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The Uncommitted Audience

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Terrorist Propaganda

Abstract

The next three chapters will discuss the propaganda of the two terrorist groups with which this book is concerned. Before doing so, some preliminary remarks will be made on defining propaganda, its relation to terrorism, its techniques and its limitations. This will be followed by an outline of the chosen framework for analysis and an explanation as to why this framework has been chosen. To conclude these introductory remarks, there will be a brief note on the sources from which the main data for the chapters are drawn.

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Notes and References

  1. Thornton, op. cit., p. 73.

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  2. NATO Glossary of Terms and Definitions for Military Use (NATO, February 1974) pp. 2–176.

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  3. G. S. Jowlett and V. O’Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion (USA: Sage Publications Inc., 1986) p. 23.

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  4. J. Ellul, Propaganda; The Formation of Mens’ Attitudes (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969) pp. 208–9.

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  5. ibid., p. 30.

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  6. ibid., p. 299.

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  7. M. A. J. Tugwell, Revolutionary Propaganda and Possible Counter-Measures, unpublished Defence Fellowship Thesis, Defence Fellow 1976–77 at Department of War Studies, Kings College, University of London, p. 224.

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  8. Debray, op. cit., p. 53.

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  9. ibid., p. 89.

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  10. Reinhard Rauball (ed.) Aktuelle Dokumente (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1973).

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  11. Texte: der RAF (Malmo, Sweden: GOTAB, 1977).

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  12. M. A. J. Tugwell, ‘Terrorism and Propaganda’, paper delivered at University of Aberdeen International Academic Conference on Terrorism (April 1986) p. 6.

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  13. This was the period in the autumn of 1977, when the RAF kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer and demanded the release of imprisoned colleagues. A Lufthansa jet was hijacked with the hijackers presenting the same demands. The plane, however, was successfully stormed at Mogadishu whereupon the prisoners in Stammheim committed suicide. The body of Hanns Martin Schleyer was found a few days later.

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  14. Mahler quoted in Becker, ‘Another Battle...’, op. cit., p. 95.

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  15. Vietnam is very prominent in early RAF propaganda and is aimed at all the target audiences. It will however be argued that the Vietnam theme is used for different purposes within different target audiences. For example, in the chapter concerning the sympathetic audience it will be postulated that Vietnam is used as a means of justifying violent actions. For the moment though, we are only concerned with the attempt to present disadvantaged groups.

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  16. Ensslin at her trial in April 1968, quoted in Becker, ‘Hitler’s Children...’, op. cit., p. 79.

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  18. Quoted in S. Aust, The Baader-Meinhqf Group (trans.) A. Bell (London: Bodley Head, 1987) p. 209.

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  19. Quoted in Aust, ibid., p. 211.

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  20. RAF communique claiming responsibility for an attack on the US Mess office in Heidelberg, 24 May 1972.

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  21. Raspe quoted in Aust, op. cit., p. 315.

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  22. 2 June member, Bomi Baumann, decried ‘[t]hese same people who gassed six million Jews, they harass you because of your hair [style]’, Baumann, op. cit., p. 31.

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  28. ibid.

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  31. The Times, 13 March 1981.

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  34. ibid.

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  36. ibid., p. 440.

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  37. Resources here do not include the ‘justness’ of the cause. Although this is sometimes referred to in propaganda directed towards the uncommitted audience, the type of propaganda source in which it usually appears is directed more towards the sympathetic and active audiences. In this section resources refer to personnel and military equipment.

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  38. Baumann, op. cit., p. 57.

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  39. Der Spiegel, 20 Jan. 1975, pp. 55–6.

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  40. ibid., p. 57.

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  41. Der Spiegel, 24 June 1974, p. 29.

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  42. Quoted in Aust, op. cit., p. 266.

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  43. The Times, 3 May 1978.

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  44. ibid., 1 June 1978.

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  45. ibid., 15 June 1978.

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  46. Der Spiegel, 10 March 1975, p. 25.

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  47. ibid., 20 Jan. 1975, p. 56.

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  48. Schleyer quoted in Aust, op. cit., p. 440.

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  49. Mahler interview with E. Pond, Christian Science Monitor, 29 Aug. 1978.

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  50. Message received by French newspaper Liberation, quoted in The Times, 20 Oct. 1977.

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  51. Most citizens in the Irish Republic are able to receive British television and radio broadcasts. British newspapers are also readily available.

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  52. M. McGuire, To Take Arms (London: Macmillan, 1973) p. 16.

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  53. ibid., pp. 74–5.

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  54. See Bowyer Bell, op. cit., p. 368.

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  55. Morrison quoted in P. O’Malley, The Uncivil Wars (Belfast: Blackstaff, 1983) p. 279.

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  56. McGuire, op. cit., p. 23.

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  57. Republican News, 9 Oct. 1971.

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  58. It is conceded that on occasions both the British Army and the RUC have engaged in interrogation techniques which were ‘illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland’. (See Report of the Committee of Privy Counsellors appointed to consider authorised procedures for the interrogation of persons suspected of terrorism, (Parker) Cmnd 4901, p. 14 (London: HMSO, 1972). In January 1978, the European Court of Human Rights found Britain in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which states: ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. The basis of this finding was Britain’s use of five sensory deprivation techniques — the hooding of detainees, subjecting them to constant noise, sleep deprivation, diet restriction and long periods of positioning against the wall. By the time of the European Court’s findings Britain had already undertaken to abandon the five techniques in question and compensated those involved to the extent of more than two hundred thousand pounds. The purpose of the discussion here is to demonstrate that the Provisionals exaggerated and manipulated such findings with the intent to discredit the British state and the security forces. Indeed, Tugwell argues that they were so successful in this type of propaganda with the ‘effect of making arrested members “sing” the moment they fell into police or army hands’. (Tugwell, ‘Revolutionary Propaganda...’, op. cit., pp. 238–42).

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  59. These incidents and their repercussions are discussed in more detail in Chapter 7.

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  60. Belfast Telegraph, 6 July 1970.

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  61. Since the political party associated with the Official IRA dropped Sinn Fein from its title in 1982, henceforth Provisional Sinn Fein will be referred to as just Sinn Fein.

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  62. An Firme, (Belfast, PSF, 1971).

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  63. G. Adams, ‘Peace in Ireland — A Broad Analysis of the present Situation’, (Long Kesh: N.D.) p. 1.

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  64. Irish News, 13 Oct. 1984.

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  65. Observer, 14 Oct. 1984. See also International Herald Tribune, 15 Oct. 1984.

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  66. Irish News, 22 Aug. 1981.

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  67. Keesings Contemporary Archives, Vol. xxix, p. 32197 A-B. Livingstone’s comments and their implications are discussed more fully in Chapter 7.

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  68. Bowyer Bell, op. cit., p. 386.

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  69. McGuire, op. cit., p. 102.

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  70. S. O’Riain, Provos — Patriots or Terrorists? (Dublin: Irish Book Bureau, 1975) p. 22.

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  71. Belfast Telegraph, 13 Dec. 1975.

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  72. McGuire, op. cit., p. 80.

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  73. R. Clutterbuck, The Media and Political Violence (London: Macmillan, 1981) p. 92.

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  74. Irish Times, 10 Oct. 1979.

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  75. Bell quoted in Clutterbuck, op. cit., p. 93.

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  76. Belfast Telegraph, 9 Nov. 1979.

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  77. The Guardian, 10 Nov. 1979.

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  78. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 2 Jan. 1986.

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  79. Irish News, 13 April 1981.

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  80. Belfast Telegraph, 11 Aug. 1984.

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  81. ibid., 28 March 1978.

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  82. ibid., 1 Dec. 1978.

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  83. PIRA spokesman quoted in E. O’Ballance, Terror in Ireland (USA: Presidio Press, 1981) p. 256.

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  84. McGuire, op. cit., p. 35.

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  85. See Coogan, ‘The IRA’, op. cit., p. 583, and L. Gurtis, Ireland the Propaganda War (London: Pluto, 1984) p. 140.

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  86. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 16 May 1981.

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  87. Irish News, 13 Oct. 1984: and The Times, 13 Oct. 1984.

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  88. Tugwell, ‘Revolutionary Propaganda...’, op. cit., p. 231. See also p. 113.

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  89. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 20 March 1986.

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  90. ibid., 27 March 1986.

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  91. ibid., 2 Jan. 1986.

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  92. ibid., 13 Feb. 1986.

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  93. ibid., 1 Feb. 1975.

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  94. ibid., 29 Aug. 1985.

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  95. ibid., 22 Aug. 1985. See also Belfast Telegraph, 22 Aug. 1985.

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  96. See The Australian, 2 Sep. 1986.

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  97. An Phoblacht/Republican News, 2 Jan. 1986.

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  98. Northern People, 18 July 1986. (Emphasis in original.)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Government, University of Queensland, Australia

    Joanne Wright (Lecturer)

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  1. Joanne Wright
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© 1990 Joanne Wright

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Wright, J. (1990). The Uncommitted Audience. In: Terrorist Propaganda. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11714-7_4

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