1. “Patterns of global terrorism” (U.S. Department of State Washington DC May 2002); available at www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2001/. “The U.S. Governmenthas employed this definition of terrorism for statistical and analytical purposes since 1983.”
2. U.S. Code Congress. Admin. News 98th Congress 2nd Session v. 2 par. 3077 98 STAT. (19 October 1984).
3. Until 1983 official U.S. positions on “terror” followed the term's common meaning in use since the French Revolution referring to state-sponsored terror. For example under “sources relating to Operation Enduring Freedom and the struggle against terrorism ” the U.S. Navy's Web guide on terrorism regularly links to Department of Defense articles on Iraq (www.history.navy.mil/library/guides/terrorism.htm).
4. The recent Guatemalan truth commission report singled out the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) now at Fort Benning Georgia for counterinsurgency training that “had a significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed conflict.” A 1998 human rights report released by the Guatemala Archdiocese Human Rights Office also linked SOA graduates in Guatemala's military intelligence (D-2 G-2) to a civilian-targeted campaign of kidnappings torture and murder that left tens of thousands dead. References available online through Network Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) “U.S. Army School of the Americas cited in Guatemalan Truth Commission Report ” 17 July 2001; available at www.nisgua.org/articles/school_of_the_americas. htm.
5. B. Lewis The Assassins (Basic New York 2002).