Combating terrorism: The view of a physicist

Talk at the Global Foundation conference

Chatham House, LondonRichard Wilson

Mallinckrodt Research Professor of PhysicsHarvard University

December 5th 2001

Bush's Prescriptionto stop terrorism

“Get the guy who did this”But in a suicide attack he is dead.  

   How do you find the planner?

Who is a terrorist?  When is a man a terrorist and when is he a

freedom fighter?

  Is a terrorist a coward? 

Did September 11th 2001 (4000 people killed)

change the world?

Not mine by much.The Rape of Nanking killed

300,000 (1938)The UK air raid on Dresden

300,000 (1944)(but it was the first in America)

Globalization and its Consequences

    Globalization seems inevitable.

Consequence of scientific break throughs

(1) Communication technology (2) Biology (genome)

(3) in physics.We cannot say:

Stop the world I want to get off !

Bush Called Osame Bin Laden EVIL

Does he compare with:Adolf Hitler?

Emperor Hirohito?Saddam Hussein?

There are a lot of bright people in the worldCan’t one of them find a way of getting rid of

that man?

Definition of a Terrorist (OED) The terrorists, as they were justly denominated, from the cruel and impolitic maxim of keeping the people in

implicit subjugation by a merciless severity (1795)   Several notables are believed to be more or less

implicated in the acts of the Terrorists (1905)    Miss G...., daughter of a Wexford terrorist, directed

many of the tortures which were so extensively practiced (1866)

some book of the religious terrorists which tended to infuse the alarm of foul perdition(1805)

Was Hitler and his Nazis a gang of terrorists?

even though they were the legitimate government of

Germany, originally elected by the people?  

Were opponents of Hitler terrorists?

Esp. Colonel Von Stauffenburg who tried to assassinate Hitler with a bomb in a brief case?

Were the Hutus in Ruanda terrorists when they killed Tutsis although the legitimate government?

    Were the Young Turks terrorists when they victimized the Armenians in 1916?

Or were the Armenians terrorists because they were not model citizens?

Were (and are) the opponents of British rule in Ireland

terrorists?    Has the situation changed since partition in 1922?

Is the government of Russia guilty of terrorism against the people of Chechnya (who have as much voting power as other

residents of Russia) or are the radical Chechens guilty of

terrorism against Russia?

Or both?     Is the government of Sri Lanka acting like the Jacobins against the Tamils of the

north, or are the Tamils a bunch of terrorists to be tamed?

Was the US terrorising people in WACO Texas, or fighting

terrorists?Timothy McVeigh thought the former

    Was General Custer fighting a band of Indian terrorists, or

were the Indians fighting an oppression worse than the French had experienced in

1795?

Was Castro a terrorist or a freedom fighter when he opposed

the government of Batista? 

What about those branded by Castro as terrorists to whom the USA has given citizenship?    

Is the government of Israel a terrorist government because they follow " the

cruel and impolitic maxim of keeping the (Palestinian) people in implicit

subjugation by a merciless severity"? Or are the Palestinians all terrorists

because they belong to an organization opposing the present government of Israel and its policies and particularly in its early

days, to drive them into the sea?  

Possible criteria for choosing sides

A terrorist is a man with a bomb and no airplane to drop it from (EM Purcell).

The Azeris were bad first (Elena Bonner) 

"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of

oppressions, begun in a distinguished period and pursued unilaterally thro' every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of

reducing us to slavery".     Thomas Jefferson (1774)

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Monachem Begin; terrorist in 1945 leader of Israel 1978

Bourgiba, jailed in Cairo, first President of Tunisia

    A rebellion is a Revolution that does

not succeed (Victor Weisskopf) May 1940,  I learned unarmed combat.

Was I becoming a terrorist or a Freedom fighter?

The Planners and Financiers of Terrorism

    President Bush says he opposed the planners, and financiers, of terrorism.

How about those in NY and Boston who financed the IRA?

Civilian or Military Targets?

    Are they different?Must a civilian be unarmed?What about throwing stones?

Even at worshippers? Does a military target justify Collateral

damage?What about the terror of Mutually

Assured Destruction

Cowardly acts

    Are "suicide bombers" "cowardly"?

Japanese Kamikaze pilots?Colonel Claus von Stauffenburg in 1944?Pilots dropping bombs on a UN refugee

camp?

Suicide bomber in Tel Aviv?

Step 1

The root causes of Terrorism   We ...... a diverse community of many races,

religions, cultures and nations, commit ourselves to work for peace and justice everywhere in the world. 

We invite others to join in this commitment.   We must and will fight ignorance, poverty, hunger,

intolerance and injustice wherever and whenever they show their ugly faces.  We must succeed  so 

that  no one state, no one group or even one individual will ever again have the desperation  to perform such an abominable act as the attack on

September 11th 2001 or shelter one of the perpetrators"

Step 2.Keeping Terrorists at Arm’s length   Resolve major trouble spots

before they festerKashmir/Israel-Palestine

Capitalize on present unanimityMikhail Gorbachev urges use of UN

set up in 1945 for such purposes but bypassed by USA and USSR

Step 3. Making Society Safer

    Do not store a lot of fuel in one place

near a lot of people in one place.  Oil tanks and LNGfacilities should be in

remote areas.   (London’s decision about Canvey in 1848)

Terrorism and Sabotage already considered to some extent for

nuclear power.

Imagine what a terrorist might do and

devise a system to make it hard for him to do it. 

Event Tree Analysis

Pilots should now resist a hijacking

Bar cockpit doorsHidden switch to take control of

plane to ground or automatic pilot

Where were the plans for a major fire at WTC?

Asbestos protects for 4 hoursNo asbestos above 64th floor;

Helicopter fire fighters?Protect Buildings by cables from towers or

balloons

Irradiate all mail at sorting offices (Co60 or Cs137)

Some terrorists are now educated.

Also some act in concert

    Sabotage and terrorism are unfortunate facts of life.

  They will be with us until the end

of the human race.