The Ultimate Terrorists / Inside Terrorism
Stern, Jessica & Hoffman, Bruce
Anne, and James Schuyler, whom the Porters came to know in the mid-1950s. By then Porter, who had been writing art KILLING FOR A CAUSE criticism for several years, had become friendly...
...my the Red Brigades of Italy come to mind...
...It is a serious and dan- ists developed the concept of "propathat he was a gentleman painter...
...0 de la terreur was an instrument wielded Fascist Italy, Communist Russia-to reby the state against those who opposed press their opponents and intimidate Donna Gustafson is chief curator of exhibits the revolution and longed for the ancien their own citizens...
...Violence could do, Porter never had to struggle with pover- does the trajectory extend...
...Not unusually for the time and but justice, prompt, severe, and inflexiplace, sexual preferences in this group ble...
...At the same ing family (he and Anne Porter had five It is a truism to say that terrorism has a time they regretted taking any human children), is to see the world askew...
...As Hermann Goring at the American Academy of Arts...
...the Palestinian people and their plight...
...Each is a distinct and forceful call for more intensive national concern about terrorist attacks-possibly catastrophic-and for preventive measures to forestall them...
...But these are minor ally engage in cost-benefit analysis, Stem inspired groups, cults, and political ex- flaws in a strong and chilling argument...
...He makes complex relationship fraught with shades club in Berlin, in barracks in Saudi Ara- immediately clear, however, that one of parental responsibility, intellectual ad- bia, embassies in Africa, the World of the difficulties in discussing terrormiration, and sexual urges...
...Another example is the release of came a prominent feature of military dic- These are reassuring observations, deadly nerve gas into the Japanese subtatorships in Latin American countries...
...What is the parThe book is not without faults...
...terrorist is fundamentally an altruist...
...Representatives of the council forcefully rejected the contention that because some terrorist acts are labeled political or said to be in a "just cause" they are less than reprehensible...
...These ticular combination of variables-what casion, repetitions and inconsistencies deaths received media attention in this kinds of acts, intentions, agents, or tarmar the flow of the narrative...
...What de- they reasoned, what many conferences, ty...
...Stem is particularly strong on acts sanctioned by those already in power Algeria, Kenya, Cyprus, and Israel all describing the variety of weapons of are "generally termed 'terror' in order to won independence partly through the mass destruction-nuclear, chemical, distinguish that phenomenon from 'ter- aid of terrorism...
...Marshall but subsedo act with deliberation, whether they re- phenomena: the part played by religion- quently disproved...
...For instance, she cites a wish to influence, hence their concern freedom, liberty, and a just cause...
...o James Finn is a member of the board of World without War Council...
...regime...
...By then Porter, who had been writing art KILLING FOR A CAUSE criticism for several years, had become friendly with Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and the painters Jane Freilicher and Larry revolutionary leader: "Terror is nothing Rivers...
...No supposed statistic that during World to limit damage...
...to suggest, as Spring does, that he fenses are possible and feasible...
...quotes Thomas Schelling: "Despite the tremists, and the extension of terrorism "Americans will likely die on Amerihigh ratio of damage and grief to the re- beyond the borders of the nationals' can soil, possibly in large numbers...
...gets-that sets acts of terrorism apart also points where the author's lack of Jessica Stern records the growing from other acts of violence...
...were mixed...
...Without a cause, Spring sensitively navigates through this he is not a terrorist...
...War II between 75 and 80 percent of ripeople watching and a lot of people lis- Today other groups would like to make flemen refused to fire at an exposed tening and not a lot of people dead...
...By intelligently exploring itself first gained wide modern acceptance riod, terrorism became closely associatthe artist's full range-his paintings, his after the French Revolution as the new ed with revolution, a linkage that still excriticism, his poetry, and his writings- government attempted to establish order ists in the minds of many people...
...probably could" and "might, " the latter Consonant with this definition is Brian (Definition again: Yassir Arafat insist- term appearing eleven times on one page Jenkins's observation that terrorists do ed on a distinction between terrorists alone...
...In the Spring creates a fully rounded portrait of during a period of near anarchy...
...Porter, who had acknowl- The Ultimate As we know, this emanation of virtue edged his own bisexual yearnings years Terrorists would in time cause Robespierre and his earlier, and Schuyler briefly became lovers Jessica Stern followers to lose their heads under the sewith Anne Porter's knowledge...
...terrain presenting the facts and letting the n the decade of the nineties, The books by Stern and Hoffman are principals and friends speak through let- terrorists took the lives of complementary, agreeing on most ters and reminiscences without attempt- I American military person- major issues, but Hoffman offers the ing to simplify what was clearly a very nel and civilians in a night closer analysis of terrorism...
...For example, gious sect...
...She deliberate creation and exploitation of national lobbying had failed to accom- does sometimes weaken her strong arfear through violence or the threat of vi- plish: they focused world attention on guments by an excessive reliance on olence in the pursuit of political change...
...Nor are her secondary sources alnot want to alienate those whom they and freedom fighters, the latter seeking ways reliable...
...Hoffman quotes Robespierre, the wrote to his "fellow Germans" in 1933: Commonweal 2 7 April 7, 2000 "I don't have to worry about justice...
...Trade Center in New York, and a fed- ism is that of definition...
...Commonweal 2 8 April 7, 2000...
...but there are others that are not, and I way system by Aum Shinrikyo, a reliHoffman distinguishes: Internal violent think they are weightier...
...These government actions underscore the value of these two books, which occasionally overlap and sometimes differ...
...Terrorists want a lot of need to say where he placed the PLO...
...This sources required for a terrorist act, terror- own country...
...Island, and vacationed with them in That is, he does not act for personal gain: Maine...
...Where ganda by violence...
...enemy, a "statistic" first put forth by While questioning whether terrorists More disturbing are these growing General S.L.A...
...Groups and biological-now available to such rorism,' which is understood to be vio- bent on "national liberation" could well terrorists, and the relative ease of interlence committed by nonstate entities...
...The newer activists have grim prediction comes not from Stem or ism has proved to be a remarkably inef- little interest in limiting the damage they Hoffman but from a report issued by a fectual means to accomplishing anything...
...the same exchange of labels...
...do...
...after the liaison ended, Schuyler, who was There would be little point in recalling emotionally unstable, was supported both Inside Terrorism this except that it prefigures contempofinancially and emotionally by the Porters...
...But bad name today...
...Anne, and James Schuyler, whom the Porters came to know in the mid-1950s...
...In a short time, the ter- where they will...
...the other and to release poisonous gas mission is only to destroy and intimi- Why would other groups wish to follow into the area, killing many thousands...
...Investi- ings that the greatest present threat to ually faded from the political scene with- gators believe that Islamic extremists in- American security is posed not by a conout accomplishing their purposes...
...Both many words had failed to do...
...This enabled him to write some he is serving a cause...
...The bombing of the World tember...
...Ineffectual...
...look to them for guidance...
...little of interest, and a tendency to try which caused 51,797 deaths and even During the nineteenth century, terrorto protect Porter from the accusation more injuries...
...In some instances the reverse will federal advisory commission in late SepAnd it is easy to point to the demise of a be true...
...Far from early decades of the twentieth century, an important American painter who is being directed against a government-as however, terror was adopted by totalistill too often overlooked simply for his we generally expect it to be-the regime tarian governments-Nazi Germany, choice of subject...
...For these critical distance results in an overabun- number of terrorist attacks around the elements have shifted over the years, dance of truly insignificant details (col- world since the 1970s, mounting in the lending to terrorism a different form at lege grades), quotes from letters that say first half of the '90s to 27,078 incidents, different times, in different places...
...The term one other than the target...
...In following decades, terror be- their example...
...Bruce Hoffman rary terrorism...
...He believes he is of the best poetry of his career, but it was acting virtuously for the good of some an enormous strain on the Porter family...
...These tersuffered because of the exceptional cir- Stern and Bruce Hoffman stress the ne- rorists carefully targeted political leadcumstances that allowed him to paint cessity and the difficulty of coping with ers they saw as representatives of corwithout worrying about feeding a grow- these questions now...
...There are country...
...In fact the national travel that allows them to strike With such distinctions in place he is Palestinians did...
...It follows from preceding findnumber of terrorist groups that have grad- Trade Center is a case in point...
...For years Ha r'ard l.lnit'eisity Press, $22.95, 274 pp.vere and inflexible blade of the guillotine...
...How could it be other- life and attempted to avoid injuring anythese criticisms are small in light of the wise...
...rupt, oppressive societies...
...On oc- eral building in Oklahoma City...
...The tended to bring one of the twin towers ventional conflict but by terrorist attacks Baader-Meinhof Group of Germany and down so that it would severely damage for which we are currently unprepared...
...How dangerous...
...During this pebook's success...
...As Hoffman states: "The he lived with them in their home on Long Cohinibia Univ'rsity Press, $24.95.288 pp...
...They are the tip of an iceberg...
...date...
...She rightly calls for ready to offer a definition of terrorism- rorist acts of the Palestinian Liberation preparatory measures and outlines a in which each term is crucial-as "the Organization did what years of inter- possible course of preventive action...
...In mid-October, in a rare unanimous vote, the Security Council of the UN agreed to unite in a common defense against terrorism...
...it is therefore an emanation of virtue...
...But it was not always so...
...In fact, gerous trend...
...James Finn particular constituency...
Vol. 127 • April 2000 • No. 7
