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Western State Terrorism


Edited by Alexander George; with essays by Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Gerry O’Sullivan and others
Routledge, 1991, New York; in Britain: Polity Press, Basil Blackwell, 1991, Cambridge, Oxford; ISBN 0-745-609-317


Chapter 2

International Terrorism: Image and Reality

by Noam Chomsky

Main text

Notes


  1. Among other sources, see Edward S. Herman, The Real Terror Network (South End Press, 1982); Herman and Frank Brodhead, The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (Sheridan Square Publications, 1986); Noam Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors (Claremont, 1986; Amana, 1988); Alexander George, “The Discipline of Terrorology,” this volume. Also the discussion of Walter Laqueur’s The Age of Terrorism (Little, Brown and Co., 1987), in Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions (South End, 1989, pp. 278ff). See this book for references, where not cited here.
     

  2. “States, Terrorism and State Terrorism,” in Robert O. Slater and Michael Stohl, Current Perspectives on International Terrorism (Macmillan, 1988). Stohl concludes that “In terms of terrorist coercive diplomacy the USA has...been far more active in the Third World than has the Soviet Union.” Other studies show a similar pattern. In her review of military conflicts since World War II, Ruth Sivard finds that 95 percent have been in the Third World, in most cases involving foreign forces, with “western powers accounting for 79 percent of the interventions, communist for 6 percent”; World Military and Social Expenditures 1981 (World Priorities, 1981), p. 8
     

  3. United States Code Congressional and Administrative News, 98th Congress, Second Session, 1984, Oct. 19, volume 2; par. 3077, 98 STAT. 2707 (West Publishing Co., 1984).
     

  4. US Army Operational Concept for Terrorism Counteraction (TRADOC Pamphlet No. 525-37, 1984); Robert Kupperman Associates, Low Intensity Conflict, July 30, 1983. Both cited in Michael Klare and Peter Kornbluh (eds), Low Intensity Warfare (Pantheon, 1988), pp. 69, 147. The actual quotation from Kupperman refers specifically to “the threat of force;” its use is also plainly intended.
     

  5. Jerusalem Post (August 4, 1988).
     

  6. See Noam Chomsky, The Culture of Terrorism (South End, 1988), pp. 43, 77.
     

  7. For details on the highly successful demolition job, see Chomsky, Culture of Terrorism and Necessary Illusions. On the immediate destruction of the Esquipulas IV accords of February 1989 by the White House and congressional doves with media cooperation, see Chomsky, “The Tasks Ahead: 1”, Z magazine (May 1989).
     

  8. Richard Boudreaux and Marjorie Miller, Los Angeles Times (October 5, 1988); Associated Press, November 21, 1987; Witness for Peace, Civilian Victims of the US Contra War (February-July 1987), p. 5. Americas Watch, The Civilian Toll 1986-1987 (August 30, 1987); Americas Watch Petition to US Trade Representative (May 29, 1987).
     

  9. Boston Globe (November 9, 1984), citing also similar comments by Democratic dove Christopher Dodd.
     

  10. A search of the liberal Boston Globe, perhaps the least antagonistic to the Sandinistas among major US journals, revealed one editorial reference to the fact that Nicaragua needs air power “to repel attacks by the CIA-run contras, and to stop or deter supply flights” (November 9, 1986).
     

  11. Jeane Kirkpatrick, “US Security and Latin America,” Commentary (January 1981), p. 29.
     

  12. Cited by Stohl, “States, Terrorism and State Terrorism.”
     

  13. Irving Kristol, “Why a Debate Over Contra Aid?,” Wall Street Journal (April 11, 1986); Kristol, “Where Have All the Gunboats Gone?,” Wall Street Journal (December 13, 1973).
     

  14. See Chomsky, Necessary Illusions, p. 60
     

  15. Julia Preston, Boston Globe (February 9, 1986); MacMichael, see Chomsky Culture of Terrorism; Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times (May 28, 1988); Vaky, see Chomsky, Necessary Illusions.
     

  16. Ibid., pp. 204-5.
     

  17. Rivera y Damas quoted in Ray Bonner, Weakness and Deceit (Times Books, 1984), p. 207; Romero quoted in Jenny Pearce, Under the Eagle (Latin America Bureau, 1981).
     

  18. For documentation on these matters, see Chomsky Necessary Illusions
     

  19. LADOC (Latin American Documentation), Torture in Latin America (LADOC, 1987), the report of the First International Seminar on Torture in Latin America (Buenos Aires, December 1985), devoted to “the repressive system” that “has at its disposal knowledge and a multinational technology of terror, developed in specialized centers whose purpose is to perfect methods of exploitation, oppression and dependence of individuals and entire peoples” by the use of “state terrorism inspired by the Doctrine of National Security.” This doctrine can be traced to the historic decision of the Kennedy administration to shift the mission of the Latin American military to “internal security,” with far-reaching consequences.
     

  20. Raymond L. Garthoff, Reflections on the Cuban Missile Crisis (Brookings Institution, 1987), p. 17.
     

  21. Ibid., pp. 16f, 78f, 89f, 98. See the references of note 1. Also Bradley Earl Ayers, The War that Never Was (Harper & Row, 1981); William Blum, The CIA (Zed Books, 1986), updated and republished in expanded form as Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII (Common Courage Press, 1995); Morris Morley, Imperial State and Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1987); Taylor Branch and George Crile, “The Kennedy Vendetta: Our Secret War on Cuba,” Harper’s (August 1975).
     

  22. See Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War (Pantheon, 1982), pp. 48-9; see Chomsky, Culture of Terrorism, p. 40; Stohl, “States, Terrorism and State Terrorism.”
     

  23. Jerusalem Post (August 16, 1981); see Chomsky, Fateful Triangle (South End, 1983), Chapter 5, sections 1, 3.4, for further quotes, background, and description.
     

  24. Charles Glass, “No News is Bad News,” Index on Censorship (January 1989). See Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, pp. 184f, and sources cited.
     

  25. Ehud Ya’ari, Egypt and the Fedayeen (Hebrew) (Givat Haviva, 1975), pp. 27f, a study based on captured Egyptian and Jordanian documents. At the same time, Salah Mustapha, Egyptian military attaché in Jordan, was severely injured by a letter-bomb sent from East Jerusalem, presumably from the same source; ibid.
     

  26. Israeli military historian Uri Milshtein, Hadashot (December 31, 1987), refering to Eliav’s 1983 book Hamevukash.
     

  27. Sofaer, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1986; New York Times (October 12, 1985).
     

  28. See Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, pp. 92-3, 108; Ha’aretz (April 5, 1989).
     

  29. Leslie Cockburn, Out of Control (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987), p. 26; Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, p. 136.
     

  30. Boustany, Washington Post Weekly (March 14, 1988); Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987 (Simon & Schuster, 1987), pp. 396f.
     

  31. For a review of the Iron Fist operations and the Tunis bombing, see Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, chapter 2.
     

  32. For details, see Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, chapter 3; Chomsky, Necessary Illusions, pp. 272-3; and sources cited.
     

  33. James LeMoyne, “Week in Review,” New York Times (June 29, 1986).
     

  34. See Edward S. Herman, The Terrorism Industry (Pantheon, 1990); Herman and Gerry O’Sullivan, “‘Terrorism’ as Ideology and Cultural Industry,” this volume.
     

  35. Lawrence Harke, “The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 and American Freedoms: A Critical Review,” University of Miami Law Review, 43 (1989), pp. 667f.
     

  36. Shamir, “Terror,” Hazit (August 1943); parts reprinted in Al Hamishmar (December 24, 1987); Berlin, Personal Impressions (Viking, 1981), p. 50.
     

  37. See Chomsky, Fateful Triangle, pp. 164-5n.; Gafi Amir, Yediot Ahronot Supplement (August 14, 1988); Israel Shahak, “Distortion of the Holocaust,” Kol Ha’ir (May 19, 1989).
     

  38. Text appears as Appendix III, State Terrorism at Sea, EAFORD Paper 44, Chicago, 1988.
     

  39. For details, see Chomsky, Necessary Illusions; also Chomsky, “The Trollope Ploy,” Z Magazine (March 1989); Chomsky, “The Art of Evasion: Diplomacy in the Middle East,” Z Magazine (January 1990).
     

  40. Emphasis in Jerusalem Post. See references of preceding note. The unacceptability of an international conference follows from the opposition of the US and Israel to a political settlement of the kind supported by most of the world community.
     

  41. See Chomsky, Pirates and Emperors, p. 69.
     

  42. Ibid., pp. 63f.
     

  43. Don Oberdorfer, “The Mind of George Shultz,” Washington Post Weekly (February 17, 1986); New York Times (November 28, 1988).
     

  44. Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times (October 7, 1985).
     

  45. Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times (October 2, 1985).
     

  46. See Pirates and Emperors, pp. 51f., 87f.; note 35 above; Linda Gradstein, Washington Post (April 6, 1989); “Political Trials,” Dai l’Kibbush, Jerusalem, August 1988, published in News from Within (December 14, 1988).
     

  47. New York Times (September 30, 1986).




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