Criminal groups and terrorist organizations in domestic and international contexts

Terrorist Groups:

Terrorism is basically defined as activities or violence that is carried out to coerce the government or civilian population to change its policies. Such activities are usually carried out due to divergent political, religious and ideological beliefs by individuals or members of an extremist group. However, the federal agencies definitions of terrorism vary depending on their operational roles and missions resulting in the lack of a universally accepted definition of terrorism in the United States. Consequently, there is either domestic or international terrorism depending on the origin of an extremist or terrorist group, where they launch their terrorist activities and who the victims of these attacks are ("Combating Terrorism," 2003). International terrorism is motivated by a range of interrelated factors and trends including technological advances and associations with international crime.

Al-Qaeda Network:

The Al-Qaeda Network is an international terrorist organization that was established in 1988 and is led by Osama Bin Laden who finances, recruits, transports and trains many fighters from several countries to be part of the Afghan resistance to conquer the Soviet Union ("Al-Qaida," 2006). To continue this holy war beyond Afghanistan, the present objective of the group is to set up a pan-Islamic Caliphate across the globe by working with Islamic extremist groups to defeat regimes that are considered to be non-Islamic. Moreover, the current goals of the Al-Qaeda Network include driving out Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries.

Al-Qaeda Network has a global network of terrorist cells than can launch an attack at any moment and were supported by the Taliban Government until they attacked America in September 11, 2001. The activities of this terrorist group include bombing, suicide attacks, assassination, kidnapping and hijacking. It's reported that the leader of the Network has a strong desire acquire and use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The targets of the activities of this group usually tent to be famous symbols and places like military personnel, embassies and public buildings. Some of the alleged attacks by the Al-Qaeda Network include the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Dar es Salaam as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 ("Al-Qaeda," n.d.).

Ku Klux Klan:

This is a racist, anti-Semitic movement in the United States with the largest number of national and local organizations throughout the country. Ku Klux Klan is considered as a domestic terrorist organization because of the commitment to excessive violence in order to achieve its objectives of white supremacy and racial segregation. Currently, the organization has over forty different Klan groups with several chapters that are in existence in several states. With more than 100 different chapters in the entire country, Ku Klux Klan has a combined strength of approximately 5,000 members and associates ("Domestic Terrorist Organizations," n.d.). The activities of the group have increased in the recent past since 2006 in its attempts to exploit public fears over crime, gay marriage, immigration and apparent attack on Christianity.

During the first years after its inception, the organization focused its anger and violence on African-Americans, white Americans who supported them and federal government's attempts to protect their rights. As times for rapid social change emerged, it added more categories to its list of enemies such as homosexuals, Jews, various immigrant groups and Catholics. Consequently, their apparent enemies in these cases were minority groups that were competing with lower and working-class whites who constituted most of the group's members. In the recent years, Ku Klux Klan activities have been centered on the exploitation of public fear and uncertainty through anti-immigration sentiments and propaganda for recruitment.