Fighting Terrorism

While terrorists act according to different motivations and goals, all such groups have one tactic in common: intimidation or coercion of the public or the government in order to effect social or political change. Terrorism uses violence, or threat of violence, against one portion of a society to compel the greater body of that society or their leaders to make a change out of fear. Terrorism often exploits propaganda techniques to ensure the public receives the intended message. The term Propaganda of the Deed, coined by Malatesta, Cafiero, and Covelli, states that the message is most strongly conveyed through violence.

In the media, terrorist violence is most commonly portrayed as being carried out via an improvised explosive device, although chemical weapons have been used on occasion. Vehicles from pick-up trucks to planes, like in the September 11, 2001 attacks, have been used as guided incendiary device. In the failed 2002 airliner attack shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles were fired at an airliner while taking off. Concerns have also been raised regarding attacks involving nuclear weapons or biological weapons.

However, despite the popular image of terrorism as bombings alone, and the large number of casualties and higher media impact associated with bombings, conventional firearms are as much if not more pervasive in their use.  In 2004, the European Council recognized the "need to ensure terrorist organisations and groups are starved of the components of their trade," including “the need to ensure greater security of firearms, explosives, bomb-making equipment and technologies that contribute to the perpetration of terrorist outrages."

Terrorist groups may arrange for secondary devices to detonate at a slightly later time in order to kill emergency-response personnel attempting to attend to the dead and wounded. Repeated or suspected use of secondary devices can also delay emergency response out of concern that such devices may exist. Examples include a (failed) device that was meant to release cyanide-gas during the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and a second car bomb that detonated 20 minutes after the December 1, 2001 Ben Yehuda Street Bombing by Hamas in Jerusalem.

Tactics of Terrorism There are many tactics of terrorism, and terrorist groups continually change their tactics. Although they are changed through time, seven tactics of terrorism have been used commonly:

· Hijacking

· Assassination

· Murdering

· Kidnapping

· Bomb attacks

· Hostage taking

· Suicide bombings