Terrorist on trial: the context of political crime

When political terrorists stand trial for their violent acts, the political context inevitably plays a major role. This article describes the trial of an Abu Nidal terrorist tried in federal court for skyjacking an Egyptian airliner. The defense portrayed the traumas of the Palestinian people and of the defendant at the hands of the Israelis, offering a not guilty by reason of insanity defense on the basis of posttraumatic stress disorder. Making sense to the jury of how a sane individual could carry out a violent act in which more than 50 innocent men, women, and children died was the task of the author, who served as expert for the U.S. Department of Justice. The paper describes how the subject was socialized to violence in the refugee camps, where he was inspired to be a soldier in the revolution in order to reclaim his family lands. Nationalist-separatist terrorism is particularly intractable because of the generational transmission of hatred and revenge.