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Conflicts in the middle east
History of domestic terrorism america
Conflicts in the middle east
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The United States and Terrorism
Thesis: The United States government chose not to fully investigate the known increase in terrorist activity prior to 9/11/01.
I. Introduction
A. The United States government chose not to fully investigate the known increase in terrorist activity prior to 9/11/01. There were many instances of terrorism that were directly related to larger terrorist cell organizations but these organizations were not held responsible for the atrocities done in their terrorist cell names. From as early as the 1970's till now there has been hundreds and hundreds of terrorists attack around the world. Many of the more detrimental attacks have been against American embassies across the world and against American civilians, such as kidnappings and murders. The few things that all of these incidents have in common is that they are done for there religious beliefs bestowed upon them by terrorist organizations such as Alkida and Taliban.
B. After world war one the division of holly land such as Jerusalem and the argument of who the land actually belonged to cause the development of terrorist organizations that were willing to use new tactics of suicide bombing on civilian places to force governments to listen to what they had to say. These terrorist cells starting developing in Middle Eastern countries recruiting followers by twisting their own religion. The fact that these terrorists don't fight for a government and don't fight for a person but fight for god is very dangerous. This explains the willingness to go to such extremes as strapping a bomb to ones selves and blowing themselves up to kill innocent people. The organizations only grew over time and slowly became networked all over the world with coordinated attacks against what they believed to be there enemies; examples would be the Untied States and Pakistan. Both countries have been victims of terrorism by terrorist cells. Our government was well aware of the rising threat terrorist cells posed to our country. The CIA and the NSA had the possible resources needed to hunt down and pursue dealing with the threat terrorist cells had towards our country but did not fully use the resources they had.
C. We knew about the large network of terrorist cells, we knew about the threat that Osama bin Laden posed to this country, and rather then dealing with the constant small-scale terrorist attacks by preventing them or completely investigating them. In fact during the 1970's the
Jeffrey David Simon, The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), 188-89.
Following the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the Unites States found itself in a search for answers and revenge against those that had brought about this atrocity. The attack that has been compared to that of Pearl-Harbor elevated the tracking and collecting of terrorism from barely a priority, to the forefront of the American radar. I honestly believe that terrorism as the #1 priority is destined to remain at the top for the foreseeable future. The elemental thoughts on almost all American minds following the attacks were who had the strength and capability to could carry out such an attack on a country with the world’s strongest military and what led to their focus to attack the Untied States: In short, who attacked us, and why do they hate us? The Untied States formed a bi-partisan 9/11 Commission was formed to trace the roots of Al-Qa’ida, investigate the history of the 19 hijackers, examine missed opportunities of law enforcement officials to avert the disaster, and make recommendations to clean up the faulty incoherent intelligence-gathering operation. The 500+ page 9/11 Commission Report contained thirteen chapters of historical narratives, analysis and recommendations. All ten members of the bi-partisan commission signed off on the report, which has arguably become a national historical document. Just as the 9/11 Commission was created to find answers and recommend necessary follow steps to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself, Lawrence Wright sought answers as to why 3000 American lives were lost in the attacks on September 11th. An experienced traveler to the region, Lawrence Wright endeavored to do his own investigative study into the history, ideology and circumstances behind this large-...
Traister, Bryce. "Terrorism Before The Letter: Benito Cereno And The 9/11 Commission Report." Canadian Review Of American Studies 43.1 (2013): 23-47.MasterFILE Elite. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
On September 11, 2001 New York came upon a terrorist attack. The terrorist hijacked four airplanes the morning of the attack. The attack was part of the Al-Qaeda Islamist group, led by Osama Bin Laden. Two planes collided into the World Trade Center; one hit the Pentagon, and the other one crashed in Pennsylvania never reaching its destination. The cause of 9/11 is that Islam saw the United States as a heinous country with different and awful morals so they decided to attack. The consequences were the tensions between Americans and Muslims rose. Numerous hate crimes were committed and there was a massive economic downfall. We could have avoided this incident if the airport security would have been more strict, then the attack would have a less chance of happening (Bantista). “Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward. And freedom will be defended.” –President Bush directly after the 9/11 attacks (Tsimelkas). The government issued extreme changes in the military system and the surveillance ...
When a giant explosion ripped through Alfred P. Murrah federal building April 19,1995, killing 168 and wounding hundreds, the United States of America jumped to a conclusion we would all learn to regret. The initial response to the devastation was all focused of middle-eastern terrorists. “The West is under attack,”(Posner 89), reported the USA Today. Every news and television station had the latest expert on the middle east telling the nation that we were victims of jihad, holy war. It only took a few quick days to realize that we were wrong and the problem, the terrorist, was strictly domestic. But it was too late. The damage had been done. Because America jumped to conclusions then, America was later blind to see the impending attack of 9/11. The responsibility, however, is not to be placed on the America people. The public couldn’t stand to hear any talk of terrorism, so in turn the White House irresponsibly took a similar attitude. They concentrated on high public opinion and issues that were relevant to Americans everyday. The government didn’t want to deal with another public blunder like the one in Oklahoma City. A former FBI analyst recalls, “when I went to headquarters (Washington, D.C.) later that year no one was interested in hearing anything about Arab money connections unless it had something to do with funding domestic groups. We stumbled so badly on pinpointing the Middle East right off the bat on the Murrah bombing. No one wanted to get caught like that again,”(Posner 90). The result saw changes in the counter terrorism efforts; under funding, under manning, poor cooperation between agencies, half-hearted and incompetent agency official appointees and the list goes on. All of these decisions, made at the hands of the faint-hearted, opened the doors wide open, and practically begged for a terrorist attack. So who’s fault is it? The public’s for being
...e community have had conflicting views and opposing agendas. Lack of cooperation and communication between intelligence agencies; such as the FBI and the CIA refusing to share information prior to the terrorist attacks of 2001, resulted in limited information and failure on the part of the intelligence community and policy decisions regarding US safeguards against terrorist.
Historical Significance: The September 11th, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, orchestrated by Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, were the events that launched the U.S. War on Terrorism. Al-Qaeda’s attack on the United States was carried out by members of radicalized Islamic groups, whose objective was to spread jihad against the secular influence of the West. This tragic event provided the historical b...
Over the past century, terrorism has advanced from random killings to enormous plans for terrorist groups. To understand terrorism, you must first define it. Terrorism as we all know it is hard to define and understand, and has many different definitions as it is used widely. The word "terrorism" stems from the word "terror", which means to instill fear in. People become terrorists when they take the actions towards instilling fear and terror upon people to prove a certain point or agenda.
Before 2001 and under the Clinton Administration the United States viewed terrorism as a crime (Dudley 46). However after the attacks and under the Bush Administration, terrorism is now considered an act of war (47). Following September 2001, the government also passed the Patriot Act in October (Inside 9/11: War on America). Also in October, the United States Army invaded Afghanistan in search of Al Qaeda members and their leader, Osama Bin Laden. Two years later, we invade and spread the fight to include Iraq. The invasion was do to a belief that Saddam Hussein was producing weapons of mass destruction and due to our newly launched War on Terror, we acted to remove him (Green). Our fight would continue for several years after the initial invasions following September 11, 2001. After ten years, the U.S. Special Forces finally locate Osama Bin Laden and kill him (Inside 9/11: War on
... Sept. 11th, 2001, terrorist attack on theWorld Trade Center and the unreliability of U.S. intelligence onWeapons of mass Destruction in Iraq have been a focus of intense scrutiny in the U.S. in 2004 particularly in the context of the 9/11 Commision , the continuing armed resistance against U.S. occupation of Iraq, and the widely perceived need for systematic review of the respective roles of the CIA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency. On July 9th, 2004 the Senate report of Pre-war Intelligenceon Iraq of the Senate Intelligence Committe stated that the CIA described the danger presented by Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in an unreasonable way, largely unsupported by the available intelligence. In a briefing held Sept 15th, 2001 George Tenet presented the Worldwide Attack Matrix, a "top-secret" document describing covert CIA anti-terror operations in 80 countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The actions, underway or being recommended, would range from "routine propaganda to lethal covert action in preparation for military attacks". The plans, if carried out, "would give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority in its history".
Terrorism has been around for centuries and religion-based violence has been around just as long. (Hoffman, 2). The violence was never referred to as terrorism though. Only up to the nineteenth century has religion been able to justify terrorism (Hoffman, 2). Since then, religious terrorism became motivated and inspired by the ideological view (Hoffman, 3). Therefore, it has turned against the main focus of religion and more towards the views of the extremist and what is happening politically (Winchester, 4).
Americans have considered terrorism as a horror that occurs in other countries and not as a real threat to America itself. As the recent terrorist attacks on our nation shows, this opinion was gravely incorrect. There are several policies in both the private sector and our government, which contributed to our vulnerability to terrorism.
BENAC, N. (2011). National security: Ten years after september 11 attacks, u.s. is safe but not
The Palestinians turned to terrorism because of the volatile surroundings palestine after first Intifada and because of how other governments had failed. Terrorism is so successful because people have the threat of bombings and attacks if they are not handled carefully and respectfully.
To prevent tragedies like 9/11 from taking its toll on the United States, terrorism needs to be thought about still to this day. One quote that proves this point is, “ In 2001, the federal commission warned that terrorists could get weapons that can cause mass destruction. Congress needs to work on the integrated governmental structures to better the nation's security” (Augustine). The nation's security can help with the destruction of weapons that are dangerous to the U.S. This can cause more attacks like 9/11 and create a larger threat to the population. Another quote that shows this is, “Preventing further attacks required the U.S. to drop its law-enforcement approach to terrorism and recognize that we were at war” (9/11). To stop attacks like 9/11 from occurring, people need to see that the U.S. isn’t only under attack, but at war as well with the terrorists. Slowly, the country and its citizens are coming realizing this. The counterclaim for this argument is, “The work of public officials allowed us to ask if the country overreacted to 9/11. Providing counter terrorism has increased costs more than what was to be expected” (9/11). The oppone...