Introduction to Terrorism - 1990s US Military Training Video

With your worldwide activities, you could be involved in a terrorist attack. As military personnel, you represent America and the United States Navy. As a result, you are prime targets of ideological terrorists. It is imperative that you understand what terrorism is and how it is a threat to you so that when you work and travel overseas you can counter the terrorist threat intelligently. This briefing will cover what terrorism is, the categories of terrorism, the types of terrorism and terrorists, the threat, motives, and goals of terrorists, as well as the characteristics of terrorism, and why it is so effective. When looking at terrorism, let's see what the Department of Defense says. Terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use of force by a revolutionary organization against individuals or property with the intention of coercing or intimidating governments or societies often for political or ideological purposes. Now, whenever considering what terrorism is, we look at four elements. The first is method. The method of terrorism is the use of force and violence. This is what instills fear. That which makes terrorism much more effective. Again, we look at perpetrator. That's the second element of terrorism. And that is a revolutionary or conspiratorial group. We will be talking about who these groups are later and how they are a threat to you. Thirdly, we look at targets and essentially that is government or civilian populations. Again, as military personnel, you are a prime target. Anybody who works for the government is a prime target because they represent the United States and its interests. And lastly, the purpose of terrorism is to coersse or intimidate for political ends. This is what differentiates it from a strictly criminal act. Who is the target of terrorists? Is it the actual victims? The people who are shot or blown up, hijacked or kidnapped? No, it isn't. They are strictly objects within a political process. The target of terrorists is us. We are the target. We are the world audience. And it is we who they are trying to influence. Now there are three categories of terrorism that we can look at. We've got crusaders. These individuals are political, ideological or religious terrorists. These are the individuals that we all must look out for when we are working overseas. We will be talking about these for the rest of this presentation. But let's first move on to the second category of terrorists and that is the criminal terrorists. These people are in it for financial gain. For example, you go into a bank, the bad guys come in, they squeeze off a few rounds, order everybody on the floor. Their object is to take the money and run. However, law enforcement reacts too fast and blocks their avenue of escape. They take hostages in order to bargain for their freedom. These individuals are the easiest to bring to capitulation because what started out to be armed robbery now has the potential for murder. When they see the massive army of police who have arrived to handle the situation, they begin to fear for their safety and they begin to negotiate for their safety. The last category of terrorism are the crazies or the idiosyncratic terrorists. For example, if you remember back in May of 1984, Huberty came into the um San Cidro McDonald's and shot and killed 21 people before he himself was shot by the San Diego Police Department SWAT. Uh John Hinckley is another example of an idiosyncratic terrorist who shot President Reagan in order to impress actress Jodie Foster. Let's move on to the types of terrorism. The first is state terrorism. This encompasses acts of terror by governments using their own police forces and army against their own populations. Examples would include during World War II, the Nazis against the Jews and in 1982, the slaughter by Syrian troops of 20,000 Islamic fundamentalists in Ha. We also find widespread violence in South and Central America. Let's move on to stateup supported terrorism. Transnational terrorists seek support from governments who share the same ideological orientation as themselves. Governments will provide uh support in the form of training, passports, transportation, weapons, money, the use of safe houses, the use of diplomatic pouches and so on. Essentially, this multiplies the capabilities of the terrorist group, making them more dangerous. For example, Libya supplies support in the form of funds and arms to the Irish Republican army. They have no control over what the IRA does, but it does provide support. In addition, we have an example of Palestinians providing training for action direct and Japanese Red Army and IRA fighters. Let's move on to state sponsored terrorism. Governments will use terrorist groups to carry out foreign policy objectives. In addition to providing the support that I described before, they provide instructions to terrorists as to the nationality or political orientation of the target they are to attack. For example, Iran is strongly suspected of ordering the truck bomb attacks against French and US elements of the multinational force in Lebanon. Much of the terrorism in Latin America is inspired by Cuba's subversive goals in the hemisphere. Now, let's talk in more detail about the actual terrorist groups. First, we have state sponsored terrorists. For example, the stray dog campaign in Libya directs Libyan agents to assassinate dissident who are opposed to the Gaddafi regime in foreign countries. And we have revolutionary terrorists. These individuals are interested in the overthrow of their governments. For example, we have the Red Brigades in Italy, the Red Army faction in Germany, and Action Direct in France, as well as the communist combatant cells in Belgium. Now, these revolutionary terrorists are a threat to you as military personnel because they directly target symbols of the military-industrial complex as well as NATO. Then we move on to subrevolutionary terrorists. These individuals are not interested in overthrowing the government. However, they do want to force it to make change against its will. And examples include the separatist groups where they want their own homeland. For example, the Basque Fatherland and Freedom Group, the Irish Republic and Army, as well as the Armenian secret army for the liberation of Armenia. Let's move on to transnational terrorists. These groups are not controlled by any state. However, they do enjoy state support. They go beyond their own national boundaries to conduct terrorist acts. For example, the Abuna organization is believed to be responsible for the Roman Vienna airport attacks in December of 1985 where members threw hand grenades and machine gunned unarmed passengers waiting outside the LL and TWWA counters. The purpose was to embarrass Yasser Arafat's PLO. These are stateup supported terrorists. International terrorists, on the other hand, are controlled by a state and they go beyond their own national boundaries to conduct terrorist attacks against identified targets on foreign soil. For example, in April of 1986, Libyan agents bombed the Label Disco in Frankfurt, Germany. Here we have Libyans killing Americans in West Germany. We also found an attempted bombing of the US officers club in Anchora, Turkey. So we have a case of Libyans trying to kill Americans on Turkish soil. International terrorism. Now let us look at the motives of terrorists. We find they are political, nationalistic as well as religious. We have Marxist Leninists. They want to gain control of the means of production, distribution, and exchange and place it in the hands of the workers. Here we have a dictatorship of the proletariat. We have mauists who want to mobilize the peasants. And we have right-wing terrorists or fascists who believe in states rights above people. Nationalists want sovereign control over their own homelands. People such as the Palestinians, the Irish Republican Army, the Armenians, Bas, Algerians, Israelis are all examples of nationalist terrorists. Then we have our religious terrorists such as the Shiite fundamentalists in Lebanon and in Iran and Iraq. The IRA are all examples of religious terrorists. Moving back into the political arena, we find domestic terrorists. These are Marxist anarchists such as the Red Brigades in Italy, action direct in France, the communist combatant cells in Belgium and the Red Army faction in Germany. These target NATO and symbols of the militaryindustrial complex. We also find evidences of Euroterrorism where there are linkages between the RAF in Germany, action direct in France and the communist combatant cells in Belgium. Now, what are some of the goals of terrorism and how is it so effective? The main goal of terrorism is cause recognition and publicity. This is what attracts recruits and money. For example, I never even heard of the Black September organization or had an appreciation for the Palestinian cause until the Munich massacre dur during the Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered. They want to cause government reaction. Why, you may ask? Well, essentially they want the governments to overreact in order to cause the violation of rights which the terrorists intend to step in and correct. For example, how many of you can remember getting on an airplane to fly somewhere without having to go through an X-ray machine or have your baggage searched? They want to erode public confidence in law enforcement in order to protect them. So they will assassinate security forces, whether they be armed police officers or army troops. It leaves a message to the public. Well, gee, if they cannot protect themselves, how can they possibly protect me? They conduct raids and ambushes in order to obtain weapons, ammunitions, explosives, whatever to for future operations. You will not find too many terrorist groups earning money on a job to go down to the sporting goods store to buy their weapons. They want to discourage foreign investment thereby affecting the economy of the country. Terrorists will kidnap or murder corporate executives. Therefore, large international corporations do not want to do business in that country. If you recall, after we bombed Libya, Gaddafi came out and said, "Every American is a target." Do you remember what happened to tourism in Europe during that period of time in the Europe? In Europe, 60% of tourism dropped. In Athens, because of their poor security, they suffered a 80% drop in tourism, which really damaged them materially. They want to influence government decisions and policies. Should they or shouldn't they negotiate with the terrorists? Should they meet ransom demands for hostages? Should they allow the separatist groups their own homelands? Freeing prisoners is a popular demand of terrorists. If you recall during TWWA847, they wanted the release of 800 prisoners out of Atllet prison in Israel. We find these demands repeated over and over again. Then we have guerilla and urban warfare. The purpose of terrorism in revolution is to intimidate populations to at least passive support of the terrorist movement. They would prefer active support say in the form of providing food or weapons, safe houses. But if they cannot get active support, they will try for passive. For example, if a farmer is in this field plowing and he sees some gorillas or terrorists going by, he'll just mind his own business. He will not report their presence to the army or to the police. Now, let us talk about the characteristics of terrorism and why it is so effective. First of all, keep in mind that tactical success does not necessarily equate with mission success. For example, the Red Army faction attempted to assassinate General Alexander Heg by using a a bomb that was buried in the road. They had to visually detonate the bomb. They missed fortunately. However, they did kill some of his bodyguards in the follow car. Now, was that a failure? essentially no because they got tremendous po publicity value out of it. An excellent psychological warfare leaflet came out that said 1.7 seconds too late. You have to be lucky 100% of the time. We only have to be lucky once. We find that terrorism is cheap warfare which entails very few risks. It permits small countries to attack US interests without the the fear of direct military retaliation. They know that we practice the smoking gun policy. They know if they are caught outright, we will retaliate militarily. Gaddafi learned this the hard way on April 15th, 1986. So essentially terrorists are used as surrogates which insulates the countries from direct retaliation. It permits them to exercise plausible denial. That's the bottom line. Plausible denial. We find that terrorist tactics fluctuate in response to current events and issues. For example, hijackings almost ceased to be a terrorist attack tactic until the recent spate of TWWA hijackings brought it back into vogue. We also find recurring demands happening. For example, TWWA847, they they demanded the release of 17 Heisbollah prisoners in Kuwait. If you recall, in December of 83, there were six bombings in Kuwait, one of which was at the US embassy. The Kuwaiti authorities quickly rounded up the terrorists, threw them in prison, and confiscated their weapons and explosives. I believe they hung three of those people. These 17 prisoners were a demand during TWWA847 hijacking and are a continuing demand for the Lebanon hostages who are being held at this time. Terrorism central weapon is fear. Terrorist terrorism consists of an attempt by the weak to dominate the strong. The ultimate target as we know are not the actual victims themselves but the public at large. Terrorists seek access to formal and informal channels of communications. Terrorism is revolutionary theater or theater of the absurd. We find that terrorism stems from some of the basis elements of human nature. Hatred, revenge, greed, and territoriality. Often these motivations come under the guise of religious or political movements, a just attempt to gain a homeland or a remedy for past injustices. For example, if you remember Carlos, he was pretty big in the 70s. His name was Ilitch Ramirez Sanchez. He was responsible for the OPEC raid in Vienna 1975 where 14 oil ministers were kidnapped. He was told to kill Shik Yammani and Dr. Umuzagar. Instead, he did not kill them because he was a paid a million dollars each by their respective countries not to. He claimed he was in it to support the Palestinian cause. However, he is truly in it as a mercenary and to gain personal status. Terrorism is a problem of the free world, not the communist. Communist countries do not publicize terrorist actions and retribution is swift. In 1985, there were 695 terrorist incidents worldwide. Only one took place in Eastern Europe. Only four took place in North America. But Americans were the targets 25% of the time. Terrorists are becoming more sophisticated in weaponry, selection of targets, use of intelligence and manipulating the news media. If you recall TWW8847 hijacking, we found that the um his or the militia, I mean, held a press conference during the Iranian situation where our people were held for 444 days. They expertly use the media to spread their propaganda throughout the world. We also find the use of home video equipment to tape hostages uh making the terrorist demands or pleading for their lives. But there is a new twist to the use of home video. Suicide volunteers are now making their last message to their families, their friends, and their comrades before they go on a mission. For example, there was a 16-year-old girl who told her mother she was going to the pharmacy to buy some lipstick. The next time her mother saw her was on a home video tape, giving her last message to her and her friends. She drove an explosives ladened van into an Israeli convoy. Terrorists are building new alliances. In February of 1985, Gaddafi hosted 22 radical terrorist Arab groups. From 31 January to 2 February 1985 in Frankfurt, West Germany, several hundred participants from 11 European countries met to discuss anti-imperialist and anti- capitalist resistance in Western Europe and to review strategy with comrades from the Middle East and South America. We are finding that terrorists are shifting to new targets and that is the tourist. As embassies and military installations are becoming hardened to terrorist attack, they are moving on to softer, more vulnerable targets. And ladies and gentlemen, that is you. While you're on leave or liberty, they're not going to try to attack you while you're safe within your installation, but while you're a vulnerable and unarmed on liberty. >> Much of modern terrorism is tied to the Arab-Israeli conflict involving two cultures who religious teaching makes room for revenge. But even if the Palestinian question was solved immediately, Middle Eastern terrorism would continue at the hands of the Shiite Muslims. It would also continue because of the she seeks and the Tamils, the Bases, the IRA types, Red Army faction, Red Brigades, the M19 of Colombia and what have you. So believe me, terrorism is going to continue. We find a rise in terrorism not only in the numbers of incidents, but in the widening arena. As new sources of frustration and state sponsorship emerge, we will find increases in the numbers of terrorist acts. For example, in the mid 1980s, terrorist incidents occurred on the average in 65 countries a year, up from the 29 countries that were involved in the late 1960s. Now, we've spoken quite a bit about terrorism, but there's one thing I want to impress upon you, and that is keep terrorism in perspective. Do not permit yourself to become paranoid about the issue. For example, in 1984, there were 23 Americans killed in terrorist incidents worldwide. There were at least 18,000 murders in the United States each year. We just have to recognize that as military personnel, we are prime targets and we must act with wisdom when working and traveling overseas. Now let's talk about what you may encounter if you are ever held captive by terrorists. It's really imperative that that you understand the types of individuals that you will be dealing with. Okay. Types of terrorists. The first type that we will cover is hardcore leadership. These people are intelligent and the decision makers and the administrators of the terrorist cell. If you are questioned, these people will most likely be your interrogators. These people are very welltrained receiving from one to four years of training. Then we move on to the shock troops or activists. These people are the doers. They are the shooters, the bombers, the capturers. They can be unscentimental, come from the criminal ranks and be psychotic. Let's move on to idealists. These people are well educated having up to two years of college education. They are humanitarian and intelligent and may serve as your guards. You will mo hear the most about the cause from these individuals. They are very dedicated and very sincere. Now keep in mind these groups or these categories can overlap. For example, you could be guarded by a shocktrooper or interrogated by a uh idealist. Now, I want to sort of step aside and say to you that if I were to teach you that all terrorists were violent and brutal, psychotic, ugly, I would really be doing you a disservice. You could be mistreated, yes, but do not be caught off guard if you are treated well. Often times, terrorists can be very likable people just like your person next door. If you are taught that they're always brutal or you could expect torture and you are treated well, essentially what is happening here is that your training support is undermined. I do not want that to happen to you. I'll give you an example. Katherine Coup was one of the female hostages in the Iranian situation where they were held for 444 days. She had contact with a guard by the name of Sor. Sor used to wear the same headscarf and blouse every day. One day she came in with a new scarf and blouse. Catherine complimented on how nice she looked. The very next day, she had the same old scarf and uh blouse on. When Katherine asked her where they were while she wasn't wearing her new clothing, she simply replied, "Somebody else needed them." So, do not be caught off guard if you find acts of kindness and sincerity in the terrorist group that you're dealing with. Okay, let's move on to active supporter. These people are not terrorists yet, but they provide money, safe houses, intelligence for covert terrorists. They come from the professional class. Law and medicine are two, for example. Back in the 70s, it used to be a status symbol if you hid out a B minehoff member. Now, the law enforcement people, especially those in Germany, will keep a close eye on these people just in case they go covert. Then they have uh a name to go with a covert terrorist in the organization. Then we have passive supporters. These people are the audience, the basis of the propaganda in a revolution. As we said before, terrorism is only a tool used to intimidate or coers the population into at least passive support of the revolution. But you will have those elements that will read the terrorist propaganda and strongly agree with it. Now let's talk about terrorist training. As I said before, terrorists can receive from one to four years of terrorist training. However, depending on the individual and the mission, they can receive as little as 3 weeks. If they are slated just to go into an airport and machine gun people, they don't need extensive training to do that. They are also expendable. So they are not going to uh pay a lot of time and money to train somebody who's just going to get killed anyway. We find that there is individual physical and mental training as well as training in weapons and explosives. That's rather obvious. Political indoctrination that is a key. It is mandatory to have political indoctrination in order to hold the terrorist group together. These people need something to believe in, a rationale for their cause. And it is through political indoctrination that they get this. Then obviously they will be trained in combat techniques and tactics as well as psychological warfare. Psychological warfare is an integral part of terrorism. So they do get training in this area. Survival. They are also as interested in survival as you are. During the 1979 Iranian revolution, the revolutionaries were directed to take torture at least once a week in case they were captured and interrogated by Savv. As you know, Savv is the Shaw's or was the Shaw's secret police and they routinely practice tortures against the prisoners they were questioning. Then moving on, we find they have alarm penetration and communications operations and then of course they are going to have exercises to test their operations plan. All of this training of course will enable the terrorists to conduct terrorist actions. Take a little time and read the types of actions that terrorists undertake on this slide. I want you to consider what is the most popular terrorist tactic. It is of course bombing. The largest percentage of all terrorist acts is bombings. To give you an idea of just how sophisticated a terrorist bomb can be, I will use an example of a bomb that was used by Puerto Rican extremists during a presentation given by Henry Kissinger at the Kandado Convention Center. It was a car bomb and all four doors as well as the trunk were booby trapped. So if anybody tried to gain access through these areas, it would blow up. The car burglar alarm was also rigged so that if somebody tried to tow the car away, it the bomb would be detonated. And if none of that worked, then it was set at a pre-established time to explode. Fortunately, there was uh a technical malfunction in the bomb and it did not go off. But just give you a general idea of how sophisticated these people can be. The ETA or the Bass Separatists will often use a stolen car to assassinate some police officers and then they will leave it abandoned somewhere. Of course, booby trapped and then when police officers get into the car to investigate it, it blows up and it has killed and injured dozens of police over the years. Terrorists will also attach bombs to vehicles that normally have access to high security areas. For example, a secretary unwittingly drove a bomb into the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in December of 1981. It exploded, killing her and several others. Or the IRA will kidnap a family and force the husband to drive a car bomb past security personnel. He is told that when the bomb explodes, then his family will be released. The British now search all cars coming into high security areas. A young American soldier, Spec For Pyanthal, was killed for his ID card. He was lured out of a nightclub by a young couple and later killed. They used his ID card to drive a car bomb onto the US Air Force Base at Rinm, Germany. The explosion killed two and injured dozens. The RAF perversely mailed the soldiers ID card back to validate their claim. Other types of bombs include, of course, the suicide car bombers. Charges or bombs will be placed in the door areas of targets. For example, in in the summer of 1986, an Arab group placed a bomb at the front door of the British Airways and American Express office. It exploded at 4:15 in the morning. It is believed there was a technical error in the bomb and that it was really intended to be set off at 4:15 in the afternoon. Had that occurred, literally hundreds of people would have been killed and injured at that time. Projected devices thrown by hand or by explosive means are also popular. Hand grenades are often thrown from a moving car or motorcycle. If somebody throws a hand grenade at you, fall flat to the ground with your feet pointed towards the grenade. You This will prevent you from being hit by fragments as they will fly up away from you. Some groups will use improvised mortar tubes inside the sideboards of a stake bed truck. The truck is parked in a predetermined spot so the trajectory will land the 5- foot long mortar projectiles on a selected target. Rocket attacks are either shoulder or statically fired. Escape for the terrorists is virtually guaranteed and publicity is bound to be generated. Armored cars are usually rendered useless and aircraft are also very vulnerable to this. This using of standoff weapons is an increasing feature of terrorism. Examples of standoff weapons are the Russian RPG7 rocket propelled grenades and the American law as well as infrared surfaceto-air missiles such as the SA7. Postal bombs are not very popular anymore because they do not normally reach their intended targets. We find that most of the world's terrorism is urban-based due to the failures in the countryside in Latin America. They are highly mobile and covert and we find that terrorists do not play by any rules. Now let us wind up with terrorist cell or organization. The terrorist cells are very highly compartmented and very difficult to penetrate. Terrorists are initiated into the cell by having to assassinate a police officer or soldier. If we look at a typical large terrorist group, we start with a national command which is made up of subcommands which in turn are made up of cells. Cells consist of three to five individuals and are reasonably autonomous. If one person from a cell is captured and talks in interrogation, only one cell and perhaps one individual from a subcommand or his contact is compromised. Now within a cell that is is also broken down into groups. We find there's through command and control there's an operations cell within the actual terrorist cell. This is the action arm. They are in char in charge of sabotage and subversion, assassinations and bombings and offensive strike operations. Then we have the intelligence cell who is responsible for collecting information, making false documents and for security. And the auxiliary cell uh collects funds, recruits more terrorists and distributes propaganda. The auxiliary cell may be operated overtly. Operations, however, are always covert. In summary, remember terrorism is a new kind of warfare. It is cheap and an effective weapon of the weak against the strong. There are no rules, and unfortunately, terrorism will be with us forever.