[x-risk] Global Terrorism Database

[Hughes, James J.]

I wonder what kind of expert systems extrapolation could be done on this
database? - J.

http://www.start.umd.edu/data/gtd/

Global Terrorism Database

Overview

Global Terrorism Database (GTD)The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an
open-source database including information on terrorist events around
the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2004). Unlike many other
event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on international as
well as domestic terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time
period and now includes almost 80,000 cases. For each GTD incident,
information is available on the date and location of the incident, the
weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and --
when identifiable -- the identity of the perpetrator.

The START Center is making the GTD available to government policy makers
and academics in an effort to increase understanding of terrorist
violence so that it can be more readily defeated.
Characteristics of the GTD

    * Contains information on over 80,000 terrorist attacks
    * The main types of information found in the GTD are items that you
would expect to find in a well written newspaper story about a terrorist
attack: the type of attack, the number of persons killed, the group
claiming responsibility, the date of the event and so on
    * The GTD is currently the most comprehensive unclassified data base
on terrorist events in the world
    * It includes information on more than 27,000 bombings, 13,000
assassinations, and 2,800 kidnappings
    * The original data include information on over 45 variables; the
new data include over 120 variables
    * More than 75 data collectors with expertise in six language groups
are currently engaged in collecting GTD data
    * Data collection is supervised by an advisory panel of 12 terrorism
research experts
    * Over 2,000,000 news articles and 25,000 new sources were reviewed
to collect GTD from 1998 to 2004 alone
    * The goal of START is to make all GTD data available to government
employees immediately and to release all data to researchers
approximately one year after the end of data collection
    * The original GTD data base (1970-1997) is available to researchers
through the Inter University Consortium for Political and Social
Research (www.icpsr.umich.edu)

The GTD Story

The Global Terrorism Database -- or GTD -- began in 2001 when
researchers at the University of Maryland obtained a large database
originally collected by the Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services, a
relative of the famous Irish detective agency.

>From 1970 to 1997, Pinkerton trained researchers -- mostly retired Air
Force personnel -- to identify and record terrorism incidents from wire
services, government reports, and major international newspapers. With
funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Maryland team
finished computerizing the original Pinkerton data in December 2005,
making corrections and adding additional information wherever possible.

In April 2006, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
Responses to Terrorism (START), working with the Center for Terrorism
and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), received additional funding from the
Human Factors Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to
extend the GTD beyond 1997. By June 2007 data collection was completed
through 2004.

During the next year the new data will be systematically integrated with
the original data to form a single source of information on terrorist
attacks, covering the entire period 1970 to 2007.

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