Marathons Globally have been Targets of Terrorism; Incendiary Devices Most Common Terror Weapon in US

http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/industry-news/single-article/marathons-globally-have-been-targets-of-terrorism-incendiary-devices-most-common-terror-weapon-in-us-data-shows/991453282ae4ccc78442b35c2d8a7e2b.html

 

Marathons Globally have been Targets of Terrorism; Incendiary Devices Most Common Terror Weapon in US, Data Shows

By: Anthony Kimery

04/17/2013 ( 9:46am)

 

Since Nov. 1994, terrorists attacked seven marathons around the world, killing 14 people, according to a National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) analysis of its Global Terrorism Database (GTD).

In addition, according to a GTD analysis, Boston has been the 14th most frequently targeted US city by terrorists in the past 40-plus years. Records show there have been 16 terrorist attacks in Boston since 1970, but only three since 1990. The most recent recorded terrorist attack occurred in Nov. 1995, when an explosion occurred at the Boston-based headquarters of the Christian Science community. There were no fatalities.

According to START, “There have been two fatal terrorist attacks in Boston since 1970, both classified as assassinations: In 1992, Iwao Matsuda -- the president of a Japanese university --was assassinated in his hotel during a visit to Boston,” and “in 1995, Paul McLaughlin – a prosecutor specializing in gang-related cases -- was shot in his car in a parking lot in the city.”

START’s Global Terrorism Database shows that “the majority of Boston’s terrorist activity occurred in the 1970s, with Black nationalists responsible for five of the 12 attacks during that decade,” the University of Maryland Department of Homeland Security-funded research group said. “Violent White supremacists and violent far-leftists were also active in Boston during this time.”

In 1974, a bogus terrorist threat to detonate a nuclear bomb in downtown Boston resulted in the federal government creating the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST). Its mission has been to find, identify and disarm nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.

“While catastrophic events like those of September 11, 2001, demonstrate how deadly terrorists can be, data shows that most terrorist attacks do not inflict a large number of casualties (injuries and fatalities),” START said.

“Historically, each US terrorist attack has resulted in 3.3 casualties on average. Excluding the 9/11 attacks, the average number of casualties per US attack drops to 1.4 casualties per attack. Mass-casualty terrorism is rare in the United States, but it does occur.”

Of the 2,362 terrorist attacks in the United States between 1970 and 2011, the most common weapon used in the 207 terrorist attacks in the United States from 2001 to 2011 were incendiary devices and explosives, according to the GTD analysis.

For the entire duration covered by the START study, Integrated United States Security Database (IUSSD): Data on the Terrorist Attacks in the United States Homeland, 1970 to 2011, these two categories accounted for more than 81 percent of all the weapons used in the attacks.

“Incendiary devices accounted for more than half of all weapons used over the last decade, representing a large increase in the use of such weapons compared with the norm for the 1970 to 2011 time period,” START said, noting, however, that “from 2001 to 2011, the use of explosives such as dynamite, grenades and ‘car bombs,’ is markedly lower, accounting for only 20 percent of all weapons used compared with 52 percent for the entire sample from 1970 to 2011.