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Red Army Faction: Terrorists or freedom fighters Terrorism is an issue that is at the top of the world society's agenda. But terrorism is a difficult word to define. Many scholars have made valiant attempts to define it, however there definitions have often been too broad or too shortsighted. Even the American State Department has a definition that is not all together agreeable. One must hesitate when calling any group who opposes the establishment or anyone who engages in violence a terrorist (Hoffman 13). The people themselves do not believe they are terrorists, they prefer freedom fighter or liberator.
We tend to refer to acts that scare or terrorize us as terrorist. But it is far more specific than that. We must break down the definition into its key elements in order to view it on a broader scope. First, the most easily recognizable characteristic of terrorism is that they employ violence or the threat of violence in order to incite intimidation or as a tactic (Hoffman 14).
They assassinate individuals, use explosives, kidnap and commit many other violent acts in order to incite fear within their objective audience and to charge themselves about their cause. Terrorism usually emanates out of a group, small or large, with a common ideology (Laqueur 5). They are usually self-selected and willfully engage in terror. Another key element that most scholars agree on is that terrorism is unlawful. In other words, on can be criminally penalized by their respective government for engaging in terrorist activities (Laqueur 5). This aspect cannot hold true to terrorism, which is practiced by states or that, is state sponsored because the state will not sanction itself or the people it employs.
The next element is that terrorists have a distinct objective (Laqueur 79). Whether it is religious, political or economic, they plan to achieve a goal through their actions. The next aspect is that the actions of the terrorists are premeditated (Pillar 13). There is very little random violence. Terrorists always have an objective target. Whether they are unarmed civilians or figureheads who they believe oppose them, terrorists always have a target.
From these examinations of the elements of terrorism, we can create a working definition. We might say that terrorism is a group of people with a common political, religious, or economic ideology who employ illegal violence or the threat of violence as a tactic to intimidate an objective audience in order to meet their goals. This definition may be slightly broader than some and slightly more precise than others, however, it utilizes the basic components of terrorism in order to create a workable idea of what terrorism is. In 1977 a number of horrible terrorist acts hit Western Germany. The acts were masterminded by the terrorist organization that for more than twenty years was known by the name Red Army Faction (RAF). RAF emerged out of the student movement in the early 1960 s.
It was born out of so-called Baader-Meinhof Gang, named after Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the organizations activists. It had its own objectives, and the major ideological basis of the organization was a commitment to violence in service of the class struggle. The founders consequently developed a network of underground guerrillas and left-wing sympathizers who assured that their motivation lied in disgust to the materialistic and fascist tendencies that the German society of that time was obsessed with (Wright, 90). With time the Red Army Faction became a terrorist organization that was feared the most in Europe. The basis of their ideology was rooted in the obscure mix of Marxism and Maoism, with a commitment to armed struggle as such. The organization was arranged in a way of hardcore cadres, who performed a lot of terrorist attacks having a serious army of supporters that provided propaganda and logistic support.
Despite numerous arrests of the group leaders and key figures the RAF survived until the mid nineties. So, as it was already mentioned, at the highest point of its notoriety the RAF was considered to be the most dangerous and deadly urban terrorist group. Its effectiveness was assured by the uniqueness of its structure. Because it was made up of small and disciplined cells, the organization became streamlined and effective. The subjects of their attacks were numerous rich and powerful Germans, as well as some U. S.
military installations basing in Germany. They attacked everything that proclaimed left-winged ideology and any kinds of imperialism. The plans of the RAF evidently included the use of the bacterial weapon in their attacks. In 1984 in Paris the hidden warehouse that belonged to the group was disclosed. The warehouse was adapted as chemical laboratory, which was filled up with deadly botulism toxin. During the time of its existence and activity the group is reported to have no more than twenty to forty hardcore permanent members.
However, the RAF is thought to have had no less than several hundred supporters. Though the group was self-sustaining, during the Baader-Meinhof period it received sufficient support from numerous Middle East terrorist organizations. From the other side, from Eastern Germany there was a continuous flow of logistic support, provision of sanctuaries, and training during the 1980 s. In 1997 the German authorities finally announced that the Red Army Faction is no longer considered a serious terrorist threat.
The majority of the Raf's leaders and activists were already either in jail or dead. At the same time, many onetime sympathizers of the groups became disillusioned with the brutal and inhuman methods of the organization. In April 1998, however, the RAF itself announced of its disbanding. The Reuters news agency received an eight-page typewritten document, which was symbolized with a guerilla sign at the end of it: a five-point star, a stylized machine gun, and letters R. A. F.
The document said: Today we are ending this project. The urban guerrilla group in the form of the RAF is now history. The officials from the Criminal Office in Wiesbaden confirmed the authenticity of the document. The watermarks, signs and the style were the same as other documents issued by the group before. The main point of the document was that the group has stuck in the dead end after making several strategic mistakes. Nevertheless, the group members did not express any regret or contrition about all the deaths and casualties that were committed as a result of the groups activities.
The terrorist activity of the group was diverse. According to the official data the RAF is responsible for the deaths of thirty to fifty people. The assassinated were high German officials, important business leaders, and American military personnel. The actions of the group were aimed to paralyze and dethrone the postwar Democratic order in the Western Germany.
Their actions included assassinations, kidnappings, bombings and robberies. Several terrorist actions were targeted against the U. S. and NATO military objects.
However, as the world communism declined, the group had more and more problems with replacing those members that were enabled or killed during the actions. The last terrorist operations of the group involved the attacks primarily on domestic targets, predominantly those officials who were involved in unification of Germany and Europe, as well as numerous security and justice officials. The last assassination that the group officially took responsibility for was the murder in 1991 of Dealer Rohwedder, the head of the agency charged with privatizing the state holdings of the Former East Germany. In 1993, the RAF executed one more operation, which involved the destroying of a new-built prison that contained several hundred kilos of commercial explosives. During the skirmish one GSG- 9 officer and group member Wolfgang Grams were killed. This incident temporarily stopped the activity of the group.
At the time of the Gulf War the RAF attacked the embassy of the USA in Bonn. They fired at the building with the assault rifles. No casualties, however, were present. The Baader-Meinhof gang was unique in its own way. The research of this German terrorist organization gives very strong evidence about the terrorist origin. Although the members of the group were always underground, their identities were known, unlike the terrorists that execute their activity now.
The German authorities had an opportunity to compare the terrorists with the people of the same age and way of life, but non-terrorists in order to find more about the terrorists. Though the Baader-Meinhof gangs name should strictly identify the co-leaders of the group, but in reality, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof were not as important as everyone thought of them. The name Baader-Meinhof gang was made up by German press after Meinhof helped Baader escape from prison. More liberal newspapers used to call them Baader-Meinhof Gruppe, and more conservative ones called them Baader-Meinhof Bande. In reality, the members of the organization never called themselves this way.
Meinhof was definitely one of 10 to 12 hardcore group members and was a weighty figure in the organization, but if there was a female leader in the group than it was Gudrun Ensslin. As for Baader, he was rude and brutal figure and often used to belittle other members of the organization. In many ways Meinhof was the most important member of the group. It was Meinhof's fame that made the group famous. It is hard to come up with a current American example of a left-leaning woman journalist of her fame doing something like what she did perhaps Barbara Ehrenreich. Picture Ehrenreich putting her two young kids into hiding and helping to break a convicted arsonist out of prison custody it must have been quite a shock for her.
It was Meinhof that put this group on the map and forced the German govt. and population to stand up and take notice. Once a part of the group, Meinhof was as committed as Ensslin and the other members; but she was constantly plagued by self-doubt. The dynamic Baader and Ensslin were the types to be leaders in any situation and they naturally took this role in the RAF.
But the RAF was pretty decentralized, and a lot of their activities were planned by committee anyway. It wasn't always Gudrun and Andreas telling everyone what to do Ulrike Meinhof was a very famous journalist in Germany in 1970. But because of her probably low self-esteem she spent much of her life attempting to alleviate her self-doubt that she was plagued with. They say that Meinhof's motivations that...
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Research essay sample on Red Army Faction Terrorists Or Freedom Part 1
