Well, it's our last day of class, and I thought it might be fun to have one last contest for brownie points. So, goodbye to Bobby Sands, and hello to a new blog header featuring a new alleged terrorist.
The rules are the same as they ever were: The first student with a correct answer to any of the six questions listed below gets a brownie point. Students answering more than one question are disqualified from the contest. All answers must come in comments appended to this post.
Questions:
1) What is a definition of terrorism from a scholar, a US government agency, or an international organization that would include this man as a terrorist?
2) What is the relationship between this man and his primary accomplice?
3) What was the weapon he used in his attacks?
4) In what way was his car modified to help him in his attacks, and where did he get the idea for this modification?
5) In what way did the police violate the instructions he left for them during the course of the investigation?
6) In what US states has he been convicted of murder?
Good luck!
18 comments:
3) The weapon used in his attacks was a stolen Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle.
Bingo. One brownie point for Matt.
He has been convicted of murder in Virginia and Maryland and faces potential trials in three other states and the District of Columbia.
They were friends, although this man at one time pretended to be his accomplice's father.
Correct, Brian. One brownie point.
And one for Maggie as well. :)
5) At one point, there was a Tarot card left telling the police not to tell the media about the investigation. They did anyways. There was also a demand for $10,000,000, which the police did not provide.
Most definitions make commentary on the necessity of the act being pre-meditated... this of course was obviously well planned out.
Three important definitions are as follows:
Agency
Definition
Department of Defense
The calculated use of unlawful violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.[5]
In this definition the most identifiable with him is unlawful violence to inculcate fear
FBI
[T]he unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives[6]
- Unlawful, intimidate civilian population, social and political objectives. The FBI would be most likely to consider him a terrorist.
State Department
[P]remeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.
- Against non combatant targets
And last but not lest he fits at least part of Pillars definition:
"Terrorism is fundamentally different from these other forms of violence, however, in what gives rise to it and in how it must be countered, beyond simple physical security and police techniques. Terrorists’ concerns are macroconcerns about changing a larger order; other violent criminals are focused on the microlevel of pecuniary gain and personal relationships. ‘Political’ in this regard encompasses not just traditional left-right politics but also what are frequently described as religious motivations or social issues."
he car itself, which was modified, so that a sniper could shoot from inside the trunk
a blue Chevrolet Caprice that had a hidden compartment for a rifle and the trunk had been modified to be a sniper's nest.
Muhammad and Malvo had rebuilt the 12-year-old Chevrolet into a rolling sniper's nest by removing the back seats so one man could lie flat with a telescopic rifle and pick off victims. They also had two holes, each the size of the bottom of a Coke can, drilled in the boot - one for the telescopic sight of the .223 rifle and the other for the muzzle. Inside, the gun was mounted on a tripod to keep it stable.
It was inspired by Osama bin-Laden's call to fight against the US in whatever means possble
after 9/11
Some think he was inspired by a movie based on Thomas Harris' best-selling 1981 novel, the recently-released "Red Dragon"
One brownie point for Stefani. Good work.
David, my question asks for 'a' definition, singular. I'm still waiting to hand out a brownie point here.
Sam, you got the car modification right, so I'll give you a brownie point for that.
But I'm still looking for the answer to this question: "Where did he get the idea for this modification?"
So that's two brownie points that are still lying around for anyone to pick up. Kind of surprising, given the speed with which the first flurry of answers came in.
To reiterate, I am still looking for answers to the following questions:
1) What is a definition of terrorism from a scholar, a US government agency, or an international organization that would include this man as a terrorist?
4B) [W]here did he get the idea for this modification [to his car]?
John Allen Mohammad, would be considered a terrorist under Section 13 of the Virginia death penalty statute(Virginia's new post-September 11, terrorism law), which defines terrorism as "attempts to intimidate the civilian population at large, or to influence the conduct or activities of the government of the United States, a state or locality through intimidation".
Good work, Swati. One brownie point.
He got the idea for the modification from an IRA manual.
Nice work, Erick. One brownie point. And now the contest is closed.
Post a Comment