Alt Terrorist Incidents Post-1945?

[KuboCaskett]

While people talk about possible conflicts during and after the Cold War (especially a certain Third World War), what's been missing out are ones regarding terrorist (or "freedom fighter") incidents that may or may not involve hostages, especially as they became more prominent after 1972 with the Munich incident and evolved after 9/11, which aren't a coincidence given the ties to the Cold War to various degrees. So then, what are some possible ways terrorist incidents (whether of the leftwing, rightwing, or something) can occur and where, and if so, can they be successfully toppled? Even better, what if the proxy thing with terrorists was taken on the next level, like what Iran does with its proxies IOTL (short of escalating into a shooting war)?

I know this may be a nebulous topic but lately I've been thinking about it since talking about possible conventional war and the nuclear possibility (or likeliness if you prefer) can get stale and not too reflective of what's going on regarding non-state organizations and people opposed to the government (even though there's a massive exception regarding Ukraine right now).

 

[NHBL]

In my current timeline, the United States, early in the first Carter Administration, adapted a "Declaration of Energy Independence." The goal was to eliminate (or drastically reduce) the need for imported oil.
The various oil exporters arranged for Fatwas condemning nuclear power as unlawful, blasphemous, alchemy, and financed some folks to act accordingly.
One trawler full of explosives later, in April 1980, and Portsmouth Navy Yard was GONE, with USS Tecumseh sunk, and some 5000 dead. The timeline is in May of '81, with Carter's second term dealing with, in part, the Saudi civil war, the Iran-Iraq war, and a host of other complications.

(I lived in Portsmouth, and back then, it would have been EASY to run a trawler right up to the base.)

 

[Reflection]

I had a thought before: What if Al-Qaeda orchestrated a terrorist attack in Moscow in the '90s or the '00s, possibly targeting St. Basil's Cathedral or the Kremlin, with the cited motivation being a desire to get long-overdue revenge for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

 

[PakistaniGuyUK]

I've often wondered what if ASALA the Armenian terrorist organization became bigger and more effective and started killing more people including (non-Turkish) Westerners. In other words targeting anyone percieved as pro-Turkish or doing business with Turkey. What if they'd started getting funding from the Armenian diaspora etc same way as Irish Americans and the IRA.

Once the Turkish tourism industry kicked off in the 90s they could've started targeting resorts and other tourist places for maximum exposure essentially crippling it and massively damaging the Turkish economy.

In many ways ASALA in OTL didn't realise its full potential and could have been much bigger, on the same level as the IRA.

 

[KuboCaskett]

In my current timeline, the United States, early in the first Carter Administration, adapted a "Declaration of Energy Independence." The goal was to eliminate (or drastically reduce) the need for imported oil.
The various oil exporters arranged for Fatwas condemning nuclear power as unlawful, blasphemous, alchemy, and financed some folks to act accordingly.
One trawler full of explosives later, in April 1980, and Portsmouth Navy Yard was GONE, with USS Tecumseh sunk, and some 5000 dead. The timeline is in May of '81, with Carter's second term dealing with, in part, the Saudi civil war, the Iran-Iraq war, and a host of other complications.

(I lived in Portsmouth, and back then, it would have been EASY to run a trawler right up to the base.)

Interesting, though I have been also been thinking about how would the scenarios depicted in Hollywood movies play out in real life (especially Die Hard)? I've always thought the first film did the whole action thing quite realistically, for the most part, the other films, not so much (especially with the contrived scenario of DH2).

 

[ImperialxWarlord]

I had a thought before: What if Al-Qaeda orchestrated a terrorist attack in Moscow in the '90s or the '00s, possibly targeting St. Basil's Cathedral or the Kremlin, with the cited motivation being a desire to get long-overdue revenge for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

I’ve actually had a similar thought: whay if Al queda attacked Russia on 9/11 as well. Or not long after. What would they do I wonder. Would certainly be interesting.

 

[Arkenfolm]

I've kind of been surprised terrorists don't target airports more often. Outside of airports on busy holidays at busy times, there are TONS of people and cars just standing around and often many people immediately inside lined up at security (especially post 9/11), at the ticket counter, picking up baggage. There are rarely any armed police standing around either, and very likely wouldn't have been before 9/11. An OKC-style truck bomb would likely get a four-figure death toll and a chance of even surpassing 9/11.

It would also make enough chaos that hijacking a plane from the ground would be easier. Presumably the terrorist would either fly it into a nearby building to cause further damage or perhaps use the passengers as hostages to try and escape to Cuba (if it were leftist militants, but I don't see leftist militants doing something so bloody since their choice of victims were usually governments, police, etc.).

I vaguely considered doing an ATL where Al Qaida goes for a string of attacks in a single American city, of which that's one of them (alongside shootings at popular tourist attractions, hijacking a plane and crashing it into a local building, and bombing a bridge at rush hour), but realized I didn't care enough to research the political changes and write it all out. As the Paris attacks showed, a terrorist group organising a single attack like that is very feasible and they'd only need a few people committed to it.

 

[KuboCaskett]

I've kind of been surprised terrorists don't target airports more often. Outside of airports on busy holidays at busy times, there are TONS of people and cars just standing around and often many people immediately inside lined up at security (especially post 9/11), at the ticket counter, picking up baggage. There are rarely any armed police standing around either, and very likely wouldn't have been before 9/11. An OKC-style truck bomb would likely get a four-figure death toll and a chance of even surpassing 9/11.

It would also make enough chaos that hijacking a plane from the ground would be easier. Presumably the terrorist would either fly it into a nearby building to cause further damage or perhaps use the passengers as hostages to try and escape to Cuba (if it were leftist militants, but I don't see leftist militants doing something so bloody since their choice of victims were usually governments, police, etc.).

I vaguely considered doing an ATL where Al Qaida goes for a string of attacks in a single American city, of which that's one of them (alongside shootings at popular tourist attractions, hijacking a plane and crashing it into a local building, and bombing a bridge at rush hour), but realized I didn't care enough to research the political changes and write it all out. As the Paris attacks showed, a terrorist group organising a single attack like that is very feasible and they'd only need a few people committed to it.

That's one way to have post-9/11 airport attacks by terrorists plausible; I was thinking they'd utilize the power of cyberwarfare and moles to do the trick, to a degree.

 

[KuboCaskett]

Bump