ter'ror (n.) 4. Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.

ter'ro'rism (n.) The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political purposes.

ter'ro'rist (n.) One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.

mil'i'tant (adj.) 1. Fighting or warring. (n.) A militant person or party.

American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict helps to shape Americans' perceptions of the situation, which in turn affects U.S. policy in the Middle East. Whether deliberate or unconscious, media bias influences public opinion.

The San Jose Mercury News serves Silicon Valley, which consists of Santa Clara County, Southern Alameda and San Mateo Counties, and Northern Santa Cruz County. Over 900,000 people read the newspaper at least once a week. [1] A Mercury News bias could have a great deal of effect on the opinions of much of the fifth largest metropolitan area in the United States.

We conducted a five-month study of Mercury News headlines and articles, comparing coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with that of similar global conflicts. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the Mercury News employs the same standard for Israel as it does for the rest of the world

Our study focused on the T-word - terror in any form - as it is used to describe acts of violence and those who commit them. We compared the use of the terms terror, terrorism, and terrorist to describe all aspects of attacks targeting Israeli civilians versus similar acts and participants elsewhere around the world.

We considered San Jose Mercury News articles during the period August 1, 2003 through December 31, 2003. Articles in the main news section and the Nation & World section were considered; articles in other sections were not.

We studied every article that discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We also studied articles about acts of violence around the globe. We compared the use of the word terror to describe violence directed at civilians in Israel versus violence elsewhere around the world. Headlines and stories about attacks directed against military targets and soldiers on duty were considered if the description included terror terminology.

We also compared articles about terror-related issues, including terror threats, anti-terror measures, and legal aspects. We considered every headline and story in which the word terror appeared. However terminology used in direct quotations within stories was not analyzed.

While the Mercury News produces its own headlines, the content of many stories comes from parent company Knight-Ridder, as well as from other newspapers and wire services. We considered all such articles, noting that the newspaper is responsible for all its contents, and can choose to edit a piece before publication.

Early in our study period the St Petersburg Times addressed this very issue. Editor Philip Gailey considered, "What is the difference between a militant and a terrorist? ... Why do so many news organizations insist on describing terrorists as militants? I don't think militants set out to deliberately kill children... If the word "terrorism" is to have any real meaning, then blowing up a bus crowded with women and children must be condemned for what it is - an act of terrorism." [2]

By contrast the Mercury News did not appear to have a set policy regarding usage of the T-word. During the study period dozens of worldwide attacks aimed at maximizing civilian causalities left hundreds dead and thousands more injured. In some cases the Mercury News referred to these attacks as terrorism; in other cases it was just violence. Sometimes the perpetrators were called terrorists; other times they were labeled as militants, a term that is appropriate for a military confrontation, not a civilian attack.

Focusing on just the most prominent parts of articles, we documented 108 headlines and 125 lead paragraphs that applied the terror label to specific acts of violence, aggressors, countermeasures, and legal aspects in China India, Indonesia, Iraq, Russia, Turkey, the United States, and elsewhere.

A form of the word terror appeared in 13 headlines about specific attacks, and 10 headlines on planned or suspected attacks. The lead paragraph in 26 articles about specific attacks included the T-word. In 17 first-day stories [3] the headline and/or lead paragraph identified the attack and/or those responsible as terrorist.

Notable examples (the first six denote first-day stories) include:

▪ An August 2 lead paragraph called a suicide bombing that killed at least 35 at a military hospital "Russia's deadliest terrorist attack this year." [4]

▪ An August 8 headline determined that the civilian target of a car bomb attack of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad "indicates terrorists at work." The lead sentence announced that the car bomb "has brought terrorism to the heart of Iraq's capital."

▪ A September 4 headline and lead sentence blamed suspected "Chechen terrorists" for a train bombing that killed four in southern Russia. [4]

▪ An October 28 article on a series of attacks in Baghdad began, "Suicide bombers unleashed a wave of terror in the Iraqi capital Monday..."

▪ A November 16 headline labeled two synagogue car bombings in Turkey "grisly terror attacks". The lead sentence called it "one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in predominantly Muslim Turkey in nearly two decades."

▪ A November 21 story about two bomb blasts at British institutions in Istanbul began, "This was the day the war on terrorism truly came home to Britain."

▪ A November 29 brief item noted the return of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole to overseas deployment for the first time "since it was bombed by terrorists three years ago in Yemen." [5]

Below the headlines and lead paragraphs we continued to find a proliferation of terrorism references. Various articles discussed "terrorist attacks", "terrorist assaults", "terrorist bombings", "terrorist arsenals", "foreign terrorists", "anti-American terrorists", domestic and foreign "anti-terror operations", "terror hunts", "terror threats", a "wave of terrorism", and Osama bin Laden's "terrorist network". Articles routinely referred to the "September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks" and the "war on terrorism".

During the same period there were many attacks against civilians in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, including:

No Mercury News headline identified any of these incidents as terrorism. [6] An August 20 story, a peripheral piece focusing on media coverage, was the only first-day article that identified an attack against civilians in Israel as terrorist. Of 151 articles about Israelis and Palestinians, only one other lead paragraph contained terror terminology, and one other story labeled any specific anti-Israeli attack as terrorist. [7]

We did find one headline that labeled an attempted attack in Israel as terrorism. A September 18 article reported the conviction of three Israelis who had plotted to detonate a trailer packed with explosives outside a Palestinian girls school in East Jerusalem in April 2002. Although the writer never applied the word terror to the attempted attack, the Mercury News decided that the T-word was appropriate for this headline: "Israelis guilty of terrorism attempt." [8]

No article identified any contemporary Palestinian group as terrorist. [9] Attacks on Israeli civilians were never reported as a "wave of terrorism" committed by "terrorist groups". Almost invariably the newspaper allowed euphemisms such as "violence" committed by "militants" or "assailants". Although American and Israeli counter-terrorism tactics have become virtually indistinguishable, only the former were identified as "anti-terror operations". On rare occasions we found a story with an allusion to "terrorism". [10]

American and international authorities often refer to "terrorism", "terrorists", and the "war on terror" in statements about various international attacks. Many such quotations appeared in articles about violence both in Israel and elsewhere around the world.

Articles also frequently used paraphrases that summarized officials' statements. Many such summaries referred to specific attacks and groups as terrorist. For example,

▪ August 6: "There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but analysts said the attack was probably the work of the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah, which intelligence agencies say cooperates with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida organization."

▪ November 17: "[Newspaper editor Abdel Bari] Atwan said the terrorist group, known as Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, had made the claim by e-mail."

▪ December 16: "China issued its first formal list of terrorists Monday, accusing four Muslim separatist groups and 11 individuals of committing violence and acts of terror, and calling on other nations to help crack down on them."

All too often only the direct quotations of American and Israeli officials informed readers that Israeli civilians too suffered from terrorism. A number of summarized statements buried within articles included vague references to anti-Israel terror. [11] However officials' summarized statements about specific attacks and the groups responsible never incorporated the T-word. [12] Although American and Israeli authorities universally refer to such acts and groups as terrorist, summaries in the Mercury News typically used the term militant. Examples include:

▪ August 13: "Israel said the bombings were proof Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, have been shirking their obligation under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan to dismantle militant groups." [13]

▪ August 23: "Senior Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday that there were plans in place to kill leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups...."

▪ September 21: "Israel and the United States say the Palestinians must take action against militant groups as required under the U.S.-backed "road map'' peace plan." [14]

▪ October 21: Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships launched five strikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday against what Israel said were targets linked to Palestinian extremist groups." [15]

▪ November 12: "Israel has said the barrier is meant to keep out Palestinian militants responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis in the past three years of violence."

In some cases the newspaper went out of its way to qualify Israeli terrorist designations. An August 17 article said that Israel was backing away from its insistence that Palestinian leaders put in prison the men it [Israel] regards as wanted terrorists". According to a December 27 article Israel had halted assassination attempts of "what it regards as terrorist leaders", despite the Israeli position that the Palestinians had failed to destroy "what Israel calls the terrorist infrastructure".

We found no such modifications to terrorist labels applied to other individuals and groups. For instance the September 4 article on the train bombing did not qualify the Chechen rebels as "men Russia considers terrorists". The December 16 story was not tempered, "China issued its first formal list of those it regards as terrorists..."

The front-page of the August 20 Mercury News displayed the most glaring example of the T-word double standard. The previous day two suicide bombings caused the deaths of dozens of civilians: one in Baghdad, the other in Jerusalem. The prominent headline "Deadly bombings jolt Iraq, Israel" preceded side-by-side articles on both attacks.

The secondary headline for the Iraqi attack called it "the deadliest terror attack against the U.N." The lead sentence made clear that in Iraq, "no target is safe from terrorist attack". Quotations by President Bush and a member of the Iraqi governing council included the T-word. A paraphrased statement indicated that American civil administrator Paul Bremer suggested the bombing "was the work of professional terrorists". The writer stated as fact that "foreign terrorists are shifting their strategy to include attacks on civilians and vulnerable non-military targets" and "the terrorists' goal appears to be to further destabilize the country and undermine the faith of average Iraqis in the ability of U.S. troops and their allies to protect them."

The secondary headline for the attack on Israel simply stated, "Palestinian attack kills 18 in Jerusalem." Although the article quoted officials who called the attack "terrorist'; the story itself applied no such label. Palestinian officials were expected to crack down - not on terrorist groups - but on militant groups. According to a paraphrased statement, Israeli officials had demanded that the Palestinian leadership contain men Israel considers terrorists, and that "...Israel has continued to raid Palestinian towns and cities in recent weeks for what it says are wanted terrorists."

The destruction of Western democracy and its replacement by Islamic theocracy is the stated goal of Al Qaida. [16] The establishment of Islamic governments in Southeast Asia leading to a unified Islamic state is the stated goal of Jemaah Islamiyah. [17] The elimination of the State of Israel and its replacement by an Islamic theocracy is the stated goal of Hamas [18] and Islamic Jihad. [19] The goal of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the removal of any Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza and the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. [20]

Like their international counterparts, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades routinely and deliberately target civilians, including women and children. They use similar lethal methods designed to maximize the number of civilian casualties. These groups all qualify under United States [21] and United Nations [22] definitions of terrorist groups, and all appear on the State Department's list of designated terrorist organizations. [23]

In 12 headlines specifically-named groups were associated with the terrorist label. Lead paragraphs labeled Al Qaida as terrorist at least 12 times; lead paragraphs identified other groups as such 4 times. These figures do not include the numerous terror labels that appeared in subsequent paragraphs. Mercury News stories identified Al Qaida as a terrorist network so many times we stopped counting. The Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah was labeled as terrorist at least 10 times. Various groups operating in China, Greece, Ireland, Russia, and Turkey all were identified as terrorist.

In 151 articles about Israel and the Palestinians we were unable to locate a single instance in which a headline or story called Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades a terrorist group. [12]

This study exposes a disturbing trend: the San Jose Mercury News employs different standards for its use of the label terror to describe international hostilities and specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since September 29, 2000 a total of 635 civilians were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel. (The number does not include 4,300 civilian injuries or the 274 Israeli military deaths.) This figure represents a per capita equivalent of 28,575 Americans. In other words, since the beginning of the second Intifada Israel has suffered the equivalent of September 11th nine and a half times. [24]

Yet standard Mercury News terminology gives readers the impression that the global scourge of terrorism does not affect Israel. While the newspaper routinely identifies acts of terror and anti-terror actions around the globe, similar acts within Israel are not labeled as such. Moreover, while Al Qaida and allied groups are consistently identified as terrorist organizations, Palestinian groups with parallel goals, targets, and methods are not. This double standard should be unacceptable to a newspaper that declares as its mission, "reporting and writing accurately and fairly." [1]

On January 4, 2004 the Miami Herald became the latest newspaper to pledge to call terror "terror." Executive editor Tom Fiedler explained: "It's Herald policy to use the most neutral language available in a given situation. We, too, label those who fight for a cause as militants. But unlike some of our colleagues, we see a line where a militant becomes a terrorist and we don't shy away from the latter word. When a suicide bomber blows up a bus carrying innocent civilians, it's an act of terrorism, not militancy." [25]

We call on the Mercury News editors to join their colleagues at the Miami Herald and the St Petersburg Times and make a commitment to apply the terms terror, terrorism and terrorist in a uniform manner. Attacks designed to harm civilians should be labeled terrorist wherever they arise, be it in Iraq or Israel, Jakarta or Jerusalem, Turkey or Tel Aviv.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/contact_us/about "Total readership numbers are as follows: Daily - 825,400 Total Readers, Sunday - 901,300 Total Readers. Circulation is 276,166 Daily and 309,520 Sundays [2001 ABC Audit]"

[2] http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/31/news_pf/Columns/Word_choice_matters_i.shtml St Petersburg Times, August 31, 2003: Word Choice Matters in Mideast Reporting

[3] First-day story is a journalist term for an article published for the first time and dealing with something that has just happened, as distinguished from a "follow-up story."

[4] Fatality totals rose after publication. In some cases victims died days later. Figures stated here were available at press time of the initial report.

[5] We found this example particularly noteworthy since the objective was not a civilian target, but rather a military vessel.

[6] The word terror appeared in a total of three headlines about Israel:

Palestinian protest focuses on inmates; Group damaging anti-terror barrier draws fire (August 2)

Israeli jets bomb camp in Syria; Target was training area for terrorists, officials say (October 6)

Despite bombing, Israeli officials optimistic; But Palestinians see no change in conditions they blame for terrorist violence (December 27)

The first headline described an Israeli counter-terror measure; the second headline diluted the statement with the qualifier, "officials say"; and the third headline provided only a vague reference to "violence" in the context of implicitly blaming Israel for the terrorism its citizens suffer.

[7] The lead sentence in the August 20 article paired the previous day's suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel, calling them "twin acts of terrorism". This story, titled "Media address graphic coverage", focused on television coverage of dramatic events, a subject secondary to the actual bombings. A September 12 article noted that an Israeli decision to eliminate Arafat came "after a resurgence of terrorist attacks in Israel, including two suicide bombings Tuesday that killed a total of 15 people." According to the lead sentence in a December 27 article the "worst of the terrorism was over" because Israel was "winning the war against terrorists".

[8] An Israeli scheme to bomb a Palestinian girls school certainly qualifies as an attempted terrorist attack. What we find remarkable is the inconsistency. The headline that prominently labels this failed scheme as terrorist makes the absence of the terrorism label from any headlines about successful Palestinian attacks against Israelis all the more striking. No articles highlighted any of the many Palestinian plots that were foiled, such as this December 8 attempt in which a mother of seven from Nablus smuggled an explosives belt through an IDF roadblock: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1070942847272

[9] Articles on October 7 and 9 demonstrated the absurdity of this refusal to identify specific Palestinian groups as terrorist. The former article described an FBI counter-terrorism sting that funneled money to terror supporters in order to track funds through terror organizations. Yet the lead sentence identified Hamas as a militant group. The latter article - on U.S. Congressional pressure of Syria - described Syrian support of terrorist groups and an alleged terrorist training camp, but referred to the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

[10] Of the 151 articles we found four with allusions to Palestinian terrorism. An August 2 article reported that most of 7,700 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were suspected of involvement in terrorism. A September 10 article referred to terrorism alerts. A December 12 article said that an apparent mob-related bombing in Tel Aviv marked "a second front in Israel's war on terror."

A December 27 article two days after a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv provided the only detailed acknowledgement that Israelis suffer continually from terrorism. Readers were told that "the worst of the terrorism" was over because Israel was "winning the war against terrorists," and the writer described the "sadly familiar ritual ... that follows terrorist attacks." Also, Israelis believe that the "calm of the past months" was due to Israel's ability to "stop most of the numerous terror attempts that were made."

Nevertheless this article still came up short in some areas. The story did not explicitly label any specific attack as terrorist. The Mercury News continued to refer to "militant Palestinian groups" conducting "militant activity", and continued to qualify Israeli labels. Readers were told that the Palestinian Authority has failed to "dismantle what Israel calls the terrorist infrastructure" and Israel had ceased "'targeted killings' of what it regards as terrorist leaders." (As observed in note [14], the Israeli designation of terrorist leaders and the terrorist infrastructure mirrors the terminology of the Roadmap to Peace document - and hence constitutes accepted terminology by the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations.)

[11] Within the 151 articles we found 31 paraphrased statements that included vague references to anti-Israel terror:

No statement, however, identified any specific act or group as terrorist.

[12] A September 28 article about international funding of terrorism included what approached a paraphrased identification as terrorist of a specific Palestinian group. The writer referred to Al-Qaida and "other groups designated by the United States as terrorist organizations - such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement - and dozens of regional affiliates".

[13] The August 13 Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel quoted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, "We see that the Palestinian Authority isn't doing what it has to do, and the main thing it has to do is dismantle terrorist organizations, confiscate their weapons and wage an uncompromising campaign against terror." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.mideast13aug13,0,2033106.story

The August 13 USA Today accurately paraphrased Sharon's statement, noting that the Prime Minister "said that the bombings put the peace process in doubt because the Palestinian Authority had failed to crack down on terrorist groups." http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-08-12-bomber-israel_x.htm

We were unable to find any August 12 statement by an Israeli official referring to militant groups.

[14] The Roadmap to Peace - a document drafted by the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations in April 2003 - was designed to lead to "a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Phase I, the title of which begins with the words "Ending Terror and Violence," calls on Palestinians to "end violence, terrorism, and incitement," "declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere," and begin "sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure." The word militant does not appear anywhere in the text of the Roadmap. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20062.htm

[15] An Israeli government website lists "IDF anti-terror activity in Gaza" for October 20, 2003, "Communicated by the IDF Spokesman." The IDF report begins by noting that "the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to curtail this flagrant terrorism in its midst." The report lists the IDF attacks "against the following terrorist targets," including "a pickup truck transporting two terrorists who were responsible for... terrorist attacks" and a vehicle carrying "terrorists fleeing from an intercepted attempt" to carry out an attack on a kibbutz. The word extremist does not appear anywhere in the IDF report. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0nwe0

The IDF website lists "Spokesperson's Announcements" for October 20, 2003, and refers to operations against "Hamas and other terror organizations" and "the terror infrastructure." http://www.idf.il/english/announcements/2003/october/20z.stm

CBSNews.com accurately paraphrased the IDF statement: "An Israeli army statement said the vehicle was carrying members of a Palestinian terrorist squad..." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/15/world/main578066.shtml

We were unable to find any October 20 statement by an Israeli military official referring to Palestinian extremist groups.

[16] http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2002/html/19991.htm U.S. Department of State, Office of Counter-Terrorism: Patterns of Global Terrorism - "[Al Qaida's c]urrent goal is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries-particularly Saudi Arabia."

[17] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2983612.stm BBC News, August 15, 2003: Jemaah Islamiah Still a Threat - "[Jemaah Islamiah]'s principal goals are the establishment of Islamic governments across the region followed by the formation of a unified South East Asian Islamic state. This state would stretch from southern Thailand, through the Malay Peninsula (including Singapore), across the Indonesian archipelago and into the southern Philippines."

[18] http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html Hamas Charter - "The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinct Palestinian Movement which owes its loyalty to Allah, derives from Islam its way of life and strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine."

[19] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1005081.stm BBC News In Depth: Who Are Islamic Jihad? - "Islamic Jihad is committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war. It also opposes pro-Western Arab governments."

[20] http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/aqsa.cfm Terrorism Project, In the Spotlight: Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - "Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades strive to drive Israeli forces out of Palestinian territories, i.e. the West Bank and Gaza strip, and establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

[21] http://www.cia.gov/terrorism/faqs.html CIA "Terrorism FAQs" - "The term "terrorism" means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience."

[22] http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/2/digest.doc Digest Of Jurisprudence of the UN and Regional Organizations on the Protection of Human Rights While Countering Terrorism - "On 9 December 1994, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, in the annex to resolution 49/60. The Declaration stated that terrorism includes 'criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes.'"

[23] http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2002/html/19991.htm Islamic Jihad appears under the name "Hizbollah".

[24] The population of Israel is 6,500,000. The population of the United States is 292,452,192 - or 45 times the size of Israel.

635 (Israeli victims) x 45 (U.S./Israel ratio) = 28,575 (victims per capita).

28,575 / 2996 (September 11 victims) = 9.5 times.

[25] http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7621087.htm Miami Herald, January 4, 2004 commentary: Handle with Care Knight-Ridder, Inc. owns both the Mercury News and the Miami Herald.

In the following first-day stories, the headline or the lead paragraph (or both) referred to an act of violence or the suspected perpetrators as terrorist.

08-02-03       Suicide bomber strikes in Russia [A suicide bomber rammed a truck full of explosives through the gates of a military hospital Friday evening in southern Russia, killing at least 35 people and injuring at least 76, in Russia's deadliest terrorist attack this year.]

08-06-03       Car bomb in Indonesia leaves 14 dead, 148 injured; Analysts say regional terrorists behind apparent suicide attack

08-08-03       Embassy bombing adds new type of threat in Iraq; Civilian target indicates terrorists at work [The car bomb that ripped apart the Jordanian Embassy on Thursday has brought terrorism to the heart of Iraq's capital and presented the U.S.-led occupation with a new and unpredictable threat.]

08-20-03       Deadly bombings jolt Iraq, Israel; Iraq: U.N. envoy killed, at least 100 injured in deadliest terror attack against the U.N. [Tuesday's brazen strike on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, a symbol of international cooperation in Iraq, renewed fears that despite the presence of nearly 150,000 U.S. and other coalition soldiers in the country, no target is safe from terrorist attack.]

08-20-03       Media address graphic news; Bombings raise questions about broadcasting bloody footage [Twin acts of terrorism in Iraq and Israel repeatedly filled cable news screens with bloody images Tuesday as details came in and casualty counts mounted.]

08-23-03       SUV attacks called domestic terrorism

08-26-03       46 killed in India by twin car blasts Subhead: Scene of terror

09-03-03       Iraqi bombings keep postwar death toll rising [The drumbeat of terrorist violence in Iraq continued Tuesday as a car bomb exploded outside the national police headquarters in Baghdad, killing one officer and wounding more than a dozen, authorities and hospital officials said.]

09-04-03       4 Russians die in train blast; Chechen terrorists blamed; Many students were aboard [Two bombs exploded under a suburban commuter train packed with students on their way to school in southern Russia on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding 44 in what authorities said was probably a Chechen terrorist attack.]

4 suicide bombings kill 35 in Baghdad [Suicide bombers unleashed a wave of terror in the Iraqi capital Monday illustrating the inability of U.S.-led coalition forces to guarantee security and the ability of the guerrillas to strike seemingly anywhere.]

10-28-03       Attacks threaten to delay power transfer to Iraqis; U.S. fears governing council is unprepared for hand-over [The terrorist attacks that have shaken Baghdad over the past few days threaten to undermine the Pentagon's strategy for extricating U.S. troops from Iraq, senior U.S. officials and independent experts said Monday.]

11-09-03       Bomb jolts Saudi capital; At least 4 die in strike on residential target 1 day after U.S. alert [Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh was rocked by a huge explosion just before midnight Saturday in what the country's Interior Ministry described as a terrorist attack against a residential compound.]

11-16-03       Twin car bombs leave Turks shaken; At least 20 killed, 303 hurt in Sabbath strikes at synagogues; Grisly terror attacks called deadliest in nearly 2 decades; [Car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously outside two synagogues during Sabbath services Saturday morning, killing at least 20 people and injuring 303 in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in predominantly Muslim Turkey in nearly two decades, Turkish authorities said.]

11-21-03       Istanbul carnage too close to home [This was the day the war on terrorism truly came home to Britain.]

11-21-03       Bush and Blair pledge continued solidarity [President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair denounced Thursday's bombings in Istanbul that killed at least 27 people, calling them the latest attack in the war on terrorism.]

12-05-03       Russia: Train bomb near Chechnya kills 19 [A bomb ripped through a commuter train near Rostov-on-Don, near the war-wracked region of Chechnya today, killing 19 people and wounding dozens in what authorities described as an act of terrorism.]

12-10-03       Bomber kills six in Moscow; Duma may have been target; Blast in front of historic central hotel near Kremlin comes days after election [A suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives Tuesday in central Moscow, killing 5 people and injuring 14 others in what authorities called a terrorist attack possibly intended for the nearby Russian parliament.]