Information Security Management Handbook, Sixth Edition (2012)

DOMAIN 10: PHYSICAL (ENVIRONMENTAL) SECURITY

Elements of Physical Security

Chapter 30. Terrorism: An Overview*

Frank Bolz, Jr., Kenneth J. Dudonis, and David P. Schulz

New Game

Terrorism is a political act, though its use and processes have very specific, horrific components and consequences. In this country terror is perhaps no longer perceived to be the same thing it was in the years immediately following the events of September 11, 2001—events that tragically introduced international terrorism to the American public. Terrorism on American soil was not new, since political activists, extremists, and radicals had used bombs, kidnapping, hijackings, and hostage taking as tactics in campaigns to press their points of view into the public awareness. But foreign terrorists striking on the American mainland had a devastating effect physically, psychologically, and emotionally that, a decade later, still inhabits the nation’s psyche. Governments—federal, state, and local—continue to struggle to reduce the anxiety levels among the general public. In addition, private sector security has never been so finely tuned.

The last two decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of extreme Islamic radicalism to levels that threaten regimes throughout the Muslim world, as well as nations throughout Asia, Europe, much of Africa, and North America. Terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic terrorist groups have risen not only in number, but also in level of violence. The United States, which had largely been free of confrontations with Islamic terrorism, received its first taste in 1993, with a truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, the same target leveled in the aerial assault on September 11, 2001. The earlier incident was largely disregarded at the highest levels of our government, perhaps considered aberrant and amateurish, and it went largely unacknowledged. In the years up to the first World Trade Center attack, there were a number on incidents against Americans and American interests perpetrated, or believed to have been perpetrated, by Islamic radicals. But these were largely confined to the Middle East and adjacent territories. More recently, however, the United States has been engaged in hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq quickly went from a classic military operation into an insurgency—though the “rebels” were mostly from outside Iraq—with the improvised explosive device a weapon of choice. The incursion by American forces into these countries further fanned the flames of radical Islam.

Terrorist activities on American soil by foreigners were a lightly regarded threat in large part because it was believed that there was not a critical mass of immigrant population through which terrorists could establish a support infrastructure. This has all changed with the influx of a large number of Middle Eastern immigrants at the end of the twentieth century and in the early years of the twenty-first century. The great majority of these immigrants follow the Islamic faith in a peaceful manner, but some do not. This has raised concern among many in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, but the level of their concern has not always been shared by those in other areas of government, particularly at the federal level, such as the Department of State, to name one.

Global War on Terrorism

A decade has passed since the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The counterterrorism response that was formulated precipitated a bold and rapid reaction to what is still called the war on terrorism. It began in October 2001, when President George W. Bush told the American people, “The attack took place on the American soil, but it was an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world. And the world has come together to fight a new and different war, the first, and we hope the only one, of the twenty-first century. A war against all those who seek to export terror and a war against the governments that support or shelter them.”[1] This war is being waged not only by the military, but also by numerous law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the globe. Inevitably, there are arguments as to whether bullets or diplomats are the way to address the problem. The answer is not easy—force must be met with force—but we still need the cooperation of the governments in countries where terrorists operate.

After 9/11, the United States and a number of allies began implementing policies that would take the war to the terrorists on multiple fronts and in multiple ways. The battle to destroy terrorism, or at least control it, involves diplomatic, financial, military, and traditional law enforcement strategies and tactics. In an effort to thwart future terrorist attacks, New York City launched a number of initiatives, including the placement of police detectives in selected overseas locations to interact with their counterparts in the gathering of intelligence information. In this way information that is useful to New York’s safety can be transmitted directly without being first filtered through federal intelligence agencies.

After three decades of intensive activity by Islamic radicals who were increasing attacks in both number and audacity against civilized countries and their worldwide interests, the civilized world struck back. Led by the United States in the wake of 9/11, the fight was brought to the enemy, through the Taliban and al Qaeda operations in Afghanistan and the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Initially more than 170 nations participated in the war on terrorism by actively pursuing terrorists within their borders, freezing funds of terrorist support networks, and providing military assistance. Enthusiasm, both at home and abroad, ebbs and flows, but yet the war against terrorism continues.

On the domestic front, the creation of the cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brought together virtually all the federal agencies directly involved with the war on terror. The enactment of the USA Patriot Act codified many existing practices and extended them to uses specific to both preventing and fighting terrorism.

The creation of the DHS represents one of the most sweeping restructurings of the U.S. government in the nation’s history. The speed with which the department came into existence in the wake of 9/11 is almost as dramatic as the tasks assigned to the department. Though something of an unwieldy superagency, DHS now includes Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Coast Guard, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Secret Service among its constituent agencies. On a day-to-day basis, none of the department’s responsibilities stray from the primary reason for its creation: to prevent terrorist attacks by reducing the nation’s vulnerability to terrorism, to minimize the damage that might occur in the event of terrorist attacks, and to assist in the recovery from attacks that might have occurred. Under DHS, there are more than a hundred joint terrorism task forces around the country, 70% of them created since 9/11, with more than 600 state and local agencies and 50 different federal agencies participating. Their efforts are coordinated by the National Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Though much has been made of the differences between the Bush and the Obama administrations’ respective approaches to counterterrorism, the differences are more of style and rhetoric than substance. The Obama administration has largely followed the groundwork developed by its predecessor, but has adopted new language and moved to treat some incidents as criminal acts rather than part of a terror war.

Meaning of Terrorism

The word terror derives from the Latin word terrere, meaning “to frighten.” The word and its derivatives have been applied in a variety of contexts—from a sobriquet for a vicious despot (as in Ivan the Terrible), to eras of violent political turbulence (as in the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution), to the sporadic outbursts of violence the world knows today as international terrorism. Violence is not the key characteristic, however, since such violent confrontations as World Wars I and II are not considered terrorism. Rather than being an end in itself, violence is a means to instill fear into, i.e., to terrify, whole populations.

Instilling fear can be purposeful for criminal or political ends that are malevolent in nature, yet populations can be frightened without terrorism being involved; for example, the cause may be disease, such as the West Nile-type avian virus that plagued sections of the United States, the “mad cow” virus that struck England and parts of Europe and North America, the spread of autoimmune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) through many countries south of the equator, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China, and the deadly Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century, to name just a few. There are those who believe that the outbreaks of these diseases were not entirely natural but were intentionally spread by human intervention; if true, they would be acts of bioterrorism.

The intention of all terrorists is to instill fear in the population at large. With the bombings of the resort hotels and night clubs in Bali, the attacks in Mumbai, the bombings of transportation facilities in Spain and London, and of course, the attacks of 9/11, such fear has been greatly elevated both in the United States and around the world. For terrorists, there is a common motivation to the specific acts that they perpetrate, and frequently in today’s world it is the advancement of radical Islam. Because there are common elements to terrorism, counterterrorism has a foundation on which to base defensive strategies and tactics. Anything that can be done to reduce fear and anxiety among the general population is an effective defense against terrorism.

What Is Terrorism?

The modern godfather of urban terrorism and author of the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, Carlos Marighella, defined terrorism as action: “It is an action that the urban guerilla must execute with the greatest of cold-bloodedness, calmness and decisions.”[2] No police officers, legislatures, or philosophers could better describe the essence of terrorism: attacks that are ruthless in nature and calculated in their impact on society at large.

On a more scholarly level, Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation described terrorism as “the calculated use of violence to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature. Terrorism is a criminal act that is often symbolic in nature and intended to influence an audience beyond the immediate victims.”[3]

On the political level, the U.S. Department of State acknowledges that there are a range of definitions for terrorism, influenced particularly by the definer’s perspective on any given conflict or group. A middle-of-the-road definition that initially surfaced in the mid-1980s and has retained currency says it best: “Terrorism is a premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combat targets by substantial groups of clandestine state agents, usually intended to influence an audience.”[4] Since 9/11, we have come to recognize, however, that all terrorists are not state agents; they may be adherents of groups of organizations that often act with the assistance of state agents.

In the past, the lack of a working definition of terrorism presented a serious problem when terrorists were apprehended and brought to trial. Terrorism itself was, for the most part, not prohibited by law, although the planting of explosive devices, kidnapping, arson, robbery, taking hostages, hijacking planes, conspiring to commit illegal acts, and similar activities were prohibited by federal, state, and local laws. The result was that in court, terrorists argued they were being persecuted for supporting certain political or religious beliefs, and that the proceeding was a political trial rather than a criminal case. Arguments continue on how to adjudicate criminal acts committed in a terrorism context. The Obama administration has been particularly riven by internal debate over whether such actions should be handled by civilian courts or through military tribunals.

Terrorism is included in many parts of the U.S. legal code, but definitions and context vary. Some of these uses include:

International terrorism: Terrorism involving citizens or territory of more than one county.

Terrorism: Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by substantial groups or clandestine agents.

Terrorist group: A group that has significant subgroups that practice international terrorism.

Terrorist territory: An area in a country or countries used by a terrorist or terrorist organization to carry out terrorist activities, including training, fund-raising, financing, and recruitment; or as a transit point, in which the government(s) expressly consents to, or with knowledge, allows, tolerates, or disregards such use of its territory.

With the USA Patriot Act and related legislation, Congress has addressed terrorism at the federal level, and many states and even some municipalities have followed suit. The USA Patriot Act, for instance, provides specific authority to seize assets used by terrorists or in support of the commission of terrorist acts, thus depriving terrorists of the use of these assets, including funds. There have also been questions, not all of them fully resolved legally, as to whether individuals apprehended in the war on terrorism are “enemy combatants” who may be tried by military tribunals.

Like the creation of the DHS, the USA Patriot Act, formally named the United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, was signed into law in the wake of 9/11. It was adopted on October 26, 2001, less than two months after it was initially proposed by the Department of Justice attorneys, and made permanent, with a few modifications, five years later. It is intended, in the words of the law, to provide the government with “resources necessary to disrupt, weaken, thwart, and eliminate the infrastructure of terrorist organizations, to prevent and thwart terrorist attacks, and to punish perpetrators of terrorist acts.”[5] Despite these national security aims, it is one of the most controversial pieces of domestic legislation that has become law in the past three decades.

Many groups, foremost among them civil libertarians, are concerned about the expansion of information that the law makes available to law enforcement. The law expands the methods permitted for collection of personal data and for sharing that data among law enforcement and investigative agencies. This is particularly true surrounding investigations in which foreign intelligence information is sought even when it is not a primary purpose of the investigation. The USA Patriot Act also broadens the use of a number of traditional surveillance techniques and permits the expanded use of wiretaps for certain types on investigations, most of which involve, primarily, federal law enforcement agencies rather than local police. Provisions of the law have been, and will continue to be, tested in a number of court cases around the country. It remains to be seen what impact various sections of the law will have as the courts decide on their constitutionality and the part they will play in the long and ongoing fight against terrorism.

Brief History of Terrorism

International terrorism, though it has intensified in the twenty-first century, is not a new phenomenon. Political betrayal, treachery, deceit, and violence have been around as long as humans have formed themselves into political groups. Ancient texts such as the Bible, the Iliad, and theOdyssey, and Egyptian hieroglyphics and letters inscribed in cuneiform on clay tablets have related specific details about such occurrences in the eastern Mediterranean. The act of murder for political ends, a major component of terrorism, was raised to a fine art by a small group of Ismali Shiite Muslims late in the eleventh century, under the direction of Hassam-I Sabbah. His followers, who came to be known as Assassins, were a small fundamentalist religious sect engaged in numerous confrontations with other Shiites and the more dominant Sunni Muslims of the Fatimid dynasty. In the world of Islam, the demarcation between secular and religious authority is blurred so that a religious dispute may equally be viewed as political, and vice versa.

In addition to their name and legacy of terrorism, the Assassins have also been credited with precipitating the invention of chain-mail body armor as protection against dagger attacks. These loyal followers of Sabbah and his successors were known as fedai, or faithful, and as fadayeen, men of sacrifice.

As religious and domestically political as their motives usually were, the Assassins were not above engaging in terrorism on behalf of others, including, according to some accounts, Richard the Lion-Hearted (King Richard III of England) while he was engaged in one of his crusades to the Holy land. The Christian religious group Order of the Knights Templar was said to have adopted the Assassins’ system of military organization.

The Assassins were also trained to participate in suicide missions. They were often paid in advance so they could give the money to their families. The only success was the death of the target, whether or not it cost the life of the individual assassin. The Assassins eventually fell prey to internal squabbles and internecine disputes and were effectively neutralized as a political power by the middle of the thirteenth century, but managed to remain cohesive enough to resurface in the 1830s and again in the 1940s as foes of the Shah of Iran.

Although the Assassins were the most notorious group of historical terrorists, there have been many others, including the celebrated Guy Fawkes, bomber of the English Parliament (who nonetheless is viewed by others as a fighter against oppression). The Barbary pirates of North Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made their living kidnapping citizens of other countries and holding them for ransom. This activity led to the founding of another Christian religious group, the Redemptionist Order, whose members often acted as intermediaries between the states of the Barbary Coast and the foreign governments whose citizens were being held hostage.

Terrorism in the United Kingdom

In 1605, the Gunpowder Plot involved a group with Guy Fawkes at the center that planned to kill King James I at the opening session of Parliament. The plan failed when one of the plotters advised a relative not to attend Parliament that day. Terrorism was also prominent in England during the nineteenth century when Irish rebels launched what became known as the Fenian Dynamite Campaign from the mid-1860s until 1885, in which prisons, Scotland Yard, London Bridge, the House of Commons, and the Tower of London became bomb targets. The 75 years from the middle of the nineteenth century until World War I was an active period for nationalists and rebels who employed terrorist acts in their campaign against the British, including a bombing campaign in London that diminished as World War II heated up. Sporadic bomb attacks occurred in the last three decades of the twentieth century as terrorists adopted the status of Northern Ireland as their cause. The turn of the twenty-first century saw the rise of Islamic terrorists in Great Britain, with bomb attacks on the London transit system and multiple other plots that were foiled by authorities or otherwise failed in execution. Many of the Islamic radicals involved in these incidents were born in Britain, a vestige of Britain’s imperial heritage as a colonial power in regions that are today referred to as the Muslim world.

Modern Terrorist Groups

In the Middle East, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the modern era can be traced to the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 by Hassen al-Banna, a schoolteacher who preached for Sharia law. A militant wing known as the secret apparateur was formed, and in 1948 some of the Brotherhood members assassinated Egypt’s prime minister. A short time later, alleged government agents killed Hassen al-Banna. In the early 1950s the Brotherhood was accused in some 750 cases of arson, mostly in Cairo. The targets were mainly nightclubs, theaters, hotels, and restaurants frequented by the British and other Westerners, including tourists, in an effort to end the secular lifestyle. In 1954, after the attempt on the life of Gamal Nassar, a crackdown on the Brotherhood was carried out. After Nassar’s ousting, Anwar Sadat became president and eased the restrictions on the Brotherhood, but he also fell from favor when he signed a peace accord with Israel. He was assassinated on October 6, 1981, by members of the violent Tanzim al-Jihad.

The Brotherhood has spawned or inspired a number of ideological terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda, Hamas, and Jamaat-al-Islamiyya, to mention a few. In addition, the second in command to Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was a former member of the Egyptian Brotherhood.

During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, radical Islamic terror groups increased in number and strength throughout the Middle East and also spread into Europe. This coincided with a number of terrorist groups espousing a Marxist-Leninist philosophy. These groups, the most notable of which included the Baader-Mienhof Gang (later Red Army Faction) in Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy, which kidnapped and later killed Aldo Moro, a former prime minister of Italy, would operate well into the 1980s. It was reported that a conclave of terrorists occurred in 1983 in Benghazi, Libya, when Muamar Khaddafy brought together more than a thousand representatives from such disparate organizations as the Palestine Liberation Army, Abu Nidal, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Puerto Rican independence group FALN, the Black Liberation Army, the American Indian Movement, the Nation of Islam, and several unaffiliated freelance terrorists, to further push their terrorist campaign against the West.

There were also a number of nationalistic groups that engaged in major acts of terrorism. One of the more well-known groups was the Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA), a Basque separatist group that operates throughout Spain and is still very much alive today. The Provisional Irish Republican Army, which was still active in the early 2000s in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England, carried out a number of devastating bomb attacks around Great Britain and particularly in London. Armenian nationalist causes have also given rise to a number of terrorist groups going back to 1890 with the Armenian Revolutionary Faction, a group seeking autonomy for Armenia from the Ottoman Empire. More recently, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia was active from the mid-1970s well into the 1980s, using as a rationale the massacre of Armenians by Turkey in the early 1900s. The group launched a number of bomb attacks across Europe, mainly in Turkey and France.

The Balkans have long been a hotbed of terrorist activity, from the days of the Black Hand, to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that touched off World War I, through the cowardly Croatian terrorist who hijacked TWA flight 355 en route to Chicago from JFK airport. A New York City Police Department Bomb Squad officer was killed in an attempt to disarm an improvised explosive device (IED) left in a locker at Grand Central Terminal by the hijackers.

In the United States, in the early decades of the twentieth century anarchists operating under the banner of the Black Hand preyed on newly arrived immigrants, especially on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Their tactics of selective assassinations with guns and bombs proved extremely effective for a short period of time.

Many Third World leaders of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Rim engaged in activities that could be described as terrorism against colonial governments prior to their countries gaining independence. In the post-World War II period, the Middle East became a particular focal point of wars of liberation, or terrorist insurrection, depending upon political perspective. In an area called Palestine, Zionists popularly called the Stern Gang and Irgun fought the British rulers for a state in the traditional Jewish homeland. When Israel was created and became an independent state in 1948, many Arab and Islamic residents of the immediate area settled outside the borders and began demanding a fully independent Palestinian state, a demand that continues to this time and reinforces how the designation terrorism or terrorists can be seen differently from opposite sides of an issue.

In the United States, the war in Vietnam and opposition to it was a springboard for launching a wave of domestic terrorism unparalleled in this country’s history. Such groups as the Weather Underground, the New World Liberation Front, and groups with similar antiwar, antiestablishment, and anarchist sympathies spawned bombing campaigns, armed robberies to finance their activities, and other criminal acts. The attention drawn by these groups to various causes encouraged political radicals of other stripes, spanning the political spectrum from the Puerto Rican national group FALN to the Black Panthers to the anti-Castro Cuban group Omega-7, to engage in increasingly violent activities.

Such domestic terrorism waned following the end of the Vietnam War, only to yield to a new breed of domestic terrorists that included antiabortionists, environmental extremists, and such radicals as Aryan Nation members, survivalists, and militia groups. Among the more notorious of these was Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995. Another such terrorist, Eric Rudolf, a loner with an antiabortion and antigay agenda, carried out a series of bombings; the most well known was at an Olympic venue in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.

Terrorism as a Political Statement

One argument often advanced by radical apologists is that the judgment of terrorists’ actions is purely subjective, so that one man’s terrorist is another man’s patriot and revolutionary leader. In recent times, this view has been articulated by the Baader-Meinhof partisans in the Red Army Faction, the West German terrorist group, when one of its members declared that George Washington was a terrorist. More pointedly, in early 2001, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the Green Party and part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder’s government alliance, admitted he had participated in terrorist activity in his youth, including incidents that resulted in the deaths of hostages. In a court trial, however, he swore he had never been a member of the Red Army Faction.

Many modern terrorists believe that they will not see their goals achieved during their lifetimes, and so they view their activities as the base or building blocks of greater movements yet to come. These individuals, even when imprisoned, will use any and every opportunity to further their goals by recruiting, training, and indoctrinating new members, in addition to keeping existing members in line.

Examining, analyzing, and critiquing such philosophical arguments goes beyond the scope of the book. It is important to note, however, that almost every terrorist group espouses a noble or at least rational or justifiable cause. The truth is, however, that the terrorists may be merely a group of common criminals using their stated cause as a smokescreen or front for nefarious activities. Alternatively, a group may have legitimate origins as a political or activist organization but have since degenerated into terrorist activity. On rare occasions, they may actually be a group of dedicated people acting on behalf of a legitimate cause against oppression or repression, but engaged in terrorist activity nonetheless.

Regardless of which type of group is involved, terrorist activities are all the same. The bombings, hostage takings, kidnappings, or other types of illegal behavior all present the same problems and challenges to law enforcement and private security personnel.

The Nature of Terrorism

Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation has said terrorism is “the use or threatened use of force designed to bring about political change,”[6] while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has defined terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”[7] In the twenty-first century, the once driving forces of terrorism—Marxist-Leninism or Maoism, or both—have largely been replaced by fundamentalist Islamic radicalism on the world stage. Yet Jenkins’s observation remains valid that the three most serious conflicts that fall short of nuclear confrontation are:

1. Conventional warfare

2. Guerrilla or insurgency warfare

3. International terrorism

In the first two types of conflict, noncombatants are usually able to distinguish themselves from the combatants. This is not to say that noncombatants are never killed, because they are, whether through inadvertent collateral damage or at times when insurgents use noncombatant civilians and their houses or other structures as cover. These casualties are usually isolated or unusual incidents because in both guerrilla and conventional warfare the major focus of killing is one armed force against another. Conflicts can be either high intensity or low intensity in nature, such as the vast majority of combat taking place in Third World areas of the globe and the few confrontations in industrial nations of the world. Battlegrounds range from erstwhile socialist republics of the old Soviet Union, to former colonies of European imperial powers and areas where age-old ethnic hatreds still exist, to territories where drug trafficking is rampant.

However, the exploitation of noncombatants (i.e., their suffering and death) is the essence of international terrorism. Because of the covert nature of the activity, terrorist attacks can be carried out by a small cohort of operatives who receive financial and logistical support from radical political and activist organizations, which can, and do, include governments of rogue nations. Political, ethnic, religious, fraternal, and other activist organizations may be suspected of acting in support of terrorist goals, even if not actually fostering and furthering these goals.

In many terrorist acts, individuals and groups only loosely connected or ostensibly unconnected to the terrorist operatives perform support functions, such as arranging financial assistance; providing travel documents, safe houses, and ground transportation as required; and providing alibis or other cover. Today we see major terrorist operations being funded not only by sympathetic state sponsors and wealthy ideologues, but also by legitimate business networks and so-called charitable funds that raise funds specifically to finance terrorist operations. Osama bin Laden built his al Qaeda organization with his personal wealth, donations from sympathetic family members and other wealthy individuals, and through the cash flow of business fronts engaged in legal activities.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has described terrorism as a phenomenon in transition and has indicated that the nature of the terrorist threat has changed dramatically. The DOD attributes the change to five factors:

1. Collapse of the Soviet Union spawning insurgent nationalist groups

2. Changing motivations of terrorists and emergence of radical Islamic fundamentalism

3. Proliferation in technologies in the production of weapons of mass destruction

4. Increased access to information and communication technologies

5. Accelerated centralization of vital components of the national infrastructure, which has increased vulnerability to terrorist attack

Much of the thrust on international terrorism has been, and will continue to be, directed toward the United States, American targets abroad, and U.S. allies on a global scale. As seen in the 9/11 attacks, there is almost no limit to the imagination used in designing an assault. Attacks will continue to be directed toward high-profile targets that may be difficult to defend, such as landmark buildings and national icons. On the other hand, the most hard core of the terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda, will continue to tackle high-security targets, such as airports, airplanes, and airline facilities, on which they seem to have a particular fixation. And most likely, they will be concentrated in urban locations, perpetrated by those acting on behalf of religious and ethnic causes and, as in the past, political points of view.

Characteristics of Terrorism

Terrorist groups are becoming tougher, more resilient, and more difficult to defeat. In addition, terror attacks are becoming more sophisticated and deadly. Terrorist groups evolve and adapt in response to the ever-changing tactics of law enforcement and intelligence agencies working to defeat them. Terrorist groups are organized in many different ways, including the traditional pyramidal power chart with a leader or small clique at the top and ever-widening tiers of authority moving down the chain of command. Various other configurations for depicting the organization of terrorist groups include circles, squares, and bull’s-eye target designs. Anarchist groups claim to be leaderless. With that possible exception, one thing all groups have in common is a hard-core leadership, surrounded by active and loyal cadre, and then, moving farther from the center, a broader group of active supporters, and outside that, an even broader level of passive support.

In the shifting nature of terrorist groups—or at least the vocal justifications they provide for their actions—religion and ethnicity have equaled or surpassed politics as the driving force behind their stated goals. Hiding behind the shield of accepted religious organizations (or ethnic societies or political activist associations), support groups are free to operate with virtual impunity in most parts of the world and particularly in Western democracies. In addition to fund-raising, religious and ethnic groups provide cover for covert activities of more militant representatives of terrorist organizations. This has become evident since 9/11 in tracing the preincident activities of the perpetrators of the attacks and their supporters, where Islamic mosques in North America and Europe were the sites of fund-raising and recruiting activities. There is ample evidence of training camps organized for terrorist recruits, Islamic radicals in particular, being conducted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Lebanon, to name a few countries where these camps have been reported.

Actions and characteristics of terrorist groups do change over time. For example, kneecapping was used as a signal or scar to demonstrate the wide reach of a terrorist organization during the 1970s and 1980s. In Italy, terrorists shot the victim in the knee; in Ireland, an electric drill was used to mutilate the knee. In either case, victims walking around for the remainder of their lives with a limp were a constant reminder to the populace of terrorist power and omnipresence in the region. In Africa, terrorists use a machete to chop the hand(s) of victims, even children, to accomplish a similar effect on villagers and urban dwellers alike. Today, Islamic terrorist groups enforce their warped beliefs by beheading selected captured enemies who oppose their views.

Financial Terrorism

Money laundering can lead to financial terrorism or at least financing terrorism, and many well-known financial institutions have had officers involved in moving money in and out of offshore banks. Some manipulations and movement of money are done for the purposes of avoiding taxes or legal restrictions and regulations, but often, and this is what makes the movement of funds money laundering, the machinations are performed to legitimize ill-gotten funds of illegal businesses, criminals, and terrorists. Major financial institutions and even governments of both large and small countries have been brought down as a result of money manipulations. There are recurring attempts or at least reports of attempts at large-scale counterfeiting of U.S. and other Western currencies by rogue states, terrorists, and criminal organizations. The USA Patriot Act and other legislation dealing with the use of otherwise legitimate international financial dealings for terrorist purposes were highlighted by President Bush in November 2001 when he said, “We put the world’s financial institutions on notice: If you do business with terrorists, if you support them or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.”[8]

Even with these strong words, little can be done about funding terrorism with legitimately gained funds. For example, the United States continues to rely on foreign oil, a good portion of which comes from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia in particular. It is strongly suspected that a substantial amount of oil profit is funneled through various organizations and eventually into the hands of terrorist organizations. Since the liberation of Iraq and the reestablishment of the oil industry, it is estimated that a substantial amount of oil is redirected to the black market, and eventually into insurgent operations.

According to Loretta Napoleoni, the Italian economist who tracks terrorist financing, the Taliban and al Qaeda gain funds from rogue economies located within the so-called tribal belt of Pakistan in South America. Centered in the city of Quetta, and similar to its New World counterpart in Ciudad del Este in South America, markets thrive on trade in counterfeit luxury goods and stolen merchandise, as well as drugs and smuggled arms.

The following are among the tools used to monitor financial activities:

1. The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, under the aegis of the Treasury Department, works to identify foreign terrorist groups, assesses their funding sources and fund-raising methods, and provides information to law enforcement agencies as to how the funds are moved about.

2. Operation Green Quest is a Customs Service-led multiagency initiative involving investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury’s Office of Financial Assets Control, and the FBI who target sources of funding for terrorist groups.

3. The Financial Action Task Force, with representatives from 35 different countries, oversees and reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and countermeasures. The aim is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the financial operations of charities and nongovernmental organizations associated with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, as well as other terrorist organizations.

Early in the war on terrorism, the United States shut down al-Barakaat and al-Tawa, both of which were important financial conduits for al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In addition, in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was closed for activities that included funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas.

Narcoterrorism is a specific type of financial terrorism that is so named because it relies on the profits from illegal narcotics trade to finance various terrorist activities around the world. Unlike most terrorism, it is not based on any ideology, but is strictly profit driven. A classic example of this was found in South America, where a substantial amount of profits from drug dealing were used to support the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, a Marxist insurgent group known by its acronym FARC. Drug profits from the Far East, primarily involving Afghanistan and Myanmar, have supported al Qaeda and other Muslim terrorist groups. Although most of the drugs filtering into the United States come from South America and Mexico, with Far Eastern poppies primarily supplying European drug markets, the intertwining of profits and support for terrorist activities makes the location where the supplies end up less important than the vast amount of money the supplies generate.

The source countries for drug products share in common weak state authorities that are often corrupt or considered illegitimate by the general population. The poorer the population, the more likely they are to turn to drug crops, where profits greatly exceed those that could be derived from any legitimate agriculture or subsistence farming. Just as drug distribution sources led to the creation of such drug millionaires as Colombian cocaine baron Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, and more recent examples among Mexican drug cartels, those same sources have been tapped by terrorist groups to amass cash that can be used to pay for terrorist activities. It is extremely difficult for local police to stem such activity. Most cases must be made at the federal level, where agents may rely on a variety of federal drug, racketeering, and money laundering laws.

Terrorist Actions

By definition, terrorists espouse a philosophical, religious, or political basis for their actions, and thus they have strategic goals to achieve. The methods by which these goals are reached, or at least approached, are the tactics of terrorists. By and large, these tactics are designed to gain as much media attention as possible through intimidation and fear, while at the same time enhancing the group’s stature in its theater of political operation. Bomb attacks, hostage taking, hijacking, kidnapping, and similar types of assaults have been the traditional tactics of terrorists. Domestic terrorists, the so-called New Age terrorists of the twenty-first century, have to some extent taken a step backward from the violent confrontational tendencies of their predecessors. The Weather Underground, the FALN, and similar “bombing groups” have faded into history. The new groups now engage in such activities as arson, vandalism, and theft in the conduct of their ecoterrorism, bioterrorism, animal rights terrorism, and cyberterrorism. On the other hand, American jihadists tend to favor bombs, armed assaults, and similar confrontational tactics.

The bomb remains the weapon of choice among terrorists on the international level, both for the anonymity it affords operatives and the amount of media attention an explosion garners. This latter point is still valid, even in light of the relatively quick apprehension and trials, dating back to the 1995 Oklahoma City and 1993 World Trade Center bombings, and internationally, the Madrid train bombing early in 2004. There has, however, been less success against the frequent bomb attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan as al Qaeda and various insurgent groups try to maintain control over the civilian population. The success, where it has occurred, in apprehending the individuals and breaking up the groups of terrorist cells responsible for these actions has been attributed to more sophisticated investigative techniques, coupled with an increase in intelligence operations, particularly on the transborder international level.

The four types of bomb attacks are:

1. Antipersonnel

2. Symbolic target

3. Selected target

4. Sustained or prolonged campaign

Antipersonnel attacks include targeted individuals as well as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed in areas with a high population density that can be expected to produce a high casualty rate. At the other end of the spectrum are bomb attacks directed at individuals, such as those of the “Unabomber,” Theodore Kaczynski, with his mail bombs, or Eric Rudolph, known as the abortion clinic bomber, who used strategically placed IEDs in attacking his targets. The devices used can be as simple as a pipe bomb, a parcel or letter bomb, or a vehicle rigged with explosives designed to detonate by some action of the intended driver/victim or by remote control. Vehicles can also be filled with explosives and driven to the attack site, sometimes by a driver prepared to commit suicide to ensure the bomb is delivered. Total disregard for human life, including the perpetrator’s, is a common element in this type of terrorist action. Bombs directed at specific individuals, such as politicians, businessmen, celebrities, etc., are typically referred to as assassinations or assassination attempts.

Symbolic target attacks are generally carried out against government buildings, military installations, facilities of selected corporate enterprises, or historic or iconic landmarks. The devices used in these attacks are usually placed at a time or a location in which casualties could be expected to be at a minimum, although this circumstance cannot be guaranteed to terrorists or would-be terrorists. Symbolic bomb attacks are sometimes preceded by a warning call that may be construed as an effort to reduce casualties, although it also serves as a claim for credit by the perpetrating group. In recent years, the use of warning calls has waned and has been replaced by a certain group claiming credit for the attack by a notification to a news organization or a posting on the Internet after the attack is completed. Diligent security measures, call tracing techniques, voice identification technology, and rapid response by law enforcement may have also contributed to the waning use of warning calls. Also helping to reduce the number of bomb attacks against the symbolic targets are the widespread increases in physical security and the additional use of bomb detection equipment, walk-through metal detectors and other sensors, and use of explosive-sniffing canines.

Selected target attackers aim at a specific facility or group of individuals in order to accommodate a belief or political ideology. The attack may be part of a series of actions against a government, a governmental agency or private enterprise, its buildings, property, or personnel, or all of them. Many international terrorist groups, particularly Islamic groups terrorizing Israel, the Jewish Diaspora, and Western sympathizers, are examples of selected target attacks, as are antiglobalists attacking such iconic American symbols as Coca-Cola bottling plants or McDonalds restaurants.

Sustained or prolonged campaigns are designed to draw attention to a particular cause or target, such as the release of imprisoned comrades of the perpetrating group or operatives of a terrorist group, or even “political prisoners” believed to be sympathetic to the terrorists’ cause or aims. Some classic examples of this type of activity include the Real IRA attacks against Britain for an independent Northern Ireland, most of the Palestinian attacks against Israel, and the al Qaeda campaign against the United States, “the Great Satan.” The FALN and Weather Underground bombing campaigns during the 1970s are domestic examples of this type of attack.

Other Terrorist Actions

Hostage taking, warehousing of hostages, and other incidents involving hostages are tactics that may be used by terrorists to attempt to coerce governments or private companies to act in a certain fashion, desist from certain actions, or modify a specific point or subject. Such was the case on October 23, 2002, when Chechen terrorists took over an entire theater in Moscow and held the audience hostage. A rescue attempt by Russia proved to be a disaster, seeing some 120 of the hostages dying during it. Two years later, on September 1, 2004, Chechen and Ingush terrorists occupied a Russian school in Beslan in the North Caucus region, taking hundreds of schoolchildren hostage in the process. Again, the rescue attempt turned into a disaster. These are extreme examples of hostage taking. More commonly, criminals may use hostages to abet their escape during the commission of a crime interrupted by the police; emotionally disturbed persons may use hostages in times of rage or in domestic disputes. Although there is a distinction between hostage taking and kidnapping, both are used by terrorists in political contexts to elicit behavior modification or change of heart on the part of governments or private entities. The distinction between hostage taking and kidnapping is, in the simplest terms, knowledge of where the victims are being held. Both are used to raise a group’s profile and to garner media exposure. Kidnappings, in particular, are also used to raise funds via ransom payments. A dramatic example of this occurred in 2000, when a terrorist from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) kidnapped a group of tourists from a resort in Indonesia and removed them to the ASG camp located in the Philippines. Police freed the abducted tourists, including two Americans, several months later. This did not stop the ASG from continuing to kidnap foreigners and wealthy businessmen to extort funds. Terrorists, including narcoterrorists in South America and Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt, have in the past used the kidnapping of tourists to elicit ransoms.

Aircraft hijackings of the type we witnessed throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in which aircraft are left intact and passengers held as hostages, have all but disappeared due to the enhanced security procedures that have been implemented in major airports around the globe. Nonetheless, the potential obviously exists for this type of action to occur, even in the age of heightened security precautions.

The threatened use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists is still very real. These types of attacks might take the form of “dirty bombs” using toxic biological agents such as anthrax or chemicals such as ricin, as well as nuclear material to attack crowds of people or even entire cities. While threat levels have been heightened, actual use of such weapons has been limited and contained within a very small number of sophisticated and well-organized terror groups.

Intimidation and Threats

The “chatter,” or terrorist operatives communicating about activity in the works or in the planning stage, has virtually vanished from the 24/7 news cycle. It was different in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when it seemed every alert or warning issued by government agencies was based on “increased chatter” picked up by intelligence operatives monitoring terrorist activity or at key communication listening posts. In truth, much of the chatter was rife with misinformation or false threats.

As far as furthering terrorist aims, however, destructive and violent action is itself a potent weapon, and there are a number of different forms these threats may take:

1. The bomb threat is still the most useful tool to harass or intimidate, particularly when privately owned facilities or industrial installations are involved. It is also a weapon against specialized targets, such as schools, abortion clinics, airlines, and similar facilities and operations. A bomb threat, especially one handled improperly, can cause as much disruption as an explosive device that is actually planted. The use of bomb threats is particularly successful in the aftermath of an actual terrorist attack, at a time when public awareness and apprehension are intensified. In a classic example, a bomb threat was uncovered in February 2003, based upon information provided by an al Qaeda operative captured during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The captive indicated al Qaeda intended to use a dirty bomb against an unspecified target, resulting in the national terror threat level being raised to orange. The information about the dirty bomb proved to be false, whether by design or the captive’s intent to curry favor with his captors, but the incident caused heightened anxiety levels throughout the United States and Western Europe.

2. Scare or hoax bombs are simulated, improvised explosive devices that can cause an even longer disruption of operations than the use of an anonymous bomb threat because a search must be conducted and an evacuation ordered once the device is discovered. These devices must be treated as though they contain actual explosives, until they can be verified as otherwise by qualified bomb technicians.

3. Environmental and public service threats can generate widespread disruption and unrest, particularly on a short-term basis. In recent years, the threat of biological and chemical agents in this type of attack has increased greatly in the wake of a successful sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 by the group Aum Shinrikyo. Threats of this nature have also included contaminating sources of public drinking water, attacks against electrical grids (i.e., power lines, transformers, generating plants, etc.), and disrupting mass transit systems. Also included are hacking attacks on computers supporting any of these utilities and installations.

4. Expropriation and extortion encompass everything from armed robbery to coerced protection money used to fund an organization and its terrorist activity. This funding may include purchasing arms, renting and maintaining safe houses, obtaining transportation, receiving advanced terrorist training, or paying day-to-day living expenses. In his tract on urban guerillas, Carlos Marighella, a South American terrorist of the 1960s, recommends such illegal activities because they are the “expropriation of wealth of the principle enemies of the people.”[9] Such activity is more common outside the United States, particularly in Latin America. Domestically, however, one of the most spectacular terrorist acts of expropriation took place on October 21, 1981, in Nanuet, New York, when members of several different terrorist groups acting under the umbrella of the Armed Revolutionary Task Force bungled an armored car robbery. They killed one guard and two police officers at a roadblock in their subsequent escape attempt. Members of the gang were identified with such terrorist groups as the Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army, the May 19th Communist Coalition, and the Republik of New Afrika. Expropriation is still a very viable weapon in the arsenal of a terrorist organization.

5. The disruption of legitimate government operations is of paramount importance to a terrorist organization. With radical Islam, any influence by a Western power on the Middle East is an affront. One example: During the latter stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and particularly during the country’s transition from American administration to Iraqi self-rule, terrorists were actively trying to undermine the effort. In Iraq, there was a series of kidnappings of foreign nationals—both Americans and others whose governments were allies of the United States. The kidnapped victims were threatened with death unless their governments ended their roles in Iraq. Most were subsequently executed, but one Filipino was spared when the Philippine government promised to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Similarly, in Spain in 2004 Moroccans associated with al Qaeda bombed commuter trains near Madrid three days before national elections. The attack was credited with influencing the election so the candidate who opposed Spain’s support of the United States in Iraq was elected.

6. Other criminal activities include almost anything that generates funds or furthers the aim of the terrorist organizations, or both. Drug trafficking is a major source of income, with virtually every major terrorist organization engaged in some sort of drug business either directly or by providing security and performing other services for smugglers and traffickers. In the past, the more prominent groups involved in drug trafficking were the FARC in Colombia (where two IRA terrorists were apprehended along with members of FARC) and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. It appears now that al Qaeda operatives in the Middle East, Western Asia, and parts of Africa are also involved in the drug trade in the form of supplying poppies that eventually become heroin or opium. These poppies are grown in the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan. Support groups abetting the 9/11 terrorists were said to have raised money by bootlegging cigarettes from low-tax states to high-tax urban areas.

7. Sabotage and subversive acts may not be immediately recognized as terrorist acts when they first occur. These actions involve the blockading of military installations and damage of property, looting during street demonstrations, civil disobedience by disrupting transportation systems or government operations, and other actions carried out under the banner of “protest.” These acts of selective indignation and “spontaneous” expressions of protected speech are often initiated by well-intentioned, legitimate organizations that are undermined by terrorist-supported groups. One example: The February 15, 2003, demonstrations protesting the military effort that resulted in the liberation of Iraq, the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and the ending of the Baathist reign in Iraq were orchestrated by an organization calling itself Not in Our Name. Realizing it had been undermined and used as a cover for nefarious intent, the organization ended its operations in the spring of 2009. There are many such groups that have been spawned by old-school Marxist-Leninist thinkers who use such issues as climate change, the petroleum industry, and financial institutions to foment protests and propagate an anti-American message. Some of this activity is carried out by anarchist groups, many of which may also voice support for Palestinian terrorists operating in the Middle East.

Acts of sabotage are intentional destruction of property and disruption of an industrial or governmental operation by means other than an explosive device. These include break-ins or other illegal entries designed to harass or intimidate the owners or occupants of the premises. Computer hacking, electronic attacks against a website, and disruption of network servers or other communications are other examples of sabotage, as are simple arson and various attacks staged by ecoterrorists, animal rights activists, and antiabortion extremists. More traditional incidents include damaging power transmission lines and oil pipelines.

Subversion is a systemic attempt to undermine a society. The ultimate objective is the total collapse of the state as a result of bringing its governing administration into disrepute, causing a loss of confidence in the ruling establishment’s institutions and government and provoking a breakdown of law and order.

Disinformation and Propaganda

Misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and media manipulation are not always clearly defined as terrorist activities, although these actions certainly must be included as tactics employed by terrorist organizations and their support apparatus. In his guerilla warfare treatise, Carlos Marighella recommends these tactics as part of what he called a war of nerves. Such actions include using the telephone and mail to announce false clues to the government and police, letting false plans fall into the hands of the police to divert their attention, planting rumors, and exploiting by every means possible the corruption, errors, and failures of government. Contemporary followers of Marighella’s advice are finding new methods virtually every day to use cell phones, the Internet, social media, and other electronic communications to advance their agendas. Even knowing that law enforcement agencies may be monitoring the airwaves allows operatives the opportunities to provide misinformation and false leads.

Assassination

Assassination is a specialized form of assault that has been proven to be a very effective terrorist tool. It is the ultimate weapon of intimidation against target communities. These attacks are designed to gain maximum media attention as well as to have a major psychological impact on the organization the victim represented. Frequently, political leaders and their military or police officials will react to an assassination with a wave of repression aimed at the general population, which usually works to further the terrorists’ aims. Assassination is a tactic that has been recently used by such groups as the separatist Basque movement, ETA, in Spain; the FARC narcoterrorist rebels in Colombia; and the various Islamic groups in the Middle East.

In January 2010, in the United Arab Emirates, the Hamas military commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh was assassinated. It was suspected that this was carried out by more than a dozen covert operatives of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad. Security videos at airports and hotels indicated that the persons responsible for the action had fake or stolen passports and stolen identities. Some countries whose passports were used made vocal outcries, even to the extent of expelling Israeli diplomats for a time. Whether or not the expected results were accomplished remains to be seen. Sometimes assassinations have more immediate effects with the desired outcome. One such example is the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This was carried out by a group of Bosnia Serbs. Within a month, the Great War, as World War I was then called, started.

Notes

1. President Bush’s Opening Statement, articles.orlandosentinel.com/2001-10-12/new, viewed March 29, 2011.

2. Minimanual of the Urban Guerilla, Carlos Marighella, New World Liberation Front, 1970.

3. As introduced to the U.S. Senate by Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut on October 25, 1977, and as indicated in On Domestic Terrorism, a publication of the National Governors Association, Emergency Preparedness Project, Center for Policy Research, Washington, DC, May 1979.

4. Pattern of Global Terrorism—1984, U.S. Department of State, cover statement, Washington, DC, 1985.

5. Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2001–2006, Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Justice, 2001 (Patriot Act).

6. Defining Terrorism, drstevebest.org, viewed March 29, 2011.

7. 28 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) Sec. 0.85.

8. The HSBC Monitor, householdwatch.com/Arizona/php, viewed March 30, 2011.

9. Minimanual of the Urban Guerilla, Carlos Marighella, New World Liberation Front, 1970.

* From Frank Bolz, Jr., Kenneth J. Dudonis, and David P. Schulz, The Counterterrorism Handbook: Tactics, Procedures, and Techniques, Fourth Edition, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011. Used by permission.