Terrorism And The Internet

America is almost lucky that there is a new source to turn to in order to find out the answer to everyone's question, "why?". Today, more than at any other time, more than during any other event, in any other place, America can turn to the internet to get a quick lesson in what many have ignored for years. The history of terrorism, leading up to the September 11, 2001, will now interest more Americans than ever. It is important, in the grieving process of many different people, to answer questions, and to become informed. One can not take a stand about a subject, or speak very eloquently about it if they have no information. Luckily, this is The Information Age. Instead of having to visit the library or wait for the paper or latest television news reports to come out, Americans can log on to the World Wide Web, and sift through the massive amounts of information regarding just about any subject, on their own time.

Terrorism is an issue that many people are rushing to become informed about. By typing in key-words of interest, a web-surfer can basically take a crash course in the subject. Popular search engines include:

http://www.askjeeves.com

http://google.com

http://yahoo.com

http://altavista.com

By typing in "terrorism" or "terrorism in history" or "terrorism in America" an entire library of resources can instantly be at the researchers beck and call. This may lead to websites such as http://www.cnn.com, which (among other resources and news clips) provides the researcher with a condensed history of Recent Terrorist Attacks on the United States starting with the two 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing a total of 258 people. Another website that these search engines will link to is:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/

One of the most important things that people attempting to research the history of terrorism must realize, is that the internet provides a stage not only for American media, but a place for information from other points of view as well. Terrorist groups can certainly take advantage of the internet in order to further their own cause. It is important for many people to view a more complete picture of the ideas and motivations behind terroristic acts of violence, and so sights such as these may be helpful.(1)

Perhaps one of the problems with using the web to research terrorism, or any other subject for that matter, is that on the web, old subject matter is just as readily available as more updated subject matter. A researcher could easily come across