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current targets of choice are Western, or more specifically American, eco-
nomic interests.
It may seem as if this shift in targeting priorities followed the attacks
of September 11, 2001. This is actually not the case; the trend had already
been well documented long before the Twin Towers fell. Remember, the
first attack on the World Trade Center, on February 26, 1993, was under-
taken with the goal of causing one of the towers to topple over and take
its twin with it. Clearly, the intent in the first attack was to cause the deaths
of many thousands of civilian noncombatants. The ugly truth is that terror
groups the world over have made the murder of civilians the first priority.
Exhibit 1.1 clearly documents the trend over the five-year period before
the attacks on September 11, 2001. In fact, this exhibit shows that attacks
against military targets, traditionally thought of as the prime target for these
so-called freedom fighters, actually represent the smallest target category.
Exhibit 1.1
Facilities Targeted by Terrorists 1996 - 2001
400
350
300
1996
1997
250
1998
1999
2000
200
150
100
2001
50
0
Military
Government
Diplomat
Other
Business
Source:
U.S. Department of State, “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001,” Washington, DC:
Office for Counterterrorism, May 21, 2001.
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, this trend will certainly con-
tinue and is expected to do so at an accelerated rate. Why is this so? What
makes civilian economic targets so important to terror groups?
If you ask the average person to describe his or her most vivid impres-
sion of the horrors perpetrated on September 11, virtually everyone will
recall and describe the image of the collapsing World Trade Center
towers, the terrible scene of ordinary people leaping out of the burning
towers to their deaths and the thousands of office workers and rescuers
