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Terrorism
Webster's University Dictionary:
Systematic use of violence, terror, and intimidation
to achieve an end.
The Oxford English Dictionary: (a) Policy intended to strike with terror those
against whom it is adopted; (b) the employment of
methods of intimidation; (c) the fact of terrorizing or
condition of being terrorized.
Webster's New International Dictionary:
(a) Act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized;
specify: the system of the Reign of Terror. (b) A mode
of governing, or of opposing government, by
intimidation. (c) Any policy of intimidation.
The American Heritage Dictionary:
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or
violence by a person or an organized group against
people or property with the intention of intimidating or
coercing societies or governments, often for ideological
or political reasons.
The United States has defined terrorism under the
Federal Criminal Code. Chapter 113B of Part I of Title
18 of the United States Code defines terrorism and lists
the crimes associated with terrorism. In Section 2331 of
Chapter 113b, terrorism is defined as:
"..activities that involve violent... <or
life-threatening acts>... that are a violation of the
criminal laws of the United States or of any State
and... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce
a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to
affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction,
assassination, or kidnapping; and ...<if domestic>...(C)
occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of
the United States...<if international>...(C) occur
primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the
United States..."
U.S. Code of Federal Regulations:
"...the unlawful use of force and 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" (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).
The FBI defines terrorism 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.
USA PATRIOT Act:
"activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human
life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the
U.S. or of any state, that (B) appear to be intended (i)
to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, (ii) to
influence the policy of a government by intimidation or
coercion, or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government
by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping, and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction
of the U.S."
US State Department:
International terrorism is terrorism conducted with
the support of a foreign government or organization and
/ or directed against foreign nationals, institutions or
governments.
Current U.S. national security strategy defines
terrorism as :
"premeditated, politically motivated violence against
innocents."
The U.S. National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC)
described a terrorist act as one which was:
"premeditated; perpetrated by a sub national or
clandestine agent; politically motivated, potentially
including religious, philosophical, or culturally
symbolic motivations; violent; and perpetrated against a
non-combatant target."
Terrorism is defined by the US Department of Defense
as:
"the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force
or violence against individuals or property to coerce or
intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve
political, religious, or ideological objectives."
The CIA defines Terrorism: The Intelligence Community
is guided by the definition of terrorism contained in
Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f(d):The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant
targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents,
usually intended to influence an audience.
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The term “international terrorism” means
terrorism involving the territory or the citizens of
more than one country.
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The term “terrorist group” means any group that
practices, or has significant subgroups that
practice, international terrorism.
The British Terrorism Act 2000 defines Terrorism:
So as to include not only violent offences against
persons and physical damage to property, but also acts
"designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to
disrupt an electronic system". This latter
consideration would include shutting down a website
whose views one dislikes. However this, and any of the
other acts covered by the definition would also need to
be (a) designed to influence the government or to
intimidate the public or a section of the public, AND
(b) be done for the purpose of advancing a political,
religious or ideological cause. [the latter three terms
are not defined in the Act].
The European Union employs a definition of terrorism
for legal/official purposes which is set out in Art. 1
of the Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism (2002).
This provides that terrorist offences are certain
criminal offences set out in a list comprised largely of
serious offences against persons and property which,
"given their nature or context, may seriously damage a
country or an international organization where committed
with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population; or
unduly compelling a Government or international
organization to perform or abstain from performing any
act; or seriously destabilizing or destroying the
fundamental political, constitutional, economic or
social structures of a country or an international
organization."
While the United Nations has not yet accepted a
definition of terrorism the UN's "academic consensus
definition," written by terrorism expert A.P. Schmid and
widely used by social scientists, runs:
Terrorism is 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), (imperiled)
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," (Schmid, 1988).
UN short legal definition:
Also proposed by A.P. Schmid: an act of terrorism is
the "peacetime equivalent of a war crime."
On March 17, 2005, a UN panel described terrorism as
any act:
"intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to
civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of
intimidating a population or compelling a government or
an international organization to do or abstain from
doing any act."
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