terrorism increasing since September 11?
Perhaps, U.S. authorities say the new international climate including crackdowns on terrorist funding and growing international pressure on state sponsors of terrorism-may drive some terrorists deeper into the drug trade. One example is Hezbollah.
Do terrorists use the drug trade to wreak havoc?
They might, some expert’s say. Osama bin Laden has reportedly advocated using narcotics trafficking to weaken Western societies by supplying them with addictive drugs. (In 2000, Americans spent almost $63 billion on illegal narcotics.)
What is cyber-terrorism?
Terrorism that involves computers, networks, and the information they contain. Computer networks have been attacked during recent conflicts in Kosovo, Kashmir, and the Middle East, but the damage has mostly been limited to defaced Web sites or blocked Internet servers. However, with American society increasingly interconnected and ever more dependent on information technology, terrorism expert’s worry that cyber-terrorist attacks could cause as much devastation as more familiar forms of terrorism.
Is the United States vulnerable to cyber-terrorism?
Yes, but experts disagree about how large and immediate a threat cyber-terrorism poses. In 1997, the Pentagon simulated a Cyber-attack and found that attackers using ordinary computers and widely available software could disrupt military communications, electrical power, and 911 networks in several American cities. Hacking tools and expertise have become only more widespread since then.
Is cyber-terrorism the same as hacking?
No. While some people use the term “cyber-terrorism” (which was coined in the 1980s) to refer to any major computer-based attack on the U.S. government or economy, many terrorism experts would not consider cyber-attacks by glory-seeking individuals, organizations with criminal motives, or hostile governments engaging in information warfare to be cyber-terrorism. Like other terrorist acts, cyber-terror attacks are typically premeditated, politically motivated, perpetrated by small groups rather than governments, and designed to call attention to a cause, spread fear, or otherwise influence the public and decision-makers. Hackers break in to computer systems for many reasons, often to display their own technical prowess or demonstrate the fallibility of computer security. Some on-line activists say that activities such as defacing Web sites are disruptive but essentially nonviolent, much like civil disobedience.
Why would terrorists turn to cyber-attacks?
Terrorists try to leverage limited resources to instill fear and shape public opinion, and dramatic attacks on computer networks could provide a means to do this with only small teams and minimal funds. Moreover, “virtual” attacks over the Internet or other networks allow attackers to be far away, making borders, X-ray machines, and other physical barriers irrelevant. Cyber-terrorists would not need a complicit or weak government (as al-Qaeda had in Afghanistan) to host them as they train and plot. On-line attackers can also cloak their true identities and locations, choosing to remain anonymous or pretending to be someone else.
Terrorists might also try to use cyber-attacks to amplify the effect of other attacks. For example, they might try to block emergency communications or cut off electricity or water in the wake of a conventional bombing or a biological, chemical, or radiation attack. Many experts say that this kind of coordinated attack might be the most effective use of cyber-terrorism.
What kinds of attacks are considered cyber-terrorism?
Cyber-terrorism could involve destroying the actual machinery of the information infrastructure; remotely disrupting the information technology underlying the Internet, government computer networks, or critical civilian systems such as financial networks or mass media; or using computer networks to take over machines that control traffic lights, power plants, or dams in order to wreak havoc.
How do cyber-attacks work?
Attacks on the physical components of the information infrastructure would resemble other conventional attacks: for example, a bomb could be used to destroy a government computer bank, key components of the Internet infrastructure, or telephone switching equipment. Another option would be an electromagnetic weapon emitting a pulse that could destroy or interrupt electronic equipment. Attacks launched in cyberspace could involve diverse methods of exploiting vulnerabilities in computer security: computer viruses, stolen passwords, insider collusion, software with secret “back doors” that intruders can penetrate undetected, and orchestrated torrents of electronic traffic that overwhelm computers-which are known as “denial of service” attacks. Attacks could also involve stealing classified files, altering the content of Web pages, disseminating false information, sabotaging operations, erasing data, or threatening to divulge confidential information or system weaknesses unless a payment or political concession is made. If terrorists managed to disrupt financial markets or media broadcasts, an attack could undermine confidence or show panic. Attacks could also involve remotely hijacking control systems,with potentially dire consequences: breaching dams, colliding airplanes, shutting down the power grid, and so on.
What is domestic terrorism?
Just as differing definitions of terrorism are offered by government agencies and other experts, so the meaning of domestic terrorism is also hard to pin down. The FBI, the lead federal agency dealing with domestic terrorism, has defined it as “the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The U.S.A. Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, defines domestic terrorism as criminal acts that are “dangerous to human life” and seem to be meant to scare civilians or affect policy. Civil rights groups have expressed concern that this definition is overly broad. Not all politically motivated violence qualifies as terrorism (for instance, the FBI and some terrorism experts did not regard the Unabomber, who says his anti-modern beliefs were behind a 17-year mail-bombing campaign, as a terrorist), nor do all groups that espouse extremist ideas turn to terrorist acts. Experts do not consider all political assassinations or hate crimes to be terrorist attacks, and some critics note that politics often helps determine what gets labeled domestic terrorism as opposed to criminal activity.
What types of domestic terrorism are there?
The FBI classifies domestic terrorist threats mostly by political motive, dividing them into three main categories: left-wing, right-wing, and special-interest. Religious sects have also been connected with terrorist incidents.
What is left-wing domestic terrorism?
Terrorist activity by anti-capitalist revolutionary groups. In the late nineteenth century, immigrants from Eastern Europe sympathetic to the international anarchist movement launched what historians consider the first wave of domestic terrorism in the United States. Anarchists tried to kill the steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and bombed Chicago’s Haymarket in 1898. In 1901, an anarchist sympathizer named Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York. Another wave of left-wing terrorist activity began in the 1960s. Far-left groups such as the Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Armed Forces for Puerto Rican National Liberation (FALN) used bombings and kidnappings to draw attention to their radical causes. By the mid-1980s, however, left-wing terrorism had begun to wane.
Are left-wing domestic terrorists still active?
The only such groups still active, experts say, are Puerto Rican separatists, but even their activists have been scaled back. In its heyday, the FALN tried to kill President Truman, stormed the House of Representatives, and set off bombs in New York City, but Puerto Rican extremists today tend to confine their activities to Puerto Rico. On another front, the FBI warns that anarchist and socialist groups, which have seen a revival since the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, represent “a latent but potential terrorist threat.”
Does Iran sponsor terrorism?
Yes. The State Department calls the Islamic Republic of Iran the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism.” Iran continues to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups based in the Middle East and elsewhere. But reformist elements in the Iranian leadership and an increasingly discontented public are questioning the country’s hard-line policies, rigid fundamentalism, and anti-Western bent.
What sort of government rules Iran?
Since a 1979 revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the American-backed regime of the Shah, the country has been governed by Shiite Muslim clerics committed to a stern interpretation of Islamic law. Iran today has two main leaders: Muhammad Khatami is the popularly elected president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the supreme leader. Khatami is reform-minded, but anti-American, anti-Western hard-liners like Khamenei still dominate the Iranian military and intelligence services.
Which terrorist groups does Iran support?
Iran mostly backs Islamist groups, including the Lebanese Shiite militants of Hezbollah (which Iran helped found in the 1980s) and such Palestinian terrorist groups as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It was also reportedly involved in a Hezbollah-linked January 2002 attempt to smuggle a boatload of arms to the Palestinian Authority. Iran has given support to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey, and to other militant groups in the Persian Gulf
region, Africa, and Central Asia.
What terrorist activities have been linked with Iran?
The U.S. government first listed Iran as a terrorist sponsor in 1984. Among its activities have been the following: In November 1979, Iranian student revolutionaries widely thought to be linked to the Khomeini government occupied the American Embassy in Tehran. Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Observers say Iran had prior knowledge of Hezbollah attacks, such as the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Colonel William Higgins, a U.S. Marine involved in a U.N. observer mission in Lebanon, and the 1992 and 1994 bombings of Jewish cultural institutions in Argentina. Iran still has a price on the head of the Indian-born British Novelist Salman Rushdie for what Iranian leaders call blasphemous writings about Islam in his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses. U.S. officials say Iran supported and inspired the group behind the 1996 truck bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
Does Iran have weapons of mass destruction?
Yes. According to the CIA, Iran possesses chemicals that can induce bleeding, blistering, and choking, as well as the bombs and artillery shells to deliver these agents. Iran also has an active biological weapons program, driven in part by its acquisition of “dual-use” technologies, supplies and machinery that can be put to either harmless or deadly uses. Finally, with help from Russia, Iran is building a nuclear power plant, but U.S. officials say that Iran is more interested in developing a nuclear weapon than in producing nuclear energy.
Does Iran have missiles that can deliver weapons of mass destruction?
Yes. Iran has hundreds of Scuds and other short-range ballistic missiles. It has also manufactured and flight-tested the Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 1,300 kilometers-enough to hit Israel or Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Iran is developing missiles with even greater range, including one that it says will be used to launch satellites but that experts say could also be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Which countries have supplied Iran with missile technology?
They would be Russia, China, and North Korea.
Has Iraq sponsored terrorism?
Yes. Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship provided headquarters, operating bases, training camps, and other support to terrorist groups fighting the governments of neighboring Turkey and Iran, as well as to hard-line Palestinian groups. During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam commissioned several failed terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities. The State Department lists Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism. The question of Iraq’s link to terrorism grew more urgent with Saddam’s suspected determination to develop weapons of mass destruction, which Bush the administration officials feared he might share with terrorists who could launch devastating attacks against the United States.
About the author:
Major Avi Nardia (Owner – Chief Instructor, Lotar Self Defense and Fitness) was taught the LOTAR/KAPAP system at a young age by his father (a member in the first Israeli Special Force Unit). He was sent to the Israeli Military Academy from the age of 14 years where he was groomed to be an officer. Major Nardia entered the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) at the age of 18 and was promoted to Lieutenant shortly before the age of 20. In 1982, Major Nardia was engaged in battle during the Israeli –Lebanon War. After his release from the IDF, Major Nardia decided to spend the next seven years of his life in Japan learning Japanese Karate, Jiu Jitsu and Kendo. He then returned to Israel and became an active member of the most elite unit of the police counter-terrorist unit YAMAM (our equivalent would be the Delta Force in the United States). He was assignedto perform covert intelligence operations, and to instruct the unit as the specialist on Lotar – CQB – Close Quarter Battle. These units are quick response units that specialize in skill and silence, identifying, preventing and arresting terrorists. By the age of 30, Avi had earned a reputation for being one of the top military and police instructors. After several years with the YAMAM, he decided to leave the unit and become a Defense Tactics instructor for Israel’s Police Academy. At the end of 2001, just prior to his moving to Southern California with his family, Nardia served as a bodyguard in the private sector while also remaining as a Reserve Officer on the Israeli Police sniper team.
Avi Nardia
Email
avi@avinardia.com
www.avinardia.com
References
FBI, Bomb Data Center, Intelligence Summary 2002-4, Improvised Explosive
Devices Used in Suicide Bombings. Dated April 4, 2002
US Army MP School, Info Paper, Suicide Bomber/Terrorist Threat, DOD 17Apr 02
BATF, Arson & Explosives Advisory, Islamic Extremist Suicide Bombers, dated January 30, 2002
BATF Explosive Standards Card, ATF 15400-1
TDS-2062-SHR, Estimating Damage to Structures from Terrorism Bombs, SEP 98
Army Regulation 190-14, CARRYING OF FIREARMS AND USE OF FORCE FOR LAW
ENFORCEMENT AND SECURITY DUTIES
FM 19-10, Military Police Law and Order Operations, dated September 1987
Israeli Defense Forces in Pictures web site, picture of explosives found in a vehicle, dated April 27, 2002
Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, State of California, Information Bulletin, Response to a Suicide/Homicide Bombing Scene, dated May 22, 2002
Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, State of California, Information Bulletin, Response to a Suicide/Homicide Bombing
“Pre-detonation”, dated May 30, 2002 Fort Lewis Anti-terrorism Officer Tom Rudd, Slide Presentation entitled Suicide Bombs and IED’s
