In January of 1980, not long after Iranian students had taken hostages during their seizure of the American embassy in Tehran (an incident that some called terrorism, but others say was part of an overall rebellion in Iranian society), Melvin Maddocks wrote an oped piece with the intriguing title of " 'Terrorist' – a bomb-thrower of a word." "Terrorist promises to be a catch-all word of the '80s," Mr. Maddocks wrote.

"To a considerable extent, the terrorist, like the bogyman in a fairy tale, lives in the eye of his beholder. A terrorist without an audience is inconceivable. More than any other political figure he uses history as a stage. 'It is not the magnitude of the terrorist operation that counts but the publicity,' Walter Laqueur observes [in his book "Terrorism"]."

Many believe that's why the Sept. 11 terrorists sent the second plane into the World Trade Center 20 minutes after the first one – they wanted TV news cameras to maximize the public impact of their acts.

James Nelson Goodsell III, a legendary Monitor correspondent who covered Latin America, explored the political causes behind terrorism in "Gulf of differences between Bogota, Tehran embassy seizures." Mr. Goodsell thought the late 1979 seizure of the Dominican Embassy in Colombia (along with 18 ambassadors and chiefs of mission) was "a classic action by a small commando group invading an embassy for narrow political gain," while the embassy seizure in Tehran was done by "a mob for broad nationalist goals with apparent government connivance."

Even 22 years ago, security experts were telling potential targets to shore up their defenses, as a prescient piece by Monitor correspondent Lucia Mouat shows. "Very few people understand why security systems have to be sophisticated," one expert quoted in the piece says. "It's because those trying to violate them are increasingly sophisticated."

And as a reminder of how stale the name-calling in the Middle East has become, read this news brief from 1980 that covered the Israelis and the PLO calling each other "terrorists."

In 1986, Monitor writer Rushworth Kidder reported a five-part series called "Acts of Terror." He showed how hard it can be to define terrorism by starting his article with a quote from a former Italian intelligence official: "The Boston Tea Party was a historical event or a terrorist act, depending on which side you sat." But his analysis pointed toward consensus:

"Most definitions of terrorism include four elements: the method (force and violence), the perpetrator (a revolutionary or conspiratorial group), the target (governments and civilian populations), and the purpose (to coerce and intimidate for political ends)."

Mr. Kidder also explored the role of the reporter and terrorism (another topic hotly debated these days) in a piece called "The Ethics of Reporting on Terrorism." Just one day after Sept. 11, Kidder was interviewed by csmonitor.com about the ethical components of terrorism.

Seven years later, correspondent Peter Grier wrote an article that will probably could leave many readers shaking their heads today: "US Officials Play Down Threat From Islamic Revival in Mideast."

"But US officials and a wide range of experts insist that Islam and the Islamic religious revival sweeping through the Arab world are not in themselves inimical to the West."

It seems the officials in question hadn't spoken to Osama bin Laden.

In the Middle East, acts of terror are almost as common as debates about how to define terrorism. As Cameron W. Barr reported last year, the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict is increasingly defined by "terrorism" – both the act and the epithet.

But "traditional" forms of terror aren't the only ones covered by the Monitor over the years. In 1998, Jeff Kass wrote about the problems caused by "ecoterrorists" at a Vail, Colorado ski resort, and the millions of dollars in damages caused by a series of fires. The difference between ecoterrorists and the common garden-variety, as one expert noted, is that ecoterrorists so far have caused millions of dollars in damage, but have killed no one. But after Sept. 11, these sort of acts are coming under harsher scrutiny, as Brad Knickerbocker reported.

This seems a good place to mention homegrown American terrorism, which many people believe was behind the anthrax attacks last year that killed several Americans. And before Al Qaeda followers flew planes into the World Trade Center towers, the largest loss of American life in a terrorist incident had come in Oklahoma City at the hands of a US veteran who had fought against one of the members of the "Axis of Evil" in the Gulf War.

Another form that people are watching more closely since Sept. 11 is cyberterrorism. In 1999, the Monitor's Tom Regan examined this problem in-depth.

"Cyberterrorism allows terrorists – both foreign and domestic – to inflict damage with no harm to themselves and little chance of being caught. It is a way for the 'weak' to attack the 'strong,' particularly to disrupt a stronger force at a key time during an operation.

These Monitor articles over the years show just how hard it can be to reach a hard and fast definition of terrorism, or who is a terrorist. Monitor columnist Pat Holt looked at the question in his article "The tricky art of defining terrorism."

"In fact, the world is not black or white; it is varying shades of gray. Most countries see it this way. Many of the countries that have supported our reaction to Sept. 11, including many of our allies, will be reluctant to go much beyond that, especially if it leads toward an open-ended commitment. It therefore behooves the US to consult with its allies, and not on the basis of 'are you for us or against us.' "

To explore this subject from a spiritual perspective, the Monitor has published Christian Science articles dealing with terrorism. Here are a few:

Prayer in response to terror – September 13, 2001

What about hate? – September 27, 2001

The quest for mercy, the search for safety – October 10, 2001

Introduction

Part 1: "Where I draw the line"

Part 2: You decide

Part 3: Why I fought/Why I forgave

Monitor Coverage

Web Guide

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