Super-violence
Ominously, the acts of terrorism we have witnessed to date may only be child's play compared to what is to come. Professor Yonah Alexander comments grimly that "there is no limit to the terrorist imagination."
Intelligence sources reveal that within the past two years the terrorist underground has been discussing the possibility of attacking nuclear power stations; poisoning the water supply of a major city; stealing nuclear, chemical and biological warfare materials; hijacking oil tankers or large passenger liners; sabotaging strategic communications centers; destroying railway centers, oil refineries, or offshore rigs.
Terrorists today are increasingly able to get their hands on new, technically sophisticated military weapons by outright theft from military depots, on the black market, or from sympathetic governments which buy them from one of 'the major arms-exporting nations. These weapons-advanced machine guns, automatic pistols, and even portable missiles — can convert one man into a virtual walking army.
The CIA report previously cited warns that "the world will witness steadily greater and more widespread sophistication in terrorist targeting, execution, and weaponry." Many experts fear the day is fast approaching when a terrorist group will either steal or manufacture an atomic bomb and threaten to use it as a part of a blackmail scheme. There is evidence that a number of groups have already begun toying with the idea of "going nuclear." Underground pamphlets have been uncovered both in Europe and the United States containing plans for crude atomic weapons.
Terrorists and the Media
"The latest developments in that Mideast skyjacking . . . Channel 2 News at eleven!" intones an excited TV newscaster during a prime-time commercial break.
Terrorism is rapidly becoming a major spectator sport. It is not uncommon to see upwards of half of an evening newscast being devoted to the chronicling of the latest terrorist incident, or to be assaulted through the evening by a series of five-second commercial plugs for the upcoming late-night news, which will bring us "up to date" on this or that "spectacular" terrorist hijacking or raid.
Dr. Frederick J. Hacker, author of Crusaders, Criminals, Crazies: Terror and Terrorism in Our Time, asserts: "Terrorism and mass media are made for each other." An obscure, ragtag group armed with a few rifles and grenades can command instant worldwide recognition for their cause by one daring terrorist act. In a matter of minutes, multiple millions can watch the drama unfold over television or hear it over the radio. Banner newspaper headlines proclaim the latest developments. The terrorists, in short, can achieve a notoriety far beyond their power and number as the media closely follow their exploits for the public.
"While the terrorists may kill, sometimes wantonly, the primary objective of terrorism is not mass murder," says The Rand Corporation's Brian Jenkins. "Terrorists want a lot of people watching and a lot of people listening, not a lot of people dead."
Dr. David Hubbard, director of the Aberrant Behavior Center in Dallas and one of America's leading authorities on skyjacking, puts it somewhat more strongly: "The news is a whore. It will lie down and give itself completely to any man who skyjacks an airplane."
Walter Cronkite, anchorman for the CBS Evening News, may have pinpointed the problem during a question-and-answer session while in South Africa recently. Asked why television reported only the bad news, Cronkite suggested that "news is the aberration, not the norm. It is not the number of aircraft that land safely every day, but it is the one that crashes that makes the news."
Terrorism, without a doubt, provides plenty of aberrant grist for the world's news mills.
Thwarting Terrorism
The increase in bombings, kidnappings, hostage-taking and assassinations by terrorist groups has focused the attention and concern of law enforcement officials around the globe on the growing threat. Police organizations are still searching for the best way of dealing with terrorism.
Prevention is logically the first step. This would include tighter security around prime terrorist targets (airports, nuclear plants, government buildings, embassies, etc.), stepped-up police intelligence activities, infiltration of terrorist groups, and so on.
Brian Crozier, the distinguished British correspondent and director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict in London, suggests that each threatened country "needs to create a department of special defense that will pull together all of the knowledge necessary to combat the threat — experts in intelligence, explosives, commando tactics, languages, psychological warfare, communications — and train anti-terrorist squads to be instantly ready whenever an incident occurs." For even greater effectiveness, these individual national agencies could then cooperate closely with each other, possibly even forming a common unified international police command.
Stiffer punishments for convicted terrorists — including the death penalty — are also seen by many as a deterrent to terrorism.
A few have advocated even stronger measures, including preventive detention and restrictions on travel for suspected terrorists, prohibition of private gun ownership, official identity cards for every citizen, barring individuals with links to radical groups from civil service jobs, and the like. Proponents of this approach point to countries such as Iran, where tight security measures have made it extremely difficult for enemies of the Shah to operate.
Critics of this approach argue, plausibly, that the inevitable result would be a repressive, authoritarian police state and the loss of civil liberties. But if the terrorist situation worsens appreciably, there may be no choice. Says Rand's Brian Jenkins: "I think we may see governments in frustration opting for measures that will result in the reduction of liberties."
Curbs on the media are also viewed as a possible preventive measure against terrorism. If the sensationalism and glamorization of terrorism imparted by media coverage were eliminated, and terrorists could no longer be assured of the extensive worldwide publicity for their causes, some feel it would put a definite damper on terrorist activity. Some police departments have gone on record as stating that if responsible media self-censorship is not forthcoming, they will be forced to bar the media from vicinities where terrorist incidents are in progress.
Finally, since terrorism is a problem of global proportions, many have suggested that formal international legal conventions be drawn up to deal with it. Proposed antiterrorist pacts would impose sanctions against nations colluding with terrorists or failing to punish apprehended terrorists; provide for the extradition of terrorists; allow for the crossing of national borders by police in pursuit of terrorists; standardize national policies for handling terrorist situations, and so on.
For years, however, the United Nations has not even been able to come up with a generally accepted definition of terrorism, much less tough international laws against it. The oft-heard statement that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is at the root of the problem. With the majority of its member nations customarily supporting anything anti-Western, up to and including terrorism, there seems little hope that the U.N. will come up with any sort of comprehensive and meaningful anti-terrorist program. Certain regional cooperative agreements, however, might eventually be seen among the nations of Western Europe and the United States, for example.
Precautions against terrorism, obviously, can be taken only up to a point. Terrorists, knowing when and where they will strike, always have the advantage. How, then, should police deal with an incident when it does erupt?
Once terrorists demonstrate they are willing to kill or be killed for their cause, there is no sure method of dealing with them. No one response can be expected to get the same results in every case.
Ruling out total capitulation to their demands, most officials advocate a flexible response — the use of different tactics for each special situation, and shifts in tactics as the situation changes. Such tactics include negotiations, deals, stalling for time, and in some cases strong-arm rescue or assault operations.
Officials generally agree that overreaction can be more dangerous than the immediate situation itself. Often the best approach is a slow, careful one — waiting it out and taking no precipitate action. The Israeli Entebbe rescue cannot, in most cases, be used as a model for responding to terrorism. The element of surprise is not always possible.
Perilous Times
To the majority of people who have not been victims of terrorism, the terrorist threat is a remote and abstract thing. But if the experts are right, more and more people on an increasingly wider scale are going to be touched by its effects in the years just ahead.
The problem of terrorism, like the worldwide epidemic of crime, was predicted centuries ago in the pages of the Bible. Jesus prophesied that conditions in the world in the "latter days" would mirror the chaotic state of the earth in Noah's time — an evil and corrupt world filled with violence (compare Luke 17:26 with Genesis 6:5, 11). The apostle Paul also warned (II Timothy 3) that "in the last days perilous times shall come. "
The Bible pictures an end-time world filled with lawlessness and hate; a world split by factions and international disputes; an era of rampant, indiscriminate violence and murder inspired by Satan the devil — the original murderer (John 8:44).
Only Real Answer
As long as the influence of Satan remains on the earth, terrorism and crime will continue to increase. When Satan is finally restrained (Rev. 20:2-3) and God's millennial rule is established over the earth, violence will be eradicated and lasting peace and tranquility will be realized on a global basis. In that day, Satan's way of vanity, jealousy, lust, hatred and greed will be replaced by God's way of loving, giving and serving.
The CIA study declares: "All told, transnational terrorism promises to pose a continuing and potentially gravely unsettling problem for the world community until such time — possibly years hence — that the international system gets into new and generally accepted contours."
Those new "contours" will be provided by the soon-coming government of God over the earth. Only the Kingdom of God can rescue this world from the scourge of violence and terror which has beset it from the beginning of history, and which now threatens to engulf it to a greater degree than ever before. It is a seemingly simplistic solution to some, but it is the only real answer.