ICT's Publications

Are we ready to confront this threat? I would like to provoke some thinking in the direction of additional tools necessary in the fight against terrorism.

On the February 3, 2004, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, rejected a lawsuit filed by Larry Flynt, a porn publisher, which claims that preventing his reporters from freely covering the invasion of Afghanistan, contradicts his rights in accordance with the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which prescribes, inter alia, that freedom of the press and freedom of speech is inviolable. The Court confirmed a verdict handed down last year by Federal Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, DC, which ruled that Flynt’s constitutional rights and that of his newspaper had not been abused in any way.[1] The Judge added that the news media do not have a constitutional right to cover wars, namely, the US Department of Defense has no obligation to include the news media in military campaigns in general and in special campaigns in particular.

As of mid-April 2003, some fourteen American and other nationals, including women, lost their lives on the battlefield, as well as in Iraqi cities, while covering the Gulf War (Operation Iraqi Freedom). A heavy price, indeed, was paid by the media, in order to cover the creation of the new Iraq. This is the highest price ever paid by the press for covering such a short war.

The modern terrorist differs from the common criminal in that he is motivated by a political agenda. The actions of the terrorist—murder, sabotage, blackmail—may be identical to those of the common criminal. However, for the terrorist, these are all means to achieve wider goals, whether ideological, religious, social or economic. The way to the terrorist’s ultimate political goal runs through a vital interim objective—the creation of an unremitting paralyzing sensation of fear in the target community