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Essay on Threat Assessment Of The Japanese Red Army
Almost without exception the public's perception of the terrorist is of someone associated with a revolutionary organization. There may be state terror or criminals and madmen, vigilantes, and authorized assassins; but for the many the real terrorist belongs to a revolutionary organization- the Japanese Red Army is among one of them.
Uniformed guerrillas fighting a rural irregular war that has given them control over a liberated-zone and the opportunity to establish a government are still "terrorists." Others, advocates of a cherished cause, can always find a rationalization for any deed, no matter how violent and unsavory. For them any violent act is legitimate.
What is clear is that violence is used by revolutionaries in a variety of ways for differing purposes that may overlap but can be examined separately.
Every revolutionary organization must cope with the problems of maintaining internal discipline, inhibiting penetration, and punishing errant members. Such activities take part within the organization. To be effective, punishment must be swift, harsh, and visible. It is, therefore, usually highly formalized, with a trial, defense, sentence, and execution.
Clearly, in the underground, on the run, the niceties of law and civilized restraint often suffer, if not by choice then by necessity. But generally, internal, organization terror is not meant to intimidate others, only to punish the guilty. The assumption is that most of the revolutionary apples in the barrel are sound and that the cadres can trust each other, even though vigilance must be maintained. And the occasional execution or torture session--as long as it is occasional-should have a salubrious effect on discipline. Yet in those organizations filled with fanatics on the fringe of reality, such "trials and punishments" may have little to do with organizational discipline--a girl in the Japanese Red Army was tried, convicted, and murdered for wearing earrings....
