WHAT IS A TERRORIST

A terrorist is a person who engages in terrorism.

Sorry.

Wow. Did I ever get lucky taking a class in terrorism from a former Special Agent (and Deputy Sheriff). It is true that terrorism has been traditionally been difficult to define. The best definition I've seen (or at least most complete) is actually from the State Department:
Title 22 of the U.S. Code, Section 2656(d) (as cited in the Department of State, 2000) contains these definitions:
--The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets [includes unarmed or off-duty military personnel and military installations and armed military personnel when a state of military hostilities does not exist] by sub-national groups clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.
--The term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country.
--The term “terrorist group” means any group practicing, or that has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.
The U.S. government has employed these definitions of terrorism for statistical and analytical purposes since 1983.

This definition does have the deficiency of not taking into account state terrorism (as opposed to state-sponsored terrorism), which is where a government practices terrorism against its own citizens in order to control them. Terrorism is more about the pursuit of power and control than anything else: the power to define a religion; ability to control a government or a people; or what have you.

Your post is a spot-on diagnosis of the ills of academia.

mgraves,

I appreciate your comments. I actually meant to include a definition of terrorism but I was in a rush to finish the article and forgot. The State Department definition sounds pretty accurate. It is interesting to note that the UN has never officially accepted a definition of terrorism.