a legitimate front, behind which they operate consistently. In smaller organizations, the leadership may
be the same as the active cadre.
2. The Active Cadre. The active cadre are the doers, the people of action who carry out the orders
from their higher commands. They are normally organized into small active service units or cells. Each
unit or cell will normally specialize. A typical cell may consist of 4 to 6 bombers, arsonists, assassins,
and so on. With few active cadre, secrecy is easy to maintain. In most groups only one terrorist from
one cell will know one other terrorist in another cell. The active cadre also will contain the trainers.
Most of them maintain their skills through on the job training (OJT). These people are criminally violent
and are willing to kill.
3. Active Supporters. The active supporters provide the support needed to sustain terrorist
operations. They provide safe houses, weapons, ammunition, vehicles, medical support, food, money,
the list seems endless. Active supporters often come from the professional classes, for example,
lawyers, doctors, and businessmen. In summary, the active supporters normally provide a source of
new blood to the active cadre. These persons are not willing to conduct violent criminal acts.
4. Passive Supporters. The passive supporters are the most difficult elements to define and
recognize. They consist of those people sympathetic to the cause, but will not stand up and be counted
through the fear of becoming involved. They also consist of those people who may be ignorant of the
true aims of the cause and ignorant that their support is important to the politically motivated terrorist
who needs overall popular support to survive. It is from this passive support that the popular support
derives. Passive supporters often unwittingly provide donations in the form of cash. They are also
relied upon heavily to "spread the word."
The diagrams in Figure 3-4 represent the cellular structure of terrorist organizations in both small (40-
50) and moderately-sized (100-500) groups.
Although there is no apparent worldwide conspiracy, a trend toward cooperation has developed among
terrorist groups. This includes sharing resources, expertise, and safe havens, and conducting joint
operations. The list of benefits is considerable; arms, ammunition, money, intelligence, explosives, and
safe houses. The Lod Airport massacre is a good example of this network in operation when members
of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) returned a favor to the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) on May 30, 1972. Their preparation and planning included traveling to the U.S., Canada,
France, and then to Lebanon. There, they were instructed in guerrilla tactics at a Fedayeen training
camp. They then traveled to Rome where they were supplied with Czech weapons and ammunition.
They went on to a safe house in Rome where they waited to travel to Tel Aviv to commit the final acts.
5.
Sovereign State Support.
Many terrorist groups also receive help from social, ethnic, and political groups in their area of
operations. These countries and organizations provide
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