Call bombing

A call bombing is a bombing or bomb threat where the perpetrator has preemptively given a warning of the supposed bomb prior to detonation. This preemptive technique called Call Bombings was most likely given the name since the clear majority of Bomb threats are made over the phone, as opposed to mail or email."sources?" Bomb warnings are usually made out to the direct phone number of the alleged bomb site, offices of corporations involved, or news media outlets. The technique of call bombing is malevolent in nature as the caller wishes to stir up fear among the possible victims. The effectiveness of this technique is questionable however. Given Call Bombings nature, it gives advanced warning to the potential victims of the attack and gives them time to react, whereas if the threatening call had never been made the potential victims would’ve had no time to act.

Likely Inspirations

The inspirations for Call Bombings range from a personal animosity of the perpetrator toward the site of the threat, a desire for revenge, etc. Occasionally the perpetrator will explicitly state this motivation to the receiving end of the call in an attempt have the listener comprehend their apparent wrongdoings.

Bomb Threat Preparation Improvement Measures

Ever since the days of the September 11 terrorist attacks many efforts have been made to increase preparation for various terrorist attacks and threats, which include the prospect of a bomb threat. One facet of bomb threats that saw major improvements in their reactive bomb threat training, is that of bomb threats dealing with air travel. Aviation professionals and US government bomb disposal operatives, succeeded in creating a Virtual Reality simulator that places trainees in a Virtual Reality scenario that range from in-flight threat interception to in airport threat interception (Chung, 2005). In the scenario, trainees are given numerous options to deal with the threat, and are given an assessment of their skills pre- and post- simulation. This is a considerable development that allows Call Bombing to be properly dealt with through sufficient training. Before the development of this tech Commercial Airline companies would neglect sufficient bomb threat training time to save in operational time. Terrorism can take many forms and bombing is one of them. Typically bombings don't cause many casualties compared to other types of terrorism, but as evidenced by the 9/11 attacks they can wreak havoc on a population.

Bomb threat 2008/03/16 Salon du livre, Paris, France.

Bomb Threat Probabilities based on area and percentage of ethnic population

There seems to be no significant correlation between the ethnic ratio of an area and the amount of bomb threats it receives. In Dallas Texas, an area which accounts for 13.8% of all Call Bombings in the Southern states, the FBI and local Dallas bomb threat summaries found that criminal bombings are psychological attacks of terror perpetrated against civilian targets as opposed to government facilities, and result in very few deaths even if detonation is achieved (Georges-Abeyie, 1983). Out of hundreds of bomb threats (361) drawn from a period of over a decade, 51.6% of the time the perpetrators race was unidentifiable, 32.6% were White, 13.7% were Black, and 2.1% were Latin. In the Dallas study, Zone distinctions were made ranging from Zone 1’s (75-100% Black) to Zone 5’s (0% Black). The only significant conclusion to be made was that different institutions, such as hospitals or schools found most of their institutionally specific threats to come from different Zone’s (Georges-Abeyie, 1983). Overall, there were no significant findings correlating bomb threats with Zone classification.

Media Coverage increases Call Bombing Odds

Media coverage of sites and institutions have been linked to an increase in Call Bombings recorded in those areas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a list of bomb threats from 1969-1980. Of hundreds of threats recorded, a graphical timeline of Call Bomb frequency and Media coverage relating to the site of the threat, show great parity between the two (Mazur, 1982). This points to media coverage of a site having strong suggestive powers on potential Call Bombers. Interestingly 10% of Call Bombings were made from a phone within the site of attack (Mazur, 1982). Suggesting the possibility of perpetrators Call Bombing only with the desire to get a day off from the resulting shut down of the site. In conclusion media coverage makes a topic more salient and therefore makes it a prime target for your typical Call Bomber. Threats follow coverage not the other way around. Increases in media coverage is seen graphically as happening before the increase in Call Bombing, therefore debunking the possibility of a spurious correlation. Any action that gives Call Bombing notoriety will cause an increase in the number of bomb threats in general. This can be done slowly through word of mouth, but technological media expedites the process and can make a bomber famous within hours.

Call Bombing Classifications

Bombings in which human beings have been killed or maimed are often called mass murder. The moral and legal concepts that criminalize the use of weapons of mass destruction outweighs concepts which give justification to the perpetrators. The usage of weapons of mass destruction by non-state actors for their own particular political purposes tends to belie the concept of exercising moral, and conscienscious discrimination. Even when such acts are conducted by "official" agents such as a military, militia, or locally supported militants, attacks which result in the loss of human life (particularly civilians) are often considered to be unjustified (cf. laws of war, state terrorism).

List of call bombings

• Weatherman (organization) - United States government property
• King David Hotel bombing - 91 people in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1946.
• Omagh bombing - This particular incident is considered a "call bombing" but has some particular tactics and miscues that cause it to be a special case. Most "call bombings" are meant to have very few to no casualties. "The plan was to park the car outside the courthouse, something not possible in the pre-cease-fire days, and then to phone a warning through giving half an hour notice to clear the area. The original plan was not to cause death but mass destruction of property. In particular, the aim was to destroy the courthouse—the symbol of British law and order." The plan failed because the car was parked away from the courthouse because of trouble parking, which in turn led to the evacuees from the courthouse moving closer to the car bomb. This incident caused 29 fatalities and over 200 injuries.
• ETA - Almost all bombings are call bombings.

References

This article "Call bombing" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Call bombing. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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