Word: terrorists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After the failure of the skyjacking and the suicides of the terrorists, there was little hope that Schleyer would turn up alive. Nevertheless, West German President Walter Scheel took to television to plead with the abductors: "The whole world ?East and West?is against you. I appeal to you to set your hostage free." To no avail. Twenty-four hours later, the Liberation, which had been used by Schleyer's kidnapers to convey previous messages, received a telephone call from a terrorist. He identified himself as a member of the Commando Siegfried Hausner of the Red Army Faction?...
Perhaps the most devastating of terrorist tactics, skyjacking has been in and out of favor with urban guerrillas. It crested in 1972, when there were 62 attempts. The total dropped as nations began instituting tough airport inspection procedures, but seems to be on the rise again...
...Western democracies lack any coherent ideological or political goals. Violence is the attraction?the end, not the means. Notes Brian Jenkins, an associate director at Rand Corp.: "The act of terror itself is an ideology." Harvey Schlossberg, a psychiatrist who trains the New York City Police Department's anti-terrorist unit, contends that many urban terrorists are compensating for inadequate personalities. "If they cry and stamp their feet, no one pays attention. But by taking hostages, in a matter of minutes the whole world is watching. This helps overcome their ego deficit." What motivates many terrorists, observes University of Munich...
...young urban terrorist, in Europe at least, claims to speak for the working class. In fact his background is most often middle or upper middle class, and the common man is as frightened of his methods as is the millionaire. Franco Ferracuti, a forensic psychiatrist at Rome University, interviewed several members of Italy's notorious Red Brigade. He found that most of them came from well-to-do, churchgoing families and had attended universities, majoring in the social sciences. All had witnessed, and many had participated in, the Europe-wide May revolution of students in 1968; the Red Brigade terrorists...
Many experts draw a careful line between the ordinary criminal and the terrorist. Explains Rand's Jenkins: "Terrorism is violence aimed at [those] people watching. Fear is the intended effect, not the byproduct. That distinguishes terrorist tactics from muggings and other forms of violent crime...