Western Terrorists: Difference between revisions

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In recent years, terrorism in the Middle East has been brought to Western attention through many tragic events, with 9/11 being at the forefront (although, to be sure, Middle Eastern terrorism has been a tempest in a teapot at least since the 1970s). Similar actions would resonate with viewers as the acts of villains.

However, there is the fear that depictions of Muslim terrorists would be unfair to all the ''non''-terrorist Muslims in the viewing audience, not to mention religiously intolerant—and if there's anything the masters of [[Executive Meddling]] are dead scared of, it's offending a potential rating point. This is further complicated by the fact that most Muslims disapprove of the tactics used in the War on Terror, now known as "[[Political Correctness Gone Mad|Overseas Contingency Operations]]" under the [[Barack Obama]] administration. Some even [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|support the mujahideen, seeing them as freedom fighters]]. During the [[Cold War]], Ronald Reagan even dedicated a shuttle launch to the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, calling them "brave freedom fighters".

However, there is the fear that depictions of Muslim terrorists would be unfair to all the ''non''-terrorist Muslims in the viewing audience, not to mention religiously intolerant—and if there's anything the masters of [[Executive Meddling]] are dead scared of, it's offending a potential rating point. This is further complicated by the fact that most Muslims disapprove of the tactics used in the War on Terror, now known as "[[Political Correctness Gone Mad|Overseas Contingency Operations]]" under the [[Barack Obama]] administration. Some even [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|support the mujahideen, seeing them as freedom fighters]]. During the [[Cold War]], Ronald Reagan even dedicated a shuttle launch to the anti-Soviet insurgency in [[Afghanistan]], calling them "brave freedom fighters".

The solution in television seems to be to make all the movers and shakers behind terrorist acts Westerners. While one would be wise not to ignore such individuals as Timothy McVeigh, it can lean so far in that direction as to be unrealistic, since the vast majority of American news stories about terrorism in the past fifteen years, as well as by any measure of casualties or number of incidents, even aside from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have been about Muslim terrorists.

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Some groups of '''Western Terrorists''' that have appeared in media and news are [[Animal Wrongs Group|the ELF and radical(er) factions of PETA]], whose actions have been dubbed eco-terrorism. (PETA, for one, is more infamous for acts of bizarre street theater, although even these are often so obnoxious and cruel that they ''could'' qualify as terrorism.) The Unabomber, Lucas Helder, and Lee Malvo are other examples of Westerners whose criminal actions have been described as terrorism. There are also [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|militia groups]] with ideologies similar to Timothy McVeigh's, though they have committed far more heinous crimes in fiction than in [[Real Life]].

In general, terrorists most frequently attack and are most effective in areas they are familiar with, and where their presence is less likely to raise suspicion. Even terrorist attacks on American interests by Arab Muslims occur more often (though perhaps less spectacularly) in Arab countries like Iraq or Muslim countries like Indonesia.

In general, terrorists most frequently attack and are most effective in areas they are familiar with, and where their presence is less likely to raise suspicion. Even terrorist attacks on American interests by Arab Muslims occur more often (though perhaps less spectacularly) in Arab countries like [[Iraq]] or Muslim countries like [[Indonesia]].

In that regard, for decades, [[The Troubles]] in Northern Ireland were a perfect alternative for TV to use; a definitely European dispute, with white Christians involved in sectarian violence which included riots, shootings and bombings violent enough to satisfy any action show. Naturally some writers still managed to get it wrong - Tom Clancy has portrayed the left-wing nationalist Provisional IRA as [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|Commies]] more than once, when that is the very issue over which they split with the genuinely communist Official IRA and although remaining secular and left-wing the Provos are by no means Marxist.

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Often overlaps with [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]], especially when the '''Western Terrorists''' are portrayed as Irish or white supremacist. See also [[White Gang-Bangers]].

Ironically, the first people to systematically employ what we would today call "terrorist" tactics (random bombings, assassinations, etc.) ''were'' Westerners (okay, white, but it's close enough): the dreaded ''narodniki'' (Russian anarchist-communists) of the nineteenth century, who targeted the ~~Russian~~ royal family [[wikipedia:Propaganda of the deed#Regicides and other assassinations|at least once]].

Ironically, the first people to systematically employ what we would today call "terrorist" tactics (random bombings, assassinations, etc.) ''were'' Westerners (okay, white, but it's close enough): the dreaded ''narodniki'' (Russian anarchist-communists) of the nineteenth century, who targeted the [[Russia]]n royal family [[wikipedia:Propaganda of the deed#Regicides and other assassinations|at least once]].

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* Though not the main villain, the very Middle Eastern character The Hassassin of ''[[Angels & Demons]]'' is replaced in the movie by a generic (though very creepy) Caucasian villain for hire in the movie version.

* The villains of [[24]]'s Day [[spoiler:2 were {{spoiler|a conglomerate of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s in the oil business, as well as a German arms dealer called Max, all of whom hired Peter Kingsley to give a nuclear device to Islamic terrorists and frame three Middle Eastern countries for the act so the United States could invade these countries and secure a steady supply of oil in the Caspian Sea.}}

** To quote [http://theatlantic.com/doc/200804/iraq-movies this handy article], "But Bauer'ss ass-kicking takes place in a landscape straight out of the '70s, in which America's terrorist enemies are enabled by (in no particular order) {{spoiler|a cabal of businessmen hoping to foment a Middle Eastern war and benefit from skyrocketing oil prices; a group of hawkish Cabinet officials who plot to remove from office (or assassinate) their dovish superiors; a Nixonian chief executive who permits terrorist attacks on American soil as a pretext for U.S. military intervention in Central Asia; and an endless host of traitors inside America's antiterrorism outfit.}}"

** To quote [http://theatlantic.com/doc/200804/iraq-movies this handy article], "But Bauer'ss ass-kicking takes place in a landscape straight out of the '70s, in which America's terrorist enemies are enabled by (in no particular order) {{spoiler|a cabal of businessmen hoping to foment a Middle Eastern war and benefit from skyrocketing oil prices; a group of hawkish Cabinet officials who plot to remove from office (or assassinate) their dovish superiors; a [[Richard Nixon|Nixonian]] chief executive who permits terrorist attacks on American soil as a pretext for U.S. military intervention in Central Asia; and an endless host of traitors inside America's antiterrorism outfit.}}"

* Spoofed in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "The Snuke", a parody of ''[[24]]'' where Cartman (playing the role of Jack Bauer) is convinced the new Muslim kid in school is a terrorist, and tips off the government. Turns out there ''is'' a terrorist plot going on in South Park, but it involves Russian mercenaries trying to distract the government with a nuclear device planted in Hillary Clinton's crotch while America's oldest enemies (the ''British'') stage a naval assault.

* Spoofed in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "The Snuke", a parody of ''[[24]]'' where Cartman (playing the role of Jack Bauer) is convinced the new Muslim kid in school is a terrorist, and tips off the government. Turns out there ''is'' a terrorist plot going on in South Park, but it involves Russian mercenaries trying to distract the government with a nuclear device planted in [[Hillary Clinton]]'s crotch while America's oldest enemies (the ''British'') stage a naval assault.

* In ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', COBRA was always referred to as a "terrorist" organization, even though it was closer in every way to James Bond's SPECTRE or Nick Fury's HYDRA than anything resembling modern terrorism (western or otherwise). The comic version of the franchise portrayed COBRA as tapping into the frustrations of lower to middle-class white Americans, even making Cobra Commander into a former used car salesman. COBRA also tended to use [[Town with a Dark Secret|ordinary, all-American small towns named Springfield]] as secret headquarters.

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' used this trope (together with the Trek cliche of evil admirals) in "Homefront", in which a Changeling attack on Earth turns out to have been orchestrated by Admiral Leyton, the head of Starfleet Operations, as an excuse to tighten security for when the real attack inevitably comes. Sisko foils his plans—learning in the process that there ''are'' Changeling infiltrators on Earth (but only 3), watching all this with amusement.

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== Type II: [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|Right Wing Militia Fanatics]] ==

* The Ku Klux Klan, the Knights Of White Camellia, and other racist groups that used textbook terrorism to bar African Americans and other non-Christian Whites from gaining equal rights as well as terrifying them into not exercising them.

* The [[Ku Klux Klan]], the Knights Of White Camellia, and other racist groups that used textbook terrorism to bar African Americans and other non-Christian Whites from gaining equal rights as well as terrifying them into not exercising them.

* The Big Bads in the sadly Vin Diesel-less ''xXx: State of the Union'' were of the right-wing military splinter ideology type.

* The John Brown Army, headed by Emile Dufraisne, from [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''[[Splinter Cell]]: Double Agent''.

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* MECH from ''[[Transformers Prime]]''.

* In 1990, Hitoshi Motoshima, mayor of Nagasaki, was shot in an assassination attempt for publically having said ''"I do believe that the emperor bore responsibility for [[World War II|the war]]"'' two years earlier, shortly before the emperors death. The assassin was a member of the "Sane Thinkers School" organization, that has been involved in several politically motivated crimes.

* Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic Norwegian that confessed to orchestrating the 2011 Oslo Bombing and the Worker's Youth League Shooting.

* Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic [[Norway|Norwegian]] that confessed to orchestrating the 2011 Oslo Bombing and the Worker's Youth League Shooting.

* The upcoming ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' ''Patriots'' the antagonists will be a terrorist group called "True Patriots" who plot to over throw the American government.

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** Not that farfetched, actually. See [[wikipedia:Business plot|this]] little tidbit about a similar plot from the 1930s.

*** The really far-fetched part was that they kept the origin of the loose nuke, which the Israelis lost during the '73 war. Some Palestinians find the bomb, and then... take it to Damascus to sell it to the Neo-Nazis.

* And then there's those three white supremacists who were planning to assassinate Obama. There are currently rumors going about that the state US attorney Troy Eid decided not to prosecute to limit sympathetic coverage for Obama. This sounds ridiculous until you realize this guy was vetted by Goodling, was willing to prosecute a black man in prison for sending threatening letters to McCain, and received a recommendation from the FBI telling him to go all out.

* And then there's those three white supremacists who were planning to assassinate [[Barack Obama|Obama]]. There are currently rumors going about that the state US attorney Troy Eid decided not to prosecute to limit sympathetic coverage for Obama. This sounds ridiculous until you realize this guy was vetted by Goodling, was willing to prosecute a black man in prison for sending threatening letters to McCain, and received a recommendation from the FBI telling him to go all out.

** Rumors debunked, the men have [https://web.archive.org/web/20110314054611/http://tv.rightcelebrity.com/?p=4248 pled guilty].

* A reversal of this occurred in a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' spin-off audio adventure, wherein the villain who desires to remove non-British from Britain, uses mind control to get people to blow themselves up shouting "THIS IS FOR MY PEOPLE!" Regardless of the nationality, he gets the press to cover it as a Muslim extremist (In the first instance, a Scot blew himself up, and was said on the news to be a Muslim student) or other non-British to cause riots and swell public support for his anti-foreigner agenda.

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** Although they weren't actually trying to assassinate President Bartlett, but rather his bodyman, Charlie Young. Though technically they were trying to kill him for political reasons (he was black and was dating [[The President's Daughter|the president's white daughter]]).

* In ''[[Red Eye (film)|Red Eye]]'', a film resonating with post World Trade Center feeling, the terrorists and their colleagues are all white guys. The terrorists themselves speak Russian amongst each other.

* In the film ''The Peacemaker'', a white Bosnian Serb tries to suicide bomb New York City with a backpack nuke.

* In the film ''The Peacemaker'', a white Bosnian Serb tries to suicide bomb [[New York City]] with a backpack nuke.

* The [[Nicolas Cage]] movie ''Next'' did this, with the bad guys being a group of apparently Francophone Europeans.

* Tom Clancy has quite a few examples, notably Patriot Games and Rainbow 6, as well as Clear and Present Danger, and most of the Net Force series.

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== Type VI: Red terrorism ==

* The Japanese Red Army, which was responsible for (among many other things) plane hijackings, a deadly shootout in Israel's Lod Airport and bombing various corporate headquarters in the Greater Tokyo Area. More significantly, they also introduced [[Suicide Attack|suicide bombing]] to the Middle East, training their (secular) allies the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the tactic; it was in turn adopted by the likes of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. A successor to the JRA is known to Japanese police and various intelligence agencies as the '''Movement Rentai''', though they've yet to make any significant acts in Japan/Asia.

* The Japanese Red Army, which was responsible for (among many other things) plane hijackings, a deadly shootout in [[Israel]]'s Lod Airport and bombing various corporate headquarters in the Greater Tokyo Area. More significantly, they also introduced [[Suicide Attack|suicide bombing]] to the Middle East, training their (secular) allies the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the tactic; it was in turn adopted by the likes of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. A successor to the JRA is known to Japanese police and various intelligence agencies as the '''Movement Rentai''', though they've yet to make any significant acts in Japan/Asia.

* Real life example: The German Red Army Faction (AKA the Baader-Meinhof gang) who were responsible for numerous political murders and hostage takings. They did base their name on the Japanese Red Army. From 1971 to 1993, they killed 34 people, most of which were ~~american~~ soldiers, ~~german~~ bodyguards, and police officers, but also 10 assassinations and executions of hostages.

* Real life example: The German Red Army Faction (AKA the Baader-Meinhof gang) who were responsible for numerous political murders and hostage takings. They did base their name on the Japanese Red Army. From 1971 to 1993, they killed 34 people, most of which were American soldiers, German bodyguards, and police officers, but also 10 assassinations and executions of hostages.

** Their actions are accurately depicted in the 2008 German film ''[[The Baader Meinhof Complex]]''.

** The hijacking of an Air France plane to Entebbe, Uganda was led by a German of the Revolutionary Cells movement (and also included another German woman). However, the [[Big Bad]] behind the hijacking was the Palestinian PLO.

** The hijacking of an Air France plane to Entebbe, [[Uganda]] was led by a German of the Revolutionary Cells movement (and also included another German woman). However, the [[Big Bad]] behind the hijacking was the Palestinian PLO.

* The Italian Red Brigades, a Marxist-Leninist group who were responsible for several attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.

* A recent episode of the U.S. version of [[Life On Mars]] featured the 1970s student-radical group, the Weathermen, claiming responsibility for (fictional) bomb attacks on former colleagues of NY!Gene Hunt. Though they were [[Truth in Television|a real left-wing terrorist group]], they never attacked New York police in this manner.

* A bonus comic (''[[A Worldwide Punomenon|Cross Fire]]'') in [[Hellsing]] features a communist group (hinted to consist of former Soviet officials), having brutally attacked a Catholic meeting and stolen millions from the Vatican, trying to buy weapons in a Berlin hotel (presumably to continue their anticlerical campaign). They are [[Church Militant|dealt with efficiently]].

* The FLQ, a ~~canadian~~ Quebec Separatist group, trained with the PLO in Jordan because they thought those were the tactics they needed to free Quebec from Anglo-Canadian tyranny. Their ultimate goal was to establish the province as an independent Marxist state. Were responsible for a series of letter bombings, as well as a bomb that tore through the Montreal Stock Exchange. Kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and murdered Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. The invoking of the War Measures Act by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, as well as the Quebec public's own anger at the kidnapping and murder tactics, were both instrumental in the FLQ's demise.

* The FLQ, a Canadian Quebec Separatist group, trained with the PLO in [[Jordan]] because they thought those were the tactics they needed to free Quebec from Anglo-Canadian tyranny. Their ultimate goal was to establish the province as an independent Marxist state. Were responsible for a series of letter bombings, as well as a bomb that tore through the Montreal Stock Exchange. Kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and murdered Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. The invoking of the War Measures Act by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, as well as the Quebec public's own anger at the kidnapping and murder tactics, were both instrumental in the FLQ's demise.

* The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA, a Marxist paramilitary organisation operating in Northern Ireland during [[The Troubles]].

* [[The Enforcer]] pits Dirty Harry against fictional People's Revolutionary Strike Force, a Marxist terrorist cell.

* In the Philippines, there's the New People's Army, a pro-Maoist terrorist organization that does assassination of government officials, police officers and military officials and enlisted personnel with fellow NPA members who defected to the government with bombings of various cities aside from fighting in the countryside via guerrilla tactics. They made the headlines as they declared responsibility for assassinating an ex-American military prisoner after escaping from captivity in the Vietnam War, saying that his assistance to the Philippine Army made him a target.

* In the [[Philippines]], there's the New People's Army, a pro-Maoist terrorist organization that does assassination of government officials, police officers and military officials and enlisted personnel with fellow NPA members who defected to the government with bombings of various cities aside from fighting in the countryside via guerrilla tactics. They made the headlines as they declared responsibility for assassinating an ex-American military prisoner after escaping from captivity in the Vietnam War, saying that his assistance to the Philippine Army made him a target.

* Russian socialist terrorist organization "The People's Will" ("Narodnaya Volya"). Its leaders, Sofia Perovskaya - the runaway daughter of an aristocrat - and Alexey Zhelyabov - a peasant - orcestrated the assassination of Alexander II.

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* As an excuse to quit the [[Scenery Censor]] around Mariska Hargitay's pregnancy, an episode of [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]] had Benson going undercover with eco-terrorists for an off-screen arc.

* An episode of the British medical drama ''[[Casualty]]'' which would have begun with a Muslim carrying out a suicide bombing was rewritten so that the bombing was committed by [[Animal Wrongs Group|animal rights extremists]].

* Real life: Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was strongly opposed to what he called "political Islam" But he was killed by a white university-educated [[Animal Wrongs Group]].

* Real life: [[Netherlands|Dutch]] politician Pim Fortuyn was strongly opposed to what he called "political Islam" But he was killed by a white university-educated [[Animal Wrongs Group]].

* Subverted in ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.'' The three hot chicks claim to be from an extreme animal rights group and recruit Jay and Silent Bob to liberate an animal research facility, but the mission is really a cover for a jewel heist.

* Real Life examples: A number of groups have been labeled eco-terrorists by various government organizations for their bombing of medical research facilities, sending death threats to medical researchers who work with animals, arson attacks against the homes of researchers and corporate execs, sabotage and vandalism against development and logging machinery, and attacks on commercial fishing nets and vessels.

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== Type VIII: Multiple or Miscellaneous ==

* The [[Real Life]] [[wikipedia:Kahanism|Kahanist movement]] in the United States and Israel, which blends type IV with Type V, and whose members members respectively attempted to blow up an Egyptian embassy, gunned down a crowd of praying Palestinian Arabs, were involved in the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister and General Yitzhak Rabin, and have repeatedly tried to blow up the Golden Dome Mosque in Jerusalem.

* The [[Real Life]] [[wikipedia:Kahanism|Kahanist movement]] in the United States and Israel, which blends type IV with Type V, and whose members members respectively attempted to blow up an [[Egypt|Egyptian]] embassy, gunned down a crowd of praying Palestinian Arabs, were involved in the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister and General Yitzhak Rabin, and have repeatedly tried to blow up the Golden Dome Mosque in Jerusalem.

* An older historical example of Jewish terrorism also includes the Irgun Zvai Leumi (known either as Irgun or by its Hebrew acronym Etzel), a Zionist extremist group active in Israel in the 1930s and '40s responsible for terrorist attacks against the British Mandate and Palestinian Arab civilians. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin (as in the guy who signed the peace agreement with Egypt) was its leader.

** Also notable is Lehi, a [[Eviler Than Thou|splinter group]] from the Irgun; the British refused to dignify them with their proper name and instead called them the Stern Gang (after the founder, Avraham Stern). Unlike the Irgun, who chose to leave the British alone on the theory that [[Enemy Mine|the Nazis were worse]], Lehi continued to attack British targets throughout [[World War II]]. Indeed, they tried to contact [[Those Wacky Nazis]] (yes, the ''Nazis'') in 1940 on the theory that Hitler wasn't interested in ''killing'' the Jews, just in sending them out of Europe; Stern apparently wanted to found a Fascist state for all the world's Jews in Palestine (how's that for irony?). Lehi assassinated several officials, including the UN-appointed mediator Folke Bernadotte (a member of the Swedish royal family); that particular attack led the newly-minted State of Israel to outlaw the organization. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was a prominent leader of Lehi.