airliners and murder of helpless athletes at the 1972 Olympics and
school children were perpetrated to publicize a cause. Most of the
victims of the Italian Red Brigades and the German Baader-Meinhof
gang were selected for symbolic reasons.
Another characteristic of modern terrorism is its international
dimension--the ability of terrorists to slip across national
frontiers, the support given to certain terrorist groups by a few
countries dedicated to revolutionary change, and logistical ties
that exist between terrorist groups of widely divergent ideologies
and objectives. The 1985 hijacking by Palestinians of the Italian
cruise ship Achille Lauro off Egypt, and the murder of a U. S.
passenger, dramatized the international ramifications of
terrorism.
Whereas prevention of domestic terrorism is in general the
province of local law enforcement agencies or security forces, at
the international level effective counterterrorist action runs
into obstacles raised by traditional concepts of national
sovereignty. In theory, perpetrators of crimes in one country can,
if apprehended in another country, be extradited for trial, and
there is hardly a terrorist crime imaginable that is not well
covered by criminal statutes. In practice, law enforcement
officials tend to give foreign fugitives from justice a low
priority. Moreover, a well-established exception for political
offenses may protect from extradition all but the perpetrators of
the most egregious crimes. Hence, terrorist organizations
consistently strive for political status, while governments seek
to treat terrorists as common criminals.
In recent years international efforts to counter terrorism have
led to the Tokyo and Montreal Conventions (1963 and 1971) on
hijacking and sabotage of civilian aircraft; the Hague Convention
of 1979 on hostage-taking; and the 1973 convention on crimes
against diplomats. These conventions establish categories of
international crimes that are punishable by any state regardless
of the nationality of criminal or victim or locality of the
offense. In addition, the United States and other nations have
enacted laws to prohibit export of munitions without a license or
participation of citizens in foreign conflicts.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan accused Libya of carrying out
terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens and property. Following
one such attack, in which an American soldier was killed, Reagan
ordered U.S. military forces to attack "terrorist-related" targets
in Libya. U.S. Air Force and Navy planes bombed a number of sites
in and around the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Soon
afterward, seven Western industrial democracies pledged themselves
to take joint action against terrorism. These nations are the
United States, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, France, and
Japan. They promised to deny terrorist suspects entry into their
countries, to bring about close cooperation between the police and
security forces in their countries, to place strict restrictions