On the fifth of November, 1605 Guy Fawkes otherwise known as Guido Fawkes attempted to blow up the Parliament building in Great Britain. He was not alone, according to the history surrounding this event there were five central conspirators of which he was one, these men failed. Fast forward to April 19, 1995 and the Alfred P. Murrah building, a Ryder truck filled with over 1500 pounds of explosive materials detonated. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were caught, tried and sentenced for the bombing. September 11, 2001 in New York City a plane is seen crashing into the Trade Center Towers, over the next several minutes another plane impacts the other tower and reports are heard from Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania regarding more incidents. The accused attackers are almost entirely Saudi in nationality, and some are captured, some are killed and we continue to “fight” several minor conflicts as a result of this attack.

What is terrorism, for many the definitions vary; political science majors will say it is one thing while attorneys and intelligence agents will also redefine as is necessary.  The easiest definition for terrorism is as follows, “Any actual or threatened attack against civilian noncombatants may be considered an act of “terrorism.” Terrorists are people or entities that tend to be unable to confront their perceived or real enemies directly and accordingly resort to violent actions or threats against noncombatants to achieve their goals.” What is treason; this again has varied definitions depending on the state department, political entity or school teaching it. However, it can be easily defined as the following, “the crime of betraying ones country by attempting to overthrow its leader.”