Introduction
Page 2
United States government
Page 4
European Union
Page 5
Islamic states
Page 6
Terrorist statements
Page 7
State terrorism
Page 8
Aerial bombardment
Page 9
Commercial mass media
Page 10
The contradictions
Page 11
Culture of war
Page 12
The amount of damage caused by state terrorism is far greater than that caused by Al Qaida and other such non-state terrorist organizations. Why then do the media speak only of non-state terrorism? Two reasons are immediately evident:
First, non-state terrorist organizations threaten to break the monopoly on violence that is supposed to be held by state powers according to the unwritten rules of the power in today's world. State powers try to prevent any other institutions from holding means of organized violence, including armies and weapons of war, which threaten to destabilize the 'peace' which is defined by state power. The media usually does not question these unwritten rules of power.
Second, non-state terrorist organizations are given unprecedented attention by the commercial mass media. While the nuclear terrorism of the state receives little attention, every terrorist act by Al Qaida and other non-state terrorists receives headline news, and every news bulletin that they issue is quoted and analyzed repeatedly by media around the world. There is an unwritten synergy giving the appearance of an implicit conspiracy between the modern terrorist and the contemporary mass media. On the one hand, the headlines given to terrorist acts help commercial newspapers and television programs attract readers and thereby satisfy their advertisers. On the other hand, the terrorists are able to get their message across because they get so much publicity.
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