SAMPLE EXAM QUESTIONS FOR TERRORISM AND LAW
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1. Which of the following is NOT an act of terrorism?
    A. the Million Man March on Washington D.C. *
    B. assassination of a political leader
    C. bombing of an abortion clinic
    D. the criminal lynching of blacks in the South

2. What type of terrorist engages in what is called a "vendetta"?
    A. one with strong political beliefs
    B. one with strong religious beliefs
    C. one with strong family ties *
    D. one with a strong sense of injustice

3. Assassins have historically been indoctrinated to believe that they were acting as:
    A. cannon fodder
    B. righteous killers
    C. world savers
    D. divine instruments *

4. Which type of terrorism fell on hard times after the collapse of the Communist empire?
    A. ethno-religious terrorism
    B. cyberterrorism
    C. ecoterrorism
    D. state-sponsored terrorism *

5. Which phrase completes the so-called "simple" definition of terrorism provided by Jenkins, Hoffman, and Laqueur that terrorism is the illegitimate use of force to achive political ends by…
    A. targeting innocent people *
    B. using military-style tactics
    C. achieving media attention
    D. forcing government repression

10. What federal statute best defines terrorism?
    A. Title 17 USC
    B. Title 18 USC
    C. Title 22 USC *
    D. Title 23 USC

11. Why are most scholars critical of typologies of terrorism?
    A. they only describe patterns among events
    B. they do not help with fluid situations
    C. they tend to not be theoretically based
    D. they tend to compare variables that should not be compared *

12. Where on the Continuum of Conflict would a guerrilla war be located?
    A. below terrorism and below organized crime
    B. above terrorism and before low-level war *
    C. below terrorism and above crime
    D. above terrorism and above conventional war

13. Which of the following is NOT a force multiplier in terrorism?
    A. technology
    B. media
    C. charismatic leadership *
    D. host nation support

14. Which of the following is NOT normally a way terrorist groups obtain loyalty and justification?
    A. religious conversion *
    B. mission training
    C. by arguing that terrorism is the only action available
    D. by arguing that the enemy is deserving of eradication

15. According to the following typology, which type of terrorist is the most rare?
    A. true criminals *
    B. true crazies
    C. true crusaders
    D. true comrades

16. The idea that forms of terrorism, such as cyber- and narco-, are modes of attack rather than separate forms of terrorism stems from the writing of what terrorism expert?
    A. Brian Jenkins
    B. William Dyson *
    C. Walter Lacquer
    D. Martha Crenshaw

17. What social class do religious terrorists usually come from?
    A. lower class
    B. middle class
    C. upper class
    D. all classes *

18. Ted Gurr's historical analysis of political violence has shown that most terrorist campaigns last about how long?
    A. 6 months
    B. 12 months
    C. 18 months *
    D. 24 months

19. What is the most common job within a terrorist organization?
    A. command and control
    B. logistics and support *
    C. cadre and combat
    D. cell and strategy

20. The idea of analyzing financial infrastructures as the best approach to the study of terrorism can be traced to the work of:
    A. James Adams *
    B. Brian Jenkins
    C. Lord Louis Mountbatten
    D. Carlos Marighella

21. What part of the world usually has four religious conflicts going on at any given time?
    A. the Balkans
    B. the Indian subcontinent *
    C. Africa
    D. Southwest Asia

22.  Which of the following best explains the "doctrine of necessity" and how it is involved in justifying terrorist action?
    A. terrorists feel the status quo is worse than any terrorist action *
    B. terrorists feel their terrorist action is necessary
    C. terrorists believe in the necessity of their actions
    D. terrorists believe that present conditions necessitate action

25. Which Middle Eastern leader turned to terrorism only as an alternative to conventional war?
    A. King Hussein of Jordan
    B. Yasser Arafat of the PLO
    C. Moamar Khadaffy of Libya *
    D. Abu Musawi of Hizbollah

26. What Lebanese Shiite militia group was trained by the PLO and eventually joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to become Hizbollah?
    A. Islamic Jihad
    B. Amal *
    C. Force 17
    D. PFLP GC

27. For which Middle Eastern terrorist group has it been the hardest to trace their funding and flow of money?
    A. Islamic Jihad *
    B. Armed Islamic Group
    C. ul-Fuqra
    D. al-Qaeda

28. What story has the Israeli government usually issued to the media when a Jewish radical fundamentalist goes on a Muslim-killing rampage?
    A. that it was retaliation for the killing of Jews
    B. that the action is justified in times of war and crisis
    C. that the actor suffered from a mental breakdown *
    D. that there are no radical fundamentalists in Israel

31. What is the critical difference between ideological and nationalist terrorism?
    A. ideologists want a new economic order while nationalists want to keep the old economic order *
    B. ideologists believe one type of government is best while nationalists believe in pluralism
    C. some ideologists do not embrace violence while nationalists are almost always violent
    D. there is no difference because the line has grown blurry

32. Which ideological terrorist group did most emerging ideological terrorist groups in Europe always try to partner or connect with?
    A. Red Army Faction
    B. Red Brigades
    C. Direct Action *
    D. Red Cell

33. What ideological terrorist group has gone through three (3) successive generations of metamorphosis?
    A. the Japanese Red Army
    B. the Italian Red Brigade
    C. the German Bader-Meinhoff Gang *
    D. the Puerto-Rican FALN

34. Which European group came closest to emulating the Tupamaros model than any other group in Europe?
    A. Red Brigades *
    B. Red Army Faction
    C. GRAPO
    D. Dev Sol

35. Why are neofascist terrorist groups more selective about their targets than other right-wing groups?
    A. their ideology allows for working within the system
    B. their training and discipline is more intense *
    C. they have less interest in grand acts of retaliation
    D. they prefer to stay underground and invisible

36. Which of the following is the LEAST satisfactory definition of terrorism?
    A. the threat of harm to innocent bystanders
    B. the unlawful use of violence for socio-political purposes
    C. the targeting of noncombatants by sub-national or nation-sponsored groups
    D. the use of fear or anything that strikes terror in the hearts of an enemy *

37. A right-wing death squad that operates outside the formal political structures but supporting the current government within a country would be called:
    A. a guerilla fighting unit
    B. freedom fighters
    C. extrajuridicial repression *
    D. a shadow government

38. In military jargon, what does C4I stand for?
    A. Countermeasures for Intelligence
    B. Command, Control, Communications, Computing, Intelligence *
    C. Cryptoanalysis, Counterintelligence, Computing, Control, Intelligence
    D. Computing for Infowarfare

39. When terrorists are compared to criminals, what criminal justice objective is usually said to be the LEAST applicable?
    A. restitution
    B. retribution
    C. deterrence *
    D. rehabilitation

40. From an intelligence viewpoint, what is the most frequently recommended and used counterterrorism technique?
    A. profiling of previous, current, and emerging leaders
    B. analysis of the skills and expertise of members
    C. locational analysis of safe houses and stash houses
    D. regular attacks on supply lines and stash houses *

41. What four months of the year do wars usually start?
    A. January, February, March, April
    B. March, April, May, June
    C. April, May, June, July *
    D. June, July, August, September

42. The tendency of presidents to seize power to cope with the exigencies of their times is what led which constitutional scholar to remark that “the history of the Presidency has been a history of aggrandizement.”
A. Alexander M. Bickel
B. Raoul Berger
C. Walter Murphy
D. Edward S. Corwin*

42. What powers are enumerated in Article II, sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution to the president?
A. nominate federal judges*
B. regulate interstate commerce
C. declare war
D. all of the above

43. Who said the president should “exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power or justly implied and included within such express grant as proper and necessary to its exercise.”
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. Alexander Hamilton
C. William Howard Taft*
D. Theodore Roosevelt

44. In an episode that became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” President Nixon fired Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, both of whom refused to follow the President’s order to dismiss Watergate special prosecutor ___________.
A. Robert H. Bork
B. William H. Rehnquist
C. Fred Dalton Thompson
D. Archibald Cox*

45. Who was the first President who used Presidential power to commit military forces to combat situations.
A. George Washington
B. James Madison
C. Thomas Jefferson*
D. John Adams

46. In Haig v. Agee (1981), the Supreme Court upheld the Reagan Administration’s decision to revoke the __________ of a former agent of the Central Intelligence Agency whose foreign activities were deemed a threat to national security.
A. citizenship
B. security clearance
C. transactional immunity
D. passport*

47. In response to the possibility that presidential reliance on treaties might override the limitations of the Constitution, which Senator in the 1950’s once proposed a constitutional amendment that would have nullified any treaty provision conflicting with the Constitution.
A. James Eastland
B. Joseph McCarthy
C. Strom Thurmond
D. John Bricker*

48. In Korematsu v. United States (1944) what did the Supreme Court state about a presidential order authorizing the exclusion of persons of Japanese ancestry from designated areas along the west coast of the United States?
A. it was an unconstitutional deprivation of due process and equal protection
B. it was inherently suspect but ultimately constitutional*
C. it had a rational basis
D. it presented a nonjusticiable political question

49. A treaty negotiated by the President and ratified by the Senate ________________.
A. may not be overturned by a duly enacted federal statute
B. may be negated by any of the fifty states acting in its sovereign capacity
C. cannot interfere with the implementation of previously enacted state legislation
D. may be overturned by a duly enacted federal statute*

50. In Dames and Moore v. Regan (1981), the Supreme Court upheld the validity of executive agreement between the United States and what other country?
A. Turkey
B. the Soviet Union
C. Cuba
D. Iran*

51. In 1964 Congress, through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, gave limited authority to President Johnson to take necessary military action to defend American interests and personnel in what country?
A. Cuba
B. Berlin
C. the Philippines
D. Vietnam*

52. In the Curtiss-Wright case of 1936 the Supreme Court asserted that the President is the “_____________of the federal government in the field of international relations.”
A. ultimate arbitrar
B. sole organ*
C. conveyor
D. partner

53. Which President was involved in the Prize Cases where the Supreme Court upheld a Presidential order for a naval blockade?
A. Hamilton
B. Jefferson
C. Lincoln*
D. Taft

54. In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), what did the Supreme Court do about President Truman’s order directing the federal government to seize control of certain steel mills?
A. upheld the order*
B. declared it suspect and unconstitutional
C. expressed dicta that the President ought to be impeached
D. declared no such national security powers exist

Last updated: Sept. 28, 2006
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