Introduction by Claudia Wright

The latest move by the Reagan administration in the campaign against what it calls international terrorists and state-sponsored terrorism represents potentially one of the most anti-Arab initiatives US officials have recently devised. In drafting this new legislation, the administration has ignored its own Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) figures, showing a decline in terrorist incidents in the US; concealed a major terrorist bombing attempt at the US Congress by an Israeli citizen; and overridden objections to the terms of the new legislation by leading officials in the FBI and Congress.