OK, I'm not a native speaker and admittedly didn't reaffirm my claim before posting. Anywho, the headline and newspaper speak is not exactly the propper grammer I am talking about, right?

Wouldn't omitting the the in my sentence mean, they feared violence in general? Sure, broad contracts are welcome, but then there couldn't be a specific answer to who they are. I guess that's in agreement with what you said.