In article <lun2kvck66nof359imm4eb18ufftng6ufc@4ax.com>, David Patrick says...

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:18:19 GMT, Sir Arthur C. B. E. Wholeflaffers
A.S.A. <nospam@newsranger.com> wrote:

God damn it Patty, do you HAVE to feed the trolls??

If I didn't you'd feel lonely.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  I am asking you NOT to
feed the trolls, there are WAY too many here on these newsgroups.
Of course I ALWAYS post on-topic, and the times I do
post off-topic, they are relevant to the topic
of the alien presence!!

I am getting SICK of debunkers, truth terrorists
and trolls, so please take your Cult of Useful
Idiots and GIT outta here!!

The Truth About Terrorism
12-26-99

Are the recent warnings about the threat of terrorism a reasonable precaution by
the government to a real and present danger, or are the media and government
once again promoting anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hysteria under the guise of
vigilance against terrorism? Whatever the case, the arrest of an Algerian man
last week, allegedly for trying to enter the United States from Canada with
bomb-making materials, has set off yet another free for all of media speculation
about vicious Muslim plots to blow up the United States on the eve of the
millennium.

To many people this hysteria appears to be nothing more than a reasonable
response to a frightening possibility. But if we examine the US government's own
data about terrorism, it is a completely unjustified overreaction which puts at
risk all of our civil liberties and freedoms, but especially those of Arab and
Muslim Americans who are despite all the lessons of Oklahoma City, TWA 800 and
other incidents, still the first to fall under suspicion and to be victimized by
repressive measures such as the use of secret evidence and passenger profiling.

So, is all the focus on the threat of "Islamic" terrorism justified and based in
fact? To put the issue in perspective, I examined the State Department's own
annual report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1998."
(http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1998Report/1998index.html)

Below I have summarized some facts from the report about events which the State
Department defines as international terrorist incidents (in other words
excluding domestic terrorism by purely US-based groups, such as anti-abortion
groups). The report uses the following definitions: "The term "terrorism" means
premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant
targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to
influence an audience. The term "international terrorism" means terrorism
involving citizens or the territory of more than one country. The term
"terrorist group" means any group practicing, or  that has significant subgroups
that practice, international terrorism."

1) TERRORISM WORLDWIDE IS DECREASING SIGNIFICANTLY AND CONSISTENTLY

There has been a significant and consistent downward trend in international
terrorist incidents in the period 1979-1998. In 1998, number of international
terrorist incidents, at 273, was the lowest ever in the period, and the annual
number has shown a consistent downward trend since it reached a peak of 666 in
1987.

2) THE VAST MAJORITY OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST INCIDENTS ARE NOT RELATED TO THE
MIDDLE EAST, MUSLIM "EXTREMISTS" OR ARABS

Since 1995, Latin America has consistently had the highest annual number of
international terrorist incidents of any region, followed by Western Europe. In
1998 there were 110 attacks in Latin America, 48 in Western Europe and 31 in the
Middle East. There were 21 in Africa and zero in North America.

The incidents in Latin America are primarily connected to conflicts
in Colombia and Peru, while the vast majority of incidents in Europe are,
according to the State Department, attributable to Basque separatists in Spain,
the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Kurdish movement in Turkey and various
anarchist groups in Greece. Middle East or "Islamic" terrorism was not a
significant factor in either region.
In terms of casualties (deaths+injuries), the highest number have consistently
been in Asia since 1993. In 1998 there were over 5,000 in Africa 635 in Asia,
405 in Western Europe, 68 in the Middle East and zero in North America.

3) EIGHTY PERCENT OF ATTACKS AGAINST UNITED STATES TARGETS ARE IN LATIN AMERICA

Consistently, the vast majority of events defined by the State Department as
"anti-US attacks" occur in Latin America. In 1998, there was a total of 111
anti-US attacks. Eighty seven were in Latin America, 13 in Western Europe, 5 in
the Middle East and 3 each in Africa and Eurasia.

By far the most common target of terrorists are businesses. Attacks on
diplomats, military or government installations are relatively rare. The total
number of US fatalities from these attacks in 1998 was 12, all related to the
embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

4) VERY FEW AMERICANS ARE KILLED BY TERRORISTS

Here are the numbers for the total U.S. Citizen Casualties Caused by
International Attacks, 1993-98. Note that the figures show no upward trend.

1993 7
1994 6
1995 10
1996 25
1997 6
1998 12

(The 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania caused a large
number of non-US casualties in addition to the US victims).

These numbers suggest that terrorism is a relatively insignificant cause of
death and injury to Americans compared with other forms of violence. For
example, according to the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, 14 children
are killed EVERY DAY in the United States by handguns. In the State of Illinois
alone, 320 are killed each year (National Center for Health Statistics, 1997).

5) MIDDLE EAST VIOLENCE IS RELATED TO LOCAL POLITICAL CONFLICTS, NOT "HATRED OF
THE WEST"

Although the level of international terrorist events in the Middle East has been
lower than in other parts of the world, such violence as occurs is principally
related to local political conflicts, not to generalized "hatred of the West" as
often portrayed in the media. The numbers and descriptions of patterns of
violence in the Middle East suggest that as in other regions like Northern
Ireland, violence diminishes when broad-based political processes or solutions
are set in motion. The State Department report, acknowledges that the downward
trend in terrorism "reflects the improved political climate that has diminished
terrorist activity in recent years in various parts of the world."

CONCLUSION

There is a complete disparity between the facts about international terrorism as
presented by the government on the one hand, and the media, official and popular
response to the issue on the other. There is no objective connection between the
frequency of terrorist attacks originating from and occurring in the Middle
East, and the amount of attention that such attacks receive. President Clinton
and other government officials have repeatedly defined terrorism as one of the
greatest threats facing the world.
There is little or no media attention to the facts about terrorism, as reported
by the government, and a generalized willingness to continue to blame and
speculate about the Middle East as a principal purveyor of violence. This
situations continues to hurt and marginalize Arab and Muslim citizens of the
United States, and to distort public perceptions about the Middle East, a region
in which US taxpayers are being asked to invest a lot of money, often in the
name of "security."

Each and every life lost due to terrorism is one too many and of course there
must be vigilance against terrorism, and support for genuine efforts to prevent
it. But clearly other policy agendas, totally unrelated to public security, are
being served by the obsessive focus on Middle East terrorism, when the facts
suggest a more balanced approach would be appropriate.


By Ali