...Lone wolf terrorism is not a recent phenomenon. Decades of incidents indicate that it is an ever-present threat which society and governments must mitigate. The cases of Timothy McVeigh, Omar Mateen, and the recent Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock were some of the more extreme examples of what lone wolves could do. There are many definitions of lone wolf terrorism but this category of terror does have a common premise of sole individuals inflicting politicized attacks upon the public. The threat of lone wolf terrorism is important to the homeland security enterprise due to its unpredictable nature and the extent of damage it has rendered onto the American society. With the recent events this year (Las Vegas shootings and the New York City truck attack), current methods such as internet monitoring and surveillance that are usually entrusted to federal and state levels of the homeland security enterprise (such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation) seem to be ineffective. Of course, preventing lone...
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...Definitions of Terrorism This paper argues that Fort Hood Shooting was an act of terrorism rather than the act of workplace violence. Based on the evidence in the case and on the existing definitions of terrorism, it asserts that Fort Hood Shooting was a terrorist attack and further provides policy recommendations to counteract the terrorism threat within the American society. Background of the Issue On November 5, 2009, U.S. Army Major and Psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 people as he went on a shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan was convicted on 45 counts of pre-mediated killing as well as attempted pre-mediated murder for murdering and shooting individuals at Fort Hood. President Obama made a reference...
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...trafficking in the same manner as dealing with terrorism. Before the Patriot Act, the courts did not allow the law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance and wiretaps to investigate crimes that terrorist often committed. This Act allowed federal agents to seek court permission to use roving wiretaps, because terrorist are trained to hinder surveillance by constantly changing the areas that they were operating in or even changing cell phone devices on a regular basis. It allowed the law enforcement to obtain a lot more material when dealing with terrorism-related crimes to take account of weapons of mass destruction, the terrorist finances and even chemical weapons. It allowed the law to investigate without tipping off the terrorist. They use to have to have a judicially approved search warrant which gave the terrorist time enough to get rid of evidence, stop communicating with the other terrorist that they were involved with, to leave the country because they knew they were found out to be a terrorist and even eliminate the witness that could link them with terrorism. This act gave law enforcement time to identify whom they thought to be Terrorist, to eliminate the act of terrorism and coordinate the arrest of all the people that where involved before they could be informed and flee the country before the law arrived. Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorizes the government to obtain "any tangible thing" relevant to a terrorism investigation, even if there is no showing...
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...In order to answer this question the term terrorist must be divided in two groupings and categories for the sake of this report. Lone wolf terrorist of typically domestic in nature. Islamic Terrorists Organization for this case ISIS and al Qaeda its members and leaders. Terrorist, historically Leftist terrorism in Europe, and terrorism in present and historical central and South America. These will fit the below examples of studies and conclusions drawn on the issue of general characteristics of terrorist. A studied in 1977 mentioned the general characteristics of terrorist in this 350 known terrorist from nations and non terrorist region and regions of conflict. The finding in a statement is “a single male, aged 22 to 24, with at least a partial university education, most often in the humanities. it continued “Terrorists who have practiced vocations have generally been in law, medicine, journalism, teaching” the article goes on to mention that...
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...The USA PATRIOT Act, or the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, is a basically an anti-terrorism law that was rather hastily passed as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks. It primarily aims at deterring and punishing acts of terrorism committed in the United States and elsewhere (USA PATRIOT Act, n.d.). However, while it appears to have noble aims of safeguarding American lives and property, the act needs to be repealed or, if not, amended so that the privacy freedoms of citizens are not trampled upon. The USA PATRIOT Act also aims at expanding the investigatory tools of law enforcement and, as well, give authorities from the executive branch more teeth against money laundering and terrorism financing and criminal abuse of financial institutions (USA PATRIOT Act, n.d.). As part of its broadening of law enforcement agencies' investigative powers, the law increased same agencies' surveillance powers, rendering amendments to the Wiretap Statue, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Study guide, n.d.). This means that the government is allowed to considerably obtain even personal information about its citizens and detain aliens even without publicly acknowledging such (Mayeux, 2003-2004). In more lay person's terms, the Patriot Act seeks to accomplish its anti-terrorist objective by allowing government to wiretap more, Internet activities...
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...SECURITY RESEARCH PAPER A PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM Piers Hutt piershutt@hotmail.com 1 March 2015 A PERSPECTIVE ON TERRORISM ABSTRACT Purpose: To critically examine the threat of modern terrorism to Western society. Design/methodology: An assessment was made of publically available documentation. The paper is then divided into a number of sections. It initially deals with the difficulties of defining terrorism, followed by its symbiotic relationship with the media. The next section looks at the modern Islamic Fundamentalist threat and the primarily neocon response since 9/11. Whilst the US has withdrawn combat forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, a bipartisan approach has been maintained to counterterrorism. The dangers of such an approach are examined along with emerging threats. Table of Contents * Abstract * Introduction * Define * Role of the Media * Psychology * Modern Terrorism * The Response * Counterview – The Dangers * Looking Ahead – The Next Potential Threats * Another Approach * Conclusion INTRODUCTION “Terrorism has become part of our daily news diet. Hardly a day goes by without news of an assassination, political kidnapping, hijacking or bombing somewhere in the world. As such, incidents of terrorism have increased in the past decade, the phenomenon of terrorism has become one of increasing concern to governments....” Introduction. With the recent high profile terrorist attacks in Sydney...
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...The USA Patriot Act also known as the (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) was a law signed by President at the time George W. Bush. The basis of this act was rushed into Congress after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City. In 2011 President Obama renewed the Patriot Act while granting a four year extension on four main parts of the USA Patriot Act. The basis of the Patriot Act is to conduct wiretaps, searches of business records, and conducting lone wolf surveillance on individuals suspected to be committing terroristic activities on United States soil. As recent as this year the Patriot Act came back into the news after...
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...Terrorism in the United States Terrorism is like a plague. It has haunted the world as well as the United States for years. It is only currently, in light of what has happened to New York and Washington, been threatened by a nation. This newly found hatred for terrorism is not just from a government, it is from the governed as well. It is not as strait forward as one may think. There are many definitions of terrorism. The definition of terrorism depends mostly on the views and occupations of the people who define it. Scholars, politicians and journalists all define terrorism differently. Words and motivations that define terrorism range from violence and force to racism. Although one well known notion that many people are familiar with is, “one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.” The notion, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, over time has become more than a cliché. Senator Henry Jackson commented on this notion at the Jonathan Institute's 1979 conference. The idea that one person's "terrorist" is another's "freedom fighter" cannot be sanctioned. Freedom fighters or revolutionaries don't blow up buses containing non-combatants; terrorist do. . . It is a disgrace that democracies would allow the treasured word "freedom" to be associated with the acts of terrorist. (Netanyahu 18-9) Although there are many definitions of the terrorism, one of the most widely accepted definitions is that of the FBI. The FBI states that terrorism is,...
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...The second example is GAM or Gerakan Aceh Merdeka. This insurgent group also motivated by politics, they want to be independent and use Islam as their ideology. Not only that, Aceh wanted to be independent because they think there is a gap between the central authority and the local authority. The examples about the terror and insurgency case show that both terrorism and insurgency are considered political violence. They use violence to have a change in politics. The similarity between terrorists and criminals is their target. They do not think about which one is combatant or which one is civilians. They do their action to anyone; they attack both combatant and civilians. The example about terrorist is the Bali bombing in 2002. According to...
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...Terrorism has been defined as ‘the use of violence or intimidation to achieve a desired end.’ (Donohoe, 2004). Terrorists have used these methods over time to change the political sphere of a country, sometimes for the greater good, and other times to advocate minor causes or causes that do not align with the values of broader society. Although terrorism had existed as a concept before the 1970s, it was at this time that terrorists began to act outside of their home territory, either singularly (known as acting as a ‘lone wolf’) or as part of a terrorist group. The first known example of this occurred in 1972 when a group of Arabian terrorists launched an attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, killing eleven people. Since this time,...
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...Historical Background It is necessary to examine the historical context of Muslim terrorism in the United States to understand the evolvement of Muslim extremism today. Juergensmeyer (2003) supports this stance by stating that contemporary acts of violence are influenced by historical violence perpetrated in the religious past. The assumption could be made that Muslim extremism in the United States is a more recent phenomenon; on the contrary, this is not true. By understanding history enlightens to where foundations and structures were built to support Muslim extremism and terrorism activities that exist in the United States today. One of the first elements of Muslim influence in the United States occurred in the early 20th century with the formation of the Moors Science Temple founded in 1913 by Noble Drew Ali in Newark, New Jersey and then later reorganized in Chicago in 1919 (Vidino, 2009; Dannin, 2002). Ali’s interpretation of Islam mixed Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroaster and Confucius (Vidino, 2009). In 1929, Ali was charged with and imprisoned for murdering Claude Greene an opponent within the organization (Dannin, 2002). Shortly after being released from bail, Ali disappeared and was presumed dead because he was never found (Dannin, 2002). With the influence of the Moors, the Nation of Islam, another unorthodox organization of Islam, was founded in 1930 by Wallace Farad in Detroit. Farad claimed he was a prophet to “awaken a dead nation in the West; to teach them...
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...She enthusiastically posted and commented on YouTube videos of supporting al-Qaeda and their allies, but her enthusiasm for jihad went beyond watching videos and offered moral support as well. She made contacts on-line with other jihadis, solicited funding, and orchestrated an actual terror plot. Her case is a shocking example of how easy it can be to find jihadi content on-line and make operational connections with others who speak aspirationally about violent acts of terror against the homeland. The Jihad Jane case is not the only one. Only a few weeks ago, Jose Pimentel was arrested for preparing bombs to use in attacking targets in New York City. Before his arrest, Mr. Pimentel had been active on-line. He ran a blog, held two YouTube accounts, and operated a Facebook profile, all dedicated to jihadi propaganda. ------------------------------------------------- Social media is the No. 1 activity on the world wide web, we know that, accounting for over 22 percent of all time spent on-line in the United States. For instance, Twitter averages about 200 million tweets per day, Facebook boasts about 800 million active users throughout the world. Social media spreading messages to many users at one time is commonplace and their power has proven to be remarkable. Al-Qaeda forum users are usually anonymous. The links between them are unknown, and the administrators heavily moderate the discussions. There are only a handful of these fora and the most prominent of them only numbers...
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...FBI: A War on Terrorism The Federal Bureau of Investigation is often depicted as the suit wearing hard core heroes called in to crack the tough cases. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a lot like that. There is more to the bureau than just the criminal investigation side. The FBI plays an active role in the war on terrorism. On September 11th 2001, the lives of Americans changed. Two planes were taking over by terrorist that smuggled razor blades on broad. The two high jacked planes then were flown into the Twin Towers in New York. The result was the loss of life for 3,000 Americans; the plane crashes were one of the most lethal attacks America has ever faced. After the heart wrenching and fear striking events of 9/11, the FBI has devoted a great majority of its resources into keep events like September 11th happening again. Within a year, the FBI established new websites, tip lines, and joint organizations to further anti-terrorist culminations. The FBI is currently in charge of more than a dozen agencies concerning terrorism. Many advocates say that the FBI is doing a great job with the war against terrorism. Critics of the FBI’s handling of security directly related to the prevention and/ or detection of possible acts or terrorism or terrorist fall into two categories: the FBI is not doing sufficient job of keeping the lives of American’s safe and secondly, the FBI is overstepping the constitutional boundaries in the so said name of terrorism prevention. By exploring...
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...groups that are miles away while exhibiting complacency to more immediate threats. For instance, hackings, illegal immigration, human, and substance trafficking do more damage in a year than the combined damage of all terrorist activities to ever occur on American soil. Consequently, if the system is to achieve its mandate of ensuring Homeland Security, its main focus should be on immediate threats, of which cyber and border security are of most concern. The continued focus on terrorism as the central threat to homeland security necessitates an examination of the key factors that influence decision-making regarding homeland security. Hypotheses Getting the priorities right in the systems of homeland security and emergency management is heavily influenced by prevailing events, such that the system has to react accordingly to the emergence of perceived threats. However, the system continues to consider terrorism as the central threat to homeland security (Bjelopera, 2013). Focusing on terrorism allows the escalation of the threat to a national concern such...
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...important, along with a brief overview of these titles, I will also provide some background information, controversial issues, alternatives, and some of my own recommendations on how to improve the Patriot Act. Lastly, like many other Acts or laws there have been many changes and amendments to the Patriot Act over the last several years, this being said I will also supply the reader with an update on the Act’s current status. Background The USA PATRIOT Act is the acronymic form of the act President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001; this act was enacted by the 107th United States Congress. The acronym stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” (Doyle) The Patriot Acts stated purpose is to...
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