05th Jul 2002
What Is Terrorism?
The FBI’s refusal to call the LA airport shooting incident “terrorism,” where an Egyptian man killed two people at El Al’s ticket counter before a security guard shot and killed him, simply raises a question no one seems to want to give a straight answer to: what is our definition of “terrorism”? As far as I am aware, our government doesn’t really seem to have a precise legal definition of this. (If someone can correct me on that, please do.)
The FBI is considering calling it a “hate crime,” which I guess makes sense to me, if it was just one guy going bonkers. (Interesting to note that his birthday was July 4. Premeditation seems likely, either way, though, as he sent his wife and son back to Egypt last week.) I suppose some form of conspiracy with others might be the determining factor that it was terrorism? Where is that written down?
NYTimes.com coverage
CNN.com coverage
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