How many serious terrorist strikes against the US were attempted before 9/11?

Question

Ones I can name:
1) The first attempt on the world trade center, which was unsuccessful but still killed some innocent people
2) Some guy who tried to cross the canadian border with explosives and was caught.
3) A japanese red army guy who tried to blow up the new jersey turn pike
4) A attempt at blowing up the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta?

I SHOULD HAVE BEEN SPECIFIC THAT I MEANT ATTACK ATTEMPTS ON US SOIL.

ALSO ATTACKS BY AMERICAN WINGNUTS (Domestic Terrorists) are AS valid as ones by foreign ones.

Note the details about attacks on foreign soil are ok but too many to name and not what I was looking for.

I want attacks ON the US in the US.

So far Mombastic's answer is best even tho, many irrelevant (not in the US) and redundant (attacks I mentioned in my phrasing of the question).

The D.C sniper and abortion ones are new ones I did not mention.

Terries is looking like best now unless I hear more details about attack on the pentagon. that sounds intriguing.

Answer 1

1) Holding of American hostages in Tehran 1979.
2) Marine barracks in Lebanon 1983.
3) WTC, 1st attempt 1993.
4) Marine barracks, Saudia Arabia, 1994
5 & 6)Two American Embassies in Africa, 1998
7)USS Cole, 1999

The years may not be competely accurate, but the incidents were. The Rangers who were outmanned and out gunned in Somolia should be added to this list, in that the army was drawn into this incident by the Islamic extremists controlling that region.

Answer 2

September 16, 1920 - Bolsheviks bombed Morgan Bank in New York.

November 1955 - United Air Flight was bombed over Denver

July 25, 1957 - Plane bombed while taking off from California

January 1960 - DC-6 Bombing at 18,000 Feet - North Carolina

May 1, 1961 - First U.S. Plane Hijacking

May 22, 1962 - Suicide Bomb on Continental Airlines - Missouri

May 7, 1964 - A suicide killer shot the pilots of plane flying over California

And on and on.....

Answer 3

5

Answer 4

There were the two near simultaneous bombings of US embassy's in Africa in the late '90s.
There was the plot to blow up a half dozen airliners over the Pacific in the late '90s. (another KSM plot)
The Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia (USAF barracks)
The hijacking of TWA 845 in 1985
The bombing of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie Scotland
USMC Beirut barracks bombing in the '80's.
A disrupted plot to blow up the Queens Midtown Tunnel back in the '90s.
A disrupted plot to trigger bombs at LAX, part of the Millenium bombing plot that was disrupted when the person was arresting trying to cross into Washington State mentioned above. He was headed to Seattle to hit the Space Needle.

Those are just some of the foreign terror plots and attacks. There have been domestic ones as well-
Multiple abortion clinic bombings -Eric Rudolph who was wanted for the Centennial Park bombing was connected with some of these.
Abortion Dr shootings.
Bombing of OKC Federal Building
John Mohammed and the DC Snipings
There were also attacks in the 60's and 70's by the SDS and Weatherman.
As you go back in history, there are plenty of bombings, shootings, hijackings, etc that today would be considered terrorism, although at the time they were just considered to be violent acts.

Despite the en vogue modern usage of the term terrorism to cover acts of violence perpetrated by foreign nationals - any act of violence design to promote fear (or terror) is an act of terrorism. With that in mind, the actions of hate groups like the KKK could also be considered terrorism...

Answer 5

The Olympic stadium thing wasn't a terrorist act... well.. not in the sense of foreign-born terrorism... It was a local kooky-head...

You've forgotten to mention the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, the attack on the USS Cole, the Lockerby Scotland airplane bomb, and the taking of the American hostages in Iran... which was the start of the war the muslim extremist terrorists declared on us over 30 years ago. that's just a few more I recall...

Answer 6

The horse drawn carage bombing on wall street at the turn of last century, a previous attempt at the World Trade Center, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, various attacks on embassies which are technically U.S. property, various captured Germans spies during WWII were were captured on U.S. soil before they could do anything, various hijackings of U.S. ships and planes, the Oklahoma City bombing, the attack on the Pentagon are the ones I remember.

Answer 7

Marine barracks and embassy bombing in the 80s
USS Cole
There were a few various shooting type attacks

Answer 8

ask the CIA under the freedom of information act see if they will tell you how much it cost them to stage the attacks

Answer 9

the Oklahoma city bombing by an American

Answer 10

the USS Cole