"The world today seems to be going crazy": The Unabomber's Manifesto It was May 25th 1978, Terry Marker was on his usual patrol on campus at the University of Illinois. This earmark package, addressed to an engineering professor at Rensselaer from a material science professor at Northwestern, was found in a parking lot. What seemed like an insignificant misplaced parcel was about to start a reign of terror and the longest manhunt in U.S. history. Officer Marker retrieved the package and began to open it; the crude triggering mechanism set off the device. A flash of fire and smoke spewed towards Terry's face as the match heads ignited and the mystery package exploded. This event sparked the "most expensive manhunt in United States history, ultimately costing upward to $50 million" (Douglas, 31). The reasoning behind this initial attack (and subsequent assaults) was not known for sure until 15 years later in 1993, when the Unabomber's anti-technology philosophy became public. The Unabomber's 18 year tirade against technology killed three people and maimed 23 others in a series of 16 attacks dating back to 1978. The Unabomber's targets were universities and airlines (thus the "un" and the "a" in the FBI's code name); proponents of technology. The Unabomber believes that the present industrial-technological society is "narrowing the sphere of human freedom" (Unabomber, 93). The crudeness of the Unabomber's inaugural mail bomb attack was not an indication of what was to come. The Unabomber's devices became more sophisticated and deadly as his targets became more specific and focused. "The pressure vessels in his bombs were the most sophisticated ever seen by federal authorities" (Ewell, 3). His later efforts were sometimes concealed in books and hand-carved boxes, had all hancrafted parts carved of wood and metal (he made his own pins, screws and switches), and sometimes had altimeter and barometric switches which would activate at precise altitudes in an airplane. Bombs, like the one planted outside of a computer store in Sacramento, were sometimes fitted with gravity triggers which would detonate the bomb at the slightest touch. Later bombs contained two independent systems of batteries and wires, a backup fail-safe mechanism, installed to ensure the bombs detonation. The crime scene analyses suggested that each bomb "took more than a hundred hours to construct" (Douglas, 56). The bombs were getting deadlier as the Unabomber's skill level evolved. FBI agent James Fox says "This guy's done a wonderful job in self-education (Gleick, 26). On April 24, 1995, Gilbert Murray, president of the California Forestry Association, died instantly when a bomb exploded in his office in Sacramento. The force of the blast was so great that it pushed nails partly out
by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The two men in which didn't even know the
When we think of terrorist, we might think of radical Islamic individuals or groups who would take pride in killing anyone who is not Muslim. Even more, there are antagonistically people who want nothing more but to destroy the lives of innocence people because of their belief system. Take an individual like Theodore Kaczynski for instance; he was a former University of California at Berkeley math professor. Otherwise known as the “Unabomber,” he was indeed a terrorist because he used explosives that killed three people and wounded eighteen others in a span of almost two decades. Even more, his brother David Kaczynski was responsible for his capture.
Over the years, there have been many criminals who have eluded the authorities, but very few have been able to avoid them for as long as the infamous Unabomber did. For 17 years the Unabomer was able to reek his havoc without getting caught.
and militiamen. It spread to several states and 34 lives were lost. The combined forces
Terrorist is a novel by John Updike written in 2006. Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, the main character in the story, was instructed in the Muslim faith ever since he was a child of eleven by the Iman Shaikh Rashid, originally from Yemen. The words and teachings of the Qur’an and his devotion to Allah become the centre of Ahmad’s young life which incidentally, lacks all parental guidance. After he graduates from secondary school he gets a job as a truck driver for Excellency Furnishing Stores where he meets Charlie Chehab and his father, from Lebanon and devoted Muslims too. From then on, the young man is manipulated by his elders to perpetrate a terrorist attack against the Lincoln tunnel, below the Hudson River that unites New Jersey with Manhattan, New York. The attack never comes true because Ahmad’s respect and love of a God given life prevail above the Iman’s mandate of hatred towards Americans and their way of life which he had also tried to generate in the boy.
In today’s society the word “terrorism” has gone global. We see this term on television, in magazines and even from other people speaking of it. In their essay “Controlling Irrational Fears After 9/11”, published in 2002, Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris argue that the reaction of the American officials, people and the media after the attacks of 9/11 was completely irrational due to the simple fact of fear. Chapman and Harris jump right into dismembering the irrational argument, often experienced with relationships and our personal analysis. They express how this argument came about from the terrorist being able to succeed in “achieving one major goal, which was spreading fear” among the American people (Chapman & Harris, para.1). The supporters of the irrational reaction argument state that because “Americans unwittingly cooperated with the terrorist in achieving the major goal”, the result was a widespread of disrupted lives of the Americans and if this reaction had been more rational then there would have been “less disruption in the lives of our citizens” (Chapman & Harris, para. 1).
the purpose behind it all and what he stood to gain. I'm sure that wasn't
Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber, was one of the most prolific cases the FBI has ever worked. His bombing campaign and reign of terror lasted multiple decades until he was finally caught in arrested in 1996. His capture ended one of the more high profile reigns of terror ever perpetrated by an individual man.
There has been much talk about how the events of September 11 changed everything. I don't think they changed the central urgency and relevance of what each one of us does with our life..
Mass surveillance is a word that has been thrown around every so often in the last few decades, especially ever since George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although this book was released over 60 years ago, some aspects of the book are seeming to become true in the United States, and other parts of the world today. The idea of mass surveillance isn’t so taboo anymore, as there are several programs ran by sovereign countries around the world which monitor their domestic citizens, as well as citizens and leaders of other foreign countries. With all of our technological communication advances since 1949, this age of information is only going to get more severe, and more tracking and monitoring will be done. The biggest offender of doing this is the NSA, shortened for National Security Agency. The NSA is an organization that was made by the US Government to monitor intelligence, and collect, translate and decode information. What’s important about the NSA, is that this most recent summer, a program named PRISM was revealed by a whistleblower, and in summary, PRISM monitors everything it can, including our own citizens in the United States. This “scandal” had a lot of air time for many months, and is still in the news today. The revelation of what the NSA is doing behind our backs is what made the basis of this essay, and made me think of how similar this entire situation is to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
“Terrorism involves the use of violence by an organization other than a national government to cause intimidation or fear among a target audience;” at least, this is how Pape (2003) defines terrorism in his article “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” (343). The goal of this article by Pape is to discuss suicide terrorism and how it “follows a strategic logic, one specifically designed to coerce modern liberal democracies to make significant territorial concessions” (343). Similar to Pape, Bloom (2004) and Horowitz (2010) also delve into the exponential increase of suicide terrorism and why it occurs. Although Pape, Bloom, and Horowitz concur that suicide terrorism is increasing, they disagree why it is so prominent. While the arguments presented from each of these researchers is powerful and certainly plausible, suicide terrorism is in fact not irrational, but strategic and is most often caused by state occupation and, when organized, aimed specifically at democracies.
Ted Bundy was one of the most vicious serial killers in American history. He confessed to 28 grotesque murders in the 1970’s but the actual number of his victims remains
Al Qaeda, the organization that the United States is in a constant, never ending battle with, the organization that has made the most impact and changed the United States forever. Al Qaeda is always making headlines with their terrorist attacks, the most known attack September 11th, 2001. This essay is about the terrorist group Al Qaeda, its history and background, Osama bin Laden, their well-known leader, and the major attacks on America.
Terrorist organizations have been committing atrocities against innocent civilians throughout the world for hundreds of years. Terrorism has evolved in many different forms and from various motivations such as religious protest movements, political revolts, and social uprisings. Regardless of the motives for terror, the problem is the financing of terrorism and terrorist organizations themselves. Recent global terrorist attacks using high technology and extensive networks have shown that money is essential to provide the means behind all terrorist activities. Individual terrorists plan terrorist operations and require resources to live, prepare, and implement their plans. The use of money laundering and financial support schemes are the root of the cause. If money laundering were curtailed or even eliminated, and financial supporters of terrorism were identified terrorism would decrease dramatically. To achieve these goals would take monumental efforts. The United States, United Nations and all sovereign nations would need to take cooperative action that has never been accomplished. Terrorism, its' history, concepts, reasoning, methods, and financial roots are object of this research.