I was reading a blog by Moko The Anarchists Cookbook and the Terrorists Handbook, a couple of books that were floating around in the 1970s & 80s. More than a few young lads have suffered injuries because of the books.
It came to mind that Terrorism has always been with us.
In Australia we have been lucky in that we have had very few terrorist incidents. Mostly our home grown wannabe "terrorists" such as the Aussie Guard or Loyal Regiment of Australian Guardians as they called themselves were mostly piss and wind.
When it comes to terrorism most young people, those under 30 years, think that terrorism is a modern day phenomenon. Today's Terrorists are yesterdays Guerrillas, Freedom Fighters, Nationalists or Revolutionaries.
As a young lad and into my adulthood we were constantly reminded by media reports of terrorist activities; hijacking of aircraft, bombing of prominent buildings, guerrilla activity in Southeast Asia and assassinations of Heads of State and other important leaders.
Few countries in the world have not suffered from terrorist violence over the past six decades. Domestic and international terrorism is now at the top of the agenda for most nations.
These organisations usually had names like People's Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People's Front). Although some were a bit more obscure.
Here are some of the groups that were around in the 1960s and 70s. Some such as the PLO are still around today.
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) (Orly Group, 3rd October Organization)
1975 - Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) (a.k.a. the Orly Group, 3rd October Organization) formed as a Marxist-Leninist grouped to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its alleged responsibility for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland.
Babbar Khalsa International
1978 - Babbar Khalsa a militant Sikh separatist group in India.
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
1969 - Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP), a Marxist-Leninist organization, founded when it split from the PFLP. Opposed the Israel-PLO peace agreement. Goal is to achieve Palestinian national goals through revolution of the masses.
Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) (al-Jihad, Islamic Jihad, Jihad Group)
1970's - al-Jihad (a.k.a. Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad) formed to overthrow Egyptian government and replacement with an Islamic state; attacks U.S. and Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad. Responsible for assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) (People's Revolutionary Army)
1974 - Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP)(People's Revolutionary Army) founded as the military branch of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (Workers' Revolutionary Party) in Argentina.
Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) (Basque Fatherland and Liberty)
1959 - Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)(Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) to establish an independent Basque homeland based on Marxist principles in the northern Spanish provinces of Vizcaya, Guipuzcoa, Alava and Navarra and the southwestern French departments of Labourd,Basse-Navarra and Soule.
Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) (Quebec Liberation Front)
1963 - FLQ is founded. Their ultimate goal is to establish an independent Quebec nation, free from any ties to the rest of Canada, through violent activities.
al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group, IG)
1970's - Formed with primary goal is to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state, but certain group leaders also may be interested in attacking U.S. and Israeli interests.
Irgun (Irgun Zvai Leumi, National Military Organization, Etzel)
1931 - Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) a militant Zionist group that operated in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Irish Republican Army (IRA) (Provisional Irish Republican Army [PIRA], the Provos)
1968 - Irish Republican Army (IRA)(a.k.a. Provisional Irish Republican Army [PIRA], the Provos) formed as the clandestine armed wing of Sinn Fein, a legal political movement. Begins attacks to remove British forces from Northern Ireland and unify Ireland.
Japanese Red Army (JRA) (Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB), Nippon Sekigun, Nihon Sekigun, Holy War Brigade, and the Anti-War Democratic Front)
1970 - Japanese Red Army (JRA) breaks away from the Japanese Communist League, founded to overthrow the Japanese government and monarchy and to help foment world revolution.
Jemaah Islamiyah (Jemaah Islamiah, Islamic Group, Islamic Community)
1969 - Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Group or Islamic Community) created to establish an Islamic state encompassing Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia.
Khmer Rouge (The Party of Democratic Kampuchea)
1963 - The Party of Democratic Kampuchea "Khmer Rouge" begins communist insurgency aimed at overthrowing the Cambodian government.
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan, Kadek, Kongra-Gel)
1978 - Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) established to form an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, where the population is predominantly Kurdish and improve rights for Kurds in Turkey.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Tamil Tigers)
1976 - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) established to create an independent Tamil state.
Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS) (Secret Army Organization)
1961 - Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS)(Secret Army Organization) French right-wing terrorist group formed to resist the granting of independence to the French colony of Algeria formed by French "stay behinds", former French Army officers, Foreign Legion members from Indochina War, Colons, local Pieds Noirs.
Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)
1961 - Dec 1967 Original Palestinian Liberation Front was founded by Ahmad Jibril, but in Dec 1967 it merged with the Heroes of the Return group and The Youth of Revenge group (the military wing of the Arab Nationalist Movement -ANM) to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
1964 - Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded.
Red Army Faction (RAF) (Rote Armee Faktion, Baader-Meinhof Gang)
1968 - Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion)(RAF) was born out of extra-parliamentarian protest movement against Vietnam war. It emerged from the "Baader-Meinhof Gang", founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof (f). Marxist-Maoist ideology and terrorist activities aimed at paralyzing and toppling the democratic order in West Germany.
Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse)
1970 - Marxist-Leninist group formed out of the student movements whose aim is to separate Italy from the Western Alliance.
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -People's Army (FARC-EP)
1964 - Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army)(FARC-EP) established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party to replace the current government with a Marxist regime.
Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17 November)
1973 - Formed as a radical leftist group, 17 November is described as anti-Greek establishment, anti-United States, anti-Turkey, anti-NATO, and committed to the ousting of U.S. bases, removal of Turkish military presence from Cyprus, and severing of Greece's ties to NATO and the European Union (EU).
Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) Peru
1960's - Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") founded. Since 1980 has became one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere — approximately 30,000 persons have died since SL took up arms.
Below is a selection of terrorist’s activity since the end of World War II:
October 31 1945
Jewish terrorist offensive against British rule in Palestine begins, with a wave of bomb attacks on police vehicles, railway sites and Haifa oil refinery. One policeman, one soldier and two railway workers killed.
July 22 1945
Ninety people killed and forty five wounded after Jewish terrorists blow up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Palestine, which was home to British government and military offices. The terrorists held workers at pistol point while they planted the explosives in the basement of the hotel.
January 30 1948
Indian independence leader and statesman Mahatma Gandhi shot dead in Dehli, India, by Nathuram Vinayak Godse.
November 1 1950
Puerto Rican nationalists attack Blair House in Washington DC, United States, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate US president Harry S Truman. One Secret Service agent and one terrorist killed.
October 6 1951
Sir Henry Gurney, British High Commissioner in Malaya, killed after his motorcade was ambushed by Communist guerillas. Thirteen British soldiers escorting Sir Henry were also killed in the attack. This leads to major shake up of British counter-insurgency operations against the Communists.
April 1 1955
Greek Cypriot EOKA terrorist campaign for independence begins with a series of bomb explosions around British controlled Cyprus.
August 20 1955
Several dozen French civilians killed in the Philipevelle area of Algiers, Algeria, by FLN guerrillas. French security forces stage retaliatory attacks on Algerian civilians.
February 23 1961
Cruise liner hijacked by Portuguese rebels, who take more than 550 passengers hostage. US and Brazilian warships intercept the ship and force the hijackers to surrender to the Brazilian authorities.
September 9 1961
Organisation Armee Secrete (Secret Army Organisation/OAS) terrorists protesting about French moves to give Algeria independence attempt to blow up French President Charles De Gaulle in Aube, France, but road side bomb fails to explode.
August 22 1962
OAS terrorists stage a machine gun attack on car carrying French President Charles de Gaulle in a Paris suburb. The president escaped the attack unhurt and the former French soldiers who carried out the attack were all later arrested. Further unsuccessful assassination attempts were made by the OAS on 1 and 15 March 1963. Five more assassination attempts on the president failed in 1964 and three attacks were made on him in 1965.
December 26 1968
One Israeli killed in Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine machine gun attack on El Al aircraft at Athens airport, Greece. Two terrorists were captured but later released by the Greek government after a Greek aircraft was hijacked to Beirut. Three days after the Athens attack Israeli commandos raid Beirut airport, Lebanon and blow up thirteen Arab airliners worth $43 million.
August 29 1969
TWA hijacked by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists after taking off from Rome, Italy, led by Leila Khalid, and forced to fly to Damascus, Syria. All the passengers and crew were released unharmed but the terrorists exploded a bomb in the cockpit of the aircraft.
December 12 1969
Left wing anarchist terrorists kill sixteen and wound ninety when they blow up a bank in Milan, Italy. In July 1970, the same group de-rails a train near Rome, Italy, killing six and injuring one hundred.
February 21 1970
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine blow up a Swiss airliner just after it has taken off from Zurich, Switzerland, killing all forty seven people on board.
May 14 1970
German left-wing terrorist leader Andreas Baader freed in rescue raid on West Berlin jail led by fellow terrorist Ulrike Meinhof. The two become notorious as leaders of the Baader-Meinhof gang.
October 10 1970
Quebec separatists kidnapped state government minister Pierre LaPorte and later murdered him. The same group kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross but released him unharmed.
May 30 1972
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Japanese Red Army terrorists open fire in passenger terminal of Lod Airport, Israel, killing twenty six civilians and wounding seventy eight others. Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto survives and is captured by the Israelis.
September 5 1972
Eight Palestinian Black September terrorists seize eleven Israeli athletes in the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany. In a bungled rescue attempt by the West German authorities nine of the hostages and five terrorists are killed.
August 4 1973
Twelve people killed and forty eight injured when neo-fascists explode bomb on a train approaching Bologna, Italy. In May another right wing bomb at a demonstration in Brescia killed eight people.
April 24 1975
German left wing terrorists seized the German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, and took twelve staff hostage to force the release of Baader-Meinhof gang terrorists. One hostage was murdered and a terrorist killed when explosives went off by accident. Led to formulation of the so-called "Stockholm syndrome" theory, which holds that hostages start to sympathise with their captors.
June 27 1976
An Air France airliner is hijacked by a joint German Baader-Meinhof/Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group and its crew are forced to fly to Entebbe airport in Uganda. Some two hundred and fifty eight passengers and crew are held hostage but all non-Israeli passengers are eventually released. On 4 July Israeli commandos fly to Uganda and rescue the remaining hostages. All the terrorists were killed in the rescue, as are three passengers and one commando.
March 11 1978
A nine strong Al Fatah Palestinian seaborne raiding party lands in Israel and hijacks a bus, killing twenty six civilians and wounding seventy. All the terrorists are killed by Israeli security forces. The Israelis retaliate by invading southern Lebanon, under codename Operation Litani.
November 4 1979
Iranian radicals seize the US Embassy in Tehran, taking sixty-six American diplomats hostage. The crisis continues until 20 January 1981 when the hostages are released by diplomatic means. A US rescue effort led by the Delta Force counter terrorist unit failed on 25 April 1980 when a Marine Corps CH-53 helicopter crashed into a USAF C-130 transport aircraft at forward refueling site in central Iran, killing eight Americans and injuring five.
November 20 1979
Two hundred Islamic terrorists seize Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, taking hundred of pilgrims hostage. Saudi and French security forces retake the Islamic world's most holy shrine after a intense battle, in which some two hundred and fifty people were killed and six hundred wounded.
February 27 1980
Fifty four hostages seized by Colombian terrorists in the Dominican republic embassy in Bogota demanding the release of three hundred and eleven prisoners. Eventually the terrorists were give sanctuary in Cuba after they released the hostages.
April 30 1980
Six Iraqi-backed Iranians storm the Iranian Embassy in Princess Gate, London, taking twenty hostages. Six days later British Special Air Service anti-terrorist troops re-captured the embassy killing five of the terrorists and freeing the hostages. Two hostages were killed and two more wounded by the terrorists.
August 22 1982
Goldenberg restaurant attack in Paris, France, by the Action Directe terrorist group leaves six civilians dead.
July 23 1983
Eight people killed and fifty five injured when a suitcase bomb explodes near check in desk at Orly airport, Paris, France. Armenian terrorists are later arrested by French security forces for the attack.
June 5 1984
Sikh terrorists seize the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India; hundreds die after the holy shrine is retaken by Indian security forces.
August 2 1984
Tamil Tiger terrorists blow up Madras airport terminal, India, killing thirty people and injuring twenty four more. The bomb was intended to blow up a Sri Lankan airliner.
September 30 1985
Four Soviet diplomats kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon by Islamic Liberation Organisation, which was thought to be a front for the Iranian backed Hezbollah. One of the Russians was killed but the other three were released unharmed after a relative of the terrorist group's leaders was kidnapped and killed by the Soviet KGB.
November 13 1985
Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia, seized by left wing M-19 terrorists and one hundred hostages taken, including a number of judges. All the terrorists and most of the hostages killed when the Colombian army stormed the building.
The above are just a fraction of terrorists incidents since 1945.
Terrorism has been with us since we crawled out of the caves. It will always be with us as long as there is someone or some group who disagree with an ideal, philosophy, religion or government and uses violent means to convince us that their way is the only way.
Big Bad Al
Seeing the SAS at the Iranian embassy is when it entered my consciousness. Mind you, I was only 7. Been fascinated with it ever since. Personally, I think if you attempt to understand who's attacking you - by reading their literature - then you get to better understand how to combat them. One REALLY interesting example of this was 'Puma's' reaction to my post about Bin Laden's Letter To America. Interestingly enough, EXACTLY what needs to happen is for people like him to gain a perspective on what it's all about. Michael Ware, on Australian Story the other night mentioned that America has NO IDEA who they are fighting. They didn't know at the start, and what blows Ware' mind, is THEY STILL DON'T.
ReplyDeleteBin Laden gives the people of America a MAP to understanding how he thinks and it gets written off as an "arab's Mein Kampf". FKN bizarre.
I think the definition of a terrorist is a tough one.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a country that is not ruled in a democratic fashion. You then have two home-grown groups fighting for control and they are both arguing that they represent the people, while there is evidence that both are persecuting the people. It's a big call to call one lot terrorists and the other a legitimate state.
All too hard for me.
Tony
Nice one Al.
ReplyDeleteShining Path?
Almost any government that suppresses opposition will spawn an armed resistence movement. It only takes a couple of hot heads and The Anarchists Cookbook and voila - terrorism. I still have my copy somewhere.
For me a willingness to target civillians (as opposed to collateral damage) is the defining characteristic of a Terrorist organisation. Obviously some of the Tin Pot dictatorships that plagued post colonial Africa qualify. In my recollection for a long time the IRA only hit justifiable millitary / State targets, then they lost all cred when they hit the Bandstands obviously targetting Joe & Wendy Homemaker.
Reminds me of Nelson Mandela who discussed "who is a terrorist." He said as a young man he was prepared to employ almost any method to overthrow the RSA Government, but as he aged he recognised the futility and self reinforcing nature of violence.
Bloody hard question is the response, too late, too much bourbon prod me later.
ReplyDeleteI have never understood the reasoning behind using fear and violence to change other peoples opinion or thoughts. Sorry that is all I have.
ReplyDeleteExcept to say that how many more innocent people have to die simply because of another persons thinking?
I'd also add on the Viet Cong to the list.
ReplyDeleteDD, because it works, unfortunately.
Your timeline would seem to show a connection between the frequency of incidents and the rise of instant mass communication and media. Obviously, no coincidence. It's easier for every two-bit group or nutcase to get their fifteen minutes of fame these days.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that our Founding Fathers here in the States would have been considered 'terrorist leaders' by King George III and his government. And they fought what for the most part was a guerilla war here.
Aldo Moro, former Italian PM, got topped by the Red Brigades in the early 80s. A bloke I went through uni with - mature age student - was the kid of a well-off Italian industrialist family who decided to GTFO of Italy around that period rather than become a target. Fair call.
ReplyDeleteWas just thinking how many of those groups actually got to endgame - actually managed to achieve, even partly, their stated aims - if they were really the aims rather than blowing shit up and looking cool on camera? Obviously the establishment of Israel was a fairly obvious example of terrorism 'working' - in that it compelled the British into action - but was it international pressure or ANC 'terrorism' that killed off apartheid?