Terrorist Organizations

Al Qaeda (al-Qa'ida)

Created in the late 1980's by an affiliation of three armed factions - Osama bin Laden's circle of "Afghan" Arabs, together with factions from Egypt, The Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Queda's top theoretician. The Egyptian factions emerged from the older fundamentalist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the late 1950's and 60's. At the heart of that school of thought was a philosopher named Syyid Qutb, who was executed by Abdel Nasser in 1966. Qutb's vast commentary on the Koran called "In the Shade of the Qur'an", is to these fundamentalist movements what Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" was to Communism.

The origins of al-Qaeda as a network inspiring terrorism around the world and training operatives can be traced to the Soviet War in Afghanistan (December 1979 - February 1989).
In 1984 Bin Laden became a "major financier" of the mujahideen, who were opposing the Afghan Marxist regime supported by the Soviet Union.

From 1991 to 1996, bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were based in Sudan.

In 1996 they were expeled from Sudan and moved their headquarters to Afghanistan, where they enjoyed the Taliban's protection.

Strength: 6,000 in both Somalia and Syria. 14,000 Total
AQAP - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Also known as Ansar al-Sharia. 1000+

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

Also know as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
and Daesh (داعش‎ dāʿish) which is an acronym derived from its Arabic name ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah. This is a term the militant group hates. French President François Hollande has used it since the paris attacks in 2015.

They are a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.

The group began in 2004 as al Qaeda in Iraq (to oppose US troops in Iraq), before rebranding as ISIS two years later (to fight Bashar_al-Assad, president of Syria). It was an ally of - and had similarities with -- Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda: both were radical anti-Western militant groups devoted to establishing an independent Islamic state in the region. But ISIS - unlike al Qaeda, which disowned the group in early 2014 - has proven to be more brutal and more effective at controlling territory it has seized. it proclaimed a worldwide caliphate in June 2014.

Strength: 40-50,000. Half inside Syria and Iraq.

Their fight was not just against westerners, but non-Suni musilims or any Muslim they considered not-devote enough.

They have captured and control much more territory than Al Qaeda. See:
ISIS: Everything you need to know about the rise of the militant group - CNN.com
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Wikipedia

Hezbollah (Islamic Jihad)

Lebanese Shiite Muslim Organization. A Shiite group dedicated to creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences from the area. Backed by Iran and Syria. Hdqtrs - Lebanon.
Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983

Hamas

Palestinian Sunni Muslim organization. Formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. Leader - Achmed Jibril.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Marxist-Leninist group founded in 1967 by George Habash. The PFLP's stated aim is "liberating all of Palestine and establishing a democratic socialist Palestinian state. The PFLP was one of the original members of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), but suspended its participation in 1993, when Yasser Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command

Split from the PFLP in 1968, claiming it wanted to focus more on fighting and less on politics. Violently opposed to Arafat's PLO. Led by Ahmad Jabril, a former captain in the Syrian Army. Closely tied to both Syria and Iran.

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)

Also known as Fatah Revolutionary Council and Black September.
Formed in 1974 by former members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Hdqtrs - Libya, Leader - Abu Nidal
Also known as Fatah Revolutionary Council and Black September.

The Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine (Fatah)

Founded in the early 1960s by the Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat and friends of his in Algeria, Fatah was originally opposed to the founding of the PLO, which it viewed as a political opponent.
  It took over control of the PLO in 1968. Since then it has been the PLO's most prominent faction, under the direct control of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.
  "Fatah" is a reverse acronym of the Arabic, Harekat at-Tahrir al-Wataniyyeh al-Falastiniyyeh. The word "Fatah" means "conquest by means of jihad [Islamic holy war]".

PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)

Founded in 1964 by the Arab League, the PLO was the invention of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser. Nasser saw it as a means to advance Egypt's goals of uniting the Arab world under Egyptian rule.
  From 1969 to 2004, the PLO was been run by Chairman Yasser Arafat.
  The PLO claims that it recognizes Israel's right to exist and wants to found a state only in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestine Islamic Jihad

Originated among militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s. Headquartered in Syria.

Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C)

Originally formed in 1978 as Devrimci Sol, or Dev Sol, a splinter faction of the Turkish People's Liberation Party/ Front. Renamed in 1994 after factional infighting, it espouses a Marxist ideology and is virulently anti-US and anti-NATO. Conducts attacks in Turkey.

Armed Islamic Group (GIA)

An Islamic extremist group, the GIA aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state

Al-Jihad

Egyptian Islamic extremist group active since the late 1970s. Close partner of Bin Ladin's al-Qaida organization. The original Jihad was responsible for the assassination in 1981 of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Planned attack against US Embassy in Albania was thwarted.

Nepal Maoist - The Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist) CPN(M)

Marxist-Leninist-Maoists led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) -- CPN(M) -- and its leader "Comrade Prachanda" (his real name is Pushpan Kamal Dahal) launched an ongoing effort to overthrow the Kingdom of Nepal's constitutional monarchy and replace it with "a doctrinaire Communist dictatorship.".
As of July, 2003 almost 8,000 people have died from the ensuing violence.
A Jan. 2004 BBC article says: "Trekkers are returning to the trails - with the chance of meeting a Maoist rebel one of the main attractions."
Declared a terrorist organisation by the government, the CPN(M) has stated officially that it does not intend to harm tourists and for the seven years of the insurgency has so far kept its word.
The rebels stop by teahouses to talk to tourists and ask for donations. Trekkers usually hand over an average of $14 (1,000 rupees).

São Paulo Forum (SPF)

The narco-terrorist insurgency known as the São Paulo Forum (SPF) has very high-level sponsors inside the financial and political establishment of the Americas. The Puerto Rico New Independence Movement (NMIP) has established itself as the official subsidiary of the São Paulo Forum in Puerto Rico.

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia)

Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. Has well-documented ties to narcotics traffickers.
Leader: Manuel Marulanda, a.k.a. "Tirofijo,"

National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional - ELN)

Marxist insurgent group formed in 1965 by urban intellectuals inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Location: Columbia and Venezuela.

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) , Peru

Former university professor Abimael Guzman formed Sendero Luminoso in the late 1960s, and his teachings created the foundation of SL's militant Maoist doctrine. In the 1980s, SL became one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere.

FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation)

Puerto Rico independence movement.

IRA Irish Republican Army

The Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA) wants to eject the British and unify Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic. Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing is lead by Gerry Adams.
Martin McGuinness was another well known IRA leader.

Over 3,000 have died as a result of attacks by both sides since 1969. The IRA is responsible for about half of these.

26 of the 32 Irish Counties became independent from Britain after the Easter rising of 1916 and the war of independence fought by the IRA between 1919-1922; also called the 'Free State', 'Eire' or 'the Republic'.

The 6 remaining Counties, also called 'the North', remained under British government rule, which usually refers to it as 'Northern Ireland'. Called 'Ulster' by unionists.

The Protestant Loyalists (unionists) want to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britian. In 1996 Billy Wright, paramilitary leader and guerrilla, founded a Loyalist Volunteer Force to oppose the peace strategy of his former comrades. He was assinated while in prison in 1997.

Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is a Loyalist paramilitary organization responsible for 11% of the deaths.
Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) - small fringe unionist party associated with the UVF.

The British Army is responsible for 9% of the deaths.

RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) The RUC gradually took over the British Army's duties in policing Northern Ireland. Over 300 of its members (who are predominantly Protestant) have been killed during the Troubles, and approximately 50 people have been killed by the RUC.

The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) A loyalist paramilitary organization is a Northern Irish Loyalist paramilitary organization outlawed as a terrorist group in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The UDA includes the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) responsible for much of the violence.

An IRA splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), is responsible for 3% of the deaths.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), led by John Hume, supports the reunification of Ireland by consent and has opposed both Provisional IRA and state violence.

See: Troubles in Northern Ireland by Wesley Johnston

ETA Euskadi ta Askatasuna ("Basque Fatherland and Liberty")

Basque separatists - A leftist group that has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwest France.

Aryan Nations

A right-wing, anti-semitic, white supremacist hate group in the US, which had headquarters in Idaho. After their leader, Richard Butler, and the organization lost an assault lawsuit in 2001, they filed for bankruptcy and the name and headquarters were sold to the people who were assaulted.

Japanese Red Army (JRA)

An international terrorist group formed around 1970 after breaking away from Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. Now led by Fusako Shigenobu, believed to be in Syrian-garrisoned area of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Stated goals are to overthrow Japanese Government and monarchy and to help foment world revolution. May control or at least have ties to Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB).

In April 1988 JRA operative Yu Kikumura was arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike, apparently planning an attack to coincide with the bombing of a USO club in Naples, a suspected JRA operation that killed five, including a US servicewoman.

Red Brigades (Left-wing group Italy)

Baader-Meinhof Group (Left-wing group Germany),

RAF Rote Armee Fraktion, an outgrowth of the Baader-Meinhof Gang (Left-wing group Germany),

neo-Nazi and other right-wing fringe groups in Germany.

They were fueled by the presence of large numbers of foreign workers and by the increasing number of aliens seeking political asylum in the country, during the 1990s following unification of the East and West.

LRA Lord's Resistance Army (Uganda)

Boko Haram Nigeria

Mujahideen

Afghan freedom fighters against the Soviet Invasion from 1979 to 1989. Supported by the US. The Taliban, an Afghan fundamentalist group took control of the government in 1994

Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)

Algerian group which advocates establishing an Islamic state.

Nicaraguan contras

A rebel group countering the Sandinista Government, which had overthrown Somoza, and funded by the US for fear of the Sandinistas ties to Cuba and the Soviet Union. After congressional funding ran out in 1984 the Regan administration worked on way to continue to get funding elsewhere.

In October and November 1986, two secret U.S. Government operations were publicly exposed.
1. Assistance to the military activities of the Nicaraguan contra rebels during an prohibition on such aid.
2. The sale of U.S. arms to Iran, designed to obtain the release of Americans held hostage in the Middle East, in contravention of stated U.S. policy and in possible violation of arms-export controls. Some of the proceeds of this sale were diverted to the Contras.

Oliver L. North was convicted of altering and destroying documents, accepting an illegal gratuity, and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress; conviction reversed on appeal.

Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger was charged with four counts of false statements and perjury; pardoned before trial by President Bush.
CIA Director Casey was also criticized for the CIA's involvement.

In 1990 elections were held in Nicaragua, and the Sadistinas lost to the US-backed Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, after the US spent $9 million on her election campaign.
Today Nicaragua is crippled by highest per capita debt in the world.

FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Movement)

A leftist rebel guerrilla group in El Salvador. In 1992 the government and the FMLN signed a peace accord that ended 12 years of civil war that had cost around 80,000 lives. FMLN is a legal political party now.

Tamil Tiger Rebels Sri Lanka

The majority Buddhist Sinhalese community resented what they saw as favouritism towards the mainly-Hindu Tamils in the North under British administration.

Civil war erupted in the 1980s between Tamils pressing for self-rule and the government. Tamil Tiger rebels carrying out devastating suicide bombings in Colombo in the 1990s.

A ceasefire and a political agreement reached between the government and rebels in late 2002 raised hopes for a lasting settlement. However, peace talks between the two sides stalled in 2003.

Free Aceh Movement (GAM) (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) in Indonesia's Aceh Province:

GAM, with 2-3,000 members, has been fighting for independence for the oil and gas-rich western province since 1976.
Gam has always maintained that, when territory governed by former colonial power the Netherlands was brought together to form the Republic of Indonesia in 1949, the Kingdom of Aceh should never have been incorporated as it never formally belonged to the Dutch.
They claim the Indonesian government has not fairly shared the province's considerable natural resources with Aceh's citizens, and by reported abuses by the Indonesian military.

Others listed above: include Irish Republican Army (IRA), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), and Kurdistan Workers' Party.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

Unlike some of the other organizations, PETA has learned the value of good public relations campaigns. The public increasingly associates PETA with humorous stunts or heart-wrenching promotions.
Comely nude models denounce fur coats in PETA pinup calendars.

PETA president and founder Ingrid Newkirk, has a habit of making extremist statements. In 1999 the Chronicle of Higher Education asked Newkirk to comment on animal rights radicals who intimidate and terrorize university researchers to end animal testing. Her response: "If a threat will scare an experimenter from [continuing his work] - then so be it...When you see the resistance to basic humane treatment and to the acknowledgment of animals' social needs, I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren't all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I'd light a match."

Animal Liberation Front (ALF)

In 1991 Washington State University professor John Gorham lost two years' research on mad-cow disease after ALF members vandalized his office.

Greenpeace

An international organization with headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Equipped with their own fleet of ships, Greenpeace activists frequently engage in illegal activity such as interfering with commercial shipping.

A September 2001 Boston Globe article summarized the standard Greenpeace methods of operation: "...rappelling down skyscrapers, occupying abandoned oil rigs, and putting inflatable dinghies between whales and hunters with harpoons."
In March 2003, activists used the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior and a flotilla of inflatable rafts to blockade an American freighter from transporting supplies from a naval base in Spain to coalition forces on patrol in the Persian Gulf.

Earth First EF

Founded in 1980, EF! operates in the shadows--and through the internet--as a semi-underground group. It's hard to know who is accountable for EF! actions because the group cloaks itself in secrecy. We know there is a bi-monthly Earth First! Journal based in Tucson, Arizona. They consider it okay to destroy logging company equipment in order to save trees.

Earth Liberation Front (ELF)

A loosely knit group which has set fire to new housing developments which they thought were in environmentally sensitive areas. Known for a 1998 attack on a Colorado ski resort that caused $12 million in damage.

Definitions:
Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary: (threats of) violent action for political purposes.
American Heritage: The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
Merriam-Webster: The systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. Terror - Violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands (insurrection and revolutionary terror)

From Naval Education and Training Course: and Rice U. Naval ROTC Terrorism Course

Religious Terrorism - Seek to use violence to further what they see as divinely commanded purposes, often targeting broad categories of foes in an attempt to bring about sweeping changes.
Examples include Osama bin Laden's al-Queda network, Palestinian Sunni Muslim organization Hamas, Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, and some American white-supermacist militias

Nationalist Terrorism - Seek to form a separate state for their own national group, often by drawing attention to a fight for "national liberation" that they think the world has ignored.
Example groups include Irish Republican Army, Palestine Liberation Organization, Basque Fatherland and Liberty, and Kurdistan Workers' Party

State-Sponsored Terrorism - State Department says Iran is the primary state sponsor of terrorism today.
Examples include Hezbollah backed by Iran, Abu Nibal Organization backed by Iraq, Japanese Red Army that often work on contracts for Libya.

Left-Wing Terrorism - Out to destroy capitalism and replace it with a communist or socialist regime.
Examples include Baader-Meinhof Group (Germany), Japanese Red Army (Lebanon), The Weathermen (America 1970s), and Red Brigades (Italy)

Right-Wing Terrorism - Seek to do away with liberal democratic governments and create fascist states in their place.
Examples include neo-Nazi or Neofascist terrorist groups.

Domestic Terrorism - Involves groups or individuals who are based and operate entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction and whose acts are directed at elements of the U.S. Government or population.
Examples include Timothy McVeigh (right-wing), The World Church of the Creator (right-wing), Aryan Nations (right-wing), Popular Puerto Rican Army (left-wing), and Los Macheteros (left-wing).

Anarchist Terrorism - Revolutionaries seek to overthrow established governments launched a wave of bombing and assassinated a series of heads of state.
Leon Czolgosz, anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley in 1901

Special Interest Terrorism - Involves extremist special interest groups who seek to influence special issues, rather than effect widespread political change.
Examples include Eric Robert Rudolph, Army of God (anti-abortion extremists), extremists of animal rights, pro-life, environmental, and anti-nuclear groups.

Although the tactics may be similar there seems to be a distinction between the "bad guys" - "Terrorists" and the "good guys" - "Freedom Fighters".

July 11, 2006: 7 bombs exploded on trains around Mumbai (formerly Bombey) killing about 160-190. It was blamed on Islamic Extremists possibly from Kashmir.

Feb 22, 2006: The al-Askariya Mosque, a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad was bombed. Though no casualties were reported, the bombing was the most destructive attack on a major shrine since the U.S. invasion, and Iraqi leaders said it was meant to draw Shiites and Sunnis into war. This set off a wave of voilence between Sunnis and Shiites.

July 23, 2005: 3 bombs at the Red Sea Resort of Sharm El Sheik in Egypt, killing at least 90. Several groups including Abdullah Azzam Brigades of Al Qaeda and the Holy Warriors of Egypt, claimed responsibility.

July 7, 2005: London: Bombs went off in 3 subway stations and a bus. They killed at leasst 55 and wounded 700. An Al Qaeda group claimed responsibility. Attacks seemed to be timed to coincide with G8 talks in Scotland.

Feb. 14, 2005: Eleven people were killed and at least 93 injured in Valentine's Day bombings by suspected Muslim militants that hit Manila and two southern Philippine cities.

Jan. 2005: 127 coalition members were killed in January in Iraq; the third worst month of the war, however elections at the end of the month went surprisingly well.

Sept. 1, 2004: Chechen rebels took more than 1,200 hostages in a school in southern Russia, which ended two days lster in a wave of explosions and gunfire as hostages tried to flee, and special forces and armed civilians tried to aid them.
  All the terrorists and 326 hostages, half of them children, were killed.

August 24, 2004 Crashes of two planes in Russia minutes apart were caused by explosions. A total of 90 people were killed. It is suspected that wo Chechen women, one on each flight were involved. Analysis of one of the wreckages shows the presence of hexogen, an element used by Chechens in past attacks. An Islamic group, calling itself the Islambouli Brigades, vowing support for Chechen rebels, claimed responsibility.
The incident raised fears of terrorist attacks ahead of presidential elections in Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been blamed for a series of terror acts killing hundreds of people.

Mar 2004: Co-ordinated train bombings near Madrid, Spain kills 191. Most of the suspects are Moroccan, but five of the suspects arrested are of Syrian descent. All seemed to be part of Al Qaeda .

Iraq: Multiple terrorist attacks in Iraq following the official end of of the war on May 1, 2003, have resulted in over 450 Coalition plus more than 2,000 Iraqui casualties thru January 2004. See Iraq War

2000 - Jan 2004: Arab Israli war, Israel - Second Intifada. 3,000+ deaths. (700+ Israelis, 2,300+ Palestinians). See Arab-Israeli Wars at the Wars page.

Nov., 2003 Bomb attacks in Istanbul Turkey. Bombings at two Jewish synagogues killed 23. Less than a week later blasts outside the British consulate in Istanbul and the local headquarters of the British-owned HSBC bank killed at least 27 people.
The Turkish government says it has received a joint claim of responsibility from al Qaeda and a Turkish Islamic militant group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front (IBDA-C).

May 2003: A series of terrorist attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, left 41 people dead. The blasts damaged a Jewish community center and cemetery, the Belgian consulate, the Spanish restaurant and a hotel.

2003: Car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The triple bombings targeted apartment complexes housing Westerners. Those bombings left 23 people dead, including nine Americans.

Oct., 2002: Bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia in October. The incident left nearly 200 people, mainly Australian tourists, dead. Believed to have been the work of Islamic groups with links to the Al Qaeda.

Sept 11, 2001: 9/11 Attacks on the World Trade Center in NYC and on the Pentagon in Washington DC, using four hijacked U.S. airliners in the most horrific terrorist crime in history. 2830 died in World Trade Center, 189 at the Pentagon and 44 on UA flight 93, (Includes passengers and crew on hijacked planes).

Oct. 12, 2000: Terrorist bombing kills 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS Cole as it refueled in Yemen's port of Aden. The United States says Saudi exile Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect.

1987 - 2000: Arab Israli conflict, Israel - First Intifada. 1,700+ deaths

Dec. 1999: Canada - Terrorist Ahmed Ressam's plot to blow up the Los Angeles Airport was thwarted when he was arrested at the border in December 1999 after crossing into Washington state from British Columbia in a car laden with bomb-making materials.

Aug. 7, 1998: Car bombs explode outside U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, within minutes of each other, killing 224 people and wounding thousands. Bin Laden is again blamed.

1969-1998: The Catholic Irish Republican Army (IRA) tries to eject the British, supported by Protestants, from northern Ireland. Over 3,000 killed.

1996 - During evening festivities that attracted large numbers of visitors to Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, a bomb in a knapsack exploded killing one woman and precipitating a fatal heart attack for a Turkish cameraman. 111 were injured.

June 25, 1996: Truck bomb explodes outside the Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and wounding hundreds of other people. Members of a little-known Saudi militant group, Hezbollah, were indicted for the attack.

Nov. 13, 1995: Car bomb detonates at a U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing five American service personnel.

April 19, 1995: Bomb rips through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and wounding more than 500. Former U.S. soldier Timothy McVeigh is convicted of carrying out the attack; he was executed earlier this year.

Mar. 20, 1995: Tokyo, Japan - Japanese terrorists of the Aum (or Aum Shinrikyo) cult, which believes that the end of the world is imminent, released Sarin nerve gas into Tokyo subway trains. 12 killed and approximately 5,000 to 6,000 injured. 10/95 Japanese government revoked Aum's classification as a religious organization, but decided not to invoke a law that would have outlawed the organization. Suspect Shoko Asahara, who founded the cult in 1987, imprisoned by the Japanese government.

Jan 1995: Manila, Philippines- A terrorist cell was uncovered containing evidence of a plot to bomb 12 commercial jumbo jets of United States carriers flying Asian-Pacific routes. See: White House Fact Sheet

Feb. 26, 1993: A bomb explodes in a parking garage below the World Trade Center in New York, killing six people and wounding more than 1,000. Six Islamic militants were convicted in the bombing and sentenced to life in prison.

Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Boeing 747 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, on a flight from London to New York, killing 270 people, including residents of the town.

1987 - present: - Palestinian Intifadas against Israel. Over 3,000 killed. See: Intifadas at Wars, Battles and Empires.

Sept. 5, 1986: Hijackers seize Pan Am jumbo jet carrying 358 people at Karachi airport. Twenty people killed when security forces storm the plane.

Oct. 8, 1985: Crippled American Jew Leon Klinghoffer is killed by Palestinian militants who had seized the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro.

June 14, 1985: Shiite Muslim gunmen seize TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome, forcing it to Beirut, Lebanon. They demand the release of 700 Arabs held by Israel. A U.S. Navy diver is killed and 39 Americans are held until they are released on July 1 that year after Syrian mediation.

Sept. 20, 1984: Car bomb at U.S. Embassy annex in east Beirut, Lebanon kills 16 and injures the ambassador.

Dec. 12, 1983: Shiite extremists set off car bombs in front of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait City, killing five people and wounding 86.

Oct. 23, 1983: Shiite suicide bombers blow up the French military headquarters and a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon killing 241 Marines and 58 French paratroopers.

Apr 18, 1983: Beirut, Lebanon- Hizballah suicide bomber with the support of Iran and Libya crashed a pickup truck full of explosives into the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. 63 people killed, of whom 17 were US citizens. Among the 17, 8 worked for the CIA. Imad Mugniyah is a top suspect.

April 18, 1983: Suicide car-bomber blows up U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.

Nov. 4, 1979: Islamic students storm U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

1982: Chicago area: Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules were laced with cyanide. 31 million bottles of Tylenol were eventually taken off the market. The murderer was never caught.

Jan 24, 1975: New York City- FALN , carried out several attacks. On January 24, 1975, the group bombed Fraunces Tavern in the financial district, the site of George Washington's farewell to his troops. The attack on the lunch-hour crowd killed four and wounded 60.

Sept. 5, 1972: Five Palestinians terrorists from the "Black September" group stormed the dormitories housing the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, Germany killing 2 and taking 9 hostages. The Palestinians demanded they be transported to the Munich airport where a rescue attempt by German police failed, and all nine hostages were murdered.

Apr. 8, 1962 - British liner, Dara, exploded and sank in Persian Gulf; 236 dead. Caused by time bomb.

Nov. 1, 1955 - The first civilian plane destroyed by a bomber. Jack Gilbert Graham, age 23, put a bomb into his mother's suitcase so he could collect her insurance money. She boarded a United Airlines flight from Denver to Portland. Explosion killed 44 people. Graham admitted guilt, convicted of murder, executed.

Sep. 16, 1920 - New York - TNT bomb planted in unattended horse-drawn wagon exploded on Wall Street opposite House of Morgan, killing 35 people and injuring hundreds more. Bolshevist or anarchist terrorists believed responsible, but crime never solved.

October 1, 1910 - Los Angeles - In the middle of a strike called to unionize the metal trades of the city, the Times building was dynamited. Harrison Gray Otis, the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, pursued a strong conservative viewpoint, and was militantly anti-union in its editorials and in its relationship with employees.

In April 2003 The U.S. military issued a most-wanted list (on a deck of cards) of 55 former leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime to be pursued, captured or killed. Saddam Hussein is the ace of spades, other aces are Qusay and Uday Hussein, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti (Presidential Secretary). Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti [aka: "Chemical Ali"] was one of the Kings. As of February, 2005, 44 of the 55 "Iraqi Most Wanted" had been captured or killed.

On May 26, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller asked the American public to help find seven suspected al-Qaeda members potentially in the United States.

Some of these names are on the the FBI's most Wanted Terrorist List of alleged terrorists who have been indicted by sitting Federal Grand Juries in various jurisdictions in the United States. The first seven on the 2001 list are the same as this FBI list as of May 2005.
However, Terrorists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who's is considered to be responsible for much of the insurgency in Iraq, and has $25 million bounty on his head, the same as Bin Lauden, has not been indicted, so is not on any of the above lists even though there are many news reports that he is the #2 most wanted terrorist as of May, 2005.

Osama bin Laden [born: 1957, Saudi Arabia] #1 on the FBI's most Wanted Terrorist List

Al Qaeda (al-Qa'ida) leader. Masterminded 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Although his location is currently unknown, intelligence experts speculate that he is still in the wild mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
See bio at rotten library.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [Born: 1966, Jordan, possibly of Palestinian descent]

Zarqawi's network is considered the main source of the insurgency in Iraq. He is the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq. Although he is thought to have links with al-Qaeda, experts regard his group as autonomous.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi started out as a petty criminal in Jordan. He rose to prominence along side of Osama Bin Laden leading "Afghan Arabs" in the "jihad" against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Reportedly seriously wounded in a gun battle in Iraq in May, 2005
See bio at rotten library and the Iraq War page.

Sheik Abdulluh Abu Azzam (a k a Amir of Anbar)[Born: ]

Zarqawi's top aid with a $50,000 award for his capture. Killed in a house raid in Baghdad Sep. 25, 2005

Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri [born: 1951, Egypt] #2 on FBI List

Islamic Jihad leader and chief Al Qaeda strategist. The No. 2 man in al Qaeda.
Zawahiri is thought to be hiding in the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Story

Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser [born: , Saudi Arabia] #3 on FBI List

Indicted for the 1996, bombing of the Khobar Towers military housing complex in Dhahran

Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman [born: Egypt]

Radical blind egyptian cleric who preached at mosques in Brooklyn and Jersey City, was sentenced to life for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He had also been accused of inciting the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
Sentenced to life in prison by a federal court in 1996 for conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center and other New York landmarks. Currenty in prision in Missouri.

Ramzi Yousef [Born: Pakistan ?, raised in Kuwait]

1993 World Trade Center Bombing. Yousef, a Pakistani, entered the United States with a false Iraqi passport in 1992. A very persuasive case can be made that Ramzi Yousef is an Iraqi intelligence agent.
Sentenced to life in prison without parole. Currently in prison in Colorado.

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah [born: c. 1963, Egypt] #4 on FBI list

Indicted for his alleged involvement in the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [born: c. 1965, in Kuwait or in Pakistan]

The No. 3 man in al Qaeda, Khalid Mohammed is the one man most directly responsible for the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He attended Chowan College in North Carolina, where he was known for chiding his fellow Muslims for their apostate ways. He may have played a role in the first attempt to destroy the WTC in 1993, according to investigators, who said he wired money to the primary bomber, his nephew, Ramzi Yousef.

Mullah Mohammed Omar

Mullah Omar was a resistance fighter, along with Bin Laden, against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistand. In the Taleban takeover of Afghanistan, financed in part by Bin Laden, Mullah Omar emerged as "commander of the faithful", a title with great resonance in Islamic history. Under Mullah Omar's rule, a strict interpretation of Islamic law was imposed on Afghanistan under Taleban control.

El Sayid Nosair

Egyptian fundamentalist, who shot and killed Meir Kahane, an extreme right-wing Israeli-American, in Manhattan, in 1990.

Mohamed Atta [Born: Egypt]

Pilot and group leader in the 9/11 attack.
See 9/11: Hijacker at sptimes.com for others.

Zacarias Moussaoui [Born: 1968, France of Moroccan descent]

France of

A member of al Qaeda who has admitted - indeed braged - that he hates the United States and was in America intending to execute a massive terrorist attack following 9/11; An anticipated round-two of suicide hijackings. A French citizen of Moroccan descent. http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/terrorists/zacarias-moussaoui/

Richard Reid

A British passenger on a flight from Paris to Miami, who tried to light a fuse protruding from his shoe which was loaded with explosives.
Story.

Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah [Born: 1964, Egypt] #5 on FBI List

Wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Anas Al-Liby #7 on Most Wanted List

A man believed to be Anas Al-Liby was captured in Khartoum, Sudan in May 2005. He was wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Al-Liby would be one of the most senior Al Qaeda members in custody. Liby is also suspected of financing assassination attempts against Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf.

Mohammed Atef [Born: Egypt]

Believed to be Bin Laden's second-in-command in al-Qaeda. Wanted in connection with the US embassy bombings in Africa. # 19 on the 2001 most-wanted list.

Jose Padilla [Born: Chicago]

Converted to Islam and trained as a terrorist by al Qaeda in Pakistan. Arrested in 2002 at an an enemy combatant. Alledigly Padilla's assignment was to scout targets for a radiological dispersion attack. See bio at rotten.com

Abu Hamza al-Masri (Mustafa Kamel Mustafa) [Born: 1958, Egypt]

Imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London for nearly a decade, where he preached violence. He called the 9/11 attacks a Jewish plot. On February 4, 2003 (after being suspended since April 2002) Abu Hamza was dismissed from his position at the mosque by the Charity Commission, the statutory organization that regulates charities (and hence most places of worship) in England and Wales. On August 26, 2004, al-Masri was arrested by British police under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 which covers the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. As of July 2005 he was awaiting extradition to the US.

Abdelbasset (Abdelbaset) al-Megrahi [Born: Libia]

Convicted of Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie Scotland

Mir Aimal Kasi [Born: Pakistan]

Killed two CIA employees outside CIA HQ in McLean VA.

Carlos the Jackal [Born: 1949, Venezuela to a family headed by a man described as a "millionaire Marxist"]

He moved to London then the Soviet Union where he was trained by the KGB. Carlos was thought to have had some involvement in the 1972 terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics.
Carlos went on a spree across Europe. He executed several bombings in Britain and France, killing dozens and injuring hundreds.
See bio at rotten.com

Hambali [Born: Java, Indonesia]

As a teenager, Hambali got involved with Islamic fundamentalist groups. He traveled to Afghanistan to help fight the Soviet invasion. He returned to Malaysia at the beginning of the 1990s and was one of several charismatic leaders in the region with strong ties to Osama bin Laden. Money flowed from bin Laden's coffers to fund the start-up of several terror groups in Southeast Asia, most infamously the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines. Part of a team of expert Arab terrorists was sent to Manilla in 1994, under direct orders from Osama bin Laden to craft attacks on U.S. interests. The Manilla cell was charged with several tasks, among them the assassinations of President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II. He may have been involved in the bombing of a Bali nightclub in late 2002.
See bio at rotten.com

Luis Posada [Born: 1928, Cuba]

He remains a prime suspect in the bombing of a Cuban commercial airliner that killed 73 people in 1976. He has admitted to plotting attacks that damaged tourist spots in Havana and killed an Italian visitor there in 1997. He was convicted in Panama in a 2000 bomb plot against Mr. Castro. He sneaked back into Florida six weeks ago in an effort to seek political asylum for having served as a cold war soldier on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960's. The government of Venezuela wants to extradite and retry him for the Cuban airline bombing.

The number of murders and attempted murders have dropped off from a high of 12 in 1994 to only one from 2000-2004.
The number of Bombing, Arson, Attempted Bombing or Arson have dropped off from a high of 32 in 1992 to only 16 total from 2000-2004.

The American Life League has written a "Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence" which was endorsed by 31 other pro-life groups by 1999. Neither Rescue League nor Operation Rescue had signed on.

1982 Don Benny Anderson used the AOG name when he and Matthew and Wayne Moore kidnapped an Illinois abortion provider and his wife. The couple was later released unharmed

1984, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun received a death threat through the mail from the Army of God. Also in 1984, several abortion clinics as well as the offices of the National Abortion Federation and the American Civil Liberties Union were bombed.

1993, March 10: Abortion Terrorism. Self-righteous fanatics murder Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida. More murders and terrorism take place through 1998.

1994, Pensacola. Director of Right-To-Life group Defensive Action, Paul Hill, a Presbyterian minister and father of 3, murders Dr. John Britton and his volunteer escort, retired Air Force officer James Barrett, outside the Pensacola, Florida clinic. He wounded another escort. Hill was executed in 2003.

1994, In Brookline, MA, John Salvi kills 2 clinic workers, five others wounded. Salvi then drives to Norfolk, VA, and fires 23 rounds into an abortion clinic there.

1996-1998 Eric Rudolph bombs an abortion clinic in Atlanta, GA.
Rudolph bombs an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL killing an off-duty police officer and seriously injured a nurse.

1998, Dr. Barnet Slepian, an Amherst, New York abortion practitioner, is murdered in front of his wife and son at his home. The shots are fired by a sniper from a wooded area behind Slepian's home. Army of God member James Kopp, alias Atomic Dog, was convicted for this.

2001 - Clayton Waagner, sent over 550 anthrax threat letters to clinics. He signed many of his threat letters with the Army of God.

2003 - Stephen John Jordi, 35 was arrested the FBI on suspicion of plotting to bomb abortion clinics in Georgia and Florida. Jordi had discussed with an FBI source possibly using C-4 plastic explosives, propane tank bombs or pipe bombs

The Army of God (AOG) is an underground network of domestic terrorists who believe that the use of violence is appropriate and acceptable as a means to end abortion. AOG member, James Kopp was convicted of the Slepian murder and suspected of shooting abortion doctors in Vancoover, Manitoba and Ontario Canada.

See: Violence Statistics and Violence at US Abortion Clinics.

2011 - July 2011 Bombing and Shooting on Oslo Noewary
Breivik alluded to two other "cells" in a network he describes as a new Knights Templar, the medieval crusaders who protected Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land.