What Is A Terrorist Act?

More importantly, why did the FBI label that July 4, 2002 LAX shootings a terrorist act? The shooter was shot and killed himself during the incident, so there was no reason to classify the shooting for purposes of criminal prosecution.

The A.P. reports:

An Egyptian immigrant who opened fire inside Los Angeles International Airport committed an act of terrorism, but he did it alone and was not tied to any terrorist organizations, federal officials have determined.

Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, killed two people at the ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, and wounded several others in the Fourth of July attack before he was fatally shot by an airline security guard.

The Department of Justice had withheld characterizing the shooting while federal agents launched a worldwide investigation. They determined it was terrorism related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, said Matthew McLaughlin, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles.

"The investigation developed information that he openly supported the killings of civilians in order to advance the Palestinian cause," McLaughlin said.

The question is: what makes this a terrorist attack? The FBI says that Hadayet supported pro-Palestinian violence, and Hadayet attacked people at the ticket counter of an Israeli airline. But clearly Hadayet's views were not known to anyone he encountered during the incident, and he left no public statement about his actions or his motive for them. There's nothing to suggest that Hadayet believed his actions would have any political or societal consequence.

So why did the FBI feel it necessary to label Hadayet's actions? Is it to establish a broad definition which could be used to label more crimes as "terrorist," so as to broaden the scope of federal jurisdiction? Maybe to increase the availability of the death penalty, or to deny other criminal suspects due process rights?

Under the F.B.I.'s definition, the killer of Dr. Barnett Slepian is a terrorist because he previously voiced anti-abortion views and then killed a doctor who performed abortions. Will the Justice Department apply the F.B.I.'s definition of terrorism to such cases?