War on terror

For other uses of "war on terrorism" and "war on terror," see War on terrorism (disambiguation)

The War on Terrorism (also referred to as the Global War on Terror, Global War on Terrorism or Overseas Contingency Operation) was a common term for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against what the effort's leaders describe as Islamic terrorism and Islamic militants, and was specifically used in reference to operations by the United States and its allies since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The stated objectives of the war are to protect US citizens and interests in the US and abroad, break up terrorist cells in the US, and disrupt the activities of the international network of terrorist organizations made up of a number of groups under the umbrella of al-Qaeda.

Both the term and the policies it denotes have been a source of ongoing controversy, as critics argue it has been used to justify unilateral preemptive war, human rights abuses and other violations of international law. In March 2009, the Obama administration requested an end to the phrase's use, and has re-focused American efforts on withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan. The memo announcing the change read, "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.'"

War on Terrorism

See also: Terrorism and List of terrorist incidents

Islamic Militant organizations -- chiefly al-Qaeda -- carried out attacks on the US and its allies throughout the last few years of the twentieth century. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing by Al-Qaeda was the first of many attacks upon US targets during this period.

Subsequent attacks included the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Also in 1998 came the World Islamic Front declaration of 23 February 1998, entitled "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders", which described the actions of Americans as conflicting with "Allah's order".

Led by Osama Bin Laden, a radical Islamist, Al-Qaeda formed a large base of operations in Afghanistan, which had been ruled by the Islamist extremist regime of the Taliban since 1996.

Following the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, US President Bill Clinton launched Operation Infinite Reach, a bombing campaign in Sudan and Afghanistan against targets the US asserted were associated with al-Qaeda. Although others have questioned the plant's use as a chemical warfare plant The strikes failed to kill al-Qaeda'a leaders or their Taliban supporters (targets included a civilian pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that produced much of the region's malaria drugs and around 50% of Sudan's pharmaceutical needs ).

Next came the 2000 millennium attack plots which included an attempted bombing of Los Angeles International Airport. In October 2000 the USS Cole bombing occurred, followed in 2001 by the September 11 attacks.

The 2001 attacks (on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United 93 crash) led to an invasion of Afghanistan dubbed Operation Enduring Freedom which removed the Taliban from power and ended al-Qaeda's use of the country as a base.

In 2001 the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1373 which obliges all states to criminalize assistance for terrorist activities, deny financial support and safe haven to terrorists and share information about groups planning terrorist attacks.

In pursuit of the struggle, the United Nations still made further efforts to make terrorism fighting part of its institutional framework. By 2003, 12 major conventions and protocols were designed to combat terrorism. These were as well, adopted and ratified by a number of states to become international law. These conventions require states to co-operate on principal issues regarding unlawful seisure of aircrafts for example, the physical protection of nuclear materials and freezing assets of terrorist networks.

In 2005 the Security Council also adopted resolution 1624 concerning incitement to commit acts of terrorism and the obligations of countries to comply with international human rights laws. Although both resolutions require mandatory annual reports on counterterrorism activities by adopting nations, the United States and Israel have both declined to submit reports.

Historical usage of phrase

Main article: War on Terrorism (historical)

The phrase "War on Terrorism" was first widely used by the Western press to refer to the attempts by Russian and European governments, and eventually the U.S. government, to stop attacks by anarchists against international political leaders. (See, for example, New York Times, April 2, 1881.) Many of the anarchists described themselves as "terrorists," and the term had a positive valence for them at the time.

When Russian Marxist Vera Zasulich shot and wounded a Russian police commander who was known to torture suspects on 24 January 1878, for example, she threw down her weapon without killing him, announcing; "I am a terrorist, not a killer."

As for the United Nations, terrorism was officially brought before the General Assembly in the 1970s, (after the massacre of the Israel athletes at Munich in 1972. It is from this time that, definition of the term (terrorism)came into effect, as far as the United Nations framework is concerned.

The phrase (war on terrorism) gained currency when it was used to describe the efforts by the British colonial government to end a spate of attacks by Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine in the late 1940s. The British proclaimed a "War on Terrorism" against Jewish groups such as Irgun and Lehi, and anyone perceived to be cooperating with them.

The Jewish attacks, Arab attacks and revolts, and the subsequent British crackdown hastened the British evacuation from Palestine. The phrase was also used frequently by US President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, to describe his campaigns against Libya and Nicaragua.

On September 20, 2001, during a televised address to a joint session of congress, President George W. Bush launched his war on terror when he said, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." Bush did not say when he expected this would be achieved. (Previous to this usage, after stepping off the presidential helicopter on Sunday, September 16, 2001, Bush stated in an unscripted and controversial comment: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." Bush later apologized for this remark due to the negative connotations the word crusade has to people of Muslim faith. The word crusade was not referred to again).

US President Barack Obama has rarely used the term, but in his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, he stated "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred." It is likely that the phrase will fall into disuse, as one referring to failed concepts and strategies of his predecessor. In March 2009 the Defense Department officially changed the name of operations from "Global War on Terror" to "Overseas Contingency Operation" (OCO).

Operative definition in US foreign policy

The World Trade Center, one of three sites on which the September 11 attacks took place.

The United States has defined terrorism under the Federal Criminal Code. Chapter 113B of Part I of Title 18 of the Code defines terrorism and lists the crimes associated with it. In Section 2331 of Chapter 113b, terrorism is defined as:

"...activities that involve violent... <or life-threatening acts>... that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and ...<if domestic>...(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States...<if international>...(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States..."

With respect to defining his policy of "War on Terror", President Bush stated that:

"...today's war on terror is like the Cold War. It is an ideological struggle with an enemy that despises freedom and pursues totalitarian aims....I vowed then that I would use all assets of our power of Shock and Awe to win the war on terror. And so I said we were going to stay on the offense two ways: one, hunt down the enemy and bring them to justice, and take threats seriously; and two, spread freedom."

British objections to the phrase "war on terrorism"

The Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the United Kingdom, Ken McDonald — Britain's most senior criminal prosecutor — has stated that those responsible for acts of terror such as the 7 July 2005 London bombings are not "soldiers" in a war, but "inadequates" who should be dealt with by the criminal justice system. He added that a "culture of legislative restraint" was needed in passing anti-terrorism laws, and that a "primary purpose" of the violent attacks was to tempt countries such as Britain to "abandon our values." He stated that in the eyes of the British criminal justice system, the response to terrorism had to be "proportionate, and grounded in due process and the rule of law":

"London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered...were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London there is no such thing as a war on terror. The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws, and the winning of justice for those damaged by their infringement."

At the time that the "War on Terror" became a national catchphrase in the US, many British people cynically compared the US' new found spur against "terrorism" with its previous actions regarding what they regarded as tacit support for anti-British political violence in Ireland .

In January 2009, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, wrote "ultimately, the notion is misleading and mistaken" and later said "Historians will judge whether [the notion] has done more harm than good".

Stated US objectives

File:U.S. Army soldier securing site - Parun, Nuristan - 06-27-2007.jpg

US soldier of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan

The Bush Administration has defined the following objectives in the War on Terrorism:

1. Defeat terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, Eeman, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and destroy their organizations
2. Identify, locate and destroy terrorists along with their organizations
3. Deny sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists
   1. End the state sponsorship of terrorism
   2. Establish and maintain an international standard of accountability with regard to combating terrorism
   3. Strengthen and sustain the international effort to fight terrorism
   4. Working with willing and able states
   5. Enabling weak states
   6. Persuading reluctant states
   7. Compelling unwilling states
   8. Interdict and disrupt material support for terrorists
   9. Eliminate terrorist sanctuaries and havens
4. Diminishing the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit
   1. Partner with the international community to strengthen weak states and prevent (re)emergence of terrorism
   2. Win the war of ideals
5. Defend US citizens and interests at home and abroad
   1. Implement the Nation Strategy for Homeland Security
   2. Attain domain awareness
   3. Enhance measures to ensure the integrity, reliability, and availability of critical physical and information-based infrastructures at home and abroad
   4. Integrate measures to protect US citizens abroad
   5. Ensure an integrated incident management capability

Timeline

Main article: Timeline of the War on Terrorism

Campaigns and theaters of operation

Main article: War on Terrorism - Theaters of operation

See also: Operation Enduring Freedom

See also: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Africa

Horn of Africa

Main article: Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa

Main article: War in Somalia (2006–2009)

U.S. Soldiers and French Legionnaires.

This extension of "Operation Enduring Freedom" was titled OEF-HOA . Unlike other operations contained in Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF-HOA does not have a specific organization as a target.

OEF-HOA instead focuses its efforts to disrupt and detect militant activities in the region and to work with willing governments to prevent the reemergence of militant cells and activities.

In October 2002, the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was established in Djibouti at Camp Le Monier. It contains approximately 2,000 personnel including US military and special operations forces (SOF) and coalition force members, Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150).

Task Force 150 consists of ships from a shifting group of nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. The primary goal of the coalition forces is to monitor, inspect, board and stop suspected shipments from entering the Horn of Africa region and affecting the US' "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Included in the operation is the training of selected armed forces units of the countries of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia in "counterterrorism" and counterinsurgency tactics. Humanitarian efforts conducted by CJTF-HOA include rebuilding of schools and medical clinics as well as providing medical services to those countries whose forces are being trained.

The program expands as part of the Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Initiative as CJTF personnel also assist in training the armed forces of Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Mali. However, the War on Terror does not include Sudan, where over 400,000 have died due to state-sponsored terrorism.

On July 1, 2006, a Web-posted message purportedly written by Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western governments that the al-Qaeda network would fight against them if they intervened there.

Somalia has been considered a "failed state" because its official central government was weak, dominated by warlords and unable to exert effective control over the country. Beginning in mid-2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an Islamist faction campaigning on a restoration of "law and order" through Sharia Law, had rapidly taken control of much of southern Somalia.

On December 14, 2006, the US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer claimed al-Qaeda cell operatives were controlling the Islamic Courts Union, a claim denied by the ICU.

By late 2006, the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia had seen its power effectively limited to Baidoa, while the Islamic Courts Union controlled the majority of Southern Somalia, including the capital of Mogadishu. On December 20, the Islamic Courts Union launched an offensive on the government stronghold of Baidoa, and saw early gains before Ethiopia intervened in favor of the government.

By December 26, the Islamic Courts Union went into a "tactical retreat" towards Mogadishu, before again retreating as TFG/Ethiopian troops neared, leading them to take Mogadishu with no resistance. The ICU then fled to Kismayo, where they fought Ethiopian/TFG forces in the Battle of Jilib.

The Prime Minister of Somalia claimed that three "terror suspects" from the 1998 United States embassy bombings are being sheltered in Kismayo. [16] On 30 December 2006, al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called upon Muslims worldwide to fight against Ethiopia and the TFG in Somalia.

On January 8, 2007, the US launched the Battle of Ras Kamboni by bombing the militants using AC-130 gunships.[17]

Europe

Main article: Operation Active Endeavour

Beginning in October 2001, Operation Active Endeavour is a naval operation of NATO started in response to the 2001 US attacks. It operates in the Mediterranean Sea and is designed to prevent the movement of militants or weapons of mass destruction as well as to enhance the security of shipping in general. The operation has also assisted Greece with its prevention of illegal immigration.

Middle East

Countries in which Islamist terrorist attacks have occurred on or after September 11, 2001.

Iraq

Main articles: Iraq War and 2003 invasion of Iraq

Iraq had been listed as a state sponsor of international terrorism by the United States since it fell out of US favour in 1990 . The regime of Saddam Hussein proved a continuing problem for the UN and Iraq’s neighbors in its use of chemical weapons against Iranians and Kurds.

After the Gulf War, the US, French and British militaries instituted and began patrolling Iraqi no-fly zones, ostensibly to protect Iraq’s Kurdish minority and Shi’a Arab population – both of which suffered attacks from the Hussein regime before and after the Gulf War – in Iraq’s northern and southern regions, respectively. U.S. forces continued in combat zone deployments through November of 1995 and launched launched Operation Desert Fox against Iraq in 1998 after it failed to meet US demands of "unconditional cooperation" in weapons inspections.

Prior to Operation Desert Fox President Bill Clinton said "And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them." President Clinton also stood to remove Saddam Hussein and in the same speech said, "The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the world." In the aftermath of Operation Desert Fox, during December 1998, Iraq announced that it would no longer respect the no-fly zones and resumed its efforts in shooting down Coalition aircraft.

Air strikes by the British and US against Iraqi anti-aircraft and military targets continued over the next few years. Also in 1998, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act which called for regime change in Iraq on the basis of its supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction, oppression of Iraqi citizens and attacks on other Middle Eastern countries.

After the 2001 US attacks, the US government claimed that Iraq was an actual threat to the United States because Iraq could use its previously known chemical weapons to aid terrorist groups.

The George W. Bush administration called for the United Nations Security Council to send weapons inspectors to Iraq (previous inspectors had been caught spying for the US) to find and destroy the alleged weapons of mass destruction and for a UNSC resolution. UNSC Resolution 1441 was passed unanimously, which offered Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" or face "serious consequences."

Resolution 1441 did not authorize the use of force by member states. The Iraqi government subsequently allowed UN inspectors to access Iraqi sites, while the US government continued to assert that Iraq was being obstructionist. [18]

In October 2002, a large bipartisan majority in the United States Congress authorized the president to use force if necessary to disarm Iraq in order to "prosecute the war on terrorism." After failing to overcome opposition from France, Russia, and China against a UNSC resolution that would sanction the use of force against Iraq, and before the UN weapons inspectors had completed their inspections which were claimed to be fruitless by the US because of Iraq's alleged deception, the United States assembled a "Coalition of the Willing" composed of nations who pledged support for its policy of regime change in Iraq.

On March 20, 2003, the invasion of Iraq was launched. The Bush administration insisted the invasion was the "serious consequences" spoken of in UNSC Resolution 1441.

Iraq's government was quickly toppled and on May 1, 2003, Bush stated that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. However, an insurgency arose against the U.S.-led coalition and the newly developing Iraqi military and post-Saddam government.

Elements of the insurgency were led by fugitive members of President Hussein's Ba'ath regime, which included Iraqi nationalists and pan-Arabists. Many insurgency leaders are Islamists and claim to be fighting a religious war to reestablish the Arab Islamic Caliphate of centuries past.

After months of brutal violence against Iraqi civilians, in January 2007 President Bush presented a new strategy for Operation Iraqi Freedom based upon counter-insurgency theories and tactics developed by General David Petraeus. The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 was part of this "new way forward" and, along with US backing of Sunni groups it had previously sought to defeat, has been credited with a widely recognized dramatic decrease in violence by up to 80%, and a more controversial possible increase in political and communal reconciliation in Iraq.

Lebanon

Main article: 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

In July 2006, following the killing of three Israeli soldiers and the taking prisoner of two more by Hezbollah, Israel invaded southern Lebanon, intent on the destruction of Hezbollah. The conflict lasted over a month and caused the deaths of between 845 and 1300 Lebanese and 163 Israelis (119 military and 44 civilian) and wounding thousands more Israelis and Lebanese.

Both the Lebanese government (including Hezbollah) and the Israeli government have agreed to the terms of the ceasefire agreement created by the United Nations that began at 0500 on August 14, 2006. While the conflict is associated with the longer running Arab-Israeli conflict, prior to the declaration of the ceasefire, Israel stated it was fighting a war against terror, the U.S. government stated the conflict was also a front in the "War on Terror" and President Bush reiterated it in a speech the day the ceasefire came into effect. Hezbollah also describes Israel as terrorist.

Main article: 2007 Lebanon conflict

In 2007, a conflict began in northern Lebanon after fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization, and the Lebanese Armed Forces on May 20, 2007 in Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli. The conflict evolved mostly around the Siege of Nahr el-Bared, but minor clashes also occurred in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon and several bombings took place in and around Lebanon's capital Beirut.

Fatah-al-Islam has been described as a militant jihadist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. The US provided military aid to Lebanon during the conflict. On September 7, 2007 Lebanese Forces captured the camp and then declared victory.

Main article: 2008 fighting in Lebanon

In May 2008, Lebanon's 17-month long political crisis spiralled out of control. The unrest saw fighters from Shi'a movements Hezbollah and Amal opposing pro-government gunmen, including fighters loyal to the Sunni Future Movement Party, in several areas of the capital.

The government was US-backed while the Shi'a militants were armed and financed by Syria and Iran. The fighting led to the fall of Beirut and the eastern Aley area to opposition forces.

Saudi Arabia

Main article: Insurgency in Saudi Arabia

The latest wave of attacks in Saudi Arabia started with the bombing in Riyadh on 12 May 2003 by al-Qaeda militants. The attacks targeted the Saudi security forces, foreign workers, and tourists (mostly Western).

Gaza Strip/West Bank

Main article: Fatah-Hamas conflict

The Fatah-Hamas conflict began in 2006 and has continued, in one form or another, into the middle of 2007. The conflict is between the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, with each vying to assume political control of the Palestinian Territories.

The majority of the fighting is occurring in the Gaza Strip, which was taken over by Hamas in June 2007. Fatah is United States backed whereas Hamas, despite being considered a terrorist organization by the United States, United Nations and the European Union, won the first free and democratic elections held in the Palestinian territories.

Main article: 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict

Following Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip during the Battle of Gaza Israel imposed a blockade of the territory. What ensued was a series of rocket attacks by Hamas against southern Israel and small military operations against the rocket teams by the IDF. This culminated by the end of December 2008, after a six-month truce ended between Israel and Hamas. Rocket attacks intensified and Israel responded with heavy air strikes on December 27, 2008. At least 225 people were killed on the first day of the Israeli attack, 140 of the Hamas militants according to the IDF. Following a week of air raids Israeli troops started ground operations and attacked the Gaza Strip on January 4, 2009. The attack cut Gaza into three parts and by January 18, 1,417 Palestinians (926 civilians) and 13 Israelis (10 soldiers) were killed. By some the conflict had been considered, just like the 2006 Lebanon war, as a proxy war between Israel's Western allies and Iran for the Middle East.

Only days after the war in Gaza ended Israeli warplanes hit an arms convoy in Sudan. The convoy was manned by Sudanese, Ethiopians and Eritreans and was to head through Egypt's Sinai desert to the border with Gaza where the weapons would be smuggled to Hamas. 39 people were killed and 17 trucks were destroyed. Israeli warplanes used the U.S. military airport in Djibouti for the operation. The U.S. also provided military intelligence, beside the airstrip, for the attack as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Israel to stop arms smuggling into Gaza.

Yemen

Main article: Terrorism in Yemen

There had been a number of terrorist attacks against foreign targets in Yemen since the start of the War on Terrorism. Yemen has a weak central government and a powerful tribal system that leaves large lawless areas open for terrorist training and operations. It is stated that al-Qaida has a strong presence in the country.

Central Asia/South Asia

India

Main article: Terrorism in India

but steady rise in Islamist terrorism over the course of the 1980s and the 21st century. The recent rise in prominence of several Pakistan and Kashmir-based terror groups, such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen and others in Kashmir has created grave problems for the country.

Major terrorist incidents in India carried out by Islamic groups include the 1993 Mumbai bombings, as well as terrorism in Kashmir such as Wandhama massacre, Kaluchak massacre, Chittisinghpura massacre and others.

Other deadly terrorist attacks in the rest of the country include:

• The 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
• Akshardham Temple attack.
• 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings.
• 2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya.
• 2005 Jaunpur train bombing.
• 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings.
• 2006 Varanasi bombings.
• The 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings.
• Hyderabad bombings.
• Jaipur bombings.
• Bangalore bombings.
• 2008 Ahmedabad bombings.
• 13 September 2008 Delhi bombings.
• 2008 Assam bombings.
• And the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In the aftermath of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, tensions between India and Pakistan increased as India blamed Pakistan for not doing enough to contain anti-India terrorist groups based there. This resulted in massive troop build-ups along the Indo-Pakistani international border by both India and Pakistan resulting in fears of a nuclear war.

However, international diplomacy helped reduce tensions between the two nuclear weapons-armed states. Pakistan was also suspected to be behind the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul.

Kashmiri insurgents, who initially started their movement as a pro-Kashmiri independence movement, have gone through a radical change in their ideology. They now portray their struggle as a religious one.

Research and Analysis Wing, India's premier external intelligence agency, observed the growing link between Islamic terrorist groups based in Afghanistan and Kashmiri insurgents. Al-Qaeda also lends ideological and financial support to terrorism in Kashmir, with Osama bin Laden constantly demanding that jihad be waged against India and Islamic fundamentalist groups disseminating propaganda in many countries against India with rhetoric like "idol worshipers and Hindus" who "occupy Kashmir".

The government and military of India have taken numerous counter-terrorist measures to combat rising terrorism in the country. Some of these measures have been criticized by human rights groups as being too draconian, particularly in Kashmir.

However, increased vigilance by Indian security forces has had a positive impact with the number of terrorist attacks declining sharply in 2007. India is considered to be one of main allies in the war on terrorism and has worked closely on counter-terrorism activities and training with several countries such as United States, Japan, China, Australia, Israel, United Kingdom, and Russia.

India has been criticized over its anti-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir, the heavy-handed response to unrest in which 40 people - the vast majority unarmed civilian protesters - were killed by Indian armed forces could lead to the "Talibanisation of the Kashmiri separatist struggle."

Afghanistan

Main article: War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

Soldiers in south-eastern Afghanistan check their coordinates during a combat patrol

British ISAF soldier in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

US Army Chinook helicopter in the Afghanistan mountains

In October 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, US and UK forces (with some coalition allies) invaded Afghanistan to remove al-Qaeda forces and oust the Taliban regime which had control of the country.

On September 20, 2001 George W. Bush delivered an ultimatum to the Taliban regime to turn over Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders operating in the country. The Taliban demanded evidence of bin Laden's link to the September 11 attacks and, if such evidence warranted a trial, they offered to handle such a trial in an Islamic Court. The US refused to provide any evidence.

On October 7, 2001 the official invasion began with British and US forces conducting aerial bombing campaigns.

Waging war in Afghanistan has been of a lower priority for the US government than the war in Iraq. Admiral Mike Mullen, Staff Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while the situation in Afghanistan is "precarious and urgent," the 10,000 additional troops needed there would be unavailable "in any significant manner" unless withdrawals from Iraq are made.

However, Admiral Mullen stated that "my priorities . . . given to me by the commander in chief are: Focus on Iraq first. It's been that way for some time. Focus on Afghanistan second."

Pakistan

The Saudi born Zayn al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah was arrested by Pakistani officials during a series of joint U.S. and Pakistan raids during the week of March 23, 2002. During the raid the suspect was shot three times while trying to escape capture by military personnel.

Zubaydah is said to be a high-ranking al-Qaeda official with the title of operations chief and in charge of running al-Qaeda training camps. [19] Later that year on September 14, 2002, Ramzi Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan after a three-hour gunfight with police forces.

Binalshibh is known to have shared a room with Mohammad Atta in Hamburg, Germany and to be a financial backer of al-Qaeda operations. It is said Binalshibh was supposed to be another hijacker, however the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his visa application three times, leaving him to the role of financier. The trail of money transferred by Binalshibh from Germany to the United States links both Mohammad Atta and Zacarias Moussaoui. [20]

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested during CIA-led raids on the suburb of Rawalpindi, nine miles outside of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Mohammed at the time of his capture was the third highest ranking official in al-Qaeda and had been directly in charge of the planning for the September 11 attacks.

Escaping capture the week before during a previous raid, the Pakistani government was able to use information gathered from other suspects captured to locate and detain Mohammed. Mohammed was indicted in 1996 by the United States government for links to the Oplan Bojinka, a plot to bomb a series of U.S. civilian airliners.

Other events Mohammed has been linked to include: ordering the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the USS Cole bombing, Richard Reid's attempt to blow up a civilian airliner with a shoe bomb, and the terrorist attack at the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has described himself as the head of the al-Qaeda military committee. [21]

Amidst all this, in 2006, Pakistan was accused by NATO commanding officers of aiding and abetting the Taliban in Afghanistan; but NATO later admitted that there was no known evidence against the ISI or Pakistani government of sponsoring terrorism. However in 2007, allegations of ISI secretly making bounty payments up to CDN$ 1,900 (Pakistani rupees. 1 lakh) for each NATO personnel killed surfaced.

The Afghan government also accuses the ISI of providing help to militants including protection to the recently killed Mullah Dadullah, Taliban's senior military commander, a charge denied by the Pakistani government. India, meanwhile continues to accuse Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of planning several terrorist attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere in the Indian republic, including the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, which Pakistan attributes it to "homegrown" insurgencies.

Many other countries like Afghanistan and the UK have also accused Pakistan of State-sponsored terrorism and financing terrorism. The upswing in American military activity in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan corresponded with a drastic increase in American military aid to the Pakistan government.

In the three years before the attacks of September 11, Pakistan received approximately $9 million in American military aid. In the three years after, the number increased to $4.2 billion, making it the country with the maximum funding post 9/11.

Such a huge inflow of funds has raised concerns that these funds were given without any accountability, as the end uses not being documented, and that large portions were used to suppress civilians' human rights and to purchase weapons to contain domestic problems like the Balochistan unrest Pakistan has stated that India has been supporting terror groups within FATA and Balochistan with the aim of creating unrest within the country which has also been blamed for the diversion of funds.

Waziristan

Main article: Waziristan War

In 2004 the Pakistani Army launched a campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan's Waziristan region, sending in 80,000 troops. The goal of the conflict was to remove the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region.

After the fall of the Taliban regime many members of the Taliban resistance fled to the Northern border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Pakistani army had previously little control. With the logistics and air support of the United States, the Pakistani Army captured or killed numerous al-Qaeda operatives such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, wanted for his involvement in the USS Cole bombing, Oplan Bojinka plot and the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

However, the Taliban resistance still operates in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas under the control of Haji Omar. United States has carried out a campaign of Drone attacks on targets all over Federally Administered Tribal Areas

Southeast Asia

Indonesia

Main articles: 2002 Bali bombing, 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing, and 2005 Bali bombing

In 2002 and again in 2005, the Indonesian island of Bali has been struck by suicide and car bombings that killed over 200 people and injured over 300. The 2002 attack consisted of a bomb hidden in a backpack exploding inside of "Paddy's Bar," a remote controlled car bomb exploding in front of the "Sari Club" and a third explosion in front of the American consulate in Bali.

The 2005 attack consisted of 2 suicide bombings, the first near a food court in Jimbaran, the second in the main square of Kuta. The group Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected by Indonesian authorities of carrying out both attacks.

On September 9, 2004, a car bomb exploded outside of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 Indonesians and injuring over 140 others; despite conflicting initial reports there were no Australian casualties. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reported that a mobile phone text message was sent to Indonesian authorities before the bombing warning of attacks if Abu Bakar Bashir was not released from prison.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was imprisoned on charged of treason for his support of the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. Currently Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected of carrying out the attacks and Noordin Mohammed Top is a prime suspect. Top is a bomb maker and explosions expert for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Philippines

Main articles: Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines and Philippines theater of the War on Terrorism

American Special Forces Soldier, and infantrymen of the Philippine Army.

In January 2002 the United States Special Operations Command, Pacific deployed to the Philippines to advise and assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating terrorism. The operations were mainly focused on removing the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) from their stronghold on the island of Basilan.

The United States military has reported that they have removed over 80% of the Abu Sayyaf Group members from the region. The second portion of the operation was conducted as a humanitarian program called "Operation Smiles." The goal of the program was to provide medical care and services to the region of Basilan to prevent the ability for members of the terrorist groups to reestablish themselves.

North America

United States of America

United States Customs and Border Protection officers.

Further information: [[:Detentions following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack]]

A $40 billion emergency spending bill was passed by the United States Congress, and an additional $20 billion bail-out of the airline industry was also passed.

The Justice Department launched a Special Registration procedure for certain male non-citizens in the U.S., requiring them to register in person at offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In addition to military efforts abroad, in the aftermath of 9/11 the Bush Administration increased domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. A new cabinet level agency called the United States Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate federal counterterrorism activities.

The USA PATRIOT Act removed legal restrictions on information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services and allowed for the investigation of suspected terrorists using means similar to those in place for other types of criminals. A new Terrorist Finance Tracking Program monitored the movements of terrorists' financial resources (discontinued after being revealed by The New York Times newspaper). Telecommunication usage by known and suspected terrorists was studied through the NSA electronic surveillance program.

Political interest groups have alleged that these laws remove important restrictions on governmental authority, and are a dangerous encroachment on civil liberties, possible unconstitutional violations of the Fourth Amendment. On July 30, 2003, the ACLU filed the first legal challenge against Section 215 of the Patriot Act, claiming that it allows the FBI to violate a citizen's 1st Amendment rights, 4th Amendment Rights, and right to due process, by having the ability to search business, bookstore, and library records in a terrorist investigation - without disclosing to the individual that records were being searched. Also, governing bodies in a number of communities have passed symbolic resolutions against the act.

In a speech on June 9, 2005, Bush said that the USA PATRIOT Act had been used to bring charges against more than 400 suspects, more than half of whom had been convicted. Meanwhile the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) quoted Justice Department figures showing that 7,000 people have complained of abuse of the Act.

DARPA began an initiative in early 2002 with the creation of the Total Information Awareness program, designed to promote information technologies that could be used in counterterrorism. This program, facing criticism, has since been defunded by Congress.

Various government bureaucracies which handled security and military functions were reorganized. Most notably, the Department of Homeland Security was created to coordinate "homeland security" efforts in the largest reorganization of the U.S. federal government since the consolidation of the armed forces into the Department of Defense.

The Office of Strategic Influence was secretly created after 9/11 for the purpose of coordinating propaganda efforts, but was closed soon after being discovered. The Bush administration implemented the Continuity of Operations Plan (or Continuity of Government) to ensure that U.S. government would be able to continue in catastrophic circumstances.

Since 9/11, Islamic extremists made various attempts to attack the US homeland, with varying levels of organization and skill. For example, in 2001 vigilant passengers aboard a transatlantic flight to Miami prevented Richard Reid (shoe bomber) from detonating an explosive device.

Other terrorist plots have been stopped by federal agencies using new legal powers and investigative tools, sometimes in cooperation with foreign governments.

Such thwarted attacks include;

• A plan to crash airplanes into the U.S. Bank Tower (aka Library Tower) in Los Angeles;
• The 2003 plot by Iyman Faris to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City;
• The 2004 Financial buildings plot which targeted the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, DC, the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions;
• The 2004 Columbus Shopping Mall Bombing Plot;
• The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot which was to involve liquid explosives;
• The 2006 Sears Tower plot;
• The 2007 Fort Dix attack plot;
• and the 2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot.

To date, no attacks by Islamic terrorists on the US homeland have been successful since September 11, 2001.

Recently the House of Representatives passed a bill enacting many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, something the Democrats campaigned on as part of their "100 hour plan." The bill passed in the House 299-128 and is currently still being considered in the U.S. Senate. So far funding has not been appropriated for the enactments.

United Kingdom

7/7 Bombings, Central London

Several terrorism attacks and plots have occurred in the U.K. These include the 7/7 and 21/7 bombings of London in 2005 which killed 57 people and injured about 700. Many Britons died in the 9/11 attacks on the United States also.

The worst terrorist incident in the United Kingdom is the Pam Am flight from London Heathrow to the USA. It is called the Lockerbie Bombing and was over Scotland, U.K. in 1988 which killed over 200 US and UK citizens.

In 2005 on July 7 several British Muslim men from Leeds, England traveled to London and detonated several bombs in the London Underground System killing 57 people. The men of the 7/7 attacks left a video warning the U.K. government and people that more attacks were to come.

Exactly 2 weeks later on the 21st of July 2005, more British Muslim terrorists traveled to London and tried to detonate more bombs on the London Underground.

In August 2006, a major plot involving the bombings of several U.S. and U.K. airliners flying transatlantic from several U.K. airports to the U.S. was foiled by US and UK intelligence.

Several men were arrested in cities across the United Kingdom and have since been sentenced in the U.K. This plot has caused mass security changes on airports all round the EU and US, such as limiting the amount of liquids that are allowed to carry on a plane.

In July 2007, just as Ex Prime Minister Tony Blair resigned and Gordon Brown was sworn in as the Prime Minister, several car bombs were planted in Central London, one by the Tiger Tiger nightclub in the West End which was found by an ambulance crew. The same men then drove several hundred miles to Glasgow, Scotland and the next day, drove an jeep full of gas bottles into the main terminal entrance of Glasgow International Airport and set it on fire. One of the terrorist's had a bomb wrapped around his waist, he was tackled to the ground and arrested. Another man exited the car and ran into the terminal building while he was on fire, he was set upon and restrained by members of the public including John Smeaton QGM.

He later died in hospital from severe burns caused by setting the jeep on fire. The other man was sentenced to life in prison after being tried in the U.K. No member of the public was seriously hurt in the attacks.2007 Glasgow International Airport attack

South America

Colombia

Following the September 11 attacks the United States government increased military aid to Colombia. In 2003, 98 million dollars were spent for new Pentagon training and equipment for the Colombian military.

The purpose of which was to help the Colombia government fight the FARC rebel group which is regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist group. It has also been alleged that the Communist rebel group has connections to the drug cartels of South America.

International military support

Main article: Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan: Allies

Main article: International Security Assistance Force

Main article: Multinational force in Iraq

See also: Coalition combat operations in Afghanistan in 2008

See also: Afghanistan War order of battle

The first wave of attacks were carried out solely by American and British forces. Since the initial invasion period, these forces were augmented by troops and aircraft from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway amongst others. In 2006, there were about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.

On September 12, 2001, less than 24 hours after the attacks in New York City and Washington, NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and declared the attacks to be an attack against all 19 NATO member countries. Australian Prime Minister John Howard also declared that Australia would invoke the ANZUS Treaty along similar lines.

In the following months, NATO took a wide range of measures to respond to the threat of terrorism. On November 22, 2002, the member states of the EAPC decided on a Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism which explicitly states that "EAPC States are committed to the protection and promotion of fundamental freedoms and human rights, as well as the rule of law, in combating terrorism." NATO started naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction as well as to enhance the security of shipping in general called Operation Active Endeavour.

The invasion of Afghanistan is seen as the first action of this war, and initially involved forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Afghan Northern Alliance.

Support for the United States cooled when America made clear its determination to invade Iraq in late 2002. Even so, many of the "coalition of the willing" countries that unconditionally supported the U.S.-led military action have sent troops to Afghanistan, particular neighbouring Pakistan, which has disowned its earlier support for the Taliban and contributed tens of thousands of soldiers to the conflict. Pakistan was also engaged in the Waziristan War. Supported by U.S. intelligence, Pakistan was attempting to remove the Taliban insurgency and al-Qaeda element from the northern tribal areas.

The International Security Assistance Force

Main article: International Security Assistance Force

Current ISAF contributors in dark green, future in light green, and former in cyan.

File:French Afg.jpg

French troops as part of ISAF in Kabul.

December 2001 saw the creation of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to assist the Afghan Transitional Administration and the first post-Taliban elected government. With a renewed Taliban insurgency, it was announced in 2006 that ISAF would replace the U.S troops in the province as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The British 16th Air Assault Brigade (latter reinforced by Royal Marines) formed the core of the force in Southern Afghanistan, along with troops and helicopters from Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. The initial force consisted of roughly 3,300 British, 2,000 Canadian, 1,400 from the Netherlands and 240 from Australia, along with special forces from Denmark and Estonia (and small contingents from other nations).

Summary of major troop contributions (over 400, 1 December 2008)

ISAF total - 50,700

• United States - 19,950 (total number of US troops in Afghanistan is 48,250 including National Guard.)
• United Kingdom - 8,745
• Germany - 3,600
• France 2,785
• Canada - 2,750
• Italy - 2,850
• Netherlands - 1,770
• Poland - 1,130
• Australia - 1,090
• Turkey - 860
• Spain - 780
• Romania - 740
• Denmark - 700
• Bulgaria - 460
• Norway - 455
• Czech Republic - 415

Criticisms of U.S. objectives and strategies

Main article: Criticism of the War on Terrorism

The War on Terrorism as indefinite and indeterminate

Policy experts have criticized the "War on Terrorism" as an irresponsible metaphor, arguing that "war" must by definition be waged against nations—not against broad and controversial categories of activity such as "terrorism". Cognitive linguist George Lakoff writes:

"Literal—not metaphorical—wars are conducted against armies of other nations. They end when the armies are defeated militarily and a peace treaty is signed. Terror is an emotional state. It is in us. It is not an army. And you can’t defeat it militarily and you can’t sign a peace treaty with it."

Dr. David Kilcullen, a counterinsurgency and counterterrorism advisor to Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has asserted that:

"We must distinguish Al Qa'eda and the broader militant movements it symbolises – entities that use terrorism – from the tactic of terrorism itself. In practice, as will be demonstrated, the 'War on Terrorism' is a defensive war against a world-wide Islamist jihad, a diverse confederation of movements that uses terrorism as its principal, but not its sole tactic."

Francis Fukuyama, a prominent former neoconservative, has made the similar point that "The term “war on terrorism” is a misnomer, resulting in distorted ideas of the main threat facing Americans today. Terrorism is only a means to an end; in this respect, a "war on terror" makes no more sense than a war on submarines."

The term "terrorism" has been also been characterized as unacceptably vague. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime observes:

"The lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism has been a major obstacle to meaningful international countermeasures. Cynics have often commented that one state's "terrorist" is another state's "freedom fighter".

Opponents critical of this inherent subjectivity point out that governments such as Iran, Lebanon, and Venezuela consistently use the term "terrorism" to describe actions taken by the United States.

In an article published in October 29, French Army officer LTC Jean-Pierre Steinhofer described war on Terror as a "semantic, strategic and legal perversion. . . Terrorism is not an enemy, but a method of combat."

Further criticism maintains that the War on Terrorism provides a framework for perpetual war; that the announcement of such open-ended goals produces a state of endless conflict, since "terrorist groups" can continue to arise indefinitely. President Bush has pledged that the War on Terrorism "will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated." During a July 2007 visit to the United States, newly appointed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown defined the War on Terror, specifically the element involving conflict with Al Qaeda, as "a generational battle".

The War on Terrorism as counterproductive

A number of security experts, politicians, and policy organizations have claimed that the War on Terrorism has been counterproductive: that it has consolidated opposition to the U.S., aided terrorist recruitment, and increased the likelihood of attacks against the U.S. and its allies. In a 2005 briefing paper, the Oxford Research Group reported that

"Al-Qaida and its affiliates remain active and effective, with a stronger support base and a higher intensity of attacks than before 9/11. ...Far from winning the 'war on terror', the second George W. Bush administration is maintaining policies that are not curbing paramilitary movements and are actually increasing violent anti-Americanism."

The South African Mail & Guardian describes research commissioned by the British Ministry of Defence which concluded:

• "The war in Iraq ... has acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world ... Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and al-Qaeda has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act."

Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, research fellows at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law, have argued that the "globalization of martyrdom" potentiated by the Iraq War "has generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost."

The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate issued the following among its "key judgments":

• "The Iraq conflict has become the —cause celebre“ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."

On September 19, 2008, the RAND Corporation presented the results of a comprehensive study for "Defeating Terrorist Groups" before the United States House Armed Services Committees. RAND's testimony began with the thesis statement "the United States cannot continue conducting an effective counter-terrorism campaign against al Qa’ida without understanding how terrorist groups end." Their conclusions included strong proposals for strategic policy changes. "[The U.S. military] should generally resist being drawn into combat operations in Muslim countries where its presence is likely to increase terrorist recruitment." and recommended, "ending the notion of a 'war' on terrorism" and "Moving away from military references would indicate that there was no battlefield solution to countering terrorism." In conclusion the RAND study advised: "By far the most effective strategy against religious groups has been the use of local police and intelligence services, which were responsible for the end of 73 percent of [terrorist] groups since 1968."

Double standards

Others have criticized the U.S. for double standards in its dealings with key allies that are also known to support terrorist groups, such as Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly stated that in the "war against terrorism," “the central front is Pakistan"; Pakistan has also been alleged to provide Taliban operatives with covert support via the ISI. These accusations of double dealing regard civil liberties and human rights as well as terrorism. According to the Federation of American Scientists, "[i]n its haste to strengthen the "frontline" states' ability to confront transnational terrorist threats on their soil, and to gain the cooperation of regimes of geostrategic significance to the next phases of the "War on Terrorism", the administration is disregarding normative restrictions on U.S. aid to human rights abusers." Amnesty International has argued that the Patriot Act gives the U.S. government free rein to violate the constitutional rights of citizens. The Bush administration's use of torture and alledged use of extraordinary rendition and secret prisons have all fueled opposition to the War on Terrorism.

Decreasing international support

In 2002, strong majorities supported the U.S.-led War on Terrorism in Britain, France, Germany, Japan, India, and Russia. By 2006, supporters of the effort were in the minority in Britain (49%), France (43%), Germany (47%), and Japan (26%). Although a majority of Russians still supported the War on Terrorism, that majority had decreased by 21%. Whereas 63% of the Spanish population supported the War on Terrorism in 2003, only 19% of the population indicated support in 2006. 19% of the Chinese population supports the War on Terrorism, and less than a fifth of the populations of Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan support the effort. Indian support for the War on Terrorism has been stable. Andrew Kohut, speaking to the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, noted that, according to the Pew Research Center polls conducted in 2004, "majorities or pluralities in seven of the nine countries surveyed said the U.S.-led war on terrorism was not really a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism. This was true not only in Muslim countries such as Morocco and Turkey, but in France and Germany as well. The true purpose of the war on terrorism, according to these skeptics, is American control of Middle East oil and U.S. domination of the world."

Stella Rimington, former head of the British intelligence service MI5 has criticised the war on terror as a "huge overreaction", and had decried the militarization and politicization of the U.S. efforts to be the wrong approach to terrorism. David Milliband, UK foreign secretary, has similarly called the strategy a "mistake".

Abuse of power

The War on Terrorism has been viewed by some as a pretext for reducing civil liberties.

The NSA electronic surveillance program and DARPA's Total Information Awareness were two examples of post-September 11 government monitoring programs. Though overtly intended to target terrorist behavior, critics worried fears about government monitoring might lead people to self-censorship.

A controversy also erupted concerning National Security Letters, issued by the federal government and not subject to prior judicial review. These letters demanded information the government asserted was relevant to a terrorism investigation, but also contained a gag order preventing recipients from revealing the existence of the letter. Critics contend this prevents public oversight of government investigations, and allows unreasonable search and seizure to go unchecked. The American Civil Liberties Union complained that Section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act removed the need for the government to connect recipients to a terrorism investigation, widening the possibility for abuse.

The Protect America Act of 2007 was also controversial for its lack of judicial review.

In October 2008, British PM Gordon Brown used the Anti Terrorist Act to freeze Icelandic holdings in Great Britain during the Icelandic financial crisis. Iceland's prime minister Geir Haarde protested against what he described "a terrorist law being applied against us", calling it "a completely unfriendly act". Iceland is a founding member of NATO.

Role of U.S. media

Researchers in the area of communication studies and political science have found that American understanding of the war on terror is directly shaped by how the mainstream news media reports events associated with the war on terror. In Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age political communication researcher Jim A. Kuypers illustrated "how the press failed America in its coverage on the War on Terror." In each comparison, Kuypers "detected massive bias on the part of the press." This researcher called the mainstream news media an "anti-democratic institution" in his conclusion. "What has essentially happened since 9/11 has been that Bush has repeated the same themes, and framed those themes the same whenever discussing the War on Terror," said Kuypers. "Immediately following 9/11, the mainstream news media (represented by CBS, ABC, NBC, USA Today, New York Times, and Washington Post) did echo Bush, but within eight weeks it began to intentionally ignore certain information the president was sharing, and instead reframed the president's themes or intentionally introduced new material to shift the focus."

This goes beyond reporting alternate points of view, which is an important function of the press. "In short," Kuypers explained, "if someone were relying only on the mainstream media for information, they would have no idea what the president actually said. It was as if the press were reporting on a different speech." The study is essentially a "comparative framing analysis". Overall, Kuypers examined themes about 9-11 and the War on Terror that the President used, and compared them to the themes that the press used when reporting on what the president said.

"Framing is a process whereby communicators, consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be interpreted by others in a particular manner," wrote Kuypers. These findings suggest that the public is misinformed about government justification and plans concerning the war on terror.

Others have also suggested that press coverage has contributed to a public confused and misinformed on both the nature and level of the threat to the U.S. posed by terrorism. In his book, Trapped in the War on Terror political scientist Ian S. Lustick, claimed, "The media have given constant attention to possible terrorist-initiated catastrophes and to the failures and weaknesses of the government's response." Lustick alleged that the War on Terror is disconnected from the real but remote threat terrorism poses, and that the generalized War on Terror began as part of the justification for invading Iraq, but then took on a life of its own, fueled by media coverage.

Media researcher Stephen D. Cooper’s analysis of media criticism Watching the Watchdog: Bloggers As the Fifth Estate contains many examples of controversies concerning mainstream reporting of the War on Terror. Cooper found that bloggers' criticisms of factual inaccuracies in news stories or bloggers’ discovery of the mainstream press’s failure to adequately check facts before publication caused many news organizations to retract or change news stories.

Cooper found that bloggers specializing in criticism of media coverage advanced four key points. Firstly, that mainstream reporting of the war on terror has frequently contained factual inaccuracies. In some cases, the errors go uncorrected; moreover, when corrections are issued they usually are given far less prominence than the initial coverage containing the errors. Secondly, they claimed that the mainstream press has sometimes failed to check the provenance of information or visual images supplied by Iraqi "stringers" (local Iraqis hired to relay local news). Next, they argued that story framing is often problematic; in particular, "man-in-the-street" interviews have often been used as a representation of public sentiment in Iraq, in place of methodologically sound survey data; and lastly, that mainstream reporting has tended to concentrate on the more violent areas of Iraq, with little or no reporting of the calm areas.

Commanders

Commanders in the War on Terrorism include:

Ltg. Martin Dempsey (acting CENTCOM commander, 2008),
Gen. David Petraeus (CENTCOM commander 2008 )

Adm. Sir Michael Boyce (Chief of the Defence Staff 2001 – 2003),
Gen. Sir Michael Walker (Chief of the Defence Staff 2003 – 2006),
ACM Sir Jock Stirrup (Chief of the Defence Staff 2006 – )

Military decorations

Since 2002, the United States military, has created several military awards and decorations related to the "War on Terrorism" including:

• "Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal"
• "Afghanistan Campaign Medal"
• "Iraq Campaign Medal"
• "Global War on Terrorism Service Medal"

The U.S. Department of Transportation created two awards related to the "War on Terrorism" which are authorized to be worn on U.S. military uniforms:

• "9-11 Medal"
• "9-11 Ribbon"

NATO has also created military decorations related to the "War on Terrorism":

• Article 5 NATO Medal
• Non-Article 5 ISAF NATO Medal

Casualties

There is no widely agreed on figure for the number of people that have been killed so far in the "War on Terrorism" as it has been defined by the Bush Administration to include the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and operations elsewhere. Some estimates include the following:

• Iraq — 62,570 to 1,124,000

Main article: Casualties of the Iraq War

• Opinion Research Business (ORB) poll conducted August 12-19, 2007 estimated 1,033,000 violent deaths due to the Iraq War. The range given was 946,000 to 1,120,000 deaths. A nationally representative sample of approximately 2000 Iraqi adults answered whether any members of their household (living under their roof) were killed due to the Iraq War. 22% of the respondents had lost one or more household members. ORB reported that "48% died from a gunshot wound, 20% from the impact of a car bomb, 9% from aerial bombardment, 6% as a result of an accident and 6% from another blast/ordnance."
• Between 392,979 and 942,636 estimated Iraqi (655,000 with a confidence interval of 95%), civilian and combatant, according to the second Lancet survey of mortality.
• A minimum of 62,570 civilian deaths reported in the mass media up to 28 April 2007 according to IraqBodyCount.
• 4000 U.S. military dead (2008 26 March). 22,401 wounded in action, of which 10,050 were unable to return to duty within 72 hours. 6,640 non-hostile injuries and 18,183 diseases (both requiring medical air transport).

• Afghanistan — between 10,960 and 49,600

Main article: Civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

• According to Marc W. Herold's extensive database, Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing, between 3,100 and 3,600 civilians were directly killed by U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom bombing and Special Forces attacks between October 7, 2001 and June 3, 2003. This estimate counts only "impact deaths" - deaths that occurred in the immediate aftermath of an explosion or shooting - and does not count deaths that occurred later as a result of injuries sustained, or deaths that occurred as an indirect consequence of the U.S. airstrikes and invasion.

• In an opinion article published in August 2002 in the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute, a self-described neoconservative, questioned Professor Herold's study entirely on the basis of one single incident that involved 25-93 deaths. He did not provide any estimate his own.

• In a pair of January 2002 studies, Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives estimates that, at least 4,200-4,500 civilians were killed by mid-January 2002 as a result of the U.S. war and airstrikes, both directly as casualties of the aerial bombing campaign, and indirectly in the humanitarian crisis that the war and airstrikes contributed to.

• His first study, "Operation Enduring Freedom: Why a Higher Rate of Civilian Bombing Casualties?", released January 18, 2002, estimates that, at the low end, at least 1,000-1,300 civilians were directly killed in the aerial bombing campaign in just the 3 months between October 7, 2001 to January 1, 2002. The author found it impossible to provide an upper-end estimate to direct civilian casualties from the Operation Enduring Freedom bombing campaign that he noted as having an increased use of cluster bombs. In this lower-end estimate, only Western press sources were used for hard numbers, while heavy "reduction factors" were applied to Afghan government reports so that their estimates were reduced by as much as 75%.

• In his companion study, "Strange Victory: A critical appraisal of Operation Enduring Freedom and the Afghanistan war", released January 30, 2002, Conetta estimates that at least 3,200 more Afghans died by mid-January 2002, of "starvation, exposure, associated illnesses, or injury sustained while in flight from war zones", as a result of the U.S. war and airstrikes.

• In similar numbers, a Los Angeles Times review of U.S., British, and Pakistani newspapers and international wire services found that between 1,067 and 1,201 direct civilian deaths were reported by those news organizations during the five months from October 7, 2001 to February 28, 2002. This review excluded all civilian deaths in Afghanistan that did not get reported by U.S., British, or Pakistani news, excluded 497 deaths that did get reported in U.S., British, and Pakistani news but that were not specifically identified as civilian or military, and excluded 754 civilian deaths that were reported by the Taliban but not independently confirmed.

• According to Jonathan Steele of The Guardian between 20,000 and 49,600 people may have died of the consequences of the invasion by the spring of 2002.

• Somalia - 7,000+

• In December 2007, The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had verified 6,500 civilian deaths, 8,516 people wounded, and 1.5 million displaced from homes in Mogadishu alone during the year 2007.

See also

• List of military strikes against terrorist targets
• Airport security repercussions due to the September 11 attacks

Islam related:

• Islamism
• Anti-Arabism
• Persecution of Muslims
• Islam by country
• List of wars in the Muslim world
• Jihad

Tactics:

• Extrajudicial execution
• Extraordinary rendition
• Manhunt (Military)
• Manhunt (law enforcement)
• Manhunting
• Terrorist surveillance program
• Black sites (CIA secret detention centers)
• Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division

Military:

• Iraq War
• Opposition to the Iraq War
• Protests against the Iraq War
• Long War (21st century)
• Operation Eagle Assist
• War in Afghanistan
• Civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
• Opposition to the 2001 Afghanistan War
• International public opinion on the war in Afghanistan
• Protests against the invasion of Afghanistan
• Algerian Civil War

U.S. related:

• USA Patriot Act
• Ohio Patriot Act
• Executive Order 12333
• U.S.-Pakistan relations
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Guantánamo Bay
• Homeland security
• NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
• Proactive and Preemptive Operations Group
• Allegations of state terrorism by the U.S.
• Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005
• Bagram torture and prisoner abuse

UK anti-terror legislation:

• Terrorism Act 2006
• Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (UK)

Concepts:

• Axis of evil
• War on Islam
• Religious war
• Perpetual war
• Islamophobia
• Crusade (modern)
• Strategic reset
• Targeted killing
• Unlawful combatant
• Bush Doctrine

Other:

• War on Terror (game)
• Rendition (game)
• Criticisms of the "War on Terrorism"
• Department of Anti-terrorism Strategic Studies, an Italian "parallel police" under investigations since July 2005

References

"Operation Enduring Freedom - Deployments". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2008-04-14.

Further reading

• Müller, Sebastian R. Hawala. An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism, Dec. 2006, ISBN 3-8655-0656-9
• Kuypers, Jim A. Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age, ISBN 0-7425-3653-X
• Brian Michael Jenkins, Unconquerable Nation, RAND Corporation, Fall 2006, ISBN 0-8330-3893-1 and ISBN 0-8330-3891-5
• Igmade (Stephan Trüby et al., eds.), 5 Codes: Architecture, Paranoia and Risk in Times of Terror, Birkhäuser; 2006, ISBN 3-7643-7598-1
• Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, Free Press; 2004, ISBN 0-7432-6024-4
• Ira Chernus. Monsters To Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006 ISBN 1-59451-276-0
• Michael Scheuer, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, ISBN 1-57488-849-8
• Michelle Malkin, In Defense Of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on terror, September, 2004, National Book Network, hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0-89526-051-4
• Steven Emerson (2002), American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, Free Press; 2003 paperback edition, ISBN 0-7432-3435-9
• Lyal S. Sunga, (2002) US Anti-Terrorism Policy and Asia’s Options, in Johannen, Smith and Gomez, (eds.) September 11 & Political Freedoms: Asian Perspectives (Select) 242–264, ISBN 981-4022-24-1
• Marina Ottoway, et al., Democratic Mirage in the Middle East, Carnegie Endowment for Ethics and International Peace, Policy Brief 20, (October 20, 2002). Available online
• Marina Ottoway and Thomas Carothers, Think Again: Middle East Democracy,Foreign Policy (Nov./Dec. 2004). Available online
• Chris Zambelis, The Strategic Implications of Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Middle East, Parameters, (Autumn 2005). Available online
• Adnan M. Hayajneh, The U.S. Strategy: Democracy and Internal Stability in the Arab World,Alternatives (Volume 3, No. 2 & 3, Summer/Fall 2004). Available online
• Gary Gambill, Jumpstarting Arab Reform: The Bush Administration's Greater Middle East Initiative, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (Vol. 6, No. 6–7, June/July 2004). Available online
• Remarks by the President at the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, United States Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C., President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East, (November 6, 2003). Available online
• Hans Köchler, Terrorism and National Liberation. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Question of Terrorism. Frankfurt a. M:/Bern/New York: Peter Lang, 1988, ISBN 3-8204-1217-4
• Hans Köchler, Manila Lectures 2002. Terrorism and the Quest for a Just World Order. Quezon City (Manila): FSJ Book World, 2002, ISBN 3-211-83091-X
• Hans Köchler, The War on Terror, its Impact on the Sovereignty of Nations, and its Implications on Human Rights and Civil Liberties, Manila, September 2002
• Hans Köchler, The United Nations and International Terrorism : Challenges to Collective Security, Shanghai, November 2002
• Hans Köchler (ed.), The 'Global War on Terror' and the Question of World Order. Vienna: International Progress Organization, 2008. ISBN 9783900704247
• Robert Blecher, Free People Will Set the Course of History: Intellectuals, Democracy and American Empire, Middle East Report (March 2003). Available online
• Robert Fisk, What Does Democracy Really Mean In The Middle East? Whatever The West Decides, The London Independent (August 8, 2005). Available online
• Fawaz Gergez, Is Democracy in the Middle East a Pipedream?,Yale Global Online (April 25, 2005). Available online
• Donald Rumsfeld, Bureaucracy to Battlefield Speech, (September 10, 2001) Available online
• Leon Hadar, The Green Peril: Creating the Islamic Fundamentalist Threat, (August 27, 1992) Available online
• George W. Bush, A Period of Consequences, (September 23, 1999) Available online
• George W. Bush, A Distinctly American Internationalism, (November 19, 1999) Available online
• Nicholas Lemann, Dreaming About War, (July 16, 2001) The New Yorker. Available online
• James Der Derian, The Illusion of a Grand Strategy, (May 25, 2001) The New York Times Available online
• Paul Wolfowitz, Briefing on the Defense Planning Guidance, (August 16, 2001). Available online
• Henry Shelton, Change, Troops and Transformation, (August 28, 2001). Available online
• Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses, (September 2000). Available online
• Foreign Policy in Focus, The Bush Administration's Strategic Defense Review, (May 2001). Available online
• Col. Daniel Smith and others, Reforging the Sword: Forces for the 21st Century Security Strategy, Center for Defense Information, (September 2001), Available online
• BBC News, Stumbling towards Pentagon reform: Ambitious agenda, (August 16, 2001). Available online
• Philip Gold, Savaging Donald Rumsfeld, The Washington Times, (August 28, 2001). Available online
• Condoleezza Rice, Life after the Cold War, Council on Foreign Relations, (September 2000). web.archive.org
• Ashton Carter and William Perry, Preventive Defense, A New Security Strategy for America, Brooking Institution, (1999). Available online
• Steven Metz, Asymmetry and U.S. Military Strategy: Definition, Background, and Strategic Concepts, U.S. Army War College, (January 2001). web.archive.org
• Kenneth McKenzie, The Revenge of the Melians: Asymmetric Threats and the next QDR, National Defense University, (November 2000). Available online
• L. Ali Khan, "A Theory of International Terrorism" (2006) and The Essentialist Terrorist (2006)
• Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist; 2007, ISBN 978-0241143650
• Spencer, Robert (2003). Onward Muslim Soldiers. Regnery Publishing, USA. ISBN 0-89526-100-6.
• Spencer, Robert (2005). The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades). Regnery Publishing, USA. ISBN 0-89526-013-1.
• Spencer, Robert (2006). The Truth About Muhammad. Regnery Publishing, USA. ISBN 978-1596980280.
• Malik, S. K. (1986). The Quranic Concept of War. Himalayan Books. ISBN-10: 8170020204.
• Swarup, Ram (1982). Understanding Islam through Hadis. Voice of Dharma. ISBN 0-682-49948-X.
• Trifkovic, Serge (2006). Defeating Jihad. Regina Orthodox Press, USA. ISBN-10: 192865326X.
• Phillips, Melanie (2006). Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within. Encounter books. ISBN 1-59403-144-4.

External links

Official sites by governments and international organizations

• CIA and the War on Terror
• FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
• Rewards for Justice — Most Wanted Terrorists
• Whitehouse FAQ about the "War on Terrorism"
• U.S. Dept. of Defense News on the "War on Terrorism"
• NATO and the scourge of terrorism
• UN action against terrorism
• INTERPOL and fugitives
• US Marshals Service

General war on terrorism news

• Long War Journal - The Long War Journal is dedicated to providing original and accurate reporting and analysis of the Long War (also known as the Global War on Terror). This is accomplished through its programs of embedded reporters, news and news aggregation, podcasts, and other multimedia formats.
• Iraq Status Report - The IraqStatusReport.com Web site provides the only “one-stop-shop” on the Internet for news, commentary and analysis related to the U.S. Mission in Iraq.
• Insurgency Research Group - Multi-expert blog dedicated to the study of insurgency and the development of counter-insurgency policy.
• Zbigniew Brzezinski, Terrorized by 'War on Terror' -- How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America (The Washington Post, Sunday, March 25, 2007)
• UK faces a long war Janes.com, January 2007
• The Terrorism Index — The first comprehensive and regularly updated report card on the war on terrorism. Developed by Foreign Policy Magazine and the Center for American Progress
• The Guardian — Gunned down to impress America
• Killed in the name of Terror — Ansar Burney to sue Macedonian govt for killing 6 Pakistanis
• BBC News In Depth: Investigating al-Qaeda
• The Washington Post "War on terrorism" coverage
• Bush at War Part II Independent news reports by Inter Press Service

Primary legal documents

• Findlaw Special Coverage "War on Terrorism" (court documents in .pdf)
• Authorization For Use of Military Force Against September 11 terrorists (AUMF) US Public Law 107-40, September 18, 2001, 115 Stat. 224
• Report on Strategic Communication (pdf) Defense Science Board Task Force, September 2004
• counter-terrorism-law.org

Specific articles

• Counteracting Terrorism, LNTV, August 13, 2006
• "Pakistanis Arrest Qaeda Figure Seen as Planner of 9/11", The New York Times, March 2, 2003

Other

• Documenting and fighting torture used in the "War on Terror."
• Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the "War on Terrorism"
• And the Gloves Came Off Douglas C. McNabb and Matthew R. McNabb,The European Lawyer, October 2005.
• The Power of Nightmares; A three-part BBC documentary
• Extraordinary renditions: the playwright and the president; Jeff Sommers, Khaled Diab and Charles Woolfson explore the dynamics between playwright and president as America's 'war on terror' stands in the dock.
• Richard Clarke Speech on Streaming Video; Speech by Richard Clarke, a former member of the National Security Council, US Department of State official, March 8, 2005
• Seminar on the Global "War On Terrorism" by the Chairman of the Cold War Veterans Association — Vince Milum
• The Quadrennial Defense Review of 2001 by the Project for Defense Alternatives
• The War on Terror Board Game
• Ian S. Lustick, "Our Own Strength Against Us: The War on Terror as a Self-Inflicted Disaster" April 4, 2008 Independent Institute Policy report

Video

• The Dark Side — After 9/11 Vice President Cheney initiated an expansion of executive power, took on George Tenet's CIA for control over intelligence and brought the War on Terrorism to Iraq.
• Macedonia Killings Video — 2002 confrontation at the US embassy in Macedonia
• The Long War — Colbert highlights the new name for "war on terror" that the pentagon is now using.
• The Power of Nightmares
• [22] Documentary on Radical Islam's War against the West

Recent events

• NPR Coverage
• Newspaper Article describing video and photographs