Terrorists: Who They Are and What They Do
From Amy Zalman, Ph.D., former About.com Guide
National Liberation
The individuals and groups here are associated with national liberation movements. Some aim to achieve independence from a perceived occupation, such as of Ireland or Kashmir. Others want to establish autonomous territory, or to achieve political representation in an existing state, as Hezballah does.
- Abu Nidal (Palestine)
- Brian Keenan (Ireland)
- ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom)
- Hamas
- Hezballah
- Irish Republican Army (IRA)
- Jaysh-e Muhammad
- LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)
- Menachem Begin (Israel)
- PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)
- RIRA (Real Irish Republican Army)
- Yasir Arafat (Palestine)
Left Wing Revolutionary
Leftist ideals and ideologies, such as anarchism and socialism, drove most terrorist activity in the late 19th and 20th century. Today, although the specific historic context has been lost to us, the names of the most famous and destructive groups have not, such as Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang and the American Black Panthers.
- History of Left Wing Terrorism
- History of Anarchism and Terrorism
- Narodnaya Volya (Tsarist Russia)
- Baader-Meinhof Group (Germany)
- Black Panthers (U.S.A.)
- Che Guevara
- FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces Group, Colombia)
- Weather Underground (U.S.A.)
Islamist
These groups are frequently categorized as Islamist. However, nearly every group on this list has a more complex makeup and set of motivations than the label suggests. Most are grounded in local or regional territorial and political disputes, and a few have criminal ties as well.
- Abu Sayyaf
- Al Qaeda
- Al Qaeda in Iraq
- Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb
- Al Shabab
- Ayman Al Zawahiri (Al Qaeda)
- Fatah Al Islam
- Islamic Jihad Movement of Palestine
- Jemaah Islamiyya
- Khaled Sheikh Muhammad (Al Qaeda)
- Lashkar-e Tayyiba
- Muslim Brotherhood
- Laskar Jihad
- Osama bin Laden
State Sponsors of Terrorism
In 1979, the United State established a list of countries providing either direct or indirect support to terrorist groups. There are currently four states on the list: Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. North Korea was removed in October, 2008.