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The spectre of transnational terrorism has risen from a relatively peripheral issue in the 1980's to one of the foremost security challenges for the country. No more can we view the debate of terrorism from the sidelines, or indeed take postures that were more in line with our foreign policy objectives. Today the threat has hit home, and has been increasing in scope and lethality from the late 1980's . The. term "transnational terrorism" is indicative of the shifts and changes that have been attendant on terrorism itself. Terrorism is no longer a largely" domestic "phenomenon, where a few disgruntled actors espousing leftist (or capitalist ambitions) committed acts of violence that were primarily aimed at gaining world publicity and showing the state in a bad light. The aphorism that "terrorists want a lot of publicity, and not a lot of people dead" caps in a nutshell the typical operating patterns of the past. Groups avoided targeting patterns that would earn them the hostility of the populace, and indeed did everything to ensure that the cause and objectives they upheld had a degree of legitimacy and sympathy among them. By and large, terrorist groups had clear political ends, and their patrons were known, as well as their affiliations. Terrorism was thus largely committed to serve political ends and evolved and grew as a separate activity of violence, distinct from war or conflict. It was true that terrorists did take shelter in other states, and that many did also acquire funding from the usual states—primarily the Soviet Union, Libya or later Iran