ABSTRACT
In his encyclopedic survey of terrorism 'from Robespierre to Arafat' , Albert Parry has this to say about the terrorist group, Ie Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ), that was active in Canada between 1963 and 1973:
The Front operated in groups or cells of five to seven members each .... In the Nechayevist way of organizing and running such terror cells, the majority of them only knew members of their own units, but not those of other units. At one time the Canadian authorities even doubted the existence of any central guidance of all the cells. But the government was wrong: the Front was tightly interconnected and thoroughly managed from one principal underground directorate. 1
Here we have a neat image of a classic cellular structure, with a centralized leadership. Parry accentuates this unified image by saying 'the Front' did this and 'the Front' did that. The problem with this image is that it is wrong.
