...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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...Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” or commonly referred to as the “PATRIOT Act.” This expansion of the government’s...
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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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...Enhanced interrogating such as waterboadring should not be used because they go against the Geneva Convention. It is essential to respect suspected terrorist as humane as possible because it is un-American to do otherwise. Also, enhanced interrogating techniques can be ineffective because the individual being interviewed can provide false claims to stop the questioning and other methods of interrogating (Mayer, 2006 & Feinstein, 2014). Enhanced interrogations can be counterproductive because it can fuel more radicalization. Pape (2015) notes that jihadist groups can use torture as propaganda to illustrate that America is inhumane towards the Muslim community. This will eventually lead to more violence against the West. Done strikes can be...
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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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...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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...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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...potatoes of what, in my opinion is Homeland Security’s mission, defending the homeland. The gravest threat to our homeland is terrorism, even if Bernie Sanders thinks its climate change. In this week’s reading I found probably my favorite definition of terrorism, according to James M. Poland, “Terrorism is the premeditated, deliberate, systematic murder, mayhem, and threatening of the innocent to create fear and intimidation in order to gain a political or tactical advantage, usually to influence an audience.” (II 2011) 1. Identify the top three threats to homeland security and why you chose those as...
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...The term terrorism invokes a wide range of concepts in that it also entails numerous definitions that are randomly applied given the type of terrorist attack, the intended target, and the overall goals of the terrorist group. This generalization also allows for the term terrorism to be associated with a number of political and civil rights movements that are inconsistent with the social norms or political goals of the government bodies. Such associations can frequently cause confusion between progression and terrorism. This is especially true in cases of domestic terrorism as these occurrences continue to rise and the media spins various connections between the actions and the message that the attacker is attempting to send or promote. This...
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...Muslims and Islams aren’t to blame Terrorism always gets confused with foreigners. Terrorism that is caused by Americans is usually hard to recall. But, when was the last time a foreigner attacked US territory? The last attack on US soil by a foreign terrorist was December 11, 2017. Moreover, just at the starting of 2018, there was six school shootings in January alone for our own American people. Muslims should not be the blame for terrorist attacks on our homeland because as a country we’ve been attacked more by our own people. Most Muslims or Islam’s coming into our country are looked at as terrorists based on their religion. Many Americans blame current attacks on them because of the 9/11 attack. Espionage and Intelligence wrote, “Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers.” In December of 2016, more than 41% of Americans believed that Islam’s are likely to be violent and that has to do with their faith. In addition more than 50% of Americans think most of the Muslims in America are “anti-american”. Most middle eastern people face more discrimination than people of color. 39% of “our people” think the...
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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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...As we continue to progress into the 21st century, the threat of terrorism has continued to progress as well. Throughout the years, the world has seen many different tactics used to fight against terrorism. These tactics can range from highly volatile to non-combative. Some countries share the belief that more non-combative tactics are the best method to deal with the issue. However, the United States has not been of this belief. The United States has been a leading force in the fight against terrorism with their full military incursion into the middle east. In relation to the United States, these tactics have leaned more towards a strong military response that is intended to completely destroy the groups in question, rather than use a tactic...
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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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