Although the total volume of terrorist incidents world-wide has declined in the 1990s, the proportion of
             persons killed in terrorist incidents has steadily risen. For example, according to the RAND-St Andrews
             University Chronology of International Terrorism,5 a record 484 international terrorist incidents were recorded
             in 1991, the year of the Gulf War, followed by 343 incidents in 1992, 360 in 1993, 353 in 1994, falling to 278
             incidents in 1995 (the last calendar year for which complete statistics are available).6 However, while terrorists
             were becoming less active, they were nonetheless becoming more lethal. For example, at least one person was
             killed in 29 percent of terrorist incidents in 1995: the highest percentage of fatalities to incidents recorded in the
             Chronology since 1968--and an increase of two percent over the previous year's record figure.7 In the United
             States this trend was most clearly reflected in 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in
             Oklahoma City. Since the turn of the century, fewer than a dozen of all the terrorist incidents committed
             world-wide have killed more than a 100 people. The 168 persons confirmed dead at the Murrah Building
             ranks sixth on the list of most fatalities caused this centuryin a single terrorist incident--domestic or
             The reasons for terrorism's increasing lethality are complex and variegated, but can generally be summed up as
             The growth in the number of terrorist groups motivated by a religious imperative;
             The proliferation of "amateurs" involved in terrorist acts; and,
             The increasing sophistication and operational competence of "professional" terrorists.
             The increase of terrorism motivated by a religious imperative neatly encapsulates the confluence of new
             adversaries, motivations and rationales affecting terrorist patterns today. Admittedly, the connection between
             religion and terrorism is not new.9 However, while rel...