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<Paper uid="M92-1042">
  <Title>Set list for ATTEMPTED ATTACK : ESCAPED INJURY NO INJURY Set list for THREATENED ATTACK incidents : INJURY NO INJURY</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="abstr">
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APPENDIX A :
EVALUATION TASK DESCRIPTION
1.0 WHAT CONSTITUTES A &amp;quot;RELEVANT&amp;quot; INCIDENT ?
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    <Paragraph position="0"> Relevant incidents are, in general, violent acts perpetrated with political aim s and a motive of intimidation . These are acts of terrorism . Here is an official , &amp;quot;schoolbook&amp;quot; definition of terrorism : &amp;quot;a sudden, unexpected act of shocking, calculated, and unlawful violence, or the plausible threat of such violence, by an illegal, subnational, clandestine group - usually carried out in a peaceful, civilian environment, be it urban, rural, in the ai r or on a body of water -- against certain noncombatants or targets that represent o r symbolize a certain country, but sometimes indiscrimately against bystanders o r passersby at a particular location, with the intention of garnering publicity , propagandizing a cause, and intimidating as many people as possible in order to attain social, political, or strategic objectives.&amp;quot; -Rex A. Hudson, &amp;quot;Dealing with International Hostage-Taking : Alternatives to Reactiv e Counterterrorist Assaults,&amp;quot; Internationa l Terrorism, Vol . 12, 1990 .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> This has been turned into more of an operational definition by widening th e schoolbook definition somewhat and making some rather arbitrary distinctions . Your advice on how to improve on this operational definition is welcome.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> 1) Terrorist acts may be perpetrated by an &amp;quot;illegal, subnational, clandestin e group,&amp;quot; which includes known guerrilla and drug-trafficking organizations . Their targets may be just about anything/anybody except (a) another such group o r member of such a group or (b) a military/police installation or force (with the sam e nationality as the perpetrator), or a member of such a ' force, in which case the incident is presumed to be a purely guerrilla act and is not relevant to the MU C terrorist incident database . Thus, killings of drug traffickers will not be included i n the database (by exception a, above), nor will &amp;quot;clashes&amp;quot; between guerrilla groups and the military (by exception b, above).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> However, if a guerrilla warfare incident happens to affect civilian personnel o r property, whether intentionally or accidentally, the incident becomes relevant and should be included in the database . In these cases, the database should contai n information on both the military and the nonmilitary targets .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Similarly, the database will include incidents of sabotage on a nation' s infrastructure. It will also include incidents perpetrated against individuals who ar e former members of the military, e .g ., a murder perpetrated against a retired general . Sometimes an article gives mixed reports, e .g., a &amp;quot;terrorist attack&amp;quot; on a bridge guarded by the national (military) police . In a case such as this, which could b e interpreted as a case of terrorism (sabotage of the nation's infrastructure) or o f  guerrilla warfare (attack on a physical target of military importance), we wil l consider the physical target to be nonmilitary and will include the incident in th e database .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> 2) Under certain circumstances, the perpetrator may be a member of th e government, including the military . This is the case when the target is civilian . 3) Sometimes the perpetrator is not identified and no language is used to indicat e that the act is *not* being attributed to &amp;quot;terrorists,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;extremists,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;subversives, &amp;quot; &amp;quot;guerrillas,&amp;quot; etc . In these cases, as long as the act itself is of one of the expected types and the target(s) is/are not exclusively military, the incident will be presumed to b e a possible terrorist act and is to be included in the database .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> 4) The articles in the MUC corpus originate in many different parts of the world , but they all emphasize something. about one of the nine Latin American countries o f interest (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia , Ecuador, Peru) . However, only incidents whose perpetrator(s), target(s), or location &amp;quot;belong to&amp;quot; one of the nine countries of interest belong in the MUC database . Thus, an incident perpetrated against a human target who is a citizen of one of thos e countries may belong in the database even if that person is attacked while he's in a different country . Or an incident perpetrated against the embassy of one of thos e nine countries may belong in the database, no matter where that embassy is located . 5) Only terrorist acts (and attempted or threatened acts) that are reported as factual are to be included in the database . An incident is *not* to be recorded in th e database if the article discredits the story or cites a source that discredits the story . (However, if the article also cites a source that *supports* the story, that version o f the story should go in the database .) Rumors are to be excluded .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> 6) An incident is to be recorded in the database only if it is &amp;quot;recent .&amp;quot; The intent is to include only information that is new or updated . We define &amp;quot;recent&amp;quot; to mean tha t either (a) it occurred within two months of the date of the article or (b) ne w information is being provided in the article on an incident that occured more tha n two months prior, such as new suspects being brought forth as the perpetrators of a n old crime . However, there are a number of articles that fail to mention the date o f the incidents, some of which are, in fact, recent . Therefore, if there is no indication that the information is not recent or if there is no indication that the information i s being given only to provide historical context (as indicated by phrases such as &amp;quot;Le t us recall that. ..&amp;quot;), the incident should go in the database .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8"> 7) An incident is to be recorded in the database only if the article's description of it is &amp;quot;specific .&amp;quot; Generic descriptions of incidents like &amp;quot;terrorist attacks on the Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline&amp;quot; and summary descriptions like &amp;quot;the total person s kidnapped in Colombia over the last 6 weeks was 85&amp;quot; are to be excluded .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="9"> The articles sometimes give useful information about a specific incident bu t provide very few details. Therefore, as long as all the other criteria are met, we will include any incident that at least indicates the nature of the target or the nature of the attack. Thus, an article whose only reference to an incident is &amp;quot;an attac k perpetrated by a subversive group&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;the tragic incident at Uchiza&amp;quot; would b e excluded, but an article that says &amp;quot;Last night there were fewer attacks on stores an d electric towers in the capital &amp;quot; or &amp;quot;a UCR district headquarters in Buenos Aire s province was completely destroyed by a bomb explosion&amp;quot; would be included .</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="10">  Here are two further examples of texts that do *not* warrant generation o f templates : &amp;quot;As of 0500 GMT today, the police had received reports of two othe r explosions in two La Paz neighborhoods&amp;quot; (the nature of the explosion isn' t mentioned, and the target isn't mentioned either) ; &amp;quot;the bombing on San Salvador' s neighborhoods&amp;quot; (the prepositional phrase may be interpreted as conveying the target as well as the location, but as a target, it's too general -- any location name tha t is on the set list cannot serve as a target ID, with the exception of farm names) .</Paragraph>
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