My Take on Terrorism

I wanted to say that my TLP project is on terrorism, and I am working with Stefano P. from Mr. Hide's class. I found three articles in BBC Newsround. First of all, I am going to tell you what terrorism is.

"Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation to achieve political ends."

Terrorists attempt to change the way the government thinks, and their plan is to terrorize people to behave the way they want them to.

There are several ways that terrorists attack. They have attacked with Anthrax, which was used in the United States in the year 2001. The terrorists sent a white powder containing anthrax in the U.S. mail system. Anthrax is formed naturally and it can kill people. Fortunately, only 22 people were infected and of those, only five were killed.

Terrorists also use bombs and car bombs frequently. Only one mere person with a bomb can scare a whole city. The terrorists usually place the bombs where there are lots of people, such as trains, planes, busses, public spaces, and important buildings. The timer triggers the bomb when the bomber has already fled the place. The picture in the top-right corner shows the effects of a bomb hidden in luggage in a plane. When terrorists plant bombs in cars or vans, etc., they are triggered by timer or even remote control.

Cyber terrorists are those that hack and place viruses on servers to overload the servers that store web pages. They usually commit frauds to steal money.

Hijackers usually take control of planes, boats, and busses to take hostages or use the vehicle as a weapon.

Terrorists also use envelopes in which, when opened, the letter explodes.

A mortar bomb is usually fired by a metallic pipe and flies a very short distance. These bombs can trigger with a timer and are cheap to make.

There are also suicide attackers, called kamikazes, that tie bombs to theirselves and walk up to the target to trigger the explosion. Kamikazes also use planes, cars, or other vehicles to crash into other planes or cars containing highly important people, or buildings. Even in wars they crash into other pilots.

Anyway, these are not the only ways terrorists attack. Another bad thing is that there will always be new ideas to attack.

There are several ways to stop terrorism. It is not easy at all, but these are several ways that have been tried. It is very hard, but not impossible to catch a terrorist, even if you know their faces. New volunteers usually take the place of those who are captured or killed. Osama Bin Laden is still top on the United States' FBI's most wanted list. In Afghanistan, the U.S. and Britain attacked the Talibans for letting Al-Qaeda set bases on Afghanistan. This works because it is almost impossible for terrorists to operate without help. To improve security in airports or public places and making civilians be more alert can be another solution. The problem is that their modus operandi changes constantly, so it's hard to be ready for everything.