The Story Behind the Story

1. The Story Behind the Story Find the STORY BEHIND THE STORY SUICIDE TERRORISM What happened? Who was involved and what are the details of their story? Where did it happen? What is the current status of the story? How accurate was the original story? Why did it happen? IT IS ALL IN THE DETAILS!!!

2. Suggested Research Guidelines • Let the research and new information guide your direction. • Pick the most interesting leads and individuals. • What may seem simple is usually very complex in its details and characters. • Remember to take notes and develop your story on the specific case study that you identify. • The story is in the depth of your research on specific details and cases rather than a broad approach on many topics or individuals. FOLLOW THE STORY! • Maintain your level of interest! When it seems that you have hit a dead end read more and follow your leads. • This is discovery at its best! Unravel the story and find out……. • WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? Please Note: Each topic area, person, event, location, etc., throughout this presentation is a story for students to investigate.

3. Suggested Instructional Strategies • ENGAGE students in the topic via news headlines or short video • Provide enough BACKGROUND INFORMATION for students to get a sense of the issue • Generally DEFINE THE PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS, etc., that are the main components of the story • Assign these main components of the story to GROUPS of students for research • Illustrate the GEOGRAPHIC AREA and have students work individually with desk maps to locate and define the area of focus. Assign this research to one group, which will report back to the class. • Students must locate an ORIGINAL NEWS SOURCE that covered their assigned topic • Provide COMPUTER RESEARCH SESSIONS for students to examine their assigned components and research their selected person, place, event, etc. • Each group of students REPORTS BACK to the class on the details of their research and the class builds a narrative about….. • WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

4. POSSIBLE ASSESSMENT • This activity includes the following elements: • Original News Story • Student Research on the People/Places/Events Involved in the Story • Geographic Locations and Information • Reconstructed Student Narratives of the Story • Possible Assessment: • Compare and Contrast the Original Story with the Reconstructed Narrative (Individually or In Groups) • One Group Reports on the Geographic Information • These reports can be done in a digital format, and those pieces could be constructed into a video presentation illustrating… WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

5. THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY: A SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL Some of the WHAT and WHY in SUICIDE TERRORISM? • Kill the perceived enemy • Widespread horrific damage • Sacrifice (Martyr) one’s life for the cause • Sensational attacks • Target civilians and use them as shields • Media is a major target • Excluding 9/11 from 1980 - 2003 • 3% of all terrorist incidents • 48% of the casualties • It is a military innovation that is cost effective. An attack costs about $150. • Easily adopted by smaller younger groups of terrorists.

6. The Rules of War: Enemy Combatants An individual who, under the laws and customs of war, may be detained for the duration of an armed conflict. Unlawful Do not receive POW status and protection. Members of non-state terrorist groups. Lawful Receive prisoner of war status and protections of the 3rd Geneva Convention

7. Rules of War: Abu BakrUpon Muhammad's death he became the first Muslim ruler (632-634) Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. • Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. • You must not mutilate dead bodies. • Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. • Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. • Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. • You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.

8. History of Suicide Attacks Judges: Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes."  "Let me die with the Philistines." Then he bowed with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life.

9. Dutch Hero Belgian War for Independence 1831Jan van Speyk, Commander of a Dutch Gunboat A gale forced his gunboat into Antwerp harbor. Belgians stormed the boat and demanded Van Speyk take the Dutch flag down. Rather than doing so, he fired a pistol into a barrel of gunpowder while saying "Dan liever de lucht in" (which translates as, "Rather to blow up, then"). Twenty-eight of the 31 members of his crew were killed in the explosion.

10. The Japanese Navy used both one and two man piloted torpedoes called kaiten on suicide missions. Kamikazi attack on the USS Bunker Hill May 1945 Suicide Missions A dangerous mission where one is not likely to survive Sunk scores of US ships but cost nearly 5000 Japanese pilots.

11. Suicide Terrorism: The Modern Era • Disappeared until the early 1980s • Hezbollah: Formed in 1982 by Shiite radical elements. Supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards • Deciding to use suicide bombers-a theological decision? Clerics justified it for two reasons 1. Devotion of the Martyr 2. Effective Results “There is no difference between dying with a gun in your hand or exploding yourself.” Arab awakening and Islamic revival By Martin S. Kramer • LTTE Tamil Tigers 1987: Predominately Hindu, became the most prolific adopter before 9/11. Hard targets and assassinations. The only group to have killed two world leaders - the former prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and the president of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa - using male and female suicide bombers.

12. Hamas and al-Qaeda: Target civilians. “Suicide terrorism is a response to foreign occupation and not Islamist fundamentalism.” The Logic of Suicide Terrorism by Robert Pape • Individual Level Factors: • Demonstrate anger through a suicide attack • Economics/poverty • Psychological weakness • Proclivity toward suicide • Outbidding: Multiple groups in competition with one another to demonstrate their commitment. Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror by Mia Bloom Another Interpretation: Suicide terrorism is driven by the Salafists/jihadists in the ideological conflict between religion and globalization.The Globalization of Martyrdom by Assaf Moghadam

13. In battlefield operations, suicide bombers are integrated into the attacking groups. Most off-the-battlefield operations have involved single suicide bombers. Two types of suicide operations: battlefield and off battlefield. Human Wave Attack in Iraq/Iran War 1982 In Operation Ramadan Iranian 9-50+ years in age run into the battlefield to clear mines and make way for tanks….facing heavy artillery.

14. One Case Study? The Mother of Suicide Bombers Itisam Adwan Organized the rapes of women to convince them that martyrdom is the only way to escape the shame. Arrested in Iraq 2008 Rania Ibrahim, 15, was captured at a checkpoint wearing a suicide vest Itisam Adwan, who is accused of grooming young and vulnerable women for bomb attacks, has told police in Baquba that so many others are following her lead that they will not be able to stop them. Photo: AFP

15. The Real Story is in the Details! Headline A woman suicide bomber killed four people, including two policemen, and wounded 12 others on Wednesday in restive Diyala province north of Baghdad. March 19, 2008 • Who is this woman and what brought her to this point in her life? • Who trained her and where? • What happened to her?

16. The Shoe Bomber Another Case Study Who Is He? Really!!! Richard Reid AKA Tariq Raja or Abdel Rahim Arrested 12/22/01 for trying to destroy a Boeing 767

17. THE REAL STORY IS IN THE DETAILS! • Summer 1996: Richard Reid meets with Zacarias Moussaoui • 1997-2000: Reid is seen with Moussaoui the top leaders of al-Qaeda in London at the Finsbury Park mosque. • 1998: A group of recruits, including Reid, are being groomed as suicide bombers by Abu Hamza. • Mid-2000: Moussaoui attends al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and phone calls between him and Reid are intercepted. • July 2001: Reid cases possible bombing targets in Israel, and later travels to Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. Info found on a computer captured in Kabul, Afghanistan after the US invasion. • November 2001: Reid travels to Pakistan and Afghanistan to meet an al-Qaeda bomb maker, Midhat Mursi. Moussaoui Hamza • December 21, 2001: Reid tries to blow up a Paris to Miami flight but fails. • December 22, 2001: Reid is captured trying to light the fuse on his shoe bomb on an American Airlines Flight.

18. Training Children as Suicide Bombers …and what is the STORY BEHIND THIS STORY??? At a pro-Arab-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin, Germany on April 13, an Arab demonstrator carries his daughter, who is wearing a mock belt of explosives symbolizing the belts worn by suicide bombers.