User:Stone put to sky/A

Version 1

From: [1] before edit war.

Definition and the term American terrorism

Main article: State terrorism

The United States Department of State maintains a list of states it considers to be supporters of terrorism, which its designation criteria is based on three laws: section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act. Six other nations are listed due to "engaging in certain trade with state sponsors."

State terrorism refers to violence against civilians perpetrated by organizations clearly affiliated with national government-affiliated authorities. Whether a particular act is described as "terrorism" may depend on whether the International community considers the action justified or necessary, as well as other factors. As yet, there is no internationally accepted standard by which acts may be gauged to qualify as terrorist in nature.

State terrorism may be directed toward population or infrastructure, whether internal (i.e. -- local citizenry) or external (i.e. -- foreigners). Attacks on non-combatant civilians during a time of war may be considered terrorism, particularly if they involve clear and condoned violations of the Geneva Conventions or long standing UN resolutions. Acts may be classified as terrorist if they are carried out by the state's own army or police, by state supported militias, by civilian organisations, or even repeated mob-violence that is condoned and/or encouraged.

Attempts at defining terrorism

Main article: Definition of terrorism

Terrorism is in many countries a crime defined by local statute, but as yet there is no internationally accepted legal standard by which acts may be qualified as "terrorist". Attempts to resolve this impasse have met with stiff resistance, often from the United States itself; for instance, in 1987 the US vetoed a UN resolution on Terrorism (UN Res. 42/159) that had carried by a vote margin of over 150 to 2. On many other occasions over the last 30 years, the U.S. has actively opposed major UN or international legal agreements on the policing and prosecution of terrorist acts. This was usually in regard to the acts of Israel in the occupied territories.

A monograph written by Dr. Jeffrey Record, a professor in the Department of Strategy and International Security at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College, counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered a total of 22 different definitional elements; Record also noted that terrorism expert Walter Laqueur in 1999 counted over 100 definitions, leading Laqueur to conclude that the "only general characteristic generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence".

Among the attempts at an international legal definition, several do not recognize the possibility of the right of civilians to resist an invader in an occupied territory, and would thus label all resistance movements as terrorist groups. Others make a distinction between lawful and unlawful use of violence.

Many human rights, legal, and activist organizations classify the use of military force (including artillery, air bombardment, or missiles) on civilian targets that are not military objectives as a terrorist act. These definitions are based on the protocols established by the The Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which in its second clause exhorts the signatories to:

...[recall] the general principle of the protection of the civilian population against the effects of hostilities....[2]

However, it then goes on to define what a military objective is:

"...any object which by its nature, location, purpose or use makes an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.

It continues by defining a civilian objects as:

" ... all objects which are not military objectives ..."

It does however exclude certain weapons from use at all, such as Incendiary Weapons, on civilians:

"...prohibit in all circumstances, making the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat or a combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target.

And further addresses the issue of cluster bombs and mines by stating:

...[regulate] the clearance of AXO (abandoned explosive ordnance) and UXO (unexploded ordnance), such as unexploded fragments of cluster bombs.

Version 2 (more recent)

From: [3] before I deleted and moved the entire section as per Quack's suggestion.

Definition and the term American terrorism

The United States Department of State maintains a list of states it considers to be supporters of terrorism, which its designation criteria is based on three laws: section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act. Six other nations are listed due to "engaging in certain trade with state sponsors."

State terrorism refers to violence against civilians perpetrated by organizations clearly affiliated with national government-affiliated authorities. Whether a particular act is described as "terrorism" may depend on whether the International community considers the action justified or necessary, as well as other factors. As yet, there is no internationally accepted standard by which acts may be gauged to qualify as terrorist in nature.

State terrorism may be directed toward population or infrastructure, whether internal (i.e. -- local citizenry) or external (i.e. -- foreigners). Attacks on non-combatant civilians during a time of war may be considered terrorism, particularly if they involve clear and condoned violations of the Geneva Conventions or long standing UN resolutions. Acts may be classified as terrorist if they are carried out by the state's own army or police, by state supported militias, by civilian organisations, or even repeated mob-violence that is condoned and/or encouraged.

Attempts at defining terrorism

Main article: Definition of terrorism

Terrorism is in many countries a crime defined by local statute, but as yet there is no internationally accepted legal standard by which acts may be qualified as "terrorist". Attempts to resolve this impasse have met with stiff resistance, often from the United States itself; for instance, in 1987 the US vetoed a UN resolution on Terrorism (UN Res. 42/159) that had carried by a vote margin of over 150 to 2. On many other occasions over the last 30 years, the U.S. has actively opposed major UN or international legal agreements on the policing and prosecution of terrorist acts. This was usually in regard to the acts of Israel in the occupied territories.

A monograph written by Dr. Jeffrey Record, a professor in the Department of Strategy and International Security at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College, counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered a total of 22 different definitional elements; Record also noted that terrorism expert Walter Laqueur in 1999 counted over 100 definitions, leading Laqueur to conclude that the "only general characteristic generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence".

Among the attempts at an international legal definition, several do not recognize the possibility of the right of civilians to resist an invader in an occupied territory, and would thus label all resistance movements as terrorist groups. Others make a distinction between lawful and unlawful use of violence.

Many human rights, legal, and activist organizations classify the use of military force (including artillery, air bombardment, or missiles) on civilian targets that are not military objectives as a terrorist act. These definitions are based on the protocols established by the The Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which in its second clause exhorts the signatories to:

...[recall] the general principle of the protection of the civilian population against the effects of hostilities....[4]

The Conventions define a military objective as:

"...any object which by its nature, location, purpose or use makes an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.

Civilian objects are defined as:

" ... all objects which are not military objectives ..."

The Conventions do, however, exclude certain weapons from use at all on civilians, from the section on Incendiary Weapons:

"...prohibit in all circumstances, making the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat or a combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target.

And further addresses the issue of cluster bombs and mines by stating:

...[regulate] the clearance of AXO (abandoned explosive ordnance) and UXO (unexploded ordnance), such as unexploded fragments of cluster bombs.