"Political crimes and serious violations of human rights."

Some images stick out in the collective memory of mankind and become icons for a whole generation. Among the most forceful images of our generation are the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, on 11 September 2001. These attacks revealed a new face of terrorism at the dawn of the 21st century, with new targets and new means, intended to produce many indiscriminate victims and without any concern for the offenders to save their own lives. Since the dramatic events of September 2001, the academic literature has been flooded with books, articles, and reports about terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and new forms of violence, mostly from a viewpoint of political science and law. Yet, one can wonder if the attack on the twin towers was fundamentally different from the violent attacks on politicians and political targets by the left-wing terrorist groups of the Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany or the Brigate Rosse in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s of the former century. These groups also used violent means against specific targets, with the objective of