{"id":16193,"date":"2009-11-14T22:17:51","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T05:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=16193"},"modified":"2009-11-14T22:17:51","modified_gmt":"2009-11-15T05:17:51","slug":"what-is-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/11\/14\/what-is-terrorism.html","title":{"rendered":"What is Terrorism?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Terrorism is commiting acts in order to invoke terror among a target population  to influence their future actions.<\/p>\n<p>If I do X to make you, and your family, and your neighborhood, do Y because you are terrified of what I&#8217;ve done, that is terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>If I do X to strike out in a hateful fashion against you, that&#8217;s a hate crime.  That&#8217;s not terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Thus this discussion of the charges against Maj. Hassan related to the Ft Hood killings.<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"339\" width=\"425\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/22425001\/vp\/33899747#33899747\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;\">Visit msnbc.com for <a style=\"text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\">Breaking News<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032507\" style=\"text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;\">World News<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032072\" style=\"text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#5799DB !important;\">News about the Economy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Assuming (which, from a jurisprudential standpoint we cannot do) that Maj. Hassan is guilty, is he a terrorist?<\/p>\n<p>Well, despite the mantra from Beck and O&#8217;Reilly and (gack) North, you are only a terrorist if you are <em>commiting acts in order to terrify and intimidate through terror others to make them change what they are doing<\/em>.  If your intent is simply to (horrifically) strike out against those who you find hateful, then your action is not terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Yes,  I realize that the current ad hoc definition of terrorism is &#8220;an individual killing a bunch of people really horribly in pursuit of some political cause,&#8221; but that&#8217;s not really a sound or rational legal definition.<\/p>\n<p>Hassan is charged with pre-meditated murder. I.e., that he killed people intentionally and with a plan ahead of time to do so.  Unless it can be demonstrated that he did so not only to strike out against people he thought, madly, were Bad Guys, but in order to cow the US military and policy makers and populace into acting in a different fashion than how they have been, then he is not (with all due respect to Bill O&#8217;Reilly) a terrorist. <\/p>\n<p>Commiting a horrific crime is not terrorism.  Acting out an ideology (political or religious) is not terrorism.  Hate crime is not terrorism.  Killing a bunch of people is not terrorism. No matter what political points might be gained by calling it terrorism. A case of &#8220;going postal&#8221; &#8212; even if you claim to be doing so for some purpose &#8212; is not terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Calling people &#8220;terrorists&#8221; for doing something we think is awful does not make them terrorists. That doesn&#8217;t mean they didn&#8217;t do something awful, or that they should not be punished for what they did. <\/p>\n<p>But loosely calling something terrorism has,  unfortunately, become an ideological club to punish, not just the criminal in a case, but those for whom the criminal claims to be acting.  Calling Hassan&#8217;s actions &#8220;terrorism&#8221; assumes that he was acting in order to change American societal attitudes toward Muslims and\/or American governmental policies toward the Muslim world.  That seems to be attributing far more coherency to his actions than seems warranted, and definitely tars his cause unjustly, and making Muslims, both worldwide and domestically co-conspirators in this case.<\/p>\n<p>Which, of course, seems to be the goal of too many people eager to call this &#8220;terrorism.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Terrorism is commiting acts in order to invoke terror among a target population to influence their future actions. If I do X to make you, and your family, and your neighborhood, do Y because you are terrified of what I&#8217;ve done, that is terrorism. If I do X to strike out in a hateful fashion &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/11\/14\/what-is-terrorism.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;What is Terrorism?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/21\/is-anyone-shocked-anti-terrorism-powers-are-being-used-for-non-terrorism-cases.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":0},"title":"Is anyone shocked anti-terrorism powers are being used for non-terrorism cases?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 21-Feb-16 10:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Sneak and Peak\" warrants were describe as essential for combating terrorism when the PATRIOT Act was passed after 9\/11. What's remarkable is how rarely such warrants are being used against terrorism vs. other cases (usually narcotics ones).Bottom line: 'Assume that any power you grant to the federal government to fight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133641,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/10\/us-congressman-suggests-alliance-with-isil-against-iran.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":1},"title":"US Congressman suggests alliance with ISIL against Iran","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Jun-17 9:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Dana Rohrabacher is a Republican Representative from the affluent coastal district of Orange County, California. [1]He also seems to think that terrorism is a good thing, if it's terrorism against people we don't like, like the Iranians. And that while ISIL are a bunch of mean guys, hey, if we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128799,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/14\/how-not-to-defeat-terrorism.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":2},"title":"How not to defeat terrorism","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Nov-15 2:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Find someone to bomb, find someone to shell, find someone to send troops to stomp on, without a plan for what happens after.http:\/\/www.stonekettle.com\/2015\/11\/the-price-of-civilization.htmlI mean, it's not like we haven't followed that course before.Also ways high on the list of how not to defeat terrorism:1. Assume that terrorists are only out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128801,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/14\/how-to-defeat-terrorism.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":3},"title":"How to defeat terrorism","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Nov-15 9:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Follow the money.I do have to wonder whether some of Clinton's leaked assessment about our dear allies in the Gulf, and their role in funding \/ paying off \/ turning a blind eye to terrorism will be raised at tonight's debate. There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132708,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/30\/ginning-up-muslim-terrorism-for-fun-and-profit.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":4},"title":"Ginning up Muslim terrorism for fun and profit!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Jan-17 10:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A deadly attack on a mosque in Quebec, and initial confusion over who was involved, led to quick gloating by folk who seem positively gleeful to think it might be Muslim-on-Muslim terrorism here in North America -- including on Fox News and ... Trump press flack Sean \"Baghdad Bob\" Spicer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133126,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/22\/so-why-isnt-this-called-terrorism.html","url_meta":{"origin":16193,"position":5},"title":"So why isn&#039;t this called terrorism?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Mar-17 10:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Even by the WaPo:'A Muslim man from Maryland who told police he traveled to New York to kill Christian men turned himself in on Wednesday, about 24 hours after he fatally stabbed a man he encountered on the street, officials said.Authorities described the suspected attacker as someone who had long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/imrs.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/imrs.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/imrs.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}