The CQ Researcher : Combating Terrorism

From the July 21, 1995 issue of The CQ Researcher, Volume 5, No. 27, p. 643.

Chronology

1970s
Mounting Arab-Israeli tensions fuel a wave of international terrorist incidents, while extremist offshoots of European leftist parties engage in violent attacks at home.

1972
Members of Black September raid the Olympic village in Munich. Seventeen people, including 11 Israeli athletes, are killed in the raid and subsequent shootout with German police.

1976
Following revelations of widespread abuses in the name of counter- terrorism, Attorney General Edward H. Levi issues guidelines limiting the FBI's authority to conduct domestic intelligence gathering.

1978
At the peak of anti-capitalist terrorism in Western Europe, former Italian Premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped and murdered.

1980s
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism adds to the ranks of terrorist groups based in the Middle East.

April 1983
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is bombed, causing 16 deaths and more than 100 injuries. The same year Attorney General William French Smith eases restrictions on the FBI's powers of investigation.

October 1983
A suicide attacker drives a truck filled with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241.

June 1985
TWA Flight 847 is hijacked. U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem is murdered on board, his body dumped on the tarmac in Beirut.

Oct. 7, 1985
Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and murder Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old American invalid.

February 1988
Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, a member of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, is kidnapped and later murdered.

December 1988
A bomb destroys Pan American Flight 103 en route from London to New York City over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

1990s
Devastating terrorist attacks occur on U.S. territory amid an escalation of large-scale, indiscriminate attacks worldwide.

Feb. 26, 1993
Terrorists explode a bomb beneath New York City's World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than 1,000. Four Islamic fundamentalists are convicted and each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

February 1995
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Pakistan and extradited to the United States, where he awaits trial.

March 20, 1995
Release of poisonous gas in Tokyo's subway system kills 12. Members of an obscure religious cult, Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth), are charged in the attack after an intensive investigation.

April 19, 1995
A truck bomb destroys the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Two Americans are charged in the attack.

April 25, 1995
Gilbert Murray, a timber industry lobbyist, is killed by a parcel bomb in Sacramento, Calif. The attack is believed to be the 16th in 17 years by an elusive terrorist known as the “Unabomber” because many of his victims have been affiliated with universities. In a rare public declaration, the Unabomber calls for “the destruction of the worldwide industrial system.”

June 7, 1995
The Senate approves anti-terrorism legislation aimed at strengthening the government's powers to fight terrorism at home and abroad. With House passage of a similar bill expected in late July or early August, the legislation is expected to become law before year's end.

June 27, 1995
The Unabomber warns in a letter that he plans to blow up an airliner departing from Los Angeles International Airport over the busy Fourth of July weekend, prompting massive security. In a later communication, he says the threat was a hoax designed to gain publicity for his cause and promises further violence if the media doesn't publish his lengthy manifesto.