Law & Paneir: Realisation of Our Rights

Assassination is a tactic used by nearly all terrorist groups, although far less frequently than other types of armed attacks. Assassination, when used as a terrorist tactic, is the targeted killing of a country’s public officials or individuals who represent the political, economic, military, security, social, religious, media, or cultural establishments. The killings can be motivated by ideology, religion, politics, or nationalism. Most terrorist groups conduct assassinations to eliminate enemies, intimidate the population, discourage cooperation, influence public opinion, decrease government effectiveness, gain media attention, or simply to exact revenge. Simple terrorism-related assassinations can be carried out with a minimum of personnel, training, or equipment, and they are usually successful when aimed at public figures who are protected least. An example of such an attack was the 2004 killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan extremis...

Al-Qa‘ida in Iraq (AQI), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and more recently the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), was established in April 2004 by long-time Sunni extremist Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi, who the same year pledged his group’s allegiance to Usama Bin Ladin. AQI targeted Coalition forces and civilians using tactics such as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), suicide bombers, and executions of hostages by beheading and other means, attempting to pressure countries and foreign companies to leave Iraq, push Iraqis to stop supporting the United States and the Iraqi Government, and attract additional cadre to its ranks. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike on 7 June 2006. The new leader of AQI, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announced in October 2006 the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq, led by Iraqi natio...

In recent years, the priorities of combating international terrorism have expanded beyond the suppression of terrorist actions by organization like Al Qaeda. Issues such as combating financial terrorism and preventing radicalisation and recruitment are at the epicentre of the international community’s efforts. Providing assistance to the victims of terrorism is also included in the general approach that is followed. United Nations The Security Council has taken the leading role by introducing the Counter-Terrorism Committee, which oversees the implementation of counter-terrorism policy. In 2005, the UN Secretary General proceeded to the introduction of the Counter Terrorism Implementation Task force for the combating of Terrorism, an organ which oversees the involvement of all the services of the UN. In September 2005, Resolutions 1624 was adopted by the Security Council, condemning every form of terrorist action regardless of origin and prohibiting committing terrorist...

Since the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, Islam and Muslims have become the main subject matter of discussion throughout the world. The threat for the West is emerging not from ideology rather from religion, which, has always, had a reputation of being a violent faith. Since then, the understanding of Islam has become paramount to justify the effects that it has to the global affairs. Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilisation theory has become vital to analyse the pattern of global conflicts, which, have been transformed from ideology to religion. The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the dismantling of Eastern bloc left a vacuum of parties/powers in international conflicts. Since then, the West revived the old rivalries between Christianity and Eastern faiths especially emphasising Islam as a major opponent to uphold the beliefs of Western civilisations. The argument that Huntington put forward in his theory obviou...

Washington, November 1, 1972. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL INFORMATION November 1, 1972 MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. KISSINGER FROM: RICHARD T. KENNEDY SUBJECT: Status of USG Actions Against Terrorism This memo will bring you up to date on action taken since the Presidential September 25th directive to mount an all-out campaign against politically motivated international terrorism. In addition to the Cabinet Committee chaired by Secretary Rogers and its supporting Working Group headed by Armin Meyer, three other interagency action groups are refining plans to protect against, or react quickly to, acts of terrorism. All of our diplomatic missions abroad have been given detailed guida...

By Ben Brandt Ten years ago, al-Qa`ida utilized four U.S. commercial airliners to destroy the World Trade Center’s towers, damage the Pentagon, and kill close to 3,000 people. This attack spurred the United States to convert its counterterrorism efforts into a sustained war on terrorism, resulting in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the capture or killing of hundreds of al-Qa`ida members, and the eventual death of al-Qa`ida chief Usama bin Ladin. There has been extensive reflection in recent months regarding the implications of Bin Ladin’s death and the Arab Spring to al-Qa`ida and its affiliated groups.   Two critical issues, however, have been partially sidelined as a result. How has the terrorist threat to commercial aviation evolved since the events of 9/11? How have actions by the U.S. and other governments worked to mitigate this threat? This article offers a thorough review of recent aviation-related terrorist plots, subsequent mitigation stra...

By Arnold Markowitz, LCSW I will begin by describing similarities between cult groups and terrorist groups in the way each uses sophisticated psychological techniques to indoctrinate their devoted members. Last fall I took the position that Osama Bin Ladin and Al Queda were not cult groups as defined by the Interfaith Coalition of Concern About Cults. It is the definition followed by the Cult Hotline and Clinic of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s services located in New York. Destructive cult groups are said to use techniques of brainwashing so I thought we could look at Robert J Lifton’s seminal work on Brainwashing, thought reform and mind control in his book titled  Thought Reform and The Psychology of Totalism. Lifton makes some very useful points that can be applied to terrorist groups and destructive cults. For one he points out that the combination of immoderate ideology with equally immoderate individual character traits are an extremist meeting gro...