The Age of Terror: A Survey of Modern Terrorism

This program analyzes terrorism used in the name of national liberation through studies of covert wars for independence in British Palestine, British Malaya, French Algeria, apartheid South Africa, and Northern Ireland. Bruce Hoffman, co-author of Countering the New Terrorism, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu offer their insights, while former Irgun commander Shraga Alis; former Malayan Communist Party leader Chin Peng; former FLN commander Yacef Saadi; Milk Bar Cafe bomber Zohra Drif; retired French military officers Paul Aussaresses and Pierre-Alban Thomas; former ANC bomber Robert McBride; and former IRA member Patrick Magee—the Brighton Bomber—reflect on the parts they played in terror and counter-terror actions

For modern revolutionaries the world over, Cuba's Che Guevara literally wrote the book. This program examines radical political movements in Germany, Italy, Peru, and Colombia to see how Che's theories have fared in practice. Former gunman Peter Juergen Boock, of the Baader-Meinhof Gang; former gunman Valerio Morucci, of the Red Brigades; a former Shining Path insurgent; and Raul Reyes, second-in-command of FARC, talk about their roles in their factions’ ideological wars. Giovanni Moro, son of the murdered Italian statesman Aldo Moro; Peruvian Truth Commission member Carlos Tapia, former leader of the United Left Front; and Peru’s Minister of Justice Fernando Olivera Vega provide additional insights.

By detailing key incidents ranging from the Dawson's Field hijackings to the Luxor massacre, this program charts the ever-widening holy war that is pitting Islamists against Zionists and the Arab world against the West. The Kach Party's Noam Federman; Bassam abu Sharif, founder of the Palestine Democratic Party; Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, operational and spiritual leaders of Hamas; Sheikh Jamal Khatab and Sheikh Fadlallah, spiritual leaders of Lebanese al Qaeda and Hezbollah; former Jewish Underground leader Yehuda Etzion; and former PFLP hijacker Leila Khaled are featured, as are former prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Conor Gearty, expert in human rights law.

This program profiles cases of Iranian-sponsored terrorism via the Hezbollah and the PLO as well as Argentina's dirty war, when the government used terror tactics against its own people. U.S.-backed insurgency in Nicaragua via the Contras is also analyzed. Joseph Kennedy II; Duane Clarridge, former chief of the CIA's Latin American division; and Bayardo Izaba, of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, are spotlighted, as are retired General Martin Balza, former head of Argentina's armed forces; former interrogator Hector Vergez; Estela Barnes de Carlotto, president of the Association of Grandmothers of the May Square; and forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who is committed to identifying remains of the disappeared.