ABSTRACT
The term, however, has connotations beyond the weapons choice of the attacker. It suggests a new breed of terrorist who is prepared to break new ground, to ruthlessly innovate in the name of their cause. It suggests an insurgent who is prepared to shatter Brian Jenkins' maxim that 'terrorists want a lot of people watching and a lot of people listening and not a lot of people dead.'2 It suggests a post-modem terrorist, who plays an old game by new rules.3 These new players are generally assumed to be religiously motivated, with no regard for human life, and less of a perception of the traditional linkages between victim, target and audience than 'traditional' terrorist groups: The implication is that the last generation of terrorists - the PIRAs, PFLPs, ETAs and RAFs - were predictable and rational in comparison to the
new breed of potential superterrorists. In a recent article Ehud Sprinzak has labeled the assumption that there are more extremist groups than in the past, and that they have a heightened interest in mounting an attack on American soil, 'The Chaos Proposition'.5
