i think terrorist is a poorly defined and rather useless word. in my view, a terrorist is someone using violence for the duel purpose of inflicting physical harm, and causing fear. in addition, they must not be acting on their own soil, nor may they be the direct arm of a government. my definition excludes the ira, tim mcviegh, basque seperatists, native iraqi insurgents, and arguably hamas. in my book, mcveigh was a mass murdurer, and the other groups were/are all conducting various degrees of war against there own governments. not labeling a group a terrorist is not the same as condoning their behavior, it is merely an attemtp to give some meaning to the word.