Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from January 2002

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from January 2002

Clash of civilizations? Ever since the fiery collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center a lively debate has been going on about whether or not the terrorist attacks are part of a struggle between Christianity and Islam. (Terrorism - Comment).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Samuel P. Huntington stirred up a controversy in 1993. A professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University, Mr. Huntington predicted that the source of future world conflict would be culture. There would be no more ideological...

Wave upon wave: the story of terrorism is 2,000 years old, but its plot has scarcely changed. (Terrorism - History).
January 1, 2002... Judea was the Roman name for what today is roughly the territory that forms the nation of Israel. In 6 AD, Judea was placed under direct Roman rule and the governors of the land ordered a census to be taken. The Romans wanted to identify every...

The fourth wave: religion, albeit grossly distorted, is a common characteristic among most of the international terrorist groups that are active today. (Terrorism - The Groups).
January 1, 2002... Say the word terrorist and most of us get a mental picture of a young, olive-skinned male who speaks Arabic and is a devout Muslim. Well, that description doesn't fit Timothy McVeigh or Terry Nichols, both of whom had links to extreme...

Why America? The people who pulled off the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have not published a manifesto explaining their motives, but from their actions several assumptions can be made. (Terrorism - Targets).
January 1, 2002... For many weeks after the attacks of September 11, Americans were asking themselves "Why do they hate us so much?" The reasons look to be very complicated. The world's only superpower is the most obvious target, and there's nothing new...

Fighting back: faced with the horrors of the September 11 attacks the United States and its allies had to respond in some fashion; they could offer the olive branch of peace or the iron fist of war. (Terrorism - Response).
January 1, 2002... George W. Bush has declared war on terrorism; but this is like no other war that has gone before. It is not nation against nation. It is not government against guerrilla army. It is several nations against what might be thousands of people...

High-priced security: Bill C-36, Canada's new anti-terrorist legislation, was crafted after the deadly attacks in the United States in September 2001. It gives law-enforcement authorities in Canada new powers of detention, investigation, and surveillance, but some think law-enforcers need to be restrained too. (Terrorism - Freedom).
January 1, 2002... Faced with a new terrorism threat, Canada's government has enacted a far-reaching law that gives authorities extraordinary powers to curtail the civil fights of Canadian citizens. Under the law, police are able to: * Arrest people who have...

The miniaturization of mass destruction: bioterrorism has been around a long time: the Romans used dead animals to foul their enemies' water, and the bodies of infected soldiers were catapulted into besieged towns in medieval times. Now, it's more sophisticated and potentially devastating, but some think the threat has been exaggerated. (Terrorism - Bioterrorism).
January 1, 2002... The anthrax attacks in the United States in the fall of 2001 placed a new focus on the threat of bioterrorism. Although highly disruptive, costly, and scary, the anthrax problem caused only a handful of deaths. It could produce a larger problem...

Quote ... unquote.(terrorism, violence and war)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... "We cannot prevent another suicide bomber being born each time a misdirected missile wipes out an innocent village, and nobody tells us how to dodge this devil's fide of de, air, hatred and -- yet again -- revenge." Novelist John le Carte...