Overview of Terrorism in the New Millennium

出处：按学科分类—政治、法律 BERKSHIREPUBLISHINGGROUP《PatternsofGlobalTerrorism1985-2005：U.S.DepartmentofStateReportswithSupplementaryDocumentsandStatistics》第449页（5661字）

Anna Sabasteanski

Worldwide Terrorist Attacks, 2000-2004

2000 423 attacks

2001 346 attacks

2002 199 attacks

2003 208 attacks

2004 651 attacks

The year 2000 saw another increase in international terrorist attacks, from 392 to 423. The number of casualties also increased, and the trend toward attacking U.S. interests continued. Bombings against a multinational oil pipeline in Colombia accounted for 152 of the attacks that year. However, the most notable attack was al-Qaeda’s suicide boat attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden, in Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed in that attack.

Although the new millennium opened well, with one potential attack—a millennium bomb threat against the United States—stopped at the border, any sense of complacency was shattered with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 described the event:

The worst international terrorist attack ever—involving four separate but coordinated aircraft hijackings—occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001. The 19 hijackers belonged to the al-Qaida terrorist network. According to investigators and records of cellular phone calls made by passengers aboard the planes, the hijackers used knives and boxcutters to kill or wound passengers and the pilots, and then commandeer the aircraft, which the hijackers used to destroy preselected targets.

■ Five terrorists hijacked American Airlines flight 11, which departed Boston for Los Angeles at 7:45 a.m. An hour later it was deliberately piloted into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

■ Five terrorists hijacked United Airlines flight 175, which departed Boston for Los Angeles at 7:58 a.m. At 9:05 the plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Both towers collapsed shortly thereafter, killing approximately 3000 persons, including hundreds of firefighters and rescue personnel who were helping to evacuate the buildings.

■ Four terrorists hijacked United Airlines flight 93, which departed Newark for San Francisco at 8:01 a.m. At 10:10 the plane crashed in Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania killing all 45 persons on board. The intended target of this hijacked plane is not known, but it is believed that passengers overpowered the terrorists, thus preventing the aircraft from being used as a missile.

■ Five terrorists hijacked American Airlines flight 77, which departed Washington Dulles Airport for Los Angeles at 8:10 a.m. At 9:39 the plane was fiown difirectly into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington D.C. A total of 189 persons were killed, including all who were onboard the plane.

The 2001 report contained the standard detail but added extensive coverage of U.S. programs and policies and international cooperation with U.S. efforts. The report was just over 200 pages long. Although the September 11 attack led to the highest death toll from terrorism ever recorded (a final estimate, as of October 2003, set the number at 2,752 deaths in New York City, 185 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania, not including the hijackers), the number of attacks fell from 423 in 2000 to 346 in 2001. Of those, 51 percent (178) were bombings against Colombia’s multinational oil pipeline.

Following the September 11 disaster, there were several investigations into the events and government’s failure to identify and intervene in such a largefiscale plot. The Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) report, Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization, 1949-2004 (which appears in this section) summarizes the contemporary initiatives as well as those that followed World War Ⅱ. Another CRS report, Terrorism: Key Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and Recent Major Commissions and Inquiries, which appears later in this section, provides some additional information.

In 2002 the number of international terrorist attacks dropped by 44 percent, to 199, and casualties were also far fewer. The most notorious incident was the kidnapping and beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl. The worst attack was the bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, on 12 October, which killed more than two hundred people from two dozen countries.

In 2003 the data used in Patterns was provided for the first time by the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), which had been established based on recommendations from the 9/11 Commission and other commissions and inquiries. The TTIC data indicated another fall in the number of international terrorist attacks, to 190. It quickly became apparent that this was incorrect and for the first time ever, the report had to be corrected. The new number, 208, showed a small increase. (See Office of Inspector General’s report.)

In 2004 the State Department transferred responsibility for statistical reporting to the new National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and changed the report to focus only on congressionally mandated items. With the change in focus came a change in name: Patterns of Global Terrorism became Country Reports on Terrorism. To explain the reasoning behind this change, we have included the transcript of a State Department briefing, testimony submitted for House hearings on the report, and a report on the NCTC.