• There is no single, universally accepted definition of terrorism. It is defined by the Code of Federal Regulations as “Šthe 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.” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)
• Biological weapons have been called “the poor man’s atom bomb” because the capacity to produce and spread them requires relatively little in the way of sophisticated technology.
• Approximately 641 terrorist incidents occurred in the United States between 1971 and 1975 compared to 272 between 1980 and 1999. Among these attacks were 166 bombings, 120 fire bombings, and 118 shootings. During the first six months of 1975 alone, 24 attacks occurred in California, 12 in New York, and 11 were directed at targets on the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
• Terrorists groups motivated by religious concerns are becoming more common. Of 11 identified by the Rand Corporation in 1968, none were classified as religiously motivated. By 1994, a third of the 49 international groups identified were classified as religious.
• The portion of the Pentagon that had been slammed into by American Airline flight 77 on September 11, 2001, had recently been renovated to minimize damage from an explosion. Renovations included the installation of new vertical steel beams on the sides of every exterior window; new mesh material, similar to Kevlar, stretched between the steel beams to catch debris; and blast-resistant windows with thick panes 1 1/2 inches thick.
• An attack against agriculture, livestock, or other food supplies with a biological, chemical, or radiological weapon is known as agroterrorism.
• The FBI did not begin to formally record annual terrorism figures until the mid-1970s.
• The first time the World Trade Center was attacked on Feb. 26, 1993, a terrorist bomb exploded on the B-2 level in One World Trade Center, killing six people and leaving a 200-foot-wide, five-story-deep crater.
• At 9:40 a.m. on September 11, 2001, following the most recent attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration halted all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been halted.
Sources: FEMA; The Ultimate Terrorist, Jessica Stern, 1999; “30 Years of Terrorism: A Special Report,” FBI, 1999; CNN; New York Times.