Outline of terrorism in the United States

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the past and present terrorism in the United States:

Although terrorism has been given several different definitions, it is most commonly defined as the use of violence to achieve political goals.^[1]

Political terrorism has accounted for the majority of attacks in recent decades (a trend that has accelerated in recent years), while Islamist terrorism has accounted for the majority of deaths.^[2]

Designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States

Abu Nidal Organization
Abu Sayyaf Group
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Al Qaeda
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Ansar al-Islam
Armed Islamic Group
Asbat al-Ansar
Aum Shinrikyo
Caucasus Emirate
Communist Party of the Philippines
Continuity Irish Republican Army
Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Euskadi ta Askatasuna
Gama'a al-Islamiyya
Hamas
Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Hezbollah
Islamic Jihad Union
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jemaah Islamiya
Kach and Kahane Chai
Kurdistan Workers' Party
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Palestine Liberation Front
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
Real IRA
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Revolutionary Nuclei
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front
Shining Path
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia

Domestic violent extremist organizations

The following are political extremist groups that have used violence:

Animal Liberation Front
Army of God (USA)
Aryan Nations
Atomwaffen Division
Earth Liberation Front
Ku Klux Klan
Phineas Priesthood
The Base
Proud Boys

Inactive domestic violent extremist organizations

The following are violent extremist organizations that have been responsible for terrorist attacks on United States soil. These organizations are no longer active.

Buffalo Six
The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña
May 19th Communist Organization
National States' Rights Party
Omega-7
The Order
Symbionese Liberation Army
United Freedom Front
Weather Underground
FEAR (terrorist group)

Domestic terrorist attacks

The following is a list of terrorist attacks that have happened throughout United States history, which were committed by United States citizens.

May 21, 1856: Sacking of Lawrence
May 24, 1856 – May 25, 1856: Pottawatomie massacre
September 11, 1857: Mountain Meadows massacre
April 14, 1865: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
October 24, 1871: Chinese massacre
May 4, 1886: Haymarket affair
November 10, 1898: Wilmington insurrection
September 6, 1901: Assassination of William McKinley
October 1, 1910: Los Angeles Times bombing
July 22, 1916: Preparedness Day bombing
May–July 1917: East St. Louis riots
May–October 1919: Red Summer
April–June 1919: U.S. anarchist bombings
September 16, 1920: Wall Street bombing
May 31 – June 1, 1921: burning of Black Wall Street
January, 1923: razing and massacre of Rosewood
May 18, 1927: Bath School Disaster
December 25, 1951: Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore
October 12, 1958: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple
September 15, 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
November 22, 1963: Assassination of John F. Kennedy
February 16, 1970: San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing
May 29, 1970: Oakland pipe bombing
August 24, 1970: Sterling Hall bombing
November 7, 1983: 1983 U.S. Senate bombing
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing
July 27, 1996: Centennial Olympic Park bombing
October 13, 2000: Firebombing of Temple Beth El (Syracuse)
September 18, 2001 – October 9, 2001: Anthrax attacks
May 2002: Midwest pipe bombings
October 2002: Beltway Sniper Attacks
March 3, 2006: Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar SUV attack
July 28, 2006: Seattle Jewish Federation shooting
July 27, 2008: Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting
May 31, 2009: Assassination of George Tiller
June 1, 2009: Little Rock recruiting office shooting
June 10, 2009: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting
November 5, 2009: Fort Hood shooting
February 18, 2010: Austin suicide attack
September 1, 2010: Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis
August 5, 2012: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting
April 15, 2013: Boston Marathon bombing
June 8, 2014: Las Vegas shootings
September 12, 2014: Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack
October 23, 2014: Queens hatchet attack
June 17, 2015: Charleston church shooting
November 27, 2015: Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting
December 2, 2015: San Bernardino attack
June 12, 2016: Orlando nightclub shooting
September 17–19, 2016: New York and New Jersey bombings
November 28, 2016: Ohio State University attack
April 18, 2017: Fresno shootings
May 26, 2017: Portland train attack
June 14, 2017: Congressional baseball shooting
August 12, 2017: Charlottesville car attack
September 24, 2017: Burnette Chapel shooting
October 31, 2017: New York City truck attack
August 3, 2019: El Paso shooting
January 6, 2021: January 6 United States Capitol attack
January 15, 2022: Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis

Foreign terrorist attacks

The following are terrorist attacks that have occurred throughout United States history, which have been committed by foreign organizations and individuals.

July 30, 1916: Black Tom explosion
December 29, 1975: LaGuardia Airport Christmas Bomb
August 29 – October 10, 1984: 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
January 25, 1993: CIA Shooting – Mir Qazi
February 26, 1993: First World Trade Center bombing
February 23, 1997: Empire State Building shooting
September 11, 2001: September 11, 2001 attacks
July 4, 2002: 2002 Los Angeles Airport shooting
May 3, 2015: Curtis Culwell Center attack
December 2, 2015: 2015 San Bernardino attack
June 12, 2016: Orlando nightclub shooting
September 17, 2016: 2016 St. Cloud, Minnesota knife attack
October 31, 2017: 2017 New York City truck attack
December 6, 2019: Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting

Politically violent individuals

The following are individuals that have posed threats to United States security in the past, or have been involved in terrorist attacks.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
Jane Alpert
Dwight Armstrong
Karleton Armstrong
Mohamed Atta
Anwar al-Awlaki
H. Rap Brown
James Wenneker von Brunn
Leo Burt
Zvonko Bušić
Zachary Adam Chesser
Linda Evans
David Fine
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet
Nidal Malik Hasan
Bruce E. Ivins
Ted Kaczynski
Ali Hassan Abu Kamal
Osama bin Laden
Colleen LaRose
James J. Lee
Timothy McVeigh
Sam Melville
George Metesky
Thomas Mooney
John Allen Muhammad
Terry Nichols
José Padilla
Aimal Qazi
Eric Robert Rudolph
Dawud Salahuddin
Al-Shabaab
Faisal Shahzad
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi
Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar
Laura Whitehorn
Ramzi Yousef

Worldviews within terrorism

The following are common worldviews that have motivated political activists to utilize violence.

anarchist
anti-fascist
black supremacist
Boogalooism
Bordigist
communist
De Leonist
Đilasist
eco-terrorist
ethnic
guerrilla
Guevarist
Hoxhaist
Islamic Extremism in the United States
Islamic fundamentalists
far left
far right
fascist
Leninist
Luxemburgist
Maoist
Marxist
militia movement
militant
nationalist
Neo-Confederate
neo-luddite
neo-Nazi
New Left
Posadist
paramilitary
rebel
religious
resistance movements
revolutionary
separatist
socialist
Stalinist
Titoist
Trotskyist
white supremacist
vigilante

Methods used in terrorism

The following is a list of techniques that have been utilized by politically violent individuals in terrorist attacks.

agro-terrorism
arson
assassination
bioterrorism
bombing
car bombing
chemical terrorism
cyberterrorism
dirty bomb
dry run
environmental terrorism
firebombing
food poisoning
genocide
hijacking
hostage
individual terror
insurgency
kidnapping
letter bomb
paper terrorism
piracy
proxy bomb
shooting
stabbing
suicide bombing
vehicle-ramming attack

United States counter-terrorism organizations

The following is a list of federal organizations in the United States that combat terrorism according to The U.S. Department of State's website.^[3]

US Department of State

Bureau of Consular Affairs
Bureau of Diplomatic Security
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Foreign Service Institute
Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
United States Mission to the United Nations

Department of Defense

Defense Intelligence Agency
The War on Terror

Department of the Treasury

Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence

Department of Justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Most Wanted Terrorists

Department of Homeland Security

Coast Guard
Customs and Border Protection
Air Forces Northern National Security Emergency Preparedness Directorate
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Transportation Security Administration
U.S. Secret Service

Other agencies

Central Intelligence Agency
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
National Counterterrorism Center
Agency for International Development

The following are other United States counter-terrorism agencies according to various sources.

Air Force Office of Special Investigations
Counterintelligence Field Activity
Defense Criminal Investigative Service
Diplomatic Security Service
Naval Criminal Investigative Service
National Counterterrorism Center (as part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence) ^[4]
Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
United States Army Counterintelligence
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command

References

^ Terrorism. Retrieved November 30, 2011 from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism
^ "The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States".
^ U.S. Counterterrorism Team. Retrieved December 1, 2011 from U.S. Department of State
^ National Counterterrorism Center. Retrieved December 4, 2011 from: National Counterterrorism Center: http://www.nctc.gov Archived 2017-03-11 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Terrorism. Retrieved November 30, 2011 from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism

[2] "The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States".

[3] U.S. Counterterrorism Team. Retrieved December 1, 2011 from U.S. Department of State

[4] National Counterterrorism Center. Retrieved December 4, 2011 from: National Counterterrorism Center: http://www.nctc.gov Archived 2017-03-11 at the Wayback Machine

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