War on Terrorism

• Author: Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 282

Terrorist acts and the threat of TERRORISM have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the USA PATRIOT ACT and codified at 18 U.S.C. section 2339B, makes it a crime punishable to up to 15 years in prison to provide material support or resources to any organization designated by the SECRETARY OF STATE as a foreign terrorist organization. Individuals suspected of acts of terrorism are arrested and tried under existing federal or state criminal laws. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four commercial airplanes. Two were deliberately crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania, presumably on its way to a fourth symbolic target: the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building. Strong evidence suggested that a Saudi Arabian citizen living in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, was behind the attacks. As of 2003 bin Laden was the head of a terrorist organization known as al Qaeda (Arabic for "the base").

It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the simultaneous attacks and their psychological impact on the collective psyche of U.S. citizens. The SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS instantly vaulted international terrorism and national security concerns to the top of the U.S. governmental agenda and propelled the United States headlong into a war against terrorism. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "FBI Policy and Guidelines" (February 16, 1999) international terrorism is "the unlawful use of force or violence committed by a group or individual, who has some connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national boundaries, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." But international terrorism and the country's turn-of-the-century responses to it predated September 11, 2001. Four major incidents of international terrorism against U.S. interests since the mid-1990s involved bombings: the Khobar Tower in Dharan, Saudi Arabia; the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya; the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen. These attacks abroad made headlines around the world and commanded massive investigative efforts by the U.S. government.

On the evening of June 25, 1996...