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A great
·
number of
terrorists are perfectly
willing to die .
..
because once having
become a terrorist there
can be no going back.
Christopher Dobson
have worked out contingency
plans to cope with all foreseeable
sets of circumstances. They have
even made dummy kidnap runs
on the Royal Family. This does
not , of course, mean that it would
be impossible to ·kidnap the
Queen-anything is possible in
the world of terrorism.
The greater danger is always
the assassination of the Queen.
She is aware of this danger but
persists in her walk-abouts both
at borne and abroad during which
she wa l ks through crowded
streets greeting people-. It is
impossible to guarantee her safe–
ty under these circumstances.
One man with a concealed pisto!
could murder her. l t is almost
certain that he would be killed in
the attempt. But many terrorists
are fanatical enough to sacrifice
their own lives "for the cause."
Jt
would seem that the terrorist
groups have decided that the
20
internat ional outrage caused by
such an attempt would be coun–
ter-productive to their cause. But
there is no doubt that if the IRA
decided that such an attempt
would benefit their cause then
they would attempt it.
Q .
How many terrorist organi–
zations are there in the world
today?
DOBSON.
It
is impossible to
say precisely how many terrorist
groups exist today as they are like
amoebae, constantly splitting, dy–
ing and regenerating. However, a
nation by nation count of the
groups now operating on a
seri–
ous leve/,
gives us a figure of 45
to 50.
-
NELSON:
U .S. intelligence es–
timates say there are at least 30
groups in the United States alone
which are prepared to use terror
and víolence to achieve their
ends, the same number has been
suggested for Britain. Counting
Latín America and the Middle
East, there must be at least 200
worldwide. But don' t forget it 's
hard to define who's a terrorist
and who's a member of a national
liberation movement.
'Jt
depends
on what side you're on. The das–
sic terrorist of today is Yasser
Arafat, but he's invited to ad–
dress the United Nations and has
Palestine Liberation Organiza–
tion (PLO) embassies in most
countries around the world.
Q.
To what extent do these
groups cooperate?
DOBSON.
T here is no terroríst
international as such but there is a
great deal of free-lance coopera–
tion. Most of this stems from a
meeting of international terrorists
held in Lebanon in 1972 under the
auspices of the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine. There
have been similar meetings, espe–
cially in lreland, of so-caBed free–
doro movements which have been
covers for terrorist cooperative
planning. They seem to work on a
basis of doing favors for one anoth–
er. German members of the Red
Army Faction-the successors to
the Baader Meinhof Gang-took
part in the Entebbe, Uganda,
hijack for example. There is also
extensive exchange of arms and
expertise.
Tt
is known, for exam–
ple, that the Irish bombmakers
have passed on their techniques to
tbe Arabs and the Spaniards in
exchange for arms.
Q.
How many terrorist groups
are sufficiently well organized
and equipped to be a serious
threat?
NELSON:
All terrorist groups
are a serious threat, no matter
how small they are or how poorly
equipped. In my fictional account
of a terrorist assa ult on the
Queen, all the terrorists needed
to paralyze the entire British
security apparatus was the threat
to kili her, if any move were
made to liberate her. That threat
can be achieved with the use of a
kitchen knife. But the fact is that
a great many terrorist groups are
extremely well organized and
equipped, and unbelievably
wealthy. Every gallon of petrol
we buy finances the PLO, be–
cause a portian of the income of
the Arab OPEC countries goes to
Arafat's group. His annual in–
come runs into countless millions.
Libyan oil revenues also help
finance terrorism. Both tbe PLO
and Libya help finance the IRA,
and even Latín American revolu–
tionary groups , although the
Latín Americans have millions
themselves, extorted by kidnap–
ping industríalists.
Q.
To what extent could they
be said to have, in the pursuit of
their own individual goals, a com–
mon cause? How similar are theír
aims and political ideals?
DOBSON:
There are a number
of disparate aims. The IRA is
nationalist, while the urban guer–
rilla groups of Europe aim totear
down the existing system ofsociety
hoping that something better will
emerge. Most of the Latín Ameri–
can groups seek to overthrow tbe
existing government and assume
power. The Palestinians want to
destroy the state of Israel–
despite their denials-and reoccu–
PY
Palestine. Their objective in the
long run is to extend Marxist–
Leninist ideology and revolution
into the "feudal" Arab states.
The
PLAIN TRUTH