Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

636 • SKY MARSHAL PROGRAMand white supremacist message with diatribes against Zionism,capitalism, and globalization.SKY MARSHAL PROGRAM. The Federal Air Marshal Service(FAMS) began in 1968 and allows armed U.S. marshals to fly undercoveron selected flights in order to be able to counter hijackersattempting to seize aircraft in flight. From 1968 until 1985, the SkyMarshals only flew on domestic U.S. flights. Following the hijackingof Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 847 by Hezbollah operativeson 14 June 1985, the Sky Marshals were also deployed on U.S. carriersinvolved in international flights. Following the World TradeCenter and Pentagon Attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S.government began to take steps to increase the numbers in the SkyMarshal Program, which had only 33 active agents on 11 September2001, to several thousand active agents, as one of several measuresto deter further hijackings as well as to restore public confidence inthe safety of air travel. On 16 October 2006, the Sky Marshal Programwas transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) withinthe U.S. Department of Homeland Security. See also AIR TRAVELSECURITY.SOCIAL NETWORK RECRUITMENT THEORY. One explanationfor the contagion effect of terrorism and recruitment of ordinarypeople into political extremism or violence offered by Charles Tilly,in which community ties explain why previously politically indifferentindividuals will become mobilized into collective action. In studiesof right-wing extremist groups in Idaho and neighboring RockyMountain Basin states, sociologist James Aho found that the mostfrequent reason given by interviewed individuals for joining suchgroups was a previous tie of family kinship, personal friendship orromance, or acquaintance from school or the workplace. Individualswho had been indifferent or moderate in their political views wouldjoin the extremist organization to maintain a social tie and graduallycome to absorb the indoctrination of the group. This theory suggeststhat groups whose members go “underground” and cut off tiesto family and former friends will have greater difficulty recruitingnew members to sustain the organization than groups that continueto exist openly. The theory may also explain why ethnonationalistgroups, which are rooted in families and organic communities, have