TERRORISM is not new, it existed in Palestine at the time of Christ. Jewish ZEALOTS (in Hebrew those "jealous on behalf of God") murdered innocent civilians to inflict terror as a way to undermine Roman authorities and earned the appellation of SICARI or ASSASSINS. Some experts assert that Judas Iscariot was a Sicari. TERRORISM gained official status during the French Revolution with the introduction of the "Reign of Terror" headed by Robespierre. To promote "national security" (defend "La Patrie"), between 18,000 to 40,000 persons were guillotined in less than one year. Robespierre described state TERROR as nothing but "Prompt Severe Inflexible Justice".

In 1880, in his "The Possessed", Dostoyevsky predicted the state terrorism later introduced by the Bolsheviks who relied on mass murder, enslavement of the population, denial of individual freedoms, replacement of religion by party dogmas and the use of utter cynicism, falsehood and deception to control the population. Bertrand Russell described the "Red Terror" in the USSR as

" ... a hypocritical pretense of equality ...
everything that I valued in human life
was being destroyed in the interest of
a glib and narrow philosophy ...
untold misery was being inflicted
on millions of people ...
the horror increased until
I lost all power of balanced judgment ..."

The Bolshevik "Red Terror" was emulated by other rulers who invoked "national security" and blamed enemies of "La Patrie" to justify state terrorism. Perhaps because the boundary between acts of war and acts of terrorism have been erased, former terrorists (names withheld) are now glorified as Premiers or Presidents and by being awarded Nobel prizes.

See also: Terrorism - Zealot