Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, described by Thatcher as a terrorist organisation, would have been caught under such a definition. After the horrors of Omagh, the Irish and British governments look set to recall parliament early and rush ahead with new state powers.
Terrorism is top of the global agenda.
So is knee-jerk reaction and hypocrisy. Meanwhile a country already faced with desperate problems of famine, disease and civil war has seen its major source of pharmaceuticals destroyed by cruise missiles. Baby food and enriched powded milk are blockaded along with vital hospital equipment like stethoscopes, X-ray machines, medical swabs, scanners and water purifiers. The people of Iraq are punished because the West say Saddam Hussein is a terrorist. Or the 'un-people' of East Timor, where a third of the population have perished since it was invaded by Indonesia in 1975.