Definition and the term American terrorism

American terrorism is a political neologism meant to negatively characterize a variety of acts allegedly perpetrated by the government of the USA, by its citizens, or proxy agents. It is primarily used by American dissidents with no respect for their country.

Some of the controversy associated with the term involves disputes over the definition of terrorism, and some with the substance of the allegations. The term's usage (and controversy) appears to have increased in parallel with media coverage of terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Bush administration's proclamation of a War on Terrorism, but its usage to refer to lynching dates back to at least 1996.^[1]

The United States Department of State maintains a list of states it considers to be supporters of terrorism. Critics have long accused the United States government of also perpetrating or supporting activities which could be defined as terrorism. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation defines a terrorist act as,

The unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

As Dr. Daniele Ganser of the ETH Zürich states, the operations directive which set up the CIA falls under this definition.^[2] NSC 10/2 states the CIA shall,

Plan and conduct covert operations which are conducted or sponsored by this government against hostile foreign states or groups or in support of friendly foreign states or groups but which are so planned and conducted that any US Government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorised persons and that if uncovered the US Government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them. Covert action shall include any covert activities related to: propaganda; economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition, and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance movements, gurrillas and refugee liberation groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.^[3]

Dr. Ganser explains that her research has also uncovered a Pentagon document, "Field Manual FM 30-31B", detailing the methodology for launching terrorist attacks in nations that "do not react with sufficient effectiveness" against "communist subversion." Ganser says that acording to this manual, the most dangerous moment comes when leftist groups "renounce the use of force" and embrace the democratic process. It is then that "U.S. army intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince Host Country Governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger." These "special operations must remain strictly secret", the document warns.^[4][5]

The United Nations has long sought an official definition of terrorism, but has yet to do so. In working out the parameters of such a definition, terrorism expert A. P. Schmid has equated terrorism as the "peacetime equivalent of (a) war crime"^[6] Schmid earlier discussed terrorism as

an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought^[6]

Criticism of the term

In any discussion of the proper usage of the term terrorism, identifying a common definition is a difficult and contentious matter.

One 1988 study by the US Army found that over 100 definitions of the word terrorism have been used.^[7] That diversity of opinion has not, however, prevented politicians and the media from using the term "terrorism", or intellectuals such as Cornell West and Noam Chomsky from using the term "American terrorism" or associating themselves with it prominently in recent years.^[8][9] Writer Gore Vidal has also been noted for his use of this term.

Objections to the use of the term "American terrorism" frequently center around the following points:

• That renegade operations (like Calley's at My Lai) have always existed and probably will always exist in major military operations.^{[citation needed]}

• That the U.S. government's record regarding its efforts to minimize civilian casualties in battle zones is more persuasive than that of many other governments.^{[citation needed]}

• That use of the term terrorism is pejorative hyperbole used imprecisely (and inconsistently) by the far left, Islamists, and proponents of Anti-Americanism to negatively characterize the conduct of the government, culture, or people of the United States (Chomsky in particular has come under heavy criticism for his identification of contemporary American military actions with terrorism.)^[10]

Allegations made ordered by country

Latin America

Cuba

According to 'Centro de Estudios Sobre America. "Crisis de Octubre: Cronologia." Informe Especial', a CIA agent named Carlos Antonio Rodriguez Cabo committed various acts of terrorism.^[11]

The United States has refused to put on trial or to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, Guillermo Novo Sampol, Pedro Remon, and Gaspar Jimenezand to Cuba or Venezuela, although they are accused of having perpetrated terrorist acts. ^[12]

Honduras

In the 1980s the United States financed and trained the Honduran military. According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, the United States downplayed the Honduran military's role in torture in secret jails and extra-judicial killings in reports to Congress while privately pressuring the government of Honduras to curb the abuses. See Contras.^[13] The authors states the terror campaign targeted hundreds of Honduran labor leaders, union organizers and human rights attorneys.

Nicaragua

In 1984 a CIA manual for training the Nicaraguan contras in psychological operations was discovered, entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War".^[14]

The manual recommended “selective use of violence for propagandistic effects” and to “neutralize” government officials. Nicaraguan Contras were taught to lead:

...demonstrators into clashes with the authorities, to provoke riots or shootings, which lead to the killing of one or more persons, who will be seen as the martyrs; this situation should be taken advantage of immediately against the Government to create even bigger conflicts.

The manual also recommended:

...selective use of armed force for PSYOP [psychological operations] effect.... Carefully selected, planned targets — judges, police officials, tax collectors, etc. — may be removed for PSYOP effect in a UWOA [unconventional warfare operations area], but extensive precautions must insure that the people “concur” in such an act by thorough explanatory canvassing among the affected populace before and after conduct of the mission.^[15]

Middle East

Joel Brinkley has written that according to former U.S. intelligence officials, the CIA orchestrated a bomb and sabotage campaign with some of the many Iraqi resistance groups against Baghdad that included government targets between 1992 and 1995. No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. There were bombing's of civlian targets at the time but the aforementioned agent couldn't recall whether the CIA backed organizations were involved. No civilain deaths could be confirmed. ^[16]

Stephen Kinzer has written that in 1953 agent Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. oversaw Operation Ajax, which involved organised riots and the training of right-wing terrorist groups in a successful effort to overthrow democratically-elected Iranian government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, and reverse the nationalisation of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later renamed BP). Kinzer says that following the coup, Iran became a US client state under the dictatorship of the Shah until the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when Iran again became a target.^[17]

Western Europe

On October 24, 1990 Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti told the Italian Parliament that NATO had long held a secret policy of support and training for right wing terrorist organisations in member states.^[18][19][20] Under Operation Gladio the CIA, British MI6 and NATO trained terrorist groups that were responsible for Bologna massacre (1980)^[21][22] the Paris massacre (1961),^[2] political assassinations in Belgium^[23], military coups in Greece (1967) and Turkey (1980)^[24] and an attempted coup in France (1961)^[25]. The supposed aim of this group was to prevent Communist movements in Western Europe gaining power. Some^[26][27][2] researchers have said that the true aim was to increase the power and control of the United States over Europe.^[2]

On 22 November 1990, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Gladio^[28] and requesting full investigations. In 2000, an Italian Parliament Commission report from the "Gruppo Democratici di Sinistra l'Ulivo" concluded that the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States to "stop the PCI (Communist Party), and to a certain degree also the PSI, from reaching executive power in the country". A 2000 Italian Senate report, stated that "Those massacres, those bombs, those military actions had been organised or promoted or supported by men inside Italian state institutions and, as has been discovered more recently, by men linked to the structures of United States intelligence."^[29][30]

On November 5, 1990 NATO's spokesman denied any knowledge or involvement with Gladio^[31] and has since refused to comment.^[2] The US State Dept has admitted the existance of Gladio, but denied it has been involved in terrorism.^[5]

Court Cases

Nicaragua vs. United States

The Republic of Nicaragua vs. The United States of America^[32] was a case heard in 1986 by the International Court of Justice which found that the United States had violated international law by supporting Contra guerrillas in their war against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The Court ruled in Nicaragua's favor, but the United States refused to abide by the Court's decision, on the basis that the court erred in finding that it had jurisdiction to hear the case.^[33] The court stated that the United States had been involved in the "unlawful use of force".^[34] Author Naom Chomsky argues that:

The World Court considered their case, accepted it, and presented a long judgment, several hundred pages of careful legal and factual analysis that condemned the United States for what it called “unlawful use of force”--which is the judicial way of saying “international terrorism”--ordered the United States to terminate the crime and to pay substantial reparations, many billions of dollars, to the victim.^[35]

The ICJ used the Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare CIA manual as evidence in the case.

Yugoslavia v. United States

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia brought an "unlawful use of force" action in 1999 against the US and other NATO members, in response to NATO bombing in the Kosovo War.^[36] The International Court dismissed the case because the US did not recognize the FRY government and did not accept the court's jurisdiction.^[37] Similar cases were taken by Yugoslavia against each NATO member state^[38]

Other examples of American terrorism

Institute for Policy Studies scholar Professor Noam Chomsky has referred to the tactics used by agents of the US government and their proxies in their execution of US foreign policy in such countries as Nicaragua, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Argentina, Colombia, Turkey, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as a form of terrorism from which the term "American terrorism" has been drawn.^[39] Chomsky has also described the U.S as "a leading terrorist state." After President Bush began using the term "War on Terrorism," Chomsky stated:

The U.S. is officially committed to what is called "low-intensity warfare."[...] If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of "terrorism" in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they're almost the same.^[40]

West described decades of official tolerance of lynching and crimes of violence against blacks as "American terrorism."^[9]

In an article about Timothy McVeigh, author Gore Vidal cites a 2001 New York Times article entitled "The Future of American Terrorism."^[41]

Author Rodney Clapp has described organized violence against blacks as "American terrorism."^[42]

Among the incidents described by others as terrorism committed by or on behalf of the United States government are those highlighted below.

• The Massacre of Wounded Knee is described by Author Jack Forbes as terrorism:

Reporter after reporter told us that the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh was the worst terrorist attack ever perpetuated on U.S. soil. Either they have very racist definitions of what constitutes terrorism or they are very poorly educated in history! How many remember the massacres at Wounded Knee, at Sand Creek, at the Washita, all carried out by U.S. Army units or by Colorado State militia against First Americans? It is very likely that each of these terrorist attacks resulted in greater numbers of deaths than McVeigh's bombing, but the exact totals will perhaps never be known because many died of exposure afterwards, as at Wounded Knee.^[43]

• U.S. action in Vietnam has been characterised as terrorism. According to An account of American terrorism in Vietnam:

At a time when acts of military aggression perpetrated or planned by the US government are typically justified in the name of fighting "international terrorism," a book has appeared which documents America's role as the organizer of the biggest campaign of terrorism and sabotage since World War II.^[44]

• Representatives of the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, the Ba'ath Party, describe the current U.S.-led occupation as "American terrorism." In an Associated Press report from 12 November 05, a member of the Jordanian branch of the Baath Party, lawyer Ziad al-Najdawi (who also has ties to Saddam's family) reacts to the death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri:

Izzat Ibrahim is a warrior and a militant who graduated from the school of the leader, Saddam Hussein, and both are graduates from the school of the Baath. He died while holding a gun and remained a leader for the resistance and liberation forces, rejecting American terrorism and Persian rule in Iraq"^[45]

References

Further reading

• Gareau, Frederick H. (March 2004). State Terrorism and the United States : From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terrorism. Clarity Press. ISBN 0932863396. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Understanding Terrorism

The phrasing of the following unrelated links reflect the pejoritive use of the term American terrorism:

• Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq
• The Massacre of the Branch Davidians
• An account of American terrorism in Vietnam
• Terrorism In Early America
• Bush nominee linked to Latin American terrorism
• Bush Terror Elite Wanted 9/11 to Happen
• America's list of terrorism

See also

• List of acts labelled as state terrorism sorted by state
• Allegations of war crimes against U.S. officials