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Levi
Prof. Stalbird
English 1201

Research Essay: The Effects of Terrorism.

Terrorism is a term that is used very often in any news source on a daily basis. The topic
has become very heated in over the recent years with new groups seeming to form quite
regularly. The most up to date terrorist group in the spot light goes by the name of ISIS. Some
believe this group to be the biggest threat since the Third Reich. The abilities and tactics of
recent terrorist groups are getting more advanced all the time. The question that is commonly
talked about is what should be about these destructive outlaw groups and their mass killings and
crimes. The United States home front is becoming increasingly challenged by new terrorists,
especially ISIS. Its an issue that seriously needs addressed for Americas public. Terrorism can
and has affected America in many ways.
For it is very clear we have been the target of a sustained campaign of terrorism since
1979. (Terrorists in our Midst. pg. 83). The quote is from a formal FBI assistant director. June
of 1993, the FBI released its annual report on Terrorism. This reported stated the incidents of
terrorism from the year of 1982 until 1992. A ten year period. The report showed that terrorism
based incidents had went from 51 in 1982 to 4 in 1992. So from a domestic standpoint it would
appear that terrorism was being dealt with effectively. But until February 26, 1993 it would be
right and accurate information. On that day in February the World Trade Center was the victim of
an unfortunate truck bombing. The bombing carved out a 100-ft. crater in the parking garage
beneath the massive building. It was Friday, February 26, 1993, and Middle Eastern terrorism

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had arrived on American soil with a bang. The alerting of Americas vulnerability and the actions
of international extremist groups to directly attack the United States was precisely stated and
well documented in a well know book, Final Warning: Averting Disaster in the New Age of
Terrorism, written by Dr. Robert Kupperman and Jeff Kamen and published in 1989.
Kuppermann and Kamen predicted that in fact terrorist groups would try to cause mass
causalities on American citizens both within the United States and abroad, and that these
extremist groups would attempt to utilize weapons of mass destruction against America. Four
years before the start of Middle Eastern terrorism began that prediction couldnt have been more
accurate.
There are many ways that terrorist can make their enemies vulnerable. An underestimated
way in fact would be agriculture. The agricultural and food industry is at risk to disruption and
sabotage from deliberate bio-attacks. The sectors vulnerabilities consist of, disease to livestock,
surveillance and security, and veterinarian training. The proximity of large dairy facilities is
extremely close and in the event of a contagious disease would spread it would be extremely
hard to contain. A case in point was the major outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) in
California in October 2002, which ultimately led to the slaughter of more than three million
chickens in several counties across the state.(Hitting Americas Soft Underbelly pg. 8). U.S.
livestock has become more prone to diseases in recent years than before as a result of changes in
husbandry practices and biotechnology innovations designed to increase the quality and quantity
of meat production and to meet specific requirements of individual vendors. Herds that have
been subjected to such modifications. As little as agriculture being tampered with by terrorists is
thought about in the public eye and it is a real threat shown by Peter Chalk in Hitting Americas
Soft Underbelly.

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In the book The Dynamic Terrorist Threat it uses a three step system to assess terrorism.
The first component is a structure which ranks metrics of intent and capability against each other.
The second component of framework is the actual metrics themselves: anti-U.S. sentiment for
intent and showed and observed attack skills for terrorist capability. These metrics were designed
to highlight terrorist threats to the United States, and not to international terrorism in general.
The third component is a combination of both metrics to show multiple degrees on intent and
capability for terrorist. These ideas have never been used on a federal scale but yet are still
fascinating when you consider what they mean and if they could truly help to assess terrorism
caused events. It is impossible to examine weapons without discussing chemical, biological,
radiological, or nuclear weapons. Some terrorists have sought to attempt to employ, biological
and chemical weapons. For example, in 1984, the Rajneeshee cult poisoned salad bars in
Oregon with Salmonella typhimurium in an attempt to prevent group opponents from voting in a
local election says Kim Cragin.
There are so many ideas on ways to deal with terrorism and yet so many acts of terror
that have occurred in contrast to those ideas. The concept of if there is to be good then there has
to be bad. The Chinese mastered this belief many years ago with the Yin and Yang. So yes if
there is to be good people in the world, there must be bad. Therefore the thought of eliminating
terrorism for good may be far stretched for some. But others might disagree.
Another way that terrorism can exploit the United States is maritime terrorism. The
Passenger and Commercial shipping in the maritime domain are both large and highly profitable
industries in the United States. The US and global economics worldwide rely on commercial
shipping. The United States alone handles approximately 20% of global maritime trade. Needless
to say a lot is riding on this industry for America and is an easy target for terrorist conflicts. Not

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to mention on how many Americans enjoy spending their vacations on passenger ships that
estimate bring in 14.7 billion in the US economy each year. In drawing a similar distinction
among the parties aected by terrorism, Jackson and Dixon (2005) distinguish how the scope
and motivations of investment decisions dier between individuals, private-sector rms, and
public-sector institutions. (Maritime Terrorism pg. 30).
Transportation of any type is a major factor when considering terrorism and how easy it
can penetrated. A terrorist can hijack anything from a car, to an ocean liner, from a corporate jet.
The options are numerous and makes it difficult to anticipate considering the two attacks on the
world trade center. Security has definitely tightened its belt in over the past years when it comes
to transportation. The act of terrorism aims to, by means of killing one person, to frighten
millions and to affect their political preferences. It is therefore essential to say that the act of
terrorism is a symbolic one. A direct action is not important with respect to its conclusions
(Transportation Security Against Terrorism pg. 52). The quote above speaks volumes on the idea
of what terrorism is consider to be. The terrorist main target is assumed to be mass accumulation
of transportation, such as an airport or subway station. These targets both suppress the
community and give the message to powerful states of the global world and their allies that they
can be struck at an unexpected place and time. The most dramatic examples are the use of civil
passenger aircrafts in the September 11 attacks, the Madrid attacks against three train stations in
Spain on 11 March 2004 and the London Attacks against three subway stations and one bus in
England at 07 July 2005. (Transportation Security Against Terrorism pg. 52). The Unites States
disclosed that it identified some services and facilities as critical for the well-being of its citizens
and the nation. The transportation industry in the United States is a huge one and will be one of
the most vulnerable ones because of the amount of options it has to be affected.

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The events on 9/11 are very well known and widely documented. These events created
the longest war to date, and triggered the invasion of Afghanistan. Four planes were hijack the
morning of Tuesday September 11 2001. The first two were flown into each of the World Trade
Centers. A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane was attempting to crash
into the white house but passengers of the plane took back control of the plane and crashed the
plane into a field in Pennsylvania. As a result of these attacks approximately 2948 died from
about 90 different countries. Attacks on Sept. 11 was considered that the threat of immediate
attack was over by the late afternoon. The president at the time was George W. Bush and once
the threat was lifted and he was able to get back to the White House, he made his announcement
that the U.S. would pursue a law enforcement response. .Ive directed the full resources of our
intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to
justice. (Terrorism, War And International Law pg. 161 and 162) This is the single most violent
and destructive act of terrorism in the United States history and ultimately showed real threat that
terrorism poses to the U.S. This issue has not yet been resolved even 14 years later. Because
America still have troops in active duty in Afghanistan who of which die every day. The
mainstream media still finds it interesting that social media fights or drama seem to be more
important than weighting the issue of brave men and women are dying every day.
According to Erick Stakelbeck, author of The Terroist Next Door, The threat of
terrorism in America, the Obama administration assures us, is contained and controlled.
Stakelbeck brings the issues of the attempted attacks like Times Square bombing, the underwear
bombing, and the Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony in Oregon were all isolated terrorist plans
that failed. Which Homeland Security said that, The system worked. The title of the book may
be misleading in a sense but its meant to give the meaning that the national security and Obama

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administration is concealing the enormous terrorist threat that Americans are seeing approaching
its borders. The author has gone into the United States very own mosques and visited with
Islamic enclaves and learned directly from the source of al-Qaeda operatives themselves. They
exclaim to him that there are even established separatist compounds and even jihadist training
camps throughout Americas rural areas. This is a group that has given their life duty to
destroying the nation of America and has continuously showed this over and over again but yet
the US government refuses to face the sincerity of this impending problem.

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Works Cited
Alexander, Yonah. Terrorists In Our Midst. [Electronic Resource] : Combating ForeignAffinity Terrorism In America. n.p.: Westport, CT : Praeger Security International,
[2010], 2010. Sinclair Library.
Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Chalk, Peter. Hitting America's Soft Underbelly. [Electronic Resource] : The Potential
Threat Of
Deliberate Biological Attacks Against The U.S. Agricultural And Food
Industry. n.p.: Santa
Monica, CA : Rand Corp., 2004, 2004. Sinclair Library.
Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Cragin, Kim, and Sara A Daly. The Dynamic Terrorist Threat. [Electronic Resource] :
An Assessment Of Group Motivations And Capabilities In A Changing World. n.p.:
Santa Monica, CA : RAND Corp., 2004, 2004. Sinclair Library. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Greenberg, Michael D. Maritime Terrorism. [Electronic Resource] : Risk And Liability.
n.p.: Santa Monica,
CA : RAND Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy,
2006, 2006. Sinclair Library. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
Ozen, Cinar, Mete Tahmisoglu, and Organization North Atlantic Treaty. Transportation
Security Against
Terrorism. Amsterdam: IOS, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Stakelbeck, Erick, and Tom Weiner. The Terrorist Next Door. [Electronic Resource] :
How The
Government Is Deceiving You About The Islamist Threat. n.p.: [Ashland,
Or.] : Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2011, 2011. Sinclair Library. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.
Williamson, Myra. Terrorism, War And International Law. [Electronic Resource] : The
Legality Of The Use
Of Force Against Afghanistan In 2001. n.p.: Farnham,
England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, [2009], 2009. Sinclair Library. Web. 24 Mar.
2015.