Who Are They?

Feb. 23, 2009
In our continuing series designed to teach first responders about terrorism, this month we look to expose who terrorists are.

Terrorism 101
In our continuing series designed to teach first responders about terrorism, this month we look to expose who terrorists are.

International Terrorism

If the media is your sole source of information serving to identify who a terrorist is then the image depicted is convoluted at best. As all cops know, the media exists to perpetuate stories that generate intense public interest, which translates into viewership and continual funding. It's a money making venture filled with half truths, depending on the source. As a result, what they report is not necessarily accurate. For example, al-Qaeda is depicted by our national and local media as the #1 terrorist organization threatening the U.S. and our neighbors. Truth is at one point, the late 1990s, this was an accurate portrayal, but today, a decade later, the al-Qaeda organization has metamorphed into a movement rather than an institution. Think of al-Qaeda in terms of their organizational structure today to our McDonalds Hamburger Corporation. Although one delivers hand grenades instead of hamburgers both have expanded to increase effectiveness.

About 55 years ago McDonalds existed as one restaurant. Since then it has been franchised around the globe. All of them share the golden arches, Quarter Pounder and fries, but each is individually owned and operated, although inextricably linked. Thus, al-Qaeda, in a sense, has been franchised too. Bin Laden represents their Big Mac, but each spin-off from the original al-Qaeda is individually owned and operated, although influenced by varying degrees by the home office. The al-Qaeda syndicate is still very dangerous. The problem now is that there are more of them due to their direct extensions or loose affiliations.

al-Qaeda, contrary to media portrayal, is not the only bad boy on the block. Pay a visit to the U.S. State Department website (see below) for Foreign Terrorist Organizations and will note their are 42 identified and declared organizations. Franchise out their hate and murderous ideologies and you begin to see why former President Bush (#43) warned this Global War on Terror would take a generation to defeat.

How many individual terrorists are there? That depends on the source, and what your definition of a terrorist is. If you group those who are considered Islamic Extremists into the grouping of potential mass murderers then their estimated number swells to around 300 million world wide. That's the bad news. The good news? The U.S. terror watch list only names a mere 400,000 suspects as of July, 2008. Clearly there is enough hatred to go around.

Domestic Terrorists

How about our own home-grown-wackos, such as the infamous Timothy McVay? Not everyone who wants to derail our government, destroy our way of life, or kill innocents is from overseas. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project, they track around 800 hate groups around the nation. Although "White Nationalists", "Black Separatists", "KKK", "Neo-Nazis" and "Skin Heads" have taken a back seat to media coverage recently, they are still a force to be reckoned with (see their activity locations below).

When was the last time you, as a police officer, were concerned about the subversive activities of the Animal Liberation Front? Probably never, unless you are a college campus police or university law enforcement officer responding to one of their incendiary devices they planted at the campus research laboratory.

The point is we cannot establish a singular, universal, manner of identifying a terrorist organization. The terrorism organizational spectrum is wide, deep and far reaching. When former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge testified in front of Congress in 2002 and said that millions wake up every day around the world wanting to kill us, he wasn't kidding. There are. They do. We can, however, apply the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method by breaking down several definitions of terrorism and highlighting their common features for basic conceptualization. Here it is:

If they -
  • are motivated by religious, political, or social reasons
  • use or threaten to use violence
  • to change the government, public policy or people's lives
  • then...
    THEY ARE A TERRORIST.

    The Sponsors

    Where a terrorist organization gets its support (financial, material, information, etc.) will also help identify who they really are, where they come from and where they are going. Generally, there are three categories of terrorism sponsorship:

    Non-State Sponsored: This type of terrorist organization functions autonomously, receiving no overt support or direction from an established government. Those that fall into this category have been White Supremacists, Animal Rights and Environmental Groups.

    State Supported: Although acting independently, these terrorists do receive financial and technical support from a national government. Examples are Provisional Irish Republican Army and Red Army Faction, among others.

    State Directed: These terrorists "serve as an arm of the government". They receive operational directives from national governments and the media often refer to their country of origin as "source nations" in support of terrorism. Most notably, Iran, Syria, Iran, North Korea and Sudan.

    The Actors

    Terrorist Cells are operationally constructed into three elements:

    Support Cells: Men, women and children providing weapons, cash, cell phones, transportation, safe houses, whatever is needed for the furtherance of operations.

    Intelligence Cell: Men, women and children surveilling people, places and things; cops included. I worked a narco-terrorism case once where the bad guys surveilled the patrol patterns of local police officers. Think you are the only ones watching people? Think again. In some cases the intelligence cell members may already be employees of their intended target.

    Operator Cell: Men, women, and we better be prepared for children at some point, here in the U.S. who will carry out the attack.

    Transparent Metamorphosis

    As if to add to the confusion, the particular identification of terrorists by nationality or racial boundaries has become impossible, and intentionally so. According to Col. Dan Dickerson (USA ret.), leading terrorism expert having served as a terrorism advisor to the United Nations, NATO and INTERPOL, "white Muslims" were and continue to be activity recruited by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations such as Lashkar-e Taiba. Their recruitment of "Westerners", notably Americans or Britons, or those with western looking features is done with the intent of defeating law enforcement interdiction strategies. Dickerson says that "race is not an underlying factor in this war", and he is right. Street cops can't use the ill-advised "he looked Pakistani so I stopped him" approach for terrorism interdiction.

    Intelligence sources, according to Dickerson, note that al-Qaeda and Hezbollah have been especially active in Latin America. Terrorists have "established training camps in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Venezuela and the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay." At these camps the Latinos convert to Islam and "are taught English and the skills necessary to conduct urban warfare before being sent to the U.S."

    Summary

    Here is the least you need to understand for this section:

    • al-Qaeda and many other terrorist organizations continue to evolve and adapt to their environments in order to defeat homeland security measures.
    • Experts note that the number of potential terrorists around the globe could number in the millions.
    • Terrorism is divided into two categories by the FBI; International and Domestic.
    • Religious, political, social motivations; using violence or the threat of it; changing government, public policy and lives = Terrorism. Someone functioning within that definition is a terrorist.
    • Terrorism sponsorship consists of Non-State Supported, State Supported and State Directed.
    • Terrorist Cells consists of units known as Support, Intelligence and Operators. Each unit has a unique assignment.
    • Future homicide bombers will most likely not look like the 9/11 Hijackers. Rather, they could have blonde hair and blue eyes; more Western looking.



    About the Author

    Keith R. Lavery

    Keith R. Lavery, M.A., CMAS, is a full-time criminal justice educator teaching at a public Career Center, University System of Ohio. He has facilitated and designed criminal justice, security, and law enforcement courses of instruction at the post-secondary level. Keith had a very diverse police career spanning nearly 20 years, working in urban and rural law enforcement settings with assignments ranging from patrol to specialized functions, to include HIDTA Drug Unit, CLANLAB Enforcement Team, SRT and Supervision. In 2008, Keith was awarded the Certified Master Anti-Terrorism designation from the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board. Academically, he has completed post-graduate course work dedicated toward a Doctorate in Education. Keith is currently the Law Enforcement Liaison for the Cleveland, Ohio, Chapter of ASIS International.

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