Terrorism

I was reading the news on CNN.com and this article caught my eye, since it seemed to relate to Tuesdays lecture about terrorism. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/24/somali.fighting.ap/index.html)

The major issue I can see with Somalia is the sharp division between the cultural and political ties of the country. The article mentions that since 1991, when the dictator in power was overthrown, the government has been anything but stable. As the current government is backed by the West, the question of how to peacefully combine Western policies with the culture of Islam has arisen. And as part of the growing trend of terrorism, Somali extremist Islamic insurgents have felt the need to take this question into their own hands through acts of violence.

What really caught my attention however was the last line of the article:
"Last week, Islamic militants here welcomed being added to the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, saying they only wished the designation had come sooner"

At first I found it a little funny - I mean who in the United States would actually find it honorable to be considered a terrorist? But the more I thought about it the more I began to wonder the criteria for this list was. What had these Islamic insurgents done that made them all of a sudden be terrorists in the eye of the United States? Does being on this list change the way the United States approaches these terrorists? Is this list even actually effective?

According to the US State Department website (http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm), there are currently 42 groups around the world that the United States designates as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (or FTOs). The purpose of FTOs are that they “play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.” The terrorism business? Alright…

To be defined as an FTO the State Department looks “not only at the actual terrorist attacks that a group has carried out, but also at whether the group has engaged in planning and preparations for possible future acts of terrorism or retains the capability and intent to carry out such acts.” The site is also quick to point out that, “The organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States”. By providing for threats of foreign relations, the United States gives themselves an official reason for acting against a specific threat anywhere in the world.

So are these Islamic extremist insurgents rightly called terrorists? Obviously yes. But what defines them as so?


To me, their actions appear to fall under the category of religion. Although from this specific incident it is difficult to say whether or not non-religious issues are addressed, as the insurgents are simply defined as an Islamic extremist group. This terrorist “clan” as the article describes them, used discrete violence in the instance the article discusses, as there were minimal casualties. I would have categorized this group as an international terrorist organization, but with the United State’s recognition of their activities, I think it could be argued that they are instead using transnational terrorism. I think this can be debated since this group is trying to not only influence the government in power in Somalia but also their Western support. While at the same time existing as an Islamic group helps to create ties to their “plight” across the Muslim (and in particular the Muslim extremist) world.