Counter Terror Gazette

Welcome to the first issue of Counter Terror Gazette

Welcome to the first issue of Counter Terror Gazette.

CTG aims to bring you an informative, topical overview and analysis of terrorism and counterterrorism phenomena from around the world today. Defining ‘terrorism’ can never be achieved without courting controversy. The age old adage of one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter may well be an overused cliché, but it doesn’t make it any less true. The United Nations General Assembly in 1994 adopted the following definition: “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.”

Child’s Play: an overview of children in militancy

Throughout history, armies have used children to fight their battles and this continues in some countries to this day.
In 2007, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that an estimated 200,000-300,000 children were serving as soldiers for both governments and militant groups around the world. Although the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in 2003 that most children serving as soldiers or militants are over the age of 15, but are under 18, many are far younger than this. A historical example is Iran, where during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), boys as young as 12 were enlisted into the army.

Israeli Bus Bomb Attacks

Throughout the 1990s, suicide bomb attacks on Israel’s public bus network and at bus stations were a common phenomenon. Following the end of the First Intifada [Intifada means ‘shaking off’ / uprising in Arabic] in 1993, until the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, there were 10 suicide attacks against buses. With the outbreak of the Second Intifada, these attacks increased dramatically, and remained high until the end of the uprising in 2005 which coincided with significant progress in the construction of the Israeli West Bank Separation Barrier; by 2005 roughly half of the planned length of the barrier had been completed. In the five years since then, Palestinian militant attacks in general within Israel, not only those targeting buses, have decreased significantly. All the main Palestinian militant groups have carried out bus attacks, with Hamas having been responsible for the majority.

Group Profile: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejercito del pueblo – FARC)

History and Motivation: The FARC is a left-wing revolutionary militant group operating in Colombia. It is designated as a terrorist entity by the governments of Colombia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the European Union. Founded by the Colombian Communist Party in 1964, under the leadership of Manuel Marulanda, in the wake of the country’s civil conflict between the Conservative and Liberal militias– a period known as La Violencia – the group consists of a ‘peasant’ army which claims to defend and promote the interests of Colombia’s rural poor, support the redistribution of wealth and oppose the influence of international corporations in the country. The group is organised along military lines, led by Alfonso Cano – real name Guillermo Leon Saenz Vargas.

TERROR WATCH Reports

AIR WATCH Reports

Case Study: Times Square Car Bomb Attempt

Date: 1 May 2010 Location: Times Square, New York City, United States
Details: Smoke was seen coming from a Nissan Pathfinder SUV, with its engine and hazard lights on, parked on Times Square at approximately 6.30pm local time. A police officer saw canisters inside the car and the smell of gunpowder. The bomb had ignited but had failed to detonate.

The 2nd Intifada: ten years on

As we mark the passing of the tenth anniversary since the second Palestinian uprising, Anna Costin looks at the extent to which the Arab-Israeli conflict has impacted on aviation security in the past decade and, in doing so, reviews the extent to which the region’s conflict has become intertwined with and hijacked by those with a different set of goals.