Professional Documents
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IvanSoonWeiShiang IA
IvanSoonWeiShiang IA
AUGUST 2022
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Table of Contents
5.0 Conclusion 12
6.0 References 13 - 17
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Global security can be defined as a way of getting the military and using
diplomatic bridge building and measures that nations can adopt and international
governing bodies such as the European Union (EU), NATO, the United Nations in
order to ensure the safety and security of their boundaries and countries.
there is a wide range of meanings of terrorism. However, scholars and the world today
generally agree that terrorism typically involves the use of threats and using violence
with the aim to instill the feeling of fear among the population, not directly at their
victims but to the wide audience as well (Jenkins. J. P, 2022). Some methods of
Ukraine, illegally declaring war against another nation. In addition, terrorism can be
conducted by practically anyone, whether they are far-left or far-right people with
extremist beliefs, corrupted authorities or even groups who are opposed to any ruling
government of their country. In the United States, there are also large cases of
domestic terrorism, where U.S Citizens commit terrorism acts against their own
citizens (FBI, 2022). Some of the examples of domestic terrorism in the U.S include
the Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine School Shooting, and more recently, the El
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The 9/11 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that is carried
out against the United States by the Islamic terrorist group, Al-Qaeda, which took
place on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Close of 20 terrorists were
instructed to take control of 4 airliners that were heading from the Northeastern
United States bound for California [Angerer. D, 2018]. The 4 flights involved were
American Airlines 11, United Airlines 175, American Airlines 77 and United Airlines
93. On that fateful morning, Flight 11 and Flight 175, both Boeing 767 airliners, were
intentionally flown into the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of the World
Trade Center nearly 2 hours later, at approximately 10:28 a.m. For the citizens of the
United States, they witnessed nearly 3,000 innocent lives killed and spurred the Bush
administration to launch the War on Afghanistan barely a month after the conclusion
of 9/11. In addition, the 9/11 terrorist attacks had left a dark scar on American citizens
and shooked the whole world as America had never seen a large terrorist attack since
the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The aftermath of 9/11 is the FAA and
flights were cancelled due to fear, many flights overseas had been turned away from
entering U.S airspace, the military deploys F-15 and F-16 fighter jets to the air to
However, prior to the events that unfolded during 9/11, there was an even
infamous example of a terrorist attack on a U.S Carrier that should have resulted in
more tigher security. The incident mentioned is the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in
December 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. At the time, the flight is packed with
passengers who were starting their holiday season since it was just a few days before
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Christmas [Hardiman. J, 2021]. The flight operated the London Heathrow to New
York’s JFK route and upon arriving at London, the plane, from a Boeing 727 had the
luggages, passengers and cargo transferred to a Boeing 747. What is more shocking is
that there is a luggage which was unaccompanied and contained the explosive which
later downed the 747 one hour takeoff from London at 7:20 p.m. The bombing had
killed all 259 people on the plane, alongside an additional 11 residents in Lockerbie
and resulted in the worst terrorist attack in the history in the United Kingdom.
Investigations by the NTSB later revealed that the bomb was hidden inside a
radio/cassette player and was smuggled inside a luggage into the Boeing 747 without
any passenger accompanying it. In 1992, a year after Pan Am declared bankruptcy in
December 1991, a U.S Federal Court had declared that Pan Am was liable to be fined
for failing to implement tighter security features, which includes strict X-Ray baggage
screening and failed to conduct X-Ray screenings for passenger luggages to detect
any hidden explosives or bombs smuggled. After Pan Am 103, there has not been
another mid-air bombing involving a U.S Carrier, until 9/11 took place nearly 12
years later.
civilians flying on passenger airplanes to any destinations in the world. The United
States, in particular, was shocked that many Americans were reluctant to take into the
skies once again after 9/11. At the time, airport security throughout the world were
minimal, where passengers can board the plane at the last minute without the flight
crew checking your boarding passes and tickets. This was what happened during 9/11,
when the hijackers had set off security alarms, but were quickly cleared to board the
flights without further security screenings. The only step was for the passengers to
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pass a security checkpoint at the boarding gates, while security guards on duty did not
ask security questions and no security ID needed for airport personnel [Schaper. D,
2021]. However, after 9/11, these old practices practically disappeared forever, even
until today in 2022. By November 2001, President Bush had signed the
Transportation Security Act (TSA) into federal law, which requires strict 100%
luggage screening as well as reinforcing cockpit doors. By 2002, the TSA also
mandates that airports throughout the USA be required to deploy explosive detection
machines to detect any explosives hidden in bags and luggages. The U.S Federal
Aviation Administration had also mandated that all cockpit doors are to be locked at
all times throughout the duration of the flight. Other security measures also included
prohibiting passengers from bringing on board sharp objects such as knifes, razor
blades [Josephs. J, 2021]. After a foiled “shoe bombing” attempt in late 2001 by
bomber Richard Reid on board an American Airlines Boeing 767, this was another
checkpoints before boarding their flights [Koenig. D, 2021]. Even today, in 2022,
airline personnel in major airports around the world continue to look into more
pockets of anything metal, taking out laptops and cellphones out before stepping
inside an X-Ray Scanners, while cabin baggages are screened through high-resolution
x-ray machines (figure 6). Passengers also still required to remove their belts as well
boarding their flights will be requested to remove laptops and smartphones out of
their bags, remove their belts and empty their pockets by security personnel before
being X-Ray and body screened, which in turn can lead to long queue lines, but this is
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for the sake of the safety of the passengers. Not only in Malaysia, every major airports
in the world, such as Dubai, Changi, Los Angeles (LAX), JFK, continue to adapt
these post-9/11 laws and regulations in place, to safeguard the safety of their airline
The school shootings in Columbine High School, which took place on April
20th, 1999, was considered as one of the worse school shootings to take place in the
United States. The massacre left nearly 15 students dead, including 1 teacher, Dave
Sanders and resulted in the criticism of the conduct of the police during the killing
spree. The shooters consisted of 2 students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and
approximately 11:20 a.m , when the cafeteria of Columbine High School was packed
with high school students. Prior to the attacks, both Harris and Klebold had left notes
in their homes apologizing as well as details of the murder plan that both have
planned over a period of months. Before the attacks started, both Harris and Klebold
had managed to fool their parents and hid several caches of weapons and explosives.
On the day of the attack, Harris and Klebold had donned trench coats and
according to one survivor, student Brooks Brown, noted that Dylan Klebold had
missed an important test on the morning of the massacre. A few minutes later, a 17-
year old student, Rachel Scott was murdered by Harris and Klebold, becoming the
first victim of Columbine, of which Dylan and Harris proceeded to begin their
massacre on the frightened students and Columbine’s faculty. It has been believed
that the motive of the massacre by both Klebold and Harris was due to the constant
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bullying by their seniors and being dubbed as outcasts by majority of the school
Shotguns, pipe bombs and many more. For nearly 30 minutes, Harris and Klebold
went to various areas of the school, including the classrooms, the cafeteria where they
had placed explosives hidden in duffel bags, as well as the library, where most of the
murdered students took place (figure 4). As several 911 calls went out, police and
SWAT teams were aware of the killing spree taking place inside the school, but
officers had failed to enter the school to shoot or disarm the shooters, thereby wasting
valuable time. By 12:08 p.m, Harris and Klebold entered the cafeteria for the final
time and committed suicide together [Cahill. E, 2022]. In the aftemath of the shooting,
the police and SWAT teams came under heavy criticism for their slow response
U.S Investigators had revealed that Harris and Klebold had random targets
they intended to shoot and the bomb placed in duffel bags in the cafeteria was
intended to cause severe damage to the school and kill hundreds of students during
lockdown drills to prepare the students in the event of an attack, using computer-
generated IDs, using metal detectors and see through bags to deter shooters, and
increasing security presence in schools [Tuchman. G, 1999]. SWAT teams across the
United States are now taught to move straight to source of gunshots and disarm or kill
the shooters. This corrected a flaw in the original training, where officers first
surround the building, setting up a perimeter and contain the situation [Cullen. D,
2009]. These changes prove useful, as demonstrated by the Virginia Tech shooting in
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2007, and more recently in 2021, an attempted school shooting plot in Pennsylvannia
intended to copy Columbine [Colarossi. N, 2021]. Many countries in the world are
still reluctant to adapt these measures similar to Columbine, out of fear and concern
that heavy security personnel might cause confusion and constant fear in the
schoolchildren going in and out of school everyday. However, despite these security
measures, there are still several small scale shooting against schoolchildren, namely
Sandy Hook, Parkland as well as Virginia Tech, with several politicians lobbying for
strict gun control laws (Shapiro. E, 2019). In several U.S States since these shootings,
background checks, setting the age limit for gun purchases and banning several
weapons are mandatory to prevent a Columine type shooting from ever happening
again.
In 1972, Germany was selected to host the year’s Olympic Games in the city
of Munich. Despite the cheerful moods of the game, 4 years ago in 1968, the Olympic
Games in Mexico was marred by an event when the Mexican Military opened fire on
hundreds of students. During the Games in 1972, West German forces appointed
to the athletes [SkyHistory, 2022]. However, some officials had predicted that the
lack of security in the Olympic Village would resulted in a terrorist attack on unarmed
athletes. Sure enough, in the wee hours of September 5th, 1972, 8 terrorists from the
Palestinian terrorist group, Black September affiliated with the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), took advantage of the lax security around the village. The
terrorists were disguised in athletic uniform, and carrying AK-47 assault rifles hidden
in their duffel bags, then proceeded to storm into the quarters which housed mostly
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Israeli athletes. Within minutes of the attack, the militants had murdered 2 Israeli
athletes and took nearly 10 more athletes as hostages. Within minutes of the murder,
the terrorists had demanded the release of approximately 240 Palestinians from
prisons around Israel and gave threats that a hostage would be executed every hour if
their demands to the authorities are not met. During the event, since it was the
Olympic Games season, the crisis had unfolded in major television broadcasts around
the world, putting the world population on edge as the hostage negotiators tried their
best to defuse the situation. This resulted in the first ever instance where a terrorist
attack had been shown around the world [Doubek. J, 2022]. However, as the crisis
unfolded, putting both sides uneasy, there was poor coordination from the West
German authorities, since states authorities took charge of the situation and had
refused to let federal authorities to take charge and assess the situation. In addition, in
contrast with the federal authorities, security in the state authorities had lacked the
But the crisis went downhill from there since police officers who were in
charge to rescue the hostages from the Furstenfeldbruck Airfield outside Munich had
backed out at the last minute, with their reasons that the situation is too dangerous for
a hostage rescue situation. In response, the authorities had planned to use police
snipers to ambush and take out the terrorists once they exited the helicopter to board a
waiting Boeing 727. However, their tactics backfired because the snipers had lacked
proper equipment and communications, did not coordinated on their positions to take
out the terrorists and were basically incompetent [SkyHistory, 2022]. A firefight soon
broke out which left a West German police officer killed, 5 terrorists dead and all 9
hostages held captive by the terrorists. In the aftermath of the massacre, the 1972
Olympic Games were suspended for almost 2 days and left a dark scar in the history
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of the Olympics. Months after the Munich Massacre, the remaining terrorists that
were captured had been exchanged in Frankfurt after a Lufthansa flight was hijacked
4.0.2 How has the incident shaped global counter-terrorism until today?
such as the GIGN, GSG9, SAS were formed in response to the lax of security during
sporting events and shaking up the globe, shocking Western countries to the rising
threat of terrorism and the legacy of the Munich massacre would last until today in
2022. At the time, many countries around the world had created their respective
J, 2022]. Such examples include the GIGN of France, GSG-9 of Germany, the SAS of
the United Kingdom, SEAL Team 6 of the United States, and for Malaysia, Pasukan
Gerakan Khas (PGK). These counter-terrorist units were formed in response to high-
profile terrorist attacks, bombings, hostage situations and any significantly dangerous
events. The counter-terrorist units formed had numerous successes over the years such
as Israeli hostage rescue in Uganda in 1976, the GSG9 rescuing hostages from a
hijacked airliner in 1977, the GIGN’s storming and hostage rescue onboard Air
France 8969 in December of 1994. However, not much units have had success, as can
be demonstrated by the failed rescue attempt by U.S Forces in Iran in 1980. From the
Olympic Games perspective, the world continues to invest in billions and billions of
overall safety of the athletes, which continues till the present 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
According to a research, during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had spent nearly
$7 billion on implementing high security measures to secure the Games from protest
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or attacks. The Chinese government does not want a repeat of the 1972 Munich
Massacre and therefore had implemented high security measures (Anon, 2008). Some
of the measures that the Chinese government had implemented is a strong security
force on alert at all times during the Games, installing almost 400,000 security
cameras to surveillance purposes and conducting safety drills on bomb and explosive
defusal and spectator safety evacuation training. Even more so, not only the Olympics
Games have seen security to safeguard any athletes, even normal sporting events,
such as marathons, and cycling events will always have the presence of police officers
and guard to be on alert for any potential terrorist attacks that may happen at any time.
5.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, the world’s governments are trying their best to reduce their threat of
terrorism because the acts of terrorism can happen at any given time, anywhere as
terrorism cannot be completely eradicated, we can only reduce the threat level
because terrorism will always be with us. And as long as there are extremists or
people with different ideologies that won’t work with many people, they will resort to
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6.0 References
Hartig, H. and Doherty, C. (2021). Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of
9/11. [online] Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy. Available at:
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/09/02/two-decades-later-the-
Katulis, B. and Juul, P. (2021). The Lessons Learned for U.S. National Security
Policy in the 20 Years Since 9/11. [online] Center for American Progress.
Jenkins, J.P. (2018). terrorism | Definition, History, & Facts. In: Encyclopædia
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/09/12/21-years-later-americans-
https://apnews.com/article/new-york-government-and-politics-
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November 2022].
Nason, C. (2022). Opinion | Want to know the value of ‘thoughts and prayers?’
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/survived-columbine-school-shooting-
Cahill, E. (2022). Events of the Shooting – The Columbine High School Shooting.
CNN Library (2013). Columbine High School Shootings Fast Facts. [online]
Cullen, D. (2004). At Last We Know Why the Columbine Killers Did It. [online]
at: https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings.
Tuchman, G. (1999). CNN - Drills, new security measures mark return to schools
2022].
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https://www.newsweek.com/teenagers-charged-plot-attack-pa-high-school-
https://www.timesaerospace.aero/news/airports/airports-are-building-a-more-
Schaper, D. (2021). It Was Shoes On, No Boarding Pass Or ID. But Airport
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/10/1035131619/911-travel-timeline-tsa. [Accessed
Josephs, L. (2021). How the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks forever changed air travel.
forever-changed-air-
November 2022].
Koenig, D. (2021). How 9/11 changed air travel: more security, less privacy.
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2022].
Doubek, J. (2022). 50 years ago, the Munich Olympics massacre changed how
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1116641214/munich-olympics-massacre-
Sky HISTORY TV channel. (2022). The story of the Munich Massacre, the
https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-story-of-the-munich-massacre-the-
Anon. (2008), Security steps for Beijing’s Olympics. (2008). Reuters. [online] 8
https://www.asisonline.org/security-management-magazine/latest-news/today-in-
security/2021/july/Olympics-Begin-in-Tokyo-with-Security-Measures-in-the-
Shapiro, E. (2019). Since Columbine here’s what has changed for school
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/20-years-columbine-changed-school-shootings-
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(Figure 2: United Airlines Flight 175 about to hit the South Tower. To the left: North Tower on fire
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/09/911-the-day-of-the-attacks/100143/ )
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(Figure 3: The 747 wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. Source:
https://simpleflying.com/lockerbie-33-years/ )
(Figure 4: Columbine shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold minutes before their suicide. Source:
https://courses.bowdoin.edu/history-2203-fall-2020-ecahill2/narrative-of-the-event/)
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(Figure 6: A TSA Agent performs security checks on a passenger in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Source:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/11/how-9/11-forever-changed-air-
travel.html#:~:text=Bush%20signed%20the%20Aviation%20and,sharp%20objects%20in%20the%20c
abin.)
(Figure 7: A Black September member during the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre. Source:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1116641214/munich-olympics-massacre-hostage-terrorism-israel-
germany )
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