Terrorism

Gurlukovich Mercenaries commence a terrorist assault on a U.S. Marine tanker, in Manhattan, 2007.

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, often violent, especially as a means of coercion, although it has no legally-binding definition. Various forms of terrorism exist, including State-sponsored terrorism, State-terrorism, eco-terrorism and domestic terrorism. Its name originated as early as Jacobin member Maxmillian Robespierre's reign of terror during the French Revolution, derived from the terror circusem warning protocol from the Roman Empire. However, since 1869, when the People's Retribution terrorist cell leader Sergey Nechayev called himself a "terrorist," the term was redefined from an exclusive reference to state terrorism to any non-governmental groups killing innocent civilians.

Terrorist actions

20th Century

Part of Kazuhira Miller's motives for having the Militaires Sans Frontières expand was the belief that after the Cold War, there would be an increase in regional terrorism, and by consequence, counter-terrorism operations, leading to the creation of an economy based on war. In addition, Cipher also got tacit approval from Washington to set up a black site in Cuba due to an increase in the fight against terrorism.

When Dead Cell member Vamp was a child, a terrorist bomb in Romania destroyed a church he and his family were attending. Vamp's family was killed in the explosion while Vamp was pierced by a crucifix and buried under the rubble for two days before he was finally rescued

On September 5, 1972, the Munich Massacre occurred when the terrorist organization Black September held 11 Israeli athletes hostage during the Olympic Games, eventually killing them.

On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people and injuring 120 people.

On December 21, 1988, a terrorist bomb destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew members, and 11 people on the ground.

Big Boss was largely considered a terrorist and war criminal by the world in the mid-to-late 1990s as a result of his actions at Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land. In addition, Dirty Duck and Running Man, members of Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land were formerly high-ranking members of the terrorist cells Egg Plant and Les Enfants Terribles, respectively.

21st Century

On September 11, 2001, multiple terrorist attacks struck the U.S. This led to a counter-terrorism campaign called the War on Terror, which started with an invasion of Afghanistan and eventually led to the War in Iraq.

In 2004, a terrorist bomb destroyed a famous church in the United States after bomb disposal expert Peter Stillman panicked and fled, leaving the bomb to explode. Numerous civilians were killed, including children playing in a nearby playground.

In February 2005, the renegade FOXHOUND and Next-Generation Special Forces formed the Sons of Big Boss, and threatened to launch a nuclear warhead with Metal Gear REX. They demanded that the U.S. Government hand over the remains of Big Boss, and later, $1 billion and the FOXDIE vaccine (the last being added on after the suspicious deaths of both Decoy Octopus and Kenneth Baker). FOXHOUND leader Liquid Snake intended to make China the target for REX's nuke, as a way to force America into revealing its secret weapons development, thus allowing him to sell the secrets of both REX and the NGSF to the highest bidder. After the terrorist threat was eliminated, the surviving NGSF members were imprisoned, with Naomi Hunter also incarcerated due to her role in the operation, although Nastasha Romanenko in her book In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth implied regarding the former party that this was an official cover story in order to continue experimenting on them. The New York Mirror when reviewing In the Darkness of Shadow Moses also speculated that the Sons of Big Boss were a radical right-wing group. When Naomi was later broken out of prison, the CIA declared her one of the world's most wanted international terrorists, in part due to her development of the FOXDIE virus.

In the same year, terrorist bombings occurred in London, England, and Egypt.

The Gurlukovich Mercenaries participated in actions that were largely seen as terrorist actions, including the Tanker Incident. Solid Snake and the anti-Metal Gear NGO Philanthropy were later framed by the Patriots for terrorist actions in the same incident, although Snake admitted in 2009 that some of Philanthropy's actions could be seen as terrorism.

After the arrest and death of Colonel Jackson, the Dead Cell unit allegedly committed terrorist actions and became renegade, although Vamp implied that they were actually framed by the Patriots. In addition, Solidus Snake, with his Sons of Liberty group formed of both the surviving members of Dead Cell and the Gurlukovich Mercenaries, committed a terrorist takeover of the Big Shell. The Patriots themselves were also hinted to have abetted terrorist actions on American soil, including the Big Shell and the Tanker Incidents, as well as Dead Cell's supposed terrorist actions.

A Middle Eastern country in 2014 also was rife with terrorism, which led to them hiring the British PMC Praying Mantis and paying them instead of using their money to feed their people.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

The PMC Desperado Enforcement LLC. often lent its services to terrorists and committed acts of terrorism. One of its customers, Andrey Dolzaev, was a European terrorist, who was responsible for a massacre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2015, and a terror spree in Georgia in 2017, in addition to transforming Sukhumi, Abkhazia, into a military junta in 2018. The same year, Desperado was also responsible for a terrorist attack on Africa, an attack that also resulted in the death of Prime Minister N'mani, as well as Maverick member Raiden being severely injured.

In addition, Colorado Senator Steven Armstrong attempted to revitalize the war economy via Operation Tecumseh, a false flag operation where he and World Marshal would stage a terrorist attack on the Shabhazabad Air Base in Pakistan, and make it seem as though Desperado and jihadi terrorists attacked the base in an attempt to assassinate President Hamilton when arriving for talks with Pakistani President Farooq Salam, which despite Armstrong's death at the hands of Raiden, had for the most part succeeded, with some commentators labeling Pakistan as being part of the "axis of evil."

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Countermeasures and training

Because of the frequent instances of terrorism late into the 20th century, there have been various methods of quelling terrorist plots or stopping them. Some involve planting moles into terrorist organizations to leak plans to various law enforcement groups. Others involve having either a PMC unit or a regular military unit act out the role of a terrorist group in order to train various groups in anti-terror ops. Instances of the latter included Dead Cell (back before it became an actual Terrorist organization in large part due to the Patriots' machinations).

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

There was a proposed job for Maverick in South Africa to have them play the role of a terrorist group for the South African police forces' training, until events in their mission at Africa forced them to put a freeze on it.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

Unconfirmed history

The following information has been detailed in official Konami-licensed media, written by various external authors. Its status in the Metal Gear canon is unconfirmed.[?]

During the Liberian Civil War, Solidus Snake captured Liberian terrorists responsible for the deaths of several Americans. He then had Jack the Ripper, at the time experiencing his tenth birthday, decapitate ten of them as the former's birthday present to the latter, with each terrorist acting as a "birthday candle."

Behind the scenes

The first reference to terrorism in the Metal Gear series was in the user's manual for the original Metal Gear, in which FOXHOUND is described as an anti-terrorist squad.

Because of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty's release months after 9/11, several scenes and dialogue were either cut or redone due to the events of the attack. One of these was the crash of Arsenal Gear into Manhattan. Similarly, Raiden's Japanese name was written in kanji instead of katakana like most of the other characters due to the katakana name somewhat resembling Laden, part of the name of the then leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.

Kojima Productions, when creating the story and level design for Act 1 of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, had to be careful in avoiding creating implications that the Middle Eastern militiamen were all terrorists.

Although 9/11 was not actually mentioned in the games themselves until Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, they were canonically included in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, the timeline for the Metal Gear Saga DVD, as well as given a brief mention in the Metal Gear Solid novelization by Raymond Benson. Similarly, the subsequent War on Terror was also given mentions in Metal Gear Rising. In the climax of the game, one of the posts that Boris directs Raiden to, shortly after it was revealed that the Shabhazabad Air Base attack had its story leaked early, mentioned that Pakistan was part of the "axis of evil," referring to an actual term made in 2002 by the real life (and then-current) President George W. Bush during his State of the Union address, referencing Iran, Iraq, and North Korea for either aiding terrorists or developing WMDs.