What is a terrorist?

[Amerpie]

What Is A Terrorist?

ter·ror·ist (ter'er-ist) n.

1. One who engages in acts or an act of terrorism.

2. One who leads an armed group that kills civilians as a means of political intimidation -- unless he terrorizes Haitians while on the CIA-payroll, as did 1990s death squad leader Emmanuel Constant, in which case the U.S. refuses to extradite him to Haiti, even after Sept. 11, 2001.

3. One who targets civilian airliners and ships -- unless he blows up a Cuban civilian airliner, killing 73 people, and fires at a Polish freighter, like Orlando Bosch, in which case he is coddled and paroled by the Bush Justice Department in 1990, and his extradition is blocked.

4. One who leads a group that engages in kidnapping and murder -- unless the victims are Hondurans attacked by CIA-backed death squad Battalion 316, in which case Battalion architect Gustavo Alvarez becomes a Pentagon consultant, while the then-ambassador to Honduras who downplayed the terror, John Negroponte, is appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations days after Sept. 11.

5. One who uses rape and murder for political purposes -- unless the victims are four U.S. church women sexually assaulted and killed in 1980 by members of El Salvador’s U.S.-backed military, in which case excuses and distortions pour forth from then-U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick (“these nuns were not just nuns; they were also political activists”) and Secretary of State Al Haig (the nuns “may have tried to run a roadblock”).

6. One who designates civilians as “soft targets” to be attacked in the cause of political transformation -- unless the targets are Nicaraguans killed by Contra guerrillas armed and directed by the U.S who, according to Human Rights Watch, “systematically engage in violent abuses…so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war.”

7. One who facilitates a massacre of civilians -- unless the victims are 900 Palestinians shot and hacked to death in the Sabra and Shatila camps by Lebanese Christian militia as Israeli soldiers stood guard, in which case Israel’s then-Defense Minster (now Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon remains a U.S. “War on Terrorism” ally after being censured as indirectly responsible for the massacre by an Israeli commission of inquiry.

[htuttle]

1. Terrorist

1) One who is killed by the US Military.
2) One whom the US Military wishes to kill

(Rovian Abridged Multimedia Dictionary)

[RoyGBiv]

2. Addendum

3) Anyone in the National Education Association

(Rod Paige supplemental to the Rovian edition)

[JohnLocke]

3. Terrorism's Definitions

From the Terrorism Research Center:

There is no single, universally accepted definition of terrorism. There are many reasons for this (not the least of which is the cliche "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter"). Even different agencies of the US government have different working definitions. Most definitions usually have common elements, though, oriented around terrorism as the systematic use of physical violence--actual or threatened--against non-combatants but with an audience broader than the immediate victims in mind, to create a general climate of fear in a target population, in order to effect some kind of political and/or social change.
Terrorism by nature is difficult to define. Acts of terrorism conjure emotional responses in the victims (those hurt by the violence and those affected by the fear) as well as in the practioners. Even the U.S. government cannot agree on one single definition. The old adage, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is still alive and well. Listed below are several definitions of terrorism. For the purposes of the Terrorism Research Center, we have adopted the definition used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
__________________________________

"Terrorism is the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change."
--Brian Jenkins
"Terrorism consitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective when innocent people are targeted."
--Walter Laqueur
"Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience."
--James M. Poland
"Terrorism is the unlawful use or threat of violence against persons or property to further political or social objectives. It is usually intended to intimidate or coerce a government, individuals or groups, or to modify their behavior or politics."
--Vice-President's Task Force, 1986
"Terrorism is 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."
--FBI Definition

[bobthedrummer]

4. A mercenary, a para-military, and a gangster imo.

eom

[eleanor1]

5. A terrorist is someone who has a bomb, but not an Air Force.

(quote from William Blum).

[stellanoir]

6. someone. . .

posted this Peter Ustinov quotation the day he died last week. . .

"Terrorism is the war of the poor. War is the terrorism of the rich."

[Rick Myers]

7. Every terrorist is...

SOMEONE'S freedom fighter.

Don't know who said it, but I like it. Then, when a cro-mag gives you the: "Oh yeah?" response, you point out that Menachim Begin (Prime Minister of Israel) participated in the terror bombing of the King David Hotel and was classified a TERRORIST by the British.

I also remember a Rand Corporation report stating that "Terrorism is theatre..." That's an interesting thought. In fact, Homeland Security is PROOF the terra-ists have won!

:grr: