NCJ Number
196921
Journal
Crime & Justice International Volume: 18 Issue: 64 Dated: July/August 2002 Pages: 7-8
Date Published
July 2002
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article examines the terrorist actions that utilize the United States mail system to achieve its objectives.
Abstract
The author explains that the United States mail system has been used in the past, and likely will be used in the future, by terrorists determined to cause havoc. Past terrorists threats that have utilized the domestic mail system are recounted by the author, including 178 anthrax threats received through the mail in 1999 and 2000. In many cases, those using terrorist tactics by sending poisons or bombs through the mail are seeking to revenge a perceived wrong perpetrated upon them by those they know. Thus, explains the author, most crimes of violence that utilize the domestic mail system are not committed by foreign terrorists, but by people known to the victims, in response to a perceived wrong. In other cases, those using the mail system to perpetrate crimes involving poisons or bombs are seeking to have their message heard; to have their grievance against American society broadcast to the public at large. The author explains that as the media reports on cases of anthrax or pipe bombs sent through the mail, the perpetrators of these crimes then have the attention they were seeking; a platform from which to voice their dissatisfaction. The author notes that regardless of whether the mail threats target particular people or are more general terrorist threats aimed at the whole of society, the effects are the same: fear. 7 References