Topic:Terror and Terrorism |
Vocabulary notes:
fear n |
[ ‘fiə] |
страх |
threat n |
[θret] |
погроза, загроза |
hostage n |
[ ‘hostiʤ] |
заручник |
kidnapping n |
[ ‘kidnæpiŋ] |
викрадення людини з метою шантажу |
hijack ( hijacking ) n |
[ ‘haiʤæk] |
захоплення автотранспорту, повітряне піратство |
explosion n |
[ik’spləuʒn] |
вибух |
explosive n |
[ik’spləusiv] |
вибухова речовина |
aim n |
[eim] ] |
мета |
purpose n |
[ ‘pə:pəs] |
намір, мета |
target n |
[ ‘ta:git] |
об’єкт, мішень |
intimidation n |
[intimi’deiʃn] |
залякування |
destruction n |
[di’strʌkʃn] |
руйнування |
extortion n |
[iks’tɔ:ʃn ] |
вимагання, здирство |
fund n |
[fʌnd] |
фонд, капітал |
capability n |
[keipə’biləti] |
потенційні можливості |
reach n |
[ri:tʃ] |
(тут) поле діяльності |
demand n |
[di’ma:nd] |
вимога |
to frighten v |
[ ‘fraitn] |
залякувати |
to obtain v |
[əb’tein] |
отримати |
to achieve v |
[ə’tʃi:v] |
досягти |
to clash v |
[klæʃ] |
зіштовхувати |
to spread v |
[spred] |
розгортати, поширювати |
to support v |
[sə’pɔ:t] |
підтримувати, утримувати |
to acquire v |
[ə’kwaiə] |
здобути, оволодіти |
to deploy v |
[di’plɔi] |
розгортати, готувати до застосування |
to constitute v |
[ ‘kɔnstitju:t] |
утворювати, складати |
to eliminate v |
[i’limineit] |
ліквідувати |
to determine v |
[di’tə:min] |
визначати |
premeditated adj |
[pri:’mediteitid ] |
навмисний |
contaminated adj |
[kən’tæmineitid] |
заражений |
Terror and Terrorism
The Definition of Terrorism
In recent years people have confronted such world-wide phenomenon and the most pressing problem as terrorism. Nowadays the term “terror” is a frequently used term. We identify it with fear and threat, explosions and hijacks, with the individual victims of terrorism nightly on television. The main meaning of the word “terror” is “extreme fear” and the main principle of terrorists is “Kill one, frighten ten thousand”. Terrorism is an unlawful, premeditated, motivated use of threat or violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets to achieve political, economical or religious demands and aims. It creates the atmosphere of fear and panic, strong public reaction. Terrorists are minorities unable to get their way by lawful means and they try to get it by violence and intimidation. They believe that it is morally to use illegal means to promote their own purposes and they are “ freedom fighters”.
The Purpose of Terrorist Activities
The basic aims of the terror organisations are to make doubts about the political system in the minds of people, and to weaken the authority of the government. On the other hand, terrorism is used as a tool by some powers to get political and economic advantages when a group of people creates an atmosphere of fear in the society taken as a target to obtain a profit. As a political tool for struggle, terror is also used for state's weakening another state. The next source of terrorist activity is the difference in ethnic structures or religious beliefs. The leaders of some ethnic groups try to clash the groups of people who have different cultural backgrounds and points of views and use the techniques of terror to destroy unity and order of the society.
The Characteristics of Terrorist Activities
The terrorist organisations want to make great shock and panic on society through their activities. The characteristics of terrorism can be filed as follows: - Terrorists try to achieve their aims through forming an atmosphere of fear and destruction among the groups determined as targets. - Terrorism is an unpredictable despotism. Terrorism involves brutal, barbarian methods and weapons.
- Terrorists act in a manner of eye to eye, tooth to tooth. - Terrorists never recognise any morality or rules. In their point of view, nobody can be neutral, that is, a person should be in favour of them or stand on the opposite side as an enemy.
From the History of Terrorism
The roots of terrorism are in the activities of racial and religious fanatics in the 1930s. Many terrorist movements arose in the 1960s as a part of the world-wide student protest against US participation in the Vietnam War. They started with non-lethal activities - demonstrations, occasional arson or sabotage. Later terrorist tactics were frequently employed and “improved” by racist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and religious and nationalist groups like the Hezbollah ( “the army of God “), the Palestine Liberation Front, Red Brigades in Italy, Irish Republican Army, etc. The bloodiest operations have been carried out by Arab and Palestinian terrorists since the 1970s: the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, more than 60 bombings and hijacks. The hostages, victims and their targets for extortion were US and European citizens.
Present Day of Terrorism
Today’s terrorist activity is different from that of the past. Modern technology, advanced telecommunications and new Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) have changed the nature of terrorism. Nowadays terrorist organizations have a flexible, transnational structure. They work together in funding, sharing intelligence, training, planning, and executing attacks. Terrorist groups in one country or region can draw strength and support from groups in other countries or regions. As the al-Qaida network demonstrates,
this multinational enterprise has its branches in more than 60 countries. Its global activities are co-ordinated through the use of personal couriers and communication technologies — cellular and satellite phones, e-mail, internet chat rooms, videotape. Members of terrorist groups travel from continent to continent with the ease of a vacationer or business traveller. They pay their way with funds raised through drug trafficking, credit card fraud, extortion, and money from covert supporters. They use charitable organisations and non-governmental organisations for funding and recruitment. Money for their operations is transferred through numerous banks, money exchanges. The terrorist organisation’s structure, membership, resources (safe houses, training grounds, reliable communication and financial networks) and security determine its capabilities and reach.
Weapons As we know, a terrorist act can include two, three or more traditional crimes: bombing, murder, kidnapping, taking a hostage, extortion and hijacking, etc. These crimes are usually committed by well-armed and prepared groups. The usual weapons of terrorists from the 1960s to the 1980s were guns, knives, poison gas and car bombs. The ease of intercontinental transportation enables modern terrorist organisations to more easily acquire, manufacture, and deploy chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon, or high-yield explosives. While new instruments of terror such as cyber attacks are on the rise, explosives and bioterrorism ( e.g. the Aum Shinrikyo’s efforts to deploy biological weapons and the lethal sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995, the contaminated letters in the USA in 2001) have become the urgent problem for the international community.
Combating Terrorism Terrorist acts are criminal in nature and constitute a serious threat to individuals’ lives or freedom. The struggle against international terrorism is different from any other war. Units for Combating Terrorism all over the world and Interpol (181 member countries) fight terrorist networks and all those who support their efforts to spread fear, they use every instrument of power — diplomatic, economic, law enforcement, financial, information, intelligence, and military. Combating terrorism is top priorities. The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism focuses on the tasks: - to identify and locate terrorists and terrorist organisations (“know your enemy”);
- to isolate the spread of terrorism;
- to destroy the terrorist organisations;
- to create an international environment inhospitable to terrorists and all those who support them;
- to eliminate the capabilities for terrorists to exist and operate (leadership, control, material support and finances, communications).
- to prevent terrorists from acquiring the capability to use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons, or high-yield explosives.
Exercises
Ex.1. Read and translate the following international words:
atmosphere, resources, reaction, technique, structure, method, morality, strategy, region, technology, brigade, sabotage, fanatic, despotism, activity, to form, to demonstrate, to co-ordinate, to manufacture, to isolate, to focus on, to operate, neutral, opposite, racial, extreme, religious, global, ethnic, lethal, financial, brutal.
Ex. 2. Choose the synonyms from the box:
aim to obtain fear fight to achieve to demonstrateto manufacture demand |
to get, to receive - struggle, combat -
to show, to display - fright, scare -
to produce, to make - purpose, goal -
to gain, to succeed - request, inquiry -
Ex. 3. Define by the suffixes or endings (where it is possible) to what part of speech the following words belong. Translate the words.
identity - identify – identical - identification
injure - injured - injury - injurious
recognition - recognisable - recognise
support - supporter - supportable - supporting - supportive
promote - promoter - promotion
terrorism тероризм
terrorist терорист
terror
to terrorise тероризувати
terror-struck охоплений страхом, жахом
ransfer to exist to differ
Ex. 5. Group the words from the text into three logical groups:
Terrorist activities / crimes |
Weapons |
People |
arson |
poison gas |
hostages |
Ex. 6. Match the English and Ukrainian equivalents:
|
|
Ex. 7. Finish the sentencesaccording to the text:
- Terrorism is an illegal, motivated use of threat …
- The main aims of terrorism activities are …
- The terrorist actions are characterised by …
- The terrorist act can include two or more crimes: … (examples).
- The modern weapons of terrorists are …
- Terrorist organisations are supplied with …
- The main tasks of Interpol and Units for Combating Terrorism are to …
Ex. 8. Match the term ( column A ) and its definition ( column B ):
A |
|
B |
( or hijacking ) |
is |
d) a person who uses threat or violence to obtain own demands.
|
Ex. 9. Fill the gaps in the sentences using the words from the ex.8
( column A)
- Terrorists never recognise any moral or humanistic factors and they usually choose civilians as their ____.
- In December 1985 five hijackers of the Abu Nidal Group carried out the _____ of Egypt Air Flight 648 and fifty-six passengers were killed.
- The terrorists kidnapped the children and held them as _____.
- _____ accepted responsibility for the bomb blast which killed 21 people and wounded more 140 others.
- The ____ of Palestinian movements has an annual income of about $ 1.25 billion.
Ex. 10. Translate the sentences into English:
- Терор – це політична та психологічна зброя, яка може знищити хмарочоси ( sky-scrapes ) та зруйнувати тисячі життів.
- Діяльність терористів може стати причиною екологічних проблем.
- Уряди та релігійні організації деяких держав надають фінансову підтримку терористичним угрупованням.
- Такі злочини як викрадення людей, вимагання, перевезення і торгівля зброєю та наркотиками скоюються терористичними групами, щоб отримати гроші для своєї діяльності.
- В наш час терористи володіють сучасними засобами зв’язку (means of communication), зброєю масового знищення та мають тренувальні табори.
- Терористичні акти в Сполучених Штатах Америки розслідуються агентами ФБР.
- Поліцейські в більшості країн світу мають повноваження заарештовувати підозрюваних у скоєнні теракту без ордера ( warrant ) і утримувати їх 48 годин.
Ex.11. Make up the composition “Terrorism – the urgent problem of modern world”. Use the information from the ex.7, 10 and the following words and word-combinations:
International terrorist groups, the use of violence, hijacking of passenger aircraft, bombings, political assassinations, kidnapping, to create public fear, to make attacks, a terrorist network, victims, to injure, to kill, to spread the sense of insecurity, to be common practice, to rule by terror, to commit a crime, illegal arms dealing, drug trafficking, to take hostages, to achieve own aims, demands, profit, to support terrorist operations, to fight, psychological and ideological war.
Ex.12. Read and translate the text using the vocabulary below:
to occur |
статися |
to toughen |
робити(сь) жорстоким |
to wound, to injure |
поранити |
explosive device |
вибуховий механізм |
scores |
багато, велика кількість |
ally |
союзник |
to justify |
виправдати |
to respond |
відповідати, реагувати |
evil |
зло |
The terrorist attacks in the USA
As we know, terrorism did not begin on 11th September 2001. The first major terrorist attack on New York occurred on 16th September 1920, when anarchists bombed a horse cart filled with dynamite near the intersections of Wall and Broad Streets, taking 40 lives and wounding about 300 others. Starting with the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 and continuing with the murder of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas and the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, the world history in the 20th century was punctuated by terrorism: more than 40 hijacks, passengers’ murders, numerous victims of explosives and attacks.
In the past years terrorist organisations toughened their tactics and techniques. On 26th February 1993, an explosion occurred under the World Trade Centre complex in New York City. The explosive device had been transported into the Trade Centre parking area in either a pickup or a van. The explosion killed six people and injured more than a thousand, it left a hole 50 meters deep and 550 million dollars in damage.
Terrorists have left their mark in some way upon every country in the world. Citizens from 90 countries died in the attacks on 11th September 2001. The September attacks murdered citizens from Australia, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK and scores of other countries. The terrorist attacks on 11th September in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Pennsylvania were acts of war against the United States of America and its allies, and against the idea of civilised society. “No cause justifies terrorism. The world must respond and fight this evil that is intent on threatening and destroying the basic freedoms and normal way of life. The United States will not allow itself to be held hostage by terrorists”
( From the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism)
Ex.13. Write down the questions to match the answers.
- _____ ? – In 1920.
- _____ ? – President William McKinley and President John F. Kennedy.
- _____ ? – More than 40 hijacks.
- _____ ? – On 26th February 1993.
- _____ ? - The explosive device in a van or a pickup.
- _____ ? – Citizens from 90 countries.
Ex.14. Work in groups. Imagine you are reporters. Write a short article about the terrorist act using this information:
|
Group 1 |
Group 2 |
Event |
hijack of TWA Flight 847 from Athens |
bombings |
Time |
June 1985 |
on 21st November 1974 |
Place |
airport, Beirut |
two crowded pubs in Birmingham |
Victims |
held 108 US passengers and crew as hostages, |
21 people dead, 62 injured |
Weapon |
hand-held guns |
suitcase bombs |
Terrorist |
the Arab terrorists of the Abu Nidal Group |
members of the Irish Republican Army |