Define terrorist...

Does anybody here think that "terrorist" is just another word used to scare people? during the cold war, it was "communist." during the medieval period, it was "witch." how do we know that this isn't turning out to be a witch hunt?

i think if al queda (or however you spell it ) ran around spreading communist propaganda pamphlets, we would call them communists

also if witches blew themselves up to scare people into changing their political ideas, we would call them terrorists.

silq i tend to agree.

the word terrorist has no clear definition. Anyone can be a terrorist, if you disagree, rebel, go against the norm, you are a terrorist.

the word terrorist has become a "label" of sorts.

Originally posted by silQ
Define Terrorist

A group of people attempting to advance a political, ideological or societal agenda usually against a larger traditional society using nontraditional methods of warfare and terror against the military complex typically including the citizens of the target society in an attempt to further their cause by means of fear and terror.

The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Acts (I and II) certianly broaden the definition of terrorism to a point that the incumbent government can administer a perpetual police state. Is any reader unaware that the name of the act is in fact a puerile acronym?

The US will never be the "land of the free" again. Terror is being used against its own citizens by the Bush administration. That ought to be included in terrorism and terrorist by definition, too, obviously.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
The US will never be the "land of the free" again. Terror is being used against its own citizens by the Bush administration. That ought to be included in terrorism and terrorist by definition, too, obviously.

Exactly! I think that people should never forget that the Federal Government of America is tied to the terrorist, namely Al-Qaeda. We know that the CIA are international terrorists themselves and that they are tied to training Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Here is a question for everybody. How come we never hear about what the CIA is doing in daily news?--Are they out there protecting the USA, or are they out there too, participating in the international terrorism caimpaigns with their partners Al-Qaeda. It is a serious question, never do I hear about the CIA efforts anywhere in mainstream news.

Good god, does anyone have any common sense? Why is everyone so eager to jump on the �Evil America� bandwagon? I suppose you would have me believe that the following list of terrorist events was masterminded by the CIA and not Bin Laden and the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

• Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
  
  
• The October 2000 attack of the U.S. destroyer ship Cole in Yemen
  
  
• August 7, 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people
  
  
• 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
  
  
• 1995 truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. servicemen
  
  
• 1995 detonation of a car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  
  
• 1992 bombings of a hotel in Yemen, which killed two Australians, but was supposedly targeted against American soldiers stationed there
  
  
• 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and sheltering Sheikh Omar Abd Al-Rahman who was also convicted in the World Trade Center bombing
  
  
• Killings of Western tourists by militant Islamic groups in Egypt
  
  
• Bombings in France by Islamic extremist Algerians
  
  
• The maintenance of a safe-house in Pakistan for Ramzi Ahmed Yousef

Did it ever occur to you that the United States was really attacked by Al-Qaeda and that this government is doing everything they can to protect and defend this country from outside terrorists? Backup your claims and provide proof, not just accusations and unverified conspiracy theories.

Originally posted by kinglizard
Good god, does anyone have any common sense?

YES!

Why is everyone so eager to jump on the �Evil America� bandwagon?

NOT ME! Not all Americans are evil, corrupt, or stupid. But the neo-con dominated Bush administration is the worst in the young history of the US in almost all COMMON SENSE measures.

Did it ever occur to you that the United States was really attacked by Al-Qaeda

YES!

and that this government is doing everything they can to protect and defend this country from outside terrorists?

NO! That's a big lie that you have bought. This government is just implementing a crazy pre-planned agenda in the most bungling fashion you could imagine.

I included Bush in the "terrorist" camp for the admin's use of terror to influence the psyche of the American populace. He brands it all over the place, including the War On Terrorism or Terror, the T.I.A., and those pretty colors that Ashcroft came out with for "terror alerts".

The degree of complicity of Bush and Cheney and their cronies in the 9/11 tragedy and other events doesn't materially affect their fit with my definition, that's a subjective thing. Bush is a global insurgent and a domestic terrorist.

[Edited on 12-5-2004 by MaskedAvatar]

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
This government is just implementing a crazy pre-planned agenda in the most bungling fashion you could imagine.

I�m not sure I understand your position. You agreed that the attacks came from Al-Qaeda but you think this government is implementing a pre-planed agenda which would imply involvement in the attacks. Am I misinterpreting your post?

btw - I agree that Bush is a bumbling idiot.

kinglizard

In case you haven't read about the agenda, search for PNAC (Project for a New American Century) in ATS and critiques on the web in general, including its official site, www.newamericancentury.org

Their position is best represented by their lobbying of Clinton in 1998 to invade Iraq at all costs for securing a strategic position for the USDA in the middle east, and future oil supplies.

as quoted by MaskedAvatar
Their position is best represented by their lobbying of Clinton in 1998 to invade Iraq at all costs for securing a strategic position for the USDA in the middle east, and future oil supplies.

For which then President Clinton followed through with/by the enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act, also of 1998.


seekerof

Link for kinglizard's benefit, please.

It's important for readers to know what the Act contains.

One link for many links on this:
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998



seekerof

Originally posted by kinglizard
Backup your claims and provide proof, not just accusations and unverified conspiracy theories.

Okay, I'll provide some material to read, specifically about Osama Bin Laden and his training by Central Intelligence Agency Services of America.

When Bin Laden and his group were trained in the beginning by CIA, the then President of USA Ronald Reagan called Bin Laden and his group, "freedom fighters".

I think that it is common knowledge that the CIA helped to create the terrorists that terrorize us. It should be anyway.

socialistworker.org

I think the definition of terrorist gets watered down by the government who like to label anyone against them as terrorists.

The real definition of a terrorist is someone who purposely targets unarmed civilians including children in order to further their political agenda.

Even though bombings of military & government targets in a non-war zone such as we've seen in the past are bad, that's not terrorism in my book.


[Edited on 13-5-2004 by outsider]

Wrote a piece on this, as well as a few connecting pieces:

The ultimate question facing us to day is: How to define terrorism? Is it indefinable? Does it fluctuate according to geographical or historical contexts? Is there one concrete, universally accepted definition? Is it easily recognized when seen? Interestingly enough, the United Nation�s Terrorism Prevention Branch confesses:

"The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a major obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures."

Terrorism: Can You Decide?



seekerof

Terrorist, an individual or group that would rather kill you than not. Sole purpose is for impact, do not be impacted.
A paranoid pschycotic that is dedicated to kill or be killed, no middle ground.

Basically all the replies are definitions of a terrorist but just put in different words by each individual member.

immortal ,socialist worker does not count as a source .
it's the published periodical of the british lunatic trotsky brigade distributed on street corners by party members .
as for the C.I.A funding bin laden , they deny this and i see no reason to disbelieve them .

1 the cia funded the afghan resistance
2 bin laden funded the same people
that doesn't mean that we can jump to
3 the cia funded bin laden .

bin ladens funds seem to have come from arab sources , i've seen no credible evidence to the contrary