Introduction
Terrorism
is a horrible problem, bringing death and destruction all
over the world.
When
some people think of Terrorism, they think of cartoon super-villains
or revolutionists in 3rd World countries. But Terrorism
can happen anytime, anywhere, even in your own backyard.
But terrorism has become more common recently, probably
due to the accessability of weapons.
We
chose Terrorism for our project because we wanted to inform
people of its growing nature and how overlooked it is. We
think if people know about it, then people can help deal
with it.
This
issue affects us all because, after seeing what one person
like the Unabomber and Timothy McVeigh can do we can be
in danger nomatter where we are! But if we help stop it
, we can rest assured that one of the world's biggest problems
is no longer a threat.
Research
News
Article 1 - The Powers of Paranoia
The
problem this article talks about is terrorism, specifically,
the Unabomber and other terrorists in the United States.
It also talks about the paranoia that arises when terrorists
strike.
While
terrorism is a problem all across the world, this article
only deals with incidents that happened in the U.S., such
as militia attacks and mailbombs.
People
that are mainly affected by what is discussed in the article
are, for one of them, terrorists! It says how many terrorists
in America are driven more and more paranoid when terrorists
strike and aren't caught, and when a major political change
comes. Another group affected are the terrorism victims,
who realize how horrible terrorism is and how horrible terrorism
is and how defenceless they are. This in turn can sometimes
make them live in constant fear, making them paranoid.
The
group helping to stop this sort of terrorism are mostly
American security organizations, like the F.B.I., C.I.A.,
S.W.A.T., National Guard, etc. They pretty much track down
and apprehend terrorists, and most of the time they are
successful. But another group that really helps are common
people, like you! No one knew who the Unabomber was until
common people turned him in! Average people are also trial
witnesses, volunteer police, even sometimes stopping a terrorist
on their own.
News
Article 2 - A plague of pirates
The
main problem in this arcticle is the rise of piracy in the
world's seas.
The
location of the piracy is literally all over the world's
oceans, but the main place are the coast of Brazil, the
gulf of tailand, South China sea, Phillippines, Indonesia,
Somalia, West Africa, and eariler in the year Corfu, Greece.
These
pirates are the same as they were in the Swashbuckling days,
except instead of cutlasses, they now have machine guns.
The
groups affected by these terrorists are usually unsuspecting
tourists, cruising the sea in yachts. The pirates abuse
them and send them away in lifeboats while they take the
ship away. Sometimes even oil liners get hijacked and they
repaint the ship so that it can't be identified.
Some
countries like Greece have come up with solutions. Gunboats
are now in the Corfu strait so that Albanian pirates don't
terrorize tourist yachts.
There
are no organisations battling the problem. Only governments
are fighting it. But some nations such as Brazil, have no
coast guards, so they are usually at the pirates' mercy.
Usually
governments get tough, so that piracy drifts away, that's
what happened in the 1700s, it must happen again now.
News
Article 3 - Basque Violence leaves Bodyguard Wounded
This
article states how a gunman in Spain is believed to have
shot a polititan's bodyguard and then blown up the getaway
car.
While
acts of terrorism occur in all sorts of places in the world,
this specific acticle centres in on an outburst in Bilbao
Spain.
One
of the obvious victims in this article is of course the
twenty-eight year old bodyguard (Jose Maria Lobato) who
was shot in the head and may lose the sight in his left
eye. Another group affected is the twenty-three leaders
of the Pro-Basque Independance Party, who are each sentenced
to sentenced to seven years in jail for collaborating with
the armed group E.T.A.
In
this article, the only group helping to bring order is the
police, specifically, the Masked Basque police, who aprehended
the gunman, helped bring order and calmed the civilians
down.
News
Article 4 - What the F.B.I. knows about T.W.A. 800
This
article talks about the suspected terroist bombimg of T.W.A.
Flight 800, and all the possible solutions the police have
come up with.
This
tragedy happened several miles away from JFK International
Airport, in the U.S. This article also talks a bit about
other bombings over the world.
The
people affected here are, the Government, because they had
to spend lots of money to look for the wreckage from the
plane. The F.B.I., because they are carrying out the search.
Also the T.W.A., because this is bad publicity for them,
and the JFK mayor of Atlanta, because the Olympics were
only two weeks away when this happened, and he wanted to
make his airport more secure.
The
groups involved in helping to search for the plane are an
F.B.I. group, with the coast guard. These are several helicopters
to lift pieces, and several boats. There are also people
diving in wetsuits, looking for pieces. But this is all
that is helping, because we don't even know if it was a
bomb or a missile that blew up the plane! Many pieces were
lost underwater, and we may never solve the T.W.A. 800 mystery.
News
Article 5 - The Silence of Pure Terror
This
article tells about how the Serbs stormed into eastern Bosnia,
after the U.N. had declared it a safe area. The article
also gives in lengthy detail the event that took place.
The
article centres in on the act of terrorism in Eastern Bosnia,
1993.
There
were many victims in this article. A great deal of the victims
were Muslim men and women. The older men, women and children
were all hauled into trucks to begin a full-scale "ethnic
cleaning". Screams of women from nearby huts indicated
that the Serbs were once agin using rape as a weapon. All
the men and boys, were driven to warehouses and soccer stadium.
Another group that was affected was the peacekeepers were
also hijacked by 10,000 government soldiers who seized small
arms and vehicles. One of the last groups was people watching
on T.V. They were sickened by the pictures of carnage and
destruction.
The
groups that helped to bring this under control were peacekeepers
such as the U.N., Ukranium peace keepers and NATO. All these
organizations fought to save the victims that were already
hurt.
Response
Some
possible solutions to terrorism are: to reinstate the death
penalty, to have more mental institutions with heavier security,
to increase national security and probably increase public
awarness.
The
solutions already being tried of above are: in some states(in
the U.S.), they are reinstating the death penalty. Increasing
national securityis always being tried to a small extent
and increasing public awarness is being tried. Heck, we're
doing that now!
Awareness
Increasers
Ways
to increase awarness of terrorism is well, for one way,
simple projects like this! This is a great way to tell people
and teach them about it.
Another
way is commercials on T.V . They usually show gruesome pictures
of victims, and those pictures show the severity of terrorism.
And
one more way is to increase awareness are leaflets being
mailed to homes. People usually glance at mail like that
and can show people how they can help without much trouble.
So,
as you can see now how terrorism can only be solved with
the support of people like you.
Critique
of Solutions
Increase
National Security Idea: Increasing our national security
seems to be an easy solution to a hard problem, but it's
not. First of all, it can be very expensive to hire troops
or buy more advanced equipment/weapons. Then again, the
equipment can be stolen by terrorists, making your troubles
the terrorists' new weapons. And it is very hard to find
troops willing to risk their lives against terrorists that
are very deadlyand efficient. And of course, the troops
might not do a good job! Also, terrorists seem to always
find a new way to get around defenses, so it might be useless!
This is my opinion-Increasing national security sometimes
does the trick, but most of the time it doesn't work.
Reinstating
the Death Penalty: Cruel as it may seem, the death
penalty works well. Not only does it get rid of captured
terrorists, who would otherwise use up $15,000 a year in
jail, it also discourages terrorism, since you could die
by becoming one. Besides, who wants to pay taxes for Johnny
the Strangler to live comfortably for 15 years, then go
out and kill again!? And so, in my opinion, reinstating
the death penalty seems like a great idea, and it will work
well!
More
Mental Institutions with Higher Security: This idea
is both a good and bad idea, since we can learn more about
terrorists and keep bad guys safe away. But it is also bad
because of its high cost. You have to pay for the building,
the doctors, the guards, etc. I think that only those proven
mentally insane terrorists should be sent there. So given
these facts, this
idea is sort of good and sort of bad. You can help crazy
terrorists be good, but it is really expensive. It sometimes
works.
Alternative
Solutions
One
alternative solution we have is sort of a combination of
the three we evaluated! this is what you do: First, reinstate
the death penalty. this alone will make terrorism drop.
Then build several high security mental institutions, for
later use. After that, increase national security a lot.
Then, whenever a high ranking terrorist is caught, send
him to a mental institution. There we can find out about
terrorist organizations and other things we can use against
them. Then, when there is nothing left to find out from
them, we give them the death penalty! It seems cruel and
inhuman, but it's cheaper than jail and relieves us of unwanted
people. Besides, who can say terrorists havn't done worse?
That
is the only alternative solution we can think of, it's also
the only one that would work. But, if people helped from
all over the world, many more solutions could be thought
of.
