1989 Was the Worst Year for Terrorist Attacks : Security: Assaults against U.S. interests jumped by 45% to a total of 112 and American businesses experienced a corresponding increase, registering 29 attacks.

An analyst who advises businesses how to offer better protection for their executives and personnel traveling abroad says 1989 was the worst year on record for terrorist attacks worldwide.

Matthew Freund, senior analyst with Business Risks International, based in Nashville, Tenn., said the level of terrorist violence worldwide increased last year to its highest level since the company began keeping statistics on terrorism in 1970.

Freund said terrorist incidents against businesses increased by 12% last year, making businesses the leading target for terrorists for the sixth straight year.

The rise in terrorist activity in 1989 came despite the lack of a single major incident such as the Dec. 21, 1988, terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which killed 270 people, including 11 on the ground, when it exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on a flight from West Germany to New York.

Freund said the attack on Pan Am 103 was apparently the work of a radical Moslem fringe group angered by what it considered PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s softening of his stance toward Israel.

“The news media does a good job of reporting on terrorism, but a lot of terrorist activities happen behind the headlines,” Freund said. “The Pan Am attack has kind of faded out of the public mind, but there were still a record number of terrorist attacks last year.”

There were 4,422 terrorist incidents reported worldwide in 1989, according to Business Risks International. That is a 16% increase from the level of 1988. Terrorist attacks left 8,237 people dead in 1989, a 10% increase from 1988.

Bombs accounted for 1,930 of the terrorist attacks in 1989, the company said.

Attacks against U.S. interests jumped by 45% to a total of 112 and American businesses experienced a corresponding increase, registering 29 attacks, most of them in Latin America.

Freund said Latin America and the Middle East, particularly Lebanon, remain the most violent areas of the world.

Latin America accounted for 1,964 of the total terrorist incidents last year. Peru, besieged by drug traffickers and leftist extremist groups, led all countries with 647 terrorist incidents.

Terrorist activity increased in Asia during the past year, as religious and ethnic strife intensified. Terrorist activity almost doubled in the Middle East and North Africa.

For the first time in three years, successful attacks occurred in the United States, including four bombings and five assassination incidents linked to white supremacist and Islamic fundamentalist elements.

“Last year’s figures were not an aberration,” said Gene Mastrangelo, manager of the risk assessment information service. “The total number of terrorist attacks from 1980 through 1989 is 31,426--about four times the total number of attacks recorded in the 1970s.”

The company’s risk assessment information service monitors all forms of terrorism worldwide including both international and domestic acts carried out by indigenous groups. The service maintains a computer database containing information on the global scope and nature of terrorist incidents, patterns and trends dating back to 1970.

Freund said the increase in worldwide terrorist activity in 1989 reflected a rise in attacks carried out by religious and ethnic groups seeking independence or greater political power within their own countries.

The U.S. government monitors only international terrorist incidents, defined as attacks involving the citizens or territory of more than one country.

“We don’t criticize the State Department’s method of reporting terrorist attacks,” Freund said. “We just say that we monitor a broader range of terrorist activities worldwide.”

Freund said Business Risks International publishes reports on terrorist activity for its clients. The reports offer the company’s intelligence on terrorist activity and information on how to offer better protection for executives traveling abroad.

“We’re not a guards, guns and dogs type of company, but we do provide security counseling for our clients, particularly those who plan to travel to high-risk parts of the world.”

Freund said the company basically advises people who work for high-profile companies to avoid making their itineraries public, vary their travel schedules and make sure they have adequate security plans, including a driver trained in what to do in case of a terrorist attack.