Tactics and Strategy: And How Democracy Fights Back

Abstract

Although the Euro-Arab terrorist offensive of 1977 proved again that a good deal of the urban terrorist’s time is devoted to fund raising, it also demonstrated that the tactics are geared to ensure that the transnational groups should become self-perpetuating. Tactically, the terror club needed to secure the release of Germans, Japanese and Arabs who had been captured in earlier raids. The Japanese Red Army in particular was short of trained operators and the hijacking of one airliner was all that they needed to put them back in business after a two-year respite in their activities. And it was with the co-operation of one powerful Arab group, and with support from the Germans, that they were able to carry it out successfully.