Page 366 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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346———Statue of Liberty Bombing

deal of control over how people act and even think. which begins, “Give me your tired, your poor/Your
State terrorism also appeals to governments that have huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Damages
only tenuous control over their populations—the exceeded $15,000.
white-minority government that ruled South Africa The bombers left no note at the scene, and federal
until the early 1990s is one example; that government authorities had few initial leads. Within hours of the
engaged in arbitrary detention, torture, and executions bombing, however, members of Omega 7, an anti-
for decades. In some cases, such as the Soviet Union, Castro terrorist group; the Fuerzas Armadas de Libera-
a newly established government will rely heavily on cion Nacional (FALN), a Puerto Rican independence
state terrorism, then eventually rely on it less as the group; the National Socialists, a Nazi group; the
rulers become more established and secure. Jewish Defense League; and the Palestine Liberation
Even well-established governments have adopted Army had all contacted newspapers and authorities,
policies of state terrorism, especially if directed against claiming responsibility and, in some cases, threatening
unpopular minorities that are viewed with suspicion by more violence. Investigators suspected that Omega 7
the general populace. While state terrorism is embraced was responsible because the group had cited Lazarus’s
as a way to strengthen government, as South Africa poem in its protests related to immigration policies and
demonstrated, state terrorism can backfire badly, lead- a recent wave of Cuban refugees.
ing not only to international and domestic condemna- Two days later, however, the New York Times and
tion but also to the establishment of nonstate terrorist NBC received letters from the Croatian Freedom
groups determined to fight violence with violence. Fighters, written in Croatian, taking responsibility for
the bomb. The letters made no specific demands, but
See also STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM
urged the worldwide community to recognize the
plight of the people of Croatia, who had lost their
Further Reading
autonomy to Yugoslavia in 1971. A similar letter had
Herman, Edward S. The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in been sent to the Washington Post a day earlier, in
Fact and Propaganda. Boston: South End, 1982. which the Croatian Freedom Fighters had claimed
Köcher, Hans, ed. Terrorism and National Liberation: Pro- responsibility for the June 3 bombing of the home of
ceedings of the International Conference on the Ques- a Yugoslavian ambassador, Vladimir Sindjelic, in
tion of Terrorism. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1988.
Schmid, Alex P., and Albert J. Jongman. Political Washington D.C., and had demanded for the creation
Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, of a Croatian state.
Data Bases, Theories and Literature. Amsterdam: The Croatian Freedom Fighters had also been
NorthHolland, 1988. responsible for several other bombings in the
New York area. In December 1979, the group bombed
a Yugoslav-owned travel agency in Astoria, Queens,
STATUE OF LIBERTY BOMBING followed by a St. Patrick’s Day bombing of a
Yugoslav bank, Yugobanka, on Fifth Avenue in Man-
hattan. The group also claimed responsibility for
On June 3, 1980, a bomb exploded in the museum bombs at the United Nations and New York’s Grand
at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Initially, at least Central Station in 1976. During the late 1970s, the
five separate terrorist groups took responsibility, but, FBI placed the Croatian Freedom Fighters among the
within days, the bombing was attributed to the Croat- top three most active militant foreign nationalist
ian Freedom Fighters. groups within the United States, along with the FALN
The bomb, which was placed in a wooden exhibit and Omega 7.
case in the museum’s Story Room, exploded at 7:25 The museum bombing was one of many political
P.M., an hour after the last ferry full of visitors left Lib- protests that have been staged at the Statue of Liberty.
erty Island. Although a dozen residents and five work- In 1980, two men scaled the statue, using climbing
ers were still on the island, no one was injured. The equipment, to protest the treatment of a convict during
explosion damaged a large section of the room’s ceil- a criminal trial in California; in 2000 activists protest-
ing, as well as some contents of the exhibit case, ing the U.S. bombing tests on the island of Vieques
including a first publication of Emma Lazarus’s poem, draped the statue in the Puerto Rican flag.