A U.S. Terrorism Chronology

A U.S. Terrorism Chronology

Berkeley Bar, Berkeley California: Violence using Terror

In the summer of 1992, a deranged student of Middle East descent, took hostages in a popular University bar. The hostages consisted of college students, male and female. The hostage taker killed two students and injured several others before being shot by Berkely SWAT teams.

Several young woman were forced to perform sexual acts during the 9 hours of captivity, with their peers being forced to look on. The trauma for all hostages was thus fear for their lifes, witnessing rape, and the helplessness to aid their peers during the crisis.

The effect upon the community was severe, as all college students, teachers, and parents in the area easily identified with the hostages and their plight. Counseling was even advertised as a public service for those who felt they had been traumitized by the extraordinary media coverage of the event.

While the motivation for the crime was bitterness over an unhappy life in the U.S., very little political motivation was cited. This example is more a case of terror tactics in the increasing violence in our country.

The Oriental Boys, 3/3/91, Sacramento, California: Violence using Terror

4 gunmen of oriental descent, walked into "The Good Guys" consumer electronics store in Sacramento, California, in the late afternoon, March 3, 1991, taking 13 hostages. A long day of negotiation occurred as Sacramento County Sherriffs Emergency Negotiation Team (SCENT) tried to work with the terrorists. Meanwhile, Sacramento Police SWAT team members snuck through the rafters to a room in the back of the store, and waited for the word to rush the gunmen. Finally, right after dusk, the gunmen ran out of patience as negotiations began to fail, and began demanding bullet proof vests. As a second vest was laid out and a young female hostage was sent out to bring it in (while being tied and controlled by a "leash" made of speaker wire), a SWAT sharpshooter tried to shoot the gunmen through a plate glass window, but missed.

The gunmen then opened fire on the hostages killing three. The SWAT team rushed from the room in the back killing three of the 4 gunmen. The fourth recovered from his wounds and will be held for trial. 3 Hostages were killed by the gunmen's gunfire, and a like number were seriously wounded.

Several of the hostages were very outspoken about the poor negotiations, and the lack of responsiveness to the gunmen's demands, citing their lives were at stake yet it took 24 hours for two bullet proof vests to be sent in per the gunmen's request. Also cited was the lack of good strategy to shoot only one gunmen from the front of the store, rather than a more effective means of rushing the gunmen.

Later information noted that the SWAT team had been using a fiber optic camera, looking into the store to see where the hostages and gunmen were located. This camera is used by drilling a tiny hole in an adjoining wall or door and then slipping the un-observable fiber optic thread into the hole.

Capt. Walt Atkins of the San Jose SWAT team noted that "if there is an indication that negotiations are not being productive, then it may be necessary to use force to end the situation." This was a possible explanation for the seemingly precipitous actions of the Sacramento SWAT team, as several hostages confirmed that the gunmen were out of patience and beginning to discuss ways to show they were serious. One hostage was shot in the thigh and told to go out and tell the police how serious the gunmen were.

The gunmen were reported to be part of "The Oriental Boys", a ruthless Asian gang known to be in the Sacremento area, and to be of SouthEast Asian immigrant origin. Little details were available. While this is deemed gang violence rather than terrorism, it is clearly an escalation of violence using terror tactics.

New York's World Trade Center: 2/26/93, Car Bombing, Terrorist Act

At 12:00 noon, Friday, February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the basement garage underneath tower two of the famous New York World Trade Center's twin towers. The bomb, later to be analyzed as being anywhere from 500-1000 lbs of dynamite (a conventional explosive, not C-4 or other plastique explosive), ripped a hole upward into the subway station and offices, and downward into a lower level of the parking garage. The bomb, undoutedly terrorist in origin, was claimed by no less than seven different callers after the explosion. One caller called prior to the explosion giving little warning. This caller was thought to be the bomb planter, and investigation moved from there.

In terms of effect, the media gave on the spot coverage of the fire crews working in the subway station, but little else. There were no political statements broadcast in reference to the explosion, and while speculation as to who planted the bomb abounded, no assignment of responsibility was given officially, thus counteracting any plublicity desired by the bomber.

The World Trade Center number two tower was shut down for nearly two weeks, with workers allowed to go into safe offices to pick up belongings as needed to conduct their business outside the tower offices. Nearly 50,000 workers were without access to their offices, and the shops that catered to the World Trade Center workers saw, not surprisingly, a 50% drop in business during the two weeks.

Physchological impact was felt by all the workers of course, as well as a group of kindergarten students and their teachers and chaperons (parents volunteering) on a field trip to the World Trade Center. Trapped in an elevator for many hours, the children were received with some relieve by their anxious parents when they arrived back from the trip that evening on their school bus.

The general consensus is that the bomb was planted by members of one of the factions of the Bosnian/Serv/Croatia conflict, since the timing coincided with the beginnings of U.S. humanitarian airdrops of food to the seiged Bosnians. Both Serbs and Croatians were blamed. Also coincident were the resumption of talks between the warring factions in the United Nations, just down the street from the World Trade Center.

Koresh Madness: March 1993, Waco, Texas: Cult Violence

Stephen Howard, alias David Koresh, a self-proclaimed Jesus Christ, and a dissident Seventh Day Adventist, ordered his followers to fire on Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents as they were moving in to arrest Howard/Koresh. The Koresh followers, using high-powered automatic weapons, shot through closed doors and covered windows killing four ATF agents, and wounding several others. The seige on the Koresh compound lasted for two days, the ATF management deciding to allow Koresh to release woman and children from the compound in return for a radio station broadcasting Koresh's religious lectures every hour (2 children for every hour of broadcast). Koresh followers promised to release all woman and children as soon as it got dark on March 1, prompting hope that the seige would be over by the next day.

An interesting sideline to this story is a police seargent who appeared to be totally afraid of this cult, as well as others in the town of Waco.

ATF spokespersons said that the agents' deaths were not due to poor planning or execution of the plan, but rather, due to a lack of adequate firearms by the ATF. "...We were simply out-gunned".

Several local police forces in the Bay Area agreed with this statement saying that they too felt this effect. With drug and gang arrests on the rise, the number of fully automatic weapons that the police capture is astonshing. Many bay area departments have armed their officers with expensive semi-automatic handguns (9mm or .45) which can carry up to 15 rounds, thus allowing more rapid fire and more shots than the standard police revolver. But many departments cannot afford the $400 price tag on such handguns, thus the officers are issued .38/.357 Magnum revolvers, and the officers are allowed to purchase and qualify with semi-automatic handguns on their own. One officer quoted as saying, "I bought a vest. I can't afford the semi- automatic. I'll just have to get by with the ole' six shooter."

The affair finally ended on April 19, 1993 in the deaths of Koresh and all his followers who had remained on site when they set fire to the interior of their compound, burning all the buildings to the ground. (see article on Waco Standoff).

The event has later proven to be a catalyst for paramilitary groups, since the initial contact from the ABTF resulted from their insistence that Koresh and his followers held illegal weapons. Other paramilitary groups see the ABTF actions as representative of the U.S. governments intention to disarm all groups maintaining training and weapons for paramilitary or survival reasons. This may in fact have been a factor in another horrendous terrorist act in the U.S.

Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing, March 1, 1995

In the early morning in April of 1995, a young man drove a truck up to the Federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and parked near the day care center inside. Four minutes later, the bomb in the truck exploded, killing over 100 and wounding many others. After two weeks of searching the rubble, the decimated building was torn down. Suspected and accussed of the attack is Patrick McViey, a self styled paramilitary radical. The bomb was constructed of fertilzer and other chemicals, demonstrating quite effectively how the components of a bomb are nearly impossible to control.

Also apparent, is the inability of the U.S. government to protect its federal workers, nor its buildings. In fact the Oklahoma City Federal Building had just passed a routine security review.

In the wake of the blast, President Bill Clinton began a campaign to add more intrusive powers to the FBI and other agencies tasked with dealing with terrorism in the U.S. It is doubtful that the Republican controlled Congress will go along with these efforts however. Among the measures being pushed is the "Clipper Chip" technology which allows for encrypted messages for communications to be decoded via a special technology built right into the encryption device. Presumably only the proper law enforcement agencies would have access to the special intrusive technology to decrypt (other than the communicating parties).