Domestic terrorism refers to homeland extremist attempts or violent actions of citizens or permanent residents in any State that pursue political aims. They are attempts or actions that intend or are harmful to human life and violate criminal laws and intend to intimidate a civilian population. They also include assassinations, kidnapping or mass destruction of properties that directly affect the carriage of a government CITATION Bje13 \l 2057 (Bjelopera, 2013). Anti-abortion violence is an example of a current domestic terrorist group in the United States. The group commits violent actions and attempts against organisations and individuals providing abortion counselling and abortions services. The group murders, kidnaps and stalks such persons or members of abortion organisations. Some of such past actions include the assassination of Dr George Tiller in 2009, Colorado spring shootings in 2015 by Robert Lewis Dear whereby he killed a police officer and two civilians CITATION Ant15 \l 2057 (Anti-Defamation Legue, 2015). Therefore, the primary motive of the anti-abortion violence groups is to ensure no more abortions in the United States.
The anti-abortion violence groups have committed at least one anti-abortion terrorism action annually over the past years ranging from arson, bombings and bombing attempts, vandalism threats and assassinations. The anti-abortion groups also burn clinics, examples which include one clinic in Marietta and two clinics in Georgia burnt in 2009. It is, therefore, evident that anti-abortion violence groups are current domestic terrorism groups that are dangerous to human lives especially the doctors offering abortion services and they also lead to mass property destruction due to clinic bombings CITATION Ant15 \l 2057 (Anti-Defamation Legue, 2015).
International terrorism refers to terrorist acts conceded by international terrorist groups. It is whereby a terrorist group carries out terrorism in its country and as well as other countries. The activities involved include threats of violence or violence actions, damage to property, intimidating a specific society, violence against a civilian population and influencing decisions of a social group. The actions also pursue political aims CITATION Kuz13 \l 2057 (Kuznetcov & Kuznetcov, 2013). Salafi-jihadi military groups especially Al Qaeda and ISIS are current international terrorist groups, which are a threat to the United States. Al Qaeda and ISIS hasten the downfall of the world order, aggravate domestic and international trends hence endangering values of the Americans and plot direct attacks against the United States and its companions. The Al Qaeda and ISIS international terrorist group use an insurgent technique by overthrowing all Muslim governments and taking control in the Muslim world and when in leadership directly attack the United States and other states opposing them. The United States is a major target because defeating them will be easier to conquer other opposing states since it is the most powerful state in the world (Kagan, et al., 2016). The primary motive for this international terror group is to overthrow the government in Muslim areas and then fight to conquer all other states opposing their leadership.
Both the anti-abortion violence domestic group in the United States and Salafi-jihadi military, international groups engage in activities that endanger human lives, are in violation of criminal laws, intend to intimidate civilian population and they pursue political aims. The domestic terrorism groups pose the greatest threat to the United States because they pave the way for international terrorism. The groups may link with international terrorists because they have the same mission and therefore lead to mass killings and mass destruction of property. For instance, the anti-abortion violence groups have a mission of killing the doctors and any other individuals and organisations offering abortion services while the international terrorist will look for any slight chance to kill the United States citizens to affect the conduct of the government. Therefore, it is possible for the two groups to link through an action started by the domestic groups. However, an action started by an international terrorist group will not be easy to influence and partner with the domestic terrorism groups.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Anti-Defamation Legue. (2015, 12 2). COMBATING HATE: DOMESTIC EXTREMISM & TERRORISM Anti-Abortion Violence in America: The Stealth Terrorism. Retrieved from Adl.Org: http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/domestic-extremism-terrorism/c/anti-abortion-violence-in.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/#.WF2DJy82vDc
Bjelopera, J. P. (2013). The Domestic Terrorist Threat: Background and Issues for Congress. Washington: Congressional Research Service.
Kagan, F. W., Kagan, K., Cafarella, J., Gambhir, H., & Zimmerman, K. (2016). Al Qaeda and ISIS: Existential Threats to the US and Europe.
Kuznetcov, V. A., & Kuznetcov, M. A. (2013). The Legal Definition of Terrorism in the United States and Russia. . World Applied Sciences Journal, 28(1), 130-134.
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