Release Date: June 28, 1997
The Wisdom Fund, P. O. Box 2723, Arlington, VA 22202
Website: http://www.twf.org -- Press Contact: Enver Masud

Terrorism Declines: U.S. Terrorists Deadliest

WASHINGTON, DC -- While terrorism in the U.S. is in decline, the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history was committed by a U.S. veteran of the Gulf War.

According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations the most significant terrorist-related events during 1995 (the most recent year for which the annual FBI report on terrorism is available) are the following:

On February 28, 1995, a Minneapolis jury convicted four members of a domestic extremist group, apprehended by the FBI, of violating the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. The subjects manufactured the biological agent ricin with the intent to kill law enforcement officers.

On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 citizens and injuring hundreds. This attack was the deadliest terrorist event ever committed on U.S. soil.

On October 9, 1995, a 12-car Amtrak train derailed near Hyder, Arizona. The derailment killed 1 person and seriously injured 12 others. This suspected act of terrorism is still under investigation.

On November 11, 1995, the FBI prevented an act of terrorism by arresting four U.S. persons in Oklahoma for illegally conspiring to manufacture and possess a destructive device. The subjects were considering attacking civil rights offices, abortion clinics, and federal agencies.

The overall level of terrorist-related events in the United States increased, reversing last year's downturn. In 1994, there were no known terrorist acts and one small-scale suspected act in the United States.

The number of people killed in terrorist attacks in the United States increased sharply from previous years. Last year 168 people died in a single terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City. In 1994, no American in the United States died in a terrorist attack. In 1993, six people died in the World Trade Center bombing.

Given these facts it is difficult to understand the fixation of many in the U.S. on foreign terrorists, and particularly "Islamic" terrorists. And would not the threat of foreign terrorists be virtually eliminated if the U.S. stopped interfering in the internal affairs of those foreign countries?

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[These home-grown groups are seven times more likely than overseas groups to commit some kind of violence in the United States, a panel reported yesterday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.--"Domestic threats called a greater danger to US," Associated Press, February 18, 2008]