Acts of terrorism shook the world

Sep 11 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

The Journal celebrates its 50,000th issue today, the latest in a long and illustrious history for this influential and much-respected newspaper. Alastair Gilmour continues a survey of international, national and local events featured in the pages of its 176-year run.

TERRORISM, nationalism and intimidation in the name of religion have been reported in The Journal virtually since our first issue on May 12, 1832, from Boer insurgent groups to the IRA, the Viet Cong, Hezbollah and al Quaida. But the late 20th Century experienced a particularly significant sequence of horrific events.

Saturday, October 13, 1984: IRA bombs won’t stop us. All attempts to destroy democracy by terror will fail. “Britain was within a whisker of losing its Prime Minister – and half of her Cabinet – in the IRA’s Brighton bomb outrage.

“The country’s worst-ever political assassination attempt, which is feared to have claimed four lives and injured 30, threatened to trigger a major political crisis.”

Thursday, December 22, 1988: Hundreds killed in Borders air crash.

“All 273 passengers and crew aboard a Jumbo jet died last night when the aircraft crashed in a fireball in Britain’s worst ever air disaster. A massive rescue operation was immediately thrown into operation – but early today it seemed the only casualties to survive were on the ground when the giant Pan-Am jet ploughed into the main road through the sleepy Scottish border town of Lockerbie, 25 miles north-west of Carlisle.”

Wednesday, September 11, 2001: Act of War. Thousands feared dead as terrorists strike at the heart of the free world. “It was the day America stared terrorism in the eye as tens of thousands were feared dead and the world looked on in horror. In the blood-stained history of fanatical attacks there has never been such a dark date as September 11, 2001.

“Stunned millions around the world watched on live television as first one hijacked plane then another slammed into the 110-storey twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Within an hour the most powerful symbols of US economic power had collapsed... Last night one question echoed from coast to coast: Why?”

Friday, July 8, 2005: Terror in London. “London was last night struggling to come to terms with a series of bomb attacks that left a trail of carnage across the city. Four huge bombs killed at least 37 people and left many more seriously injured in a ‘barbaric’ series of co-ordinated attacks on the city’s transport network. No warning was given of the attacks which have been blamed on the al Quaida terror network.”