by Disinvestment Supporter

Created on: May 03, 2008   Last Updated: March 17, 2011

Terrorism is best combated as an international crime and a matter of political negotiation. Using military force tends to nullify the positives of combating terrorism through criminal justice while adding on many extreme negatives. The recent history of efforts to deal with terrorism, from British handling of the Irish Republican Army to the US handling of the Army of God anti-abortion terrorism, show this to be the case. I will discuss the Army of God as a case study but have included a link to an article in the British Telegraph on the IRA. (1)

In 1994 when the FBI finally realized that anti-abortion violence was being carried out by members of the Army of God, a US-based terrorist organization, the investigations began. Wiretaps were authorized through the Justice Department, and six men, signatories to a petition applauding "justifiable homicide", were placed under surveillance. Within days of Paul Hill killing Dr. Britton and his escort outside a clinic in Pensacola, Attorney General Janet Reno sent U.S. Marshals to a dozen clinics considered especially under threat.

In the last days of 2007, the New York Times published an article "Albuquerque Has Renewal of Attacks on Abortion." The anti-abortion terrorist spree from 1977-2005 included seven doctors murdered, 17 attempted murders, 52 bombings, 180 arson attacks, 100 acid attacks, and 655 anthrax threats. One brutal terrorist attack during the Atlanta summer Olympics was a nail bomb in Centennial park that killed one and injured 100. Despite the renewal in violence however, law enforcement efforts have succeeded in reducing the percentage of clinics experiencing severe violence from 52% in 1994 to 18% in 2005.

That's only part of the story though. The Army of God is still on the internet. There are still copies of the Army of God manual in circulation, which describes making acids and bombs as well as how not to get caught. Besides being ordered by judges to remove threatening material from their web sites, men like the Reverend Donald Spitz are free to enjoy their first amendment rights espousing violence as the solution. Spitz now runs a fan club for anti-abortion extremists called Prisoners of Christ.

The terrorists themselves are caught and at least one has been executed. Still they write books from prison and are released when their fifteen years for arson are up. Until 1994 the FBI took a hands-off approach to anti-abortion terrorism. Many women's rights groups claim the FBI still doesn't do enough.

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