The horrific September 11th 2001 attacks by the terrorist in the US has seen thousands of Muslims subjected to screening of their personal data and transactions, searches, arrests solely simply because their profiles have matched certain base criteria that is being used to track terrorists and in addition is an affiliation with Islam religion and not a terrorist. This has resulted to some public objection from human right watch as in the year 2005 the Open Society Justice Initiative which works around the globe advocating for Rights based law reform, launched an effort to address ethnic profiling by police in Europe in the fight against terrorism. Therefore, this paper will look at the long term outstanding sensitive issue in security matters, of racial or religion or ethnic profiling in law enforcement and its pros and cons at the same time giving suggestion on the terror war focus.
Introduction
The concept of community policing referrers to the act of collaboration between the police and community which invokes identifying and solving community problems related to law enforcement. This deviates from the historical ideology that police are sole guardians of law and order but rather community become active allies in the effort to enhance law enforcement (vijay, 2007, p. 67) to realize a safe and quality existing neighborhoods within the locality. Therefore Community policing in this sense has an expanded outlook on crime control and prevention as opposed to the historical view of crime control. In addition the community policing is structured on the basis of the theory that law is centered on the basis that law is society, and hence to manage the community (Barker, Mayhall, 2007, p. 240) the society should be active participants in the structuring and ownership of the law that affects their community that enhances better life.
Main body
The entire undertaking involves the members of the community voicing their concerns, contribute advice, and take action to address these concerns trough a constructive partnership with the police force. Through community insolvent in law enforcement is essential to deter crime and create more vital neighborhoods since it is logical that people criminal are within community. But the key issue is the constructive trust between police and citizens. In this regard racial or ethnic profiling mean the use of religious or ethnic or racial stereotypes in making law enforcement procedures; decisions in arresting , stopping and searching for the criminals. In a more broad perspective profiles are compilations of identifiable characteristics (Richard, 2007, p. 123) believed to correlate statistically with certain conducts. On the current unfolding in the crime environment is the most security threat: terrorism. Which is believe to bring the new a wakening in the security scenes.
The US currently is stepping up war on terror aided by it’s allies as French, Germany, Britain therefore the concern is whether to use the community policing in fighting terrorists precisely with Muslim community and the US law enforcement agents with quite little history of Muslim community police cooperation with European countries. Pros attributed to use of racial or ethnic profiling in law enforcement anti-terrorism activities is the fact that it shall help direct scarce law enforcement resources toward those individuals considered more likely to engage in terrorism (Richard, 2007, p. 123) and secondly profiles reduce the number of persons subjected to the inconveniences and interferences which are involved in the counter terrorism without specifications of the activities. In addition through employing the right and appropriate criteria profiles prevent occurrence discrimination, by avoiding discretion and reducing the potential negative effect of individual prejudice that may result from law enforcement agency operations (Richard, 2007, p. 189).
Therefore in order to fight terror through profiles without causing conflict of interest examination of past terrorist attack, operation mode during composition of known terrorist organizations within the community that is suspected to hold in its geopolitical region the terrorists. The concept being to identify patterns among (vijay, 2007, p. 89) the individuals that have been involved in terrorist activities and develop profiles on the basis of common characteristic that should help during operations to sample out the likely individuals and hence avoidance of involving non partisans.
There are cons expressed are that consistent patterns that could provide the basis for a precise profile, prove elusive in the most historical undertakings in the criminal cases. Secondly in an attempt to look to factors which have deep roots in public opinion, such as race,religion, nationality and origin it may result into discrimination of a give race or religion or ethnicity in addition racial or ethnic profiling brands an entire community(s) (Richard, 2007, p. 216) as targeted suspect which in return deviate from professional (Barker, Mayhall, 2007, p. 31) law enforcement to reliance persons behavior. For instance the current war on terror, the European countries have been focusing Muslim communities as objects of special attention in the fight against terror and terrorism. Similarly profiling misdirects law enforcement resources and alienates some of the very persons whose cooperation is necessary for effective crime detection and terrorism prevention in the entire dealing with the terrorism (Barker, Mayhall, 2007, p. 231). Therefore successful operation would require tolerance, creativity, understanding and, patience of all stakeholders involved in the profiling.
Conclusion
However to Sum up the discussion a bout the use of religious or racial or ethnic profiling in law enforcement in regard to anti-terrorism activities it is evident that the current fight is the a attack on the individuals especial the Muslim community since most of the counter terrorism mechanisms and powers are disproportionately experienced by the Muslims and the entire community. Such actions included the irregular stopping’s of the individuals , abrupt searches that are conducted hence indicating the focus of the fight is based to individuals as brand of terrorists yet there are specific individuals who execute terror acts. Therefore in order to win the war on terror the focus should be diverted to the act of terror not the community that are holding the suspected terrorist as Muslims. This will facilitate the clear understanding of the terrorist and terrorism through the use of intelligence systems with the aid of radicalization and data trawling as tools to engage the communities to Build a fairer criminal justice System the society today.
Terrorism in the Middle East is mainly due to the conflict between the Arabs and Israelis. Most of the violent terrorist activities that are conducted there are done with the goal of destroying Israel and are due to political reasons involving possession of land area. Another reason is Islam, since Israel is the only nation, which is non-Muslim. Similarly, even in Africa, religious conflicts have given rise to terrorism and the goals of these terrorist movements are mainly to control revenues from oil, diamond trade and achieve political representation of the states. (Davis, 2007) While terrorism in the Middle East is mainly due to religion and sometimes-even power, the terrorist movements in Africa have emerged due to their social and economic problems and growing issues like AIDS, poverty and draught that have been neglected for decades. (Alexander & Hoenig, 2008)
The terrorist movements in the Middle East are well known for their obsessive tactics and more for suicide bombings and sometimes even hijacks. They recruit religious people, convince them to either strap explosives on their body or take them in cars or planes, and then detonate them not only destroying the target but also themselves. These fanatic Muslim terrorists believe that by giving their own life for destroying their enemies will bring them eternal salvation and even martyrdom. However, these are not the methods of the African terrorist movements. The African radicals are very different from that of the Middle Eastern, as most of them do not participate in suicide bombings and hijacks. They are sometimes linked with the Middle Eastern terrorist groups since they too fight for Islam. (Davis, 2007) Both the African and middle eastern terrorist groups goal towards lessening American influence in their nation which is corrupting the people and making them greedy such that they may even abandon their religious beliefs. However, there is more Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East than in Africa fueling the terrorist movements. (Alexander & Hoenig, 2008) The methods used by these African terrorist movements were mainly armed banditry and guerilla warfare.
The Middle Eastern terrorist groups aim towards the destruction of mainly Israel since they believe that Israel being a non-Muslim nation has corrupting influence on them and even hold the rest of the world, mainly the West, responsible for these demeaning influences. (Alexander & Hoenig, 2008) However, the terrorist movement in Africa occurred when organized rebellion was used in order to overthrow the inexorable rulers of Africa who were not ready to give up their power after their prearranged constitutional tenures expired. Other than Islam, both the African and Middle Eastern terrorist groups have another common goal – power. They both want to be acknowledged as powerful forces on the earth so that they are recognized worldwide. However, unlike the Middle Eastern terrorist movements who recruit religious people to carry on the movement, the African terrorist movements recruit displaced masses and hungry starved people who are the victims of the government and other leaders. (Davis, 2007)
The Middle Eastern terrorist movements have a huge influence on the Islamic people of Africa and since Africa too has a large number of Arabs and Muslims, they are sympathetic towards the Middle Eastern terrorist movements. Thus, the Islamic militants in Africa, supported by the Middle Eastern terrorist groups, have developed a new method of terrorism and are training these vulnerable people and communities to form militant organizations for creating contemporary suicide bombers among these Africans. (Davis, 2007)
References
Alexander, Y. & Hoenig, M. M. (2008). The new Iranian leadership: Ahmadinejad, terrorism, nuclear ambition, and the Middle East. London: Greenwood Publishing Group
Davis, J. (2007). Africa and the war on terrorism. New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Have you ever thought that the war on terrorism is going in which direction? The real start of the war on terrorism was after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and the United 93 crash. In these attacks, a lot of casualties took place and there was a huge loss of lives and capital. We will be analysing the tactics used against the war on terrorism, success of these tactics and the future of the war on terrorism.
There are a lot of tactics used to counter the terrorist forces; these tactics consisted of operations in Africa, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, North America and South America. October 2002, the Task Force- Horn of Africa was created in Djibouti at Camp Le Moeir and it consisted of almost 2,000 personnel adding U.S. Special Forces and military and alliance force members. This force received ships from different nation which are Pakistan, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. The main aim of this force was to monitor, stop and inspect shipments from inflowing in Horn of Africa so that it does not affect the US.
In this mission, there was a military aid from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya who were trained to control Counter terrorism tactics. On July 1st, 2006, a post was made by Osama Bin Laden a person who is expected to launch the 9/11 attacks, in his post, he persuaded the Somalis to construct an Islamic State in the region and threatened western governments to not to intervene, or they will have to face dire consequences. In the middle of 2006 the Islamic Courts Union took control of southern Somalia to restore Sharia Law in the region. December 2006 the US Assistant Secretary state Jendayi Frazer claimed that the courts were under the control of Al- Qaeda and this claim was later denied by Islamic Court Union (ICU). Later in the same year the ICU claimed that the UN- backed Transitional Federal Government of Somalia had a strong hold.on Baidoa and started and offensive mission against the government, first the court found some gains but Ethiopia intervened and favored the government. This resulted in the Battle of Jilib where the ICU fought against the Ethiopian forces. On 30th December, 2006 the Al- Qaeda leader urged the Muslims of the world to fight against Ethiopia in Somalia. The result of this was that US launched the Battle of Ras Kamboni in which militants were bombed with the aid of AC- 130 gun ships. In 2001 after the attacks of 9/11 the NATO forces started an Operation Active Endeavor which is a naval operation and in this operation the NATO forces are destined to prevent militants and Weapons of Mass Destruction to enter from the Mediterranean Sea. Iraq has been listed as a state sponsor of International terrorism after 1990 after it fell out of US in 1990 and the power of Saddam Hussein has proved to be a problem as it has been attacking its neighbors with the use of chemical weapons. It was claimed by the US and its allied forces that Iraq had control over weapons of mass destruction and it was even stated that Saddam is co-operating with the terrorist groups. This is the reason that Bush attacked Iraq to end the control of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq and to catch Saddam Hussein. Israel invaded south of Lebanon as three soldiers of Israel were killed and two were taken captives by Hezbollah. Later there was a cease fire between Lebanese and the Israeli government created by the United Nations Israeli stated that they were fighting a war on terrorism and the US government said that this conflict was a front in the “War on Terror” where as Hezbollah describes Israel as a terrorist. The US provided military aid to Lebanese when they were fight against an extremist group Fatah-al-Islam which is said to be a Jihadist a movement which is an inspiration of Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia was attacked by Al-Qaeda militants on May 12th, 2003, these attacks were on foreign workers, tourists and Saudi security forces. Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization by United States, European Union and United Nations, Hamas has been fighting with Fata a group backed by the US from 2006. This is conflict between two major factions of Palestine as both of them are trying to achieve political control of Palestinian territories. Hamas has been able to win the first ever free and democratic elections taken place in Palestinian territories. After the Hamas’ invasion of the Gaza Strip there was a fight between the Israel and Hamas’ troops which resulted in Hamas’ rocket attacks on Southern Israel and the Israeli troops answered back with huge air strikes and ground operations on the Gaza Strip. Later Israeli planes hit and arms band in Sudan, the convoy consisted of Ethiopians, Eriteans and Sudanese which heads crossed Egypt’s Sinai desert to the border with Gaza from where the weapons would be supplied to Gaza. Israeli was helped by U.S. as US allowed them to use their military airbase in Djibouti; U.S. also provided military assistance as and agreement to stop the smuggling of weapons in Gaza.
“Reportedly, the Israeli planes used a US base in Djibouti to stage the attacks, as part of the agreement between Israel and the outgoing Bush Administration made in mid January. Israeli officials would neither confirm nor deny the attacks.” (Ditz, 2009).
It is confirmed that the crowd Al-Qaeda has a well-built presence in Yemen and there has been a lot of attacks on foreigners in Yemen and the government of Yemen is frail leaving a lot of odds for the terrorist to be taught over there. India has faced a lot of terrorist attacks from different so called Islamic groups such as a recent attack called the Mumbai bombings, India claims that it has done by Pakistani terrorist but not have been able to prove it other attacks in India consist of 2001 Indian Parliament attack,, 2005 Delhi bombings, 2006 Mumbai train bombings and many others. These attacks have left a hatred and chances of fight between Pakistan and India as Indian government has always ended up accusing Pakistan for these attacks but the fear of nuclear power and with the help of international diplomacy these tensions have relaxed all the time, but we should not forget the fact that although India is recognized as the largest democratic country of the world but still they discriminate between Hindus and Muslims, although there are about 400 million Muslims in India which have left no option to the Muslims but to agitate. India has worked closely with Russia, China, US, Israel and United Kingdom to fight against the terrorism of world. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Osama Bin Laden who is suspected to be in Afghanistan claimed that he was responsible for the attacks, a war was started by the US, UK and some collation forces on Afghanistan in which they were able to invade Afghanistan. However, the purpose of removing Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremist groups was not achieved. In this invasion aerial bombing was done on Afghanistan by the military forces of the allies and collation of US. When Bush demanded Afghanistan to hand over Osama Bin Laden, they failed to do so and without even clearing things up with Afghanistan, they started a war on Afghanistan. Today there are more military troops to be sent to Afghanistan which will be done by taking out forces from Iraq. US and Pakistan collation was able to kill Zayn Al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah when he tried to escape during the raid done by military personnel. This guy is said to be a top most official of Al-Qaeda, later Ramiz Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, and he is expected to be a financial backer of Al-Qaeda, then Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested during CIA raid in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and he was the third highest ranking official in Al-Qaeda and was expected to be the in charge of September 11 attacks and this person was expected to have links with Oplan Bojinka, a plot to bomb a lot of US civilians according to US.
The arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the single most important in the war on terror since September 11, said a law enforcement official close to the investigation (Ressa et al, 2003).
In 2006, Pakistan was accused by the NATO forces for the involvement and funding of Terrorist groups but later the NATO affirmed that there was no evidence of such allegations. There has been a recent increase in illegal attacks on Pakistani areas by the American military though Pakistan is heavily aided Pakistan government to help fight terrorism. In 2004 Pakistan army started a military action against the federally administrated Tribal Areas of Waziristan and has been able to achieve the goal of removing the two so called terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda and Taliban from those areas. US drones are continually attacking the areas administered by tribes of Pakistan. In 2004, 2005 and 2002 Indonesians have been attacked by suicide bombers and hidden bombs these attack were done in the areas of Bali, Jimbaran, Kuta and Jakarta. Jemaah Islamiyah is suspected to carry out these attacks. 2002 US Special Operations Command with the help of Philippines armed forces launched an attack in fighting terrorism in which they were able to remove Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemmah Islamiyah from their strong hold on Basilan. This attack was known as Operation Smiles. In United States of America the justice department started a Special Registration process for certain male non-citizens in US, Bush administration increased domestic efforts to fight terrorism and future attacks like 9/11 and a new cabinet was formed naming United States Department of Homeland Security, DARPA was started in 2002 according to which monitoring of information technology will be done to counter terrorism but this plan has been defunded after huge criticism. Since 2001, 9/11 attacks a lot of attacks and attempts of attacks have been made on the state such as a plan to crash air planes into the US Bank Tower, the 2003 plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, the plot to attack the financial buildings such as the International Monetary Funds and World Bank and some more but no attacks have been successful as yet. Several plots have been made to attack United Kingdom and many have been successful such as 7/7 and 21/7 bombing in London in 2005. After the 9/11 attacks United States government increased their military funding to Columbia, in 2003 around 98 million dollars were spent to train the Columbian military, the purpose of this training was to enable Columbia to fight the FARC rebel group which is considered as a terrorist group by the United States.
These were some of the tactics involved in fighting the war on terrorism with details of threats and attacks by terrorist groups in different regions of the world and this even consisted of military aid, government aid and police aid by different countries to fight terrorism.
Although there have been attempts made to fight terrorism but still some attempts have failed and some attempts have been successful. The result of war on terrorism in Africa was that 8 militants of ICU were killed, 2 civilians were killed and the prime target, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed survived the attacks. Later it was claimed that ICU captured 11 or 15 US Marines. The result of war on terrorism in Iraq was that the allegations by US, that Iraq was involved in development of Weapons of Mass destruction proved to be wrong as according to a survey no such weapons were found, although some traces of the weapons before 1990 were found and the claim that Saddam was helping the terrorist was again proved to be wrong, about 85,000 to 1,000,000 Iraqis were killed, 7ss3% of US military deaths and leaving the political, economical and social structure of Iraq with bad health. In Lebanon the war of Lebanon and Israel was even called a war on terrorism in which almost 800 to 1300 Lebanese died and 163 Israelis, in Israel 119 military personals were found dead and 44 civilians died. Later Lebanese attack the camps of Fatah al-Islam, an Islamic militant organization. Lebanese destroyed the camps and claimed victory. The US provided military aid to the Lebanese. Although a lot of terrorist attacks have taken place but nothing has been done to counter these attacks, they have always ended up blaming Pakistan for these attacks, some training has been given to Indian military to counter terrorism. The result of war on terror in Afghanistan was that in Kandhar where militants had a strong hold, numbering 2000 in strength, attacks by the collation forces led to death of 100-200 of the al-Qaeda fighters were killed. In operation Anaconda, eight American soldiers and seven Afghanistan soldiers died and four hundred opposing soldiers were killed and several members of the coalition were killed. When the Taliban’s started to regroup in 2002 and 2003, about 200 people were killed even some Afghan police men were killed, to this incident the collation killed more than 100 Taliban militants. In 2009 Taliban claimed that they have killed 5,220 foreign soldiers, 2818 NATO forces, 7552 Afghan soldiers and police. A report from media said that 286 military members of the collation were killed in 2009. Civilian casualties amounted to 7000 to 18000 according to an estimate where as different news channels and news papers have claimed different amount of deaths. In Pakistan the success of war on terrorism is that Zayn al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed were arrested by Pakistan armed forces. All these people were supported al-Qaeda in different ways or were al-Qaeda officials. Although Pakistan has been one of the biggest supporters of war on terrorism, it has been called as a terrorist country and its intelligence have been regarded as people helping the terrorist. 2007 resulted in the deaths of 1000 Pakistani soldiers according to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte of US, Pakistan army official reported deaths of 600 Pakistani soldiers and 1300 civilians and estimated deaths of 900 Pakistan military, above 2000 injuries, deaths of 488 foreign extremist were killed and 324 were injured. These were the results from war on terrorism in Waziristan.
From 2001 until today, at least 966 military men were martyred and 2259 others were injured; 488 foreign extremists were killed, 24 others were arrested and 324 foreign extremists were injured (Nagpal, 2007).
The war on terror has been a complete failure, there are less terrorist killed than civilians, if we go through the results of the tactics used against terrorist and terrorism, and we will only find one thing that civilians are being killed. The war on terror was initiated for the welfare of the public, but I do not see any advantage public has received from these wars and counter terrorism acts. Have the world really been able to kill terrorist or are they giving birth to more terrorism. Iraq was attacked on the fact that Iraqi government was producing weapons of mass destructions, no sign of the assumptions were traced and the end result was that more than 10 million civilians were killed. If the strategies of war on terrorism will not come to an end, we might see a new flow of terrorists, as the civilians will one day get fed up of being killed and turn themselves into so called terrorist and start fighting those who are fighting the war on terrorism. Not only the civilians, the deaths of military have even amazed every body, we saw thousands of military being killed in Waziristan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, we have seen really less deaths of militants or important names of people, assumed to be terrorists. One day, nation’s saviors will become frustrated and will not join the war on terrorism. People have lost their beloved, worlds economic situation have worsened and more capital is being invested on the war on terrorism with results equal to zero. If this capital would have been used to counter illiteracy, counter economic crises and for the welfare of human beings then we might have been able to see a better world today. US is spending a big part of their capital on the war on terrorism but have failed to gain any result from these war, if the welfare of the human beings will be over looked then we might be able to see more terrorists and more criminals on the roads. Are we really fighting terrorists or giving birth to them? One point that need to be considered is that, is this war on terrorism or war on Muslims, we see many people converting into Muslims every day and it is even assumed that 1000 human beings are becoming Muslims and if the attacks on Muslim states do not stop then we might see the harmonies people of Islam turning into terrorist and the whole world will have to give up against them. There are many countries in the world with a lot of Muslims but only Muslim countries are being attacked in search of terrorists. The strategies and tactics used to counter war have failed just because of one reason and it is that the collation forces fighting against terrorism do not have a really good intelligence working on counter terrorism. Please save the world and the future of humans and invest capital and time on the economic future of the world, literacy of the world and not on terrorism.
Maria Ressa, Mike Boettcher, Ash-Har Quraishi, Kelli Arena and Suzanne Malveaux, U.S.: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed planned 9/11 attacks, ‘Appropriate pressure’ being put on al Qaeda leader, 1, 2003.
Life in the United States came to a standstill on September 11, 2001. It is a day that the Americans will live to remember till their dying day. On that fateful day, the world woke up to the news of terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon building outside Washington in western Pennsylvania. The attacks killed more than three thousand Americans and seriously wounded thousands more. Skyscrapers were reduced to piles of stones, sand, and shattered glasses. This was a wake-up call to the United States to protect its people. The Bush Administration vowed to take every possible measure to ensure that the perpetrators faced justice. As a result, the Bush Administration put up several domestic and foreign policies to protect American citizens from future terrorist attacks. The goal of this paper is to examine the effective ways of preventing future terrorist attacks and the ways of fighting the war on terror.
Prevention of a terrorist attack is not an easy task, but there are numerous ways in which it can be done. It seems that the fundamental question which the United States should ask itself is: Why were the September 11/2001 terrorist attacks targeted, namely at the U.S. and not at any other country of the world? This question evokes a desire to consider U.S. foreign policy prior to the 9/11 attacks. Indeed, many countries, including the European allies of the U.S., were quite critical of the U.S. foreign policies in matters ranging from politics, economy, and globalization to environment and defense.
As Coates argues, America belongs to the countries which can be both friendly and hostile to other countries; he uses an example of America’s relations with Cuba, Russia, and China: “There have been periods in history when the United States was very friendly to each of these countries … and other periods when the United States considered using nuclear weapons against each of these countries.” (91) On the other hand, the maintenance of U.S. hegemony has contributed to higher levels of poverty and inequality across the globe. The presence of the U.S. in the Middle East, as well as its interference in the affairs of the countries of this region, is constantly cited as a major reason behind 9/11. The development of nuclear weapon programs in such countries as Iran is a strategy used to balance the hegemony of the U.S. Therefore, to prevent future terrorist attacks, the United States should implement a global-friendly foreign policy that would serve to promote peace and equality around the world.
The goal of the United States to create democratic states in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan was a noble goal. Coaty states that “violent acts have been carried out throughout history. The killing of innocent people for political effect, the assassination of leaders, and the bombing of culturally sensitive symbols have occurred since the beginning of time.” (20) However, the means through which the U.S. aimed to achieve its goal was totally wrong. One cannot fight violence using violent means, because this evokes even more violence and hatred. Indeed, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, the USA and some other countries became more hostile. This is because the war on terror served to heighten the hatred of the perpetrators against the U.S. and its allies and also to create more terrorist groups to retaliate against their oppressors. The threat of another 9/11 is real due to the heightened hate this war engendered. Nonetheless, the building of democratic states can be achieved by using peaceful means, such as negotiations, conventions, and economic sanctions against oppressing governments. This would not only help to prevent thousands of civilian deaths, abuse of human rights, and property loss, but it would also prevent other countries from harboring more hatred towards the U.S. In result, the possibility of future terrorist attacks will be prevented.
One more way to deal with the war on terror is to cope with the problem of illegal immigration and protection of American borders. Protection of American porous borders is one of the means through which the war on terror can be fought with. This can be achieved by tackling the problem of illegal immigration, which remains one of the most highly controversial issues in the United States. Although illegal immigrants contribute to the American economy, they put significant pressure on the American resources and pose a potential threat to the nation’s security. It is alleged that the hijackers of those four planes which were involved in the 9/11 attacks were not strangers to the United States. Those were the people who had once migrated to the U.S and became integrated into the American society. To protect the American citizens from future terrorist attacks, there is a need to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. The formation of a bigger number of law enforcement agencies is of paramount importance to achieve this goal.
Law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, the Office of Detention and Removal Operations, the Office of Intelligence, and the Office of Investigations play an important role for the security of American people. These agencies use new and advanced systems to effectively deal with the national security issues by tracking potential terrorists and their activities. They also enforce the immigration and customs laws of the U.S. by removing all fugitives from the U.S. investigations of a number of issues such as immigration crime, human rights violations, and smuggling. These agencies make it possible to fight with these crimes, as well as to conduct investigations necessary for protecting essential infrastructural facilities that are more prone to attacks. It is, however, important to note that the functioning of such agencies cannot be fruitful without intelligence.
The role of intelligence agencies in upholding the security of a nation is far-reaching. However, intelligence agencies have to work in collaboration with law enforcement agencies to ensure maximum security. Before the September 11 terrorist attacks, these two agencies were in competition, rather than in collaboration with each other and each viewed the other as a rival. The situation changed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when the United States recognized the importance of collaboration between the intelligence agencies and the law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies need the services of the intelligence to access all the necessary information about criminals and lawbreakers. On the other hand, intelligence without law enforcement agencies would be useless. In countering illegal immigration, information collected by the Office of Intelligence is used by law enforcement authorities to track down and punish violators of immigration and customs law. To be able to effectively fight the war on terror, maximum collaboration and trust between the intelligence agencies and the law enforcement agencies will have to be ensured.
Tightening of the American porous borders is important in the fight against terrorism. The majority of the illegal immigrants enter the United States through the U.S-Mexican border. To reduce their number, effective counter-terrorism measures should be taken to increase the fencing along this border and to eliminate the loopholes that make it easy for illegal immigrants to cross the border. Secondly, there is a need to enforce the barriers and restrictions for the vehicles that cross the border. In addition, highly advanced technological devices should be used to carry out check ups of the vehicles that cross the border. This would help to minimize the number of vehicles crossing the border as well as to reduce the possibility of explosive devices passing across the border. Most importantly, the Border Patrol along the land and on sea borders needs to be increased to enable effective patrolling of the American borders. A small size of Border Patrol cannot be able to deal with the thousands of immigrants who wait to cross the line and get to the United States. The Border Patrol should also be assisted by technological devices, such as ground-based radars and camera towers, to make the patrolling more effective.
The war on terror is a fragile war which affects citizens of the countries all over the world. Nevertheless, this war can be won only by peaceful means. The use of force through military invasion and attacks only adds to destruction threatening lives and properties of innocent people and breeding even more hatred and violence. Issues of illegal immigration and border protection are also important in fighting the war on terror.
Work Cited
Coaty, Patrick. Understanding the War on Terror. 2nd ed. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006.
The United States being the super power is under constant threat of terrorism from various groups. It is with this in mind that a task force was formed to help the department of homeland security in addressing threats that are over five years; to organize the department into workable structures for them to be able to meet the threats and to engage the American public to be prepared for present and future challenges. For the DHS to be able to counter future threats, their strategic and tactics need to be very informed by understanding the nature of the adversaries (Homeland security advisory council, 2007). Recommendation: Establishment of office of Net Assessment (ONA). This office should be able to provide well researched information on future threats and assess preparedness to meet them. Its major role is to produce long term assessments, strategy and acting as a brain trust of creativity and imagination (Homeland security advisory council 2007). The main duties of ONA should be studying already existing threats and then coming up with their evolution in the future. For example, the al-Qaeda group has not only explicitly defined its ideologies and operations agenda as only directed against the American citizens and property but has also demonstrated capability to effectively employ land, air and sea modalities against target venues that range from hotels to the state of the art warships (Chalk, Hoffman, et al 2005). Therefore, it is the responsibility of ONA to calculate how the al-Qaeda group will manipulate these results to cause tremor attacks (Chalk, Hoffman et al, 2005).
It should also be able to review existing United States capabilities to handle cases of terrorism in order to identify the existing gaps or areas of weakness and also come up with ways of filling those gaps in order to cub future threats. Recruiting professionals of all types: The department should place a reviewed emphasis on recruiting professionals of all types with diverse perspectives, world views, skills, languages and cultural backgrounds. The vast cultural differences between Muslim communities and the west should be appreciated and used to the advantages of the state’s security. The DHS should be able to embrace contributions from the Muslim community in order to work for the safety of American citizens. Therefore, for DHS to be able to work effectively, it must recruit diverse people with different cultural backgrounds, languages and unique perspective that can be used to address terrorism. The department should further make sure that, all employees work together as a team. It should work towards understanding Islam as a religion and make sure that the language used in public is clear and straight to the point and therefore does not give a chance to the extremists to interpret it in their own way. Hence, the department must advocate for sheer respect of everybody’s religion and also pass on to the general public. Muslim Outreach program: Islamic centre of Charlotte: It was established in 1993 to serve as a source of encouragement to the Muslim communities and to fulfill the religious and cultural needs of the Muslims living in Charlotte and the surrounding areas. Its main objective is to bring people together to worship Allah (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009).
Their main theme is drawn from the Koran; “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom (hikmah) and beautiful preaching and argue with them in ways that are best.” (Surah An-Nahl 16:125). The main goal of the outreach program is to bring together the Muslims and non Muslims to help in paving way for mutual understanding and cooperation (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009). They have also given a civic duty to the American Muslims to integrate Islam into American co existence and in developing a positive mutual understanding and relationship with the general public. They have tried to fit in with the locals by illustrating Islamic values as taught in the holy book; the Koran such as justice, peace, equality, respect of all human rights and freedom for all. ICC believes that, through these programs, Muslims and Non-Muslims can get to know, appreciate and respect each other. The outreach program was formed to clarify misunderstandings, address various terms of co-existence and build bridges (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009). It welcomes invitations from various institutions and interfaith communities and opens its doors to individuals or group visits. In order for them to succeed in their quest for unity, the ICC has tried to be open to the general public by incorporating some events like Open House, Campus Dawah, Special Event Booths, Prison Dawah, and Volunteering in various local organizations, Seminars and offering Free Dawah Materials (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009). They have gone ahead to invite non Muslims to their mosques and offer them reading materials in order for them to be able to understand the Islamic religion (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009). The outreach has also established a school that offers the normal curriculum to deserving students providing them with an opportunity to receive a comprehensive education without any regard to race, color, nationality or religion (Islamic Center Charlotte, 2009).
Reference
Chalk, P, Hoffman, B, Reville R, Kasupski, A. (2005). Trends in Terrorism: Threats to the United States and the Future of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Center for terrorism risk management policy. Web.
Homeland security advisory council. (2007). Report of the future of terrorism task force. From the Department of Homeland Security. Web.
Islamic Center Charlotte. (2009). Guide to Islam. Web.
The world of constant progress in technical and scientific fields provides more amenities for mankind making life better and more applied to contemporary reality. On the other hand, the urge of modern science provides a danger for mankind. The division of arms and weapons throughout the world is not fully regulated by the world community. Thus, terrorism emerged on grounds of such a situation. Moreover, other ways for the threatening people in various countries are supposed to use contemporary new ways of terrorism. Such suggestion appears to be especially applicable, within the context of defining how concepts of “war” and “terrorism” interrelate with each other. Among the main types of international terrorism, one should designate the cases of airplane hijacking, bombing buildings and places of huge public concentration, acts of destruction of buildings by means of male or female bombers, cyber terrorism, etc. The thing is that due to the policy of globalization and intrusion by major players in the world arena into the internal affairs of the Middle East countries and other ones worldwide the possibility of the negative reflection is rather high. So the international terrorism spreads its activity through many countries of the world. It is seen in the example of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and other extremist groupings. Thus, the main topics of the essay fall into the characterization of terrorism and its types in terms of the contemporary stage of development in the world. Second, there is the discussion about 9|11 and Osama Bin Laden. Here the theme of terrorism as an act of war will be detached with concrete features. Third, the criticism of terrorism is detached in the paper asserting that it is not an act of war. Finally, the paper outlines the cases of eco-terrorism and its significance for the safety of natural and municipal material values. All in all the paper encompasses the difficult but rather diverse picture of terrorism for the last ten years. The motives of terrorists still terrify the world community. However, whereas, terrorism is not being considered as an act of war, it nevertheless represents an act of war.
Different types of terrorism
The current paragraph explains the threats of terror along with the types of terrorist acts. In this respect ever since the dawn of civilization, groups of people united by common interest used to wage wars on each other, as the ultimate mean of resolving seemingly irresolvable issues. Therefore, Carl von Clausewitz’s famous definition of war as merely a continuation of politics by military means remains fully valid even today. However, the problem is that in the post-industrial world, the subjects of geopolitics, entitled with a right to wage wars, cannot be easily defined because nowadays, the traditional notion of political sovereignty has been largely deprived of its theoretical validity.
It is important to understand that, up until comparatively recent times, the political developments in the international arena had remained the subject of international law. In its turn, the conceptual premise of such law has been defined by a Peace Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which was signed between European countries that participated in the Thirty Years War. According to this Treaty, every country’s sovereign right to define its form of government and its state religion, without the involvement of a third party, represents the legal foundation of international law.
The characterization of the international terrorism should be provided in terms of current and previously made cases of terror actions which are obvious on the examples throughout the world. The researchers of geopolitical development of the relations between world’s countries state that the roots of the contemporary terrorism lead to the instable situation in the Middle East. It is known that earlier the division of the world main dimensions and military actions was presupposed with the military and ideological opposition of two superpowers, namely: the USA and the USSR. In this respect the contradictions appeared between countries of the Middle East which were supported by one of the opposing countries. The real example is the war between Israel and Egypt (1969-1970). Then were military actions of Iraq against Kuwait etc. In all cases the situation touched upon two sides of confrontation in the world involved in Cold War.
Thus, it appears that; whereas, war continues to remain the ultimate tool of solving geopolitical problems, those who resort to military action as the most effective instrument of achieving their political goals, are being no longer concerned with observing the basics of international law – this is the actual origin of modern terrorism. This also explains the reason why, during the course of recent decade, the problem of international terrorism had acquired fully independent subtleties, while becoming a major headache for the governments of Western countries; whereas, as recent as thirty years ago, the existence of terrorist organizations was thought of as being simply the by-product of geopolitical confrontation between U.S. and Soviet Union.
Thus, the Cold War resulted in the continuation of resistance and opposition of some countries to gain peaceful development of the relations in the Middle East region. Terrorism began dominating as the global network of people all around the world who share the ideological persuasion in the wrong way of Western policy of regulatory measures according to the Islamic countries, in particular. It is so, because for the last 20 years after the Cold War the actions of extremist groupings headed by their ideological or religious leader comprised almost every country in the civilized world. Different means were used, among which the bombing and airplane hijacking still remain the favourite among terrorists.
Bombing is the terrorist act in which bombs or several explosive materials with the particular detonation mechanism are intended to be blown by the terrorists in public places. The thing is that the ideology of terrorist organization, such as Al Qaeda, Taliban, Fatah and others. Thus, the intention of terrorists to implode the bomb or explosive materials causing deaths of people is implemented by virtues of ordinary people which further appear to be male or female bombers. This method is still one of the most usable in the Middle East and throughout the world. Such action is done for the purpose of personal requirements and commands of terrorist organization’s leaders. These enforcement demands by terrorist include release of the members of the organization or stop providing current policy by local or international authorities.
Plane hijacking can be described as the act in which under the guise of ordinary passengers terrorists capture the airplane by means of weaponry menace having a lot of pawns at their disposal. On grounds of such situation terrorists put in definite claims in some aspects similar to the stated above. On the other hand, terrorists may just make demands as for the money reward and the ways for further hide of them in exchange for the lives of passengers.
Contemporary terrorism does not reject the technical and technological achievements of the time. Hence, the cyber war is spread via Internet when on official terrorist sites there are multiple bluffs as of possible terrorist acts in a definite place or country. This information in some respect can be untrue, but still the intelligence services keep a strict eye on such form of terrorism. In cyber space terrorists often publish the acts of their massacre on potential enemies of mostly Caucasian appearance. Also due to mass media and the Qatar international channel Al-Jazeera terrorists inform about their intentions at an early date. In fact, the influence of such terror is felt on ordinary people who are scared about their lives and lives of their relatives
Another type of terror acts is the chemical attack with gas. The implementation of this act can be promoted in the places of dense concentration of people of the indoor character in most cases, such as undergrounds, subways, theatres, cinemas etc. The poisonous gas is ejected in rush hours for the purpose to kill as more people at once as possible. The most viable example concerns sarin gas terrorist act by the sect Aum Sinrikyo headed by Syoka Osahara in Tokyo. Killing and injuring people by GB gas was for the purpose of some religious motives being straightforward fallacies. Though, the effect of chemical terror can be simply achieved owing to the lack of governmental control.
There is a probability of biological attacks by terrorists and other ones which can fall into insurgency, such as: civil disorder, state terrorism, political, non-political, and limited political terrorism (Gupta 67). Though, in most cases the global scope of terrorist organizations is outlined with the ideology in spheres of religion, policy, and social relationships. The assertion that terrorism is the result of political controversies and conflicts can be proved due to the events of last years. It is the whole network of people being sophisticated in means of killing people. Machiavelli’s statement “ the end justifies the means” seems to have place within terrorists.
9|11 and Osama Bin Laden. Terrorism as an act of war
This paragraph gives a particular evaluation of Al-Qaeda’s and particularly Obama’s action on September 11th, 2001. In the book “Understanding Terrorism and Political Violence: The Life Cycle of Birth, Growth, Transformation, and Demise”, Dipak Gupta reveals purely relativist semiotics of the term “terrorism”: “Terrorism is a political term. All of us use it as a tool to label those with whom we are in conflict. Therefore, it should be no surprise to learn that while Osama bin Laden is despised as a crazed killer and a quintessential terrorist in the West, he is revered as a hero by many in the Islamic world” (Gupta 2008, 8). Apparently, the saying “one man’s terrorist is another man’s fighter for freedom” is not altogether deprived of rationale. For example, despite the fact that, throughout his “political” career, Nelson Mandela had participated in 15 terrorist attacks, which resulted in deaths of 23 innocent bystanders, it is not only that he is now being commonly praised as “fighter for freedom”, but also citizens in Western countries are being encouraged to think of him as a role model.
U.S. State Department defines terrorism as “politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets”; yet, this definition does make it easier to understand why it was namely during the course of recent decades, that citizens in Western countries had learnt to think of international terrorism as such that represents clear and present danger to their lives. After all, it should not present much of a challenge for law enforcement agencies to effectively deal with terrorist-minded “fighters for freedom”, simply because these agencies have proven themselves quite capable of doing it in the past. For example, in seventies, it had only taken three years for German police to completely eliminate such a notorious terrorist organization as RAF (Rote Armee Fractionen), the members of which had participated in bombing of supermarkets, hijacking planes and killing politicians they did not like.
In the article “Counterterrorism: A Professional’s Strategy”, Dennis Ross makes perfectly good point while stating: “Osama bin Laden and his deputies have tried to justify their acts of carnage committed against noncombatants in the West not simply by using the terminology of holy warriors and martyrdom, but also by suggesting that there are no innocents in the West. After all, the blood of Muslims must be avenged, and bin Laden takes credit for having been able to create a Muslim “balance of terror” with the West” (Ross 2007, 19). Why it is that, throughout the history, governments have traditionally been having a hard time, while trying to stump out a guerilla-based warfare? This is because guerrillas are being subtly supported by those “oppressed” people, on whose behalf they operate. Why is it that Al Qaeda was able to conduct attacks of 9/11 with such a high degree of precision, in the first place? This is because, thanks to the hawks of “multiculturalism”, America has now its own “fifth column”, consisting of people who hate the country of their citizenship with utter passion. Why is it that terrorists who had flown planes into WTO towers consisted mostly of citizens of Saudi Arabia? This is because, while being officially considered as America’s friend, this country never misses a chance to stub its “ally” in the back, when opportunity presents itself, which serves as an additional proof as to the fact that the process of Globalization continues to deprive traditional political concepts of their practical significance.
Here comes an assumption that actions by Osama bin Laden were the manifestation of the liberation war for freedom of the Islamic people. The events in the Palestine regulatory measures by the US and in other countries of the Middle East served have the objectives for the terror or war of Al-Qaeda. It is fair to admit that every nation has its own conception or system of thought predetermined by the mentality in each nation. Moreover, in the historical cut people struggled for the capability to be free and full of things or values of material and non-material significance which they allegedly deserved. Then Osama bin Laden providing the ruination of WTO achieved the counter-stroke on the American political activity in the Middle East and its policy as for the Islamic extremist religious organizations. Thus, bin Laden is considered a hero in the Middle East due to his actions against one of the superpowers in the world. Each side has its own ideas, and the assertion that some of them provide terror can be evaluated, from the other side, as the answer for previously caused oppression of so-called affected party. In other words, mutual counterblows of opposing parties in the real war can be explained equivocally as defence or terrorirsm.
Nowadays, it is namely Islamic terrorist organizations that are being discussed within a context of how international terrorists undermine world’s security, even though that the ideology of these organizations can be referred to as anything but “international”. In its turn, this creates a certain paradox – despite the fact that Marxist terrorist organizations, such as RAF, did proclaim their goal to be the “liberation of proletariat in the whole world”, these organizations’ activities have traditionally been thought of as such that only represented a threat to the countries of their origin, rather then to international community. On the other hand, such Islamic terrorist organizations as Al-Qaeda, which had repeatedly proclaimed their operating agenda to be strictly concerned with liberation of Palestine from Israeli’s unlawful occupation, are being commonly discussed as the part of “global Jihadist movement”.
In fact, this movement has its goal to completely destruct the influence and power of the USA in its international relations and survey on the Middle East, in particular. Obama is the leader who can make such task possible owing to his well-designed plan for 9/11 terrorist act. By this action he wanted to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation which is supported by the US government. Nevertheless, one should not put blame on him simply because he is Muslim and of Oriental origin. It is just the way of how the Islamic unofficial authorities use to wage a war against sworn enemies.
Terrorism as not an act of war
This paragraph describes the opposing arguments pointing out that terrorism is not the act of war. In fact, terrorist actions cannot be taken for granted as the way for liberation. It is rather the way for deepening the struggle between opposing parties. Nonetheless, the war can be supposed as it is when there is an ultimatum, then the announcement of it. Warfare presupposes the visible actions of countries involved into the conflict. However, terrorist acts are not visible. Surely, it is the war, but it has no attributes of war, because of spontaneous and not perpetual attacks on the peaceful population. The terrorist network is the manifestation of threats that it represents for the world. The scope of the terror can be felt only on multiple cases of peoples’ deaths by virtues of one attack. The ideals and strategies of war are almost trite in terms of terrorism. Thus, it is not an act of war, but a hidden prerequisites for it which should be restricted by the world community.
In the book “Beyond Al-Qaeda: The Global Jihadist Movement”, Angel Rabasa talks about Islamic terrorism as truly global phenomenon: “No informed observers believe that al-Qaeda will be eliminated anytime soon. Indeed, in some respects al-Qaeda has metastasized into an even more formidable adversary—dispersed across the global South, Western Europe, and North America, largely self-sustaining, and despite intense government countermeasures, able to mount devastating operations, such as the railway bombing that killed nearly 200 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004, and the London bombings of July 7, 2005. The United States itself continues to be threatened by large-scale attacks, as suggested by heightened security alerts” (Rabasa 2006, 1). How did it happen that Islamic fundamentalists, which as recent as 20-30 years ago were only in position of abusing camels they rode, have risen to such an international prominence? How was it possible for people, who seriously believe that women should be wearing black cloaks over their faces at all times, to become citizens of the countries that they strive to destroy?
The answer to this question directly relates to a demographical trend that continues to affect world’s geopolitical realities to an ever-increased extent – namely, the “multiculturalisation” of Western acumen. As of today, Muslims constitute the fastest growing racial/ religious minority in Western countries. For example, the number of mosques in London today equals the number of Christian churches in this city. Some “progressive” British politicians and religious leaders go as far as suggesting that Islamic law of Sharia should be incorporated into British common law. In their article “Islam and Europe”, Sheldon Gottlieb, Leslie Dale and Kevin Williams come up with absolutely legitimate suggestion that, slowly but surely, such Western countries as Britain, France and Germany are being turned into “Northern Pakistan”, “Northern Algeria” and “Northern Turkey”, respectively: “Europe must win the demographic and cultural war that its Islamists are waging against it. Unfortunately, many Europeans are blind even to the existence of this war. Settling in their millions in the various countries of Europe, Muslim immigrants have an identity crisis: whether to accept or reject assimilation. Fired by Islamism, plenty of voices among them are calling for outright colonialism in reverse… Europeans have a corresponding identity crisis, as they decide what to make of this large and growing minority in their midst, particularly the Islamists who aspire to colonize them” (Gottlieb, et. al. 2005, 8-10). For example, Canada takes in about “300,000 newcomers per year, which per capita is twice the rate at which immigrants are admitted to the United States. And there virtually are no restrictions on the countries from which they come” (Berlau 2002).
Upon their arrival to Western countries, Muslim immigrants instantly realise themselves being put in advantageous position, as compared to native Westerners, because:
They are not burdened by the notions of Judeo-Christian morality
Unlike Whites, they possess an acute sense of racial and religious solidarity, which allows them to proceed with creation of “societies within society” in the newly acquired “homeland” for the purpose of exploiting it.
Those who believe that terrorism cannot be considered an act of war, point out at terrorist activities as such that lack legitimacy. When caught, terrorists are being treated as spies – Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 does not apply to them. This is the reason why prisoners of Guantanamo have not even been given any legal reason for their imprisonment. Since they are not being considered “non-combatants”, they can never expect attaining the status of “prisoners of war”.
Eco-terrorism in relation to terrorist acts
In this paragraph the discussion touches upon the ecological terrorism in its versatile character. The thing is that the mankind on the contemporary stage of its development ignores the wealth and niches of the natural resources, and uses every possible opportunity to destruct the flora and fauna. Thus the cases of deforestation, for example are apparent in the equatorial latitudes and in other regions of earth. This in turn inflicts the melioration of grounds and floods, as the result. On the other hand, poachers fish by means of dynamite and provide the misbalance of the ecosystems in the bodies of water. This causes great harms toward the world of wild nature and leads to the extinction of some species.
All in all, the issue of eco-terrorism is not necessarily an act of war, but it creates terror due to the destruction of what was done and given to the mankind. In other words, the Living Edens suffers from the actions of a man due to the cruelty in using natural resources and killing animals. It is also as spontaneous for helpless nature as for people waiting for no presumable terrorist act. This is why the violation of ecology can be called terrorism as well due to huge losses of living kinds at once.
Nevertheless, the terrorism is an act of war which should be restricted and destructed by means of general efforts of people throughout the world being not indifferent toward this global problem. In fact, the process of globalization caused the outrageous attitude of many Muslim peoples. This objective contemplates that in poor countries there is a lack of internal security, and people are not saved well from possible terrorist acts. Moreover, religious approach emphasizes the problem, and Al-Qaeda still represents the real danger for the US and the whole Western world. It seems that this hidden but constant war will never end. It can be crushed for some time, but not destructed owing to the strength of religious and ideological convictions and beliefs in Islamic people.. In the book, “The Next Global Stage”, one of Globalization’s most famous ideologists Kenichi Ohmae makes no secret of what represents Globalists’ ultimate agenda: “The global economy ignores barriers, but if they are not removed, they cause distortion. The traditional centralized nation-state is another cause of friction. It is ill equipped to play a meaningful role on the global stage” (Ohmae 2005, 15).
Bibliography
Berlau, John “Canada Turns into Terrorist Haven”. BNET U.S. 2002. Web.
Gupta, Dipak. Understanding Terrorism and Political Violence: The Life Cycle of Birth, Growth, Transformation, and Demise. New York: Taylor & Francis Routledge, 2008.
Ohmae, Kenichi. Next Global Stage: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Publishing, 2005.
Terrorism is one aspect that poses the greatest risk to global security today (Pastor, 2009, p.27). In fact, even the world’s highly rated destinations security-wise i.e. the United States have not been spared either. The most recent and the worst terrorism attack on the United States of America; and which perhaps caught the nation by surprise were the September 11 terrorism attack on the world trading sector. The latter posed as a great challenge to the United States preparedness and effectiveness in handling such eventualities. Following the attack, federal law enforcement has taken center stage particularly for risk assessment in relation to terrorism for early intervention and preparedness to handle future such eventualities. They also introduced the office of state and local government corporations and preparedness. The fundamental responsibilities of these departments were to coordinate the first-responders. The main objective in this case was to enhance preparedness in relation to terrorism attacks as well as work in close relations with state and local first responders with an objective of fostering terrorism preparedness in matters of training, exercises, and equipment aid (Pelfrey, 2007, p.314).
Consequently, the main objective of law enforcement as part of terrorism risk management is enhancing federal preparedness in terms of effectiveness of the first responders, equipment availability & appropriateness for such responses, as well as enhancing terrorism risk assessment to be safe. Ideally, it can be argued with a great degree of confidence that law enforcement regarding terrorism became more expressive after the 9/11 terrorism attack. This paper therefore looks at the various aspects of law enforcement as part of terrorism risk management.
Response by fire, police, medical personnel
Ideally, both biological and biochemical or terrorism attacks in any form poses a fatal danger to the target. As a result, both the terrorism risk assessment and the absolute preparedness in terms of attack eventualities are essential across all departments and institutions both in terms of psychological alert and adequacy of equipment (Corona, 2005, Para. 3). The greatest test of such preparedness particularly in the United States of America was the attack of the world trading center on September 11 2001. Irrespective of above average ability in response to the attack particularly by the fire, metropolitan police departments, and the medical personnel during the attack, the federal authorities recognized the need for better preparedness pertaining critical departments across the United States, so as to ensure even better response in cases of such eventualities in the future.
Consequently, both the state and local law enforcers have responded by instituting legal provisions aimed at ensuring adequacy by the fire department police and medical first responder for effective responses to eventualities such as terrorism attacks. In cases of terrorism attacks the latter recognizes that the role of the three departments mainly the fire, police, and medical care services is critical since they are the very important first responders in such a case. Therefore, law enforcement in this regard ensures beyond reasonable doubt that the departments are best prepared in terms of personnel capabilities and appropriateness and adequacy of equipment to present the best response ever in cases of terrorism attacks (Funk, 2007, p.1115).
For instance, the Terrorism Working Group typically referred to as TWG and which was formed in 1998 was mainly aimed at addressing the concern of the first responders’ safety; enhance incident management and the most suitable approach to managing repercussions of general public health as a result of terrorism attacks or rather from weapons of mass destruction (Michael, 2005, Para. 3). According to Michael, the entire three departments which are critical for first response are members of the TWG as it includes the law enforcement, fire agencies, the public or environmental health departments, the US emergency health services agencies, the federal bursarial investigation unit, the bomb squad, hospitals, ambulance companies, vector control units, animal control, coroner as well as volunteer local law enforcement advisory components.
Generally therefore, the integration which brings together varied components of first responders in events of terrorism attacks aims at enhancing preparedness among the first responders as well as ensuring the best and the most efficient response by the latter in case of an eventuality in terms of speed, results and risk assessment for early intervention/prevention (Michael, 2005, Para. 5). Irrespective of the high level of ability in response to the September 11, the departments were actually overwhelmed hence the response efficiency and effectiveness was not optimum. Consequently, they have since been beefed up to maximize their ability and preparation in case of similar or even worse attacks. However, despite the fact that preparedness is critical, it is wiser to concentrate on disaster management in respect to terrorism risk assessment for early intervention and prevention.
Identifying critical target facilities
Terrorism risk assessment is critical for risk management as measure of preventing / protecting the nation from terrorism attacks. As a result, the very basic responsibility of the local law enforcement in regard to early intervention and prevention of terrorism attacks is the identification of critical target facilities with an objective of safeguarding them from attacks. The responsibilities in this regard therefore include but not limited to identification of Potential Terrorist Targets carrying intensive risk assessment Risk Assessment and ensuring Critical Infrastructure Protection, Physical Security, and Prevention of Terrorist Attack against a Facility controlling the access and Biometrics employment of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras to identify terrorism intentions well in advance (Funk, 2007, p.1114), fencing the critical area, beefing up security using physical barriers for vehicle and police check points (Willoughby & Tully, 2002, Para. 6), use of HVAC security systems, employing intensive surveillance to identify possible terrorism, thwarting cyber terrorism, identification of improvised explosive devices and weapons of mass destruction at the earliest opportunity among other measures to protect the critical target (Pelfrey, 2007, p.316).
Supply Manpower to regional task forces
Adequacy of personnel or rather effectiveness of human capital is critical for effectiveness of response in events of terrorism attacks. As a result, the supply of manpower particularly to the task forces that the law enforcement has lined as the first responders in events of such attack is vital (Kvetan, 2007, p.871). For success in the later therefore, the regional law enforcement as part of risk management in relation terrorists’ attacks preparedness is involved in identification and training of first time responders as well as supplying and coordinating them while responding to such attacks. Irrespective of the – above – average response during the 9/11 terrorism attack, the task forces were characteristically overwhelmed. The local law enforcement therefore while planning and formulating strategies must put measures in place to ensure that there is an adequate supply of manpower and skills in relations to first responders. Ideally, such arrangement should be in each and every country but more so in areas of high vulnerability.
Equipment and communications technology for first responders
Availability of sophisticated equipment backed by state-of-the-art technology in aid to response to disasters is critical if at all the first responders are to optimize efficiency in response to sudden terrorism attacks the likes of the 9/11 attack on the world trading center in 2001(Pelfrey, 2007, p.316).To a greater extent, the challenges that the immediate and first responders faced during the 2001 posed as an eye opener and an opportunity for law enforce to beef up the response teams in terms of modern response equipment and incorporate modern technology all with an objective of making such response more effective. Ideally, preparedness for response in terms of the availability of such equipment and technology is key as part of risk management in relation to terrorism.
Long term response and planning for continued assistance
Basically, the role of the first responders in events of terrorism attack is to contain the situation, mitigate the events, and respond to emergencies while saving on –the- line lives. Pragmatically, it is the responsibility of the immediate local authorities to plan, prepare as well as present themselves adequately in responding as the first responder while awaiting a back up plan from else where. In events such as the September 11 terrorism attack, the responding departments particularly from the New York City was expected to contain the situation as the first responder prior to a coordinated rescue plan the latter of which is expected to take a little longer. If the immediate responding teams fail to live up to the expectation or are not adequately prepared, the effects of the attacks are likely to escalate to uncontrollable heights. However, in cases of highly intense attacks such as 9/11, the local authorities alone may not be adequate to solely contain the situation. Consequently, plans and strategies of coordinating a national wide response teams in events of attacks must be put in place as part of preparedness and long-term assistance in terrorism risk management. The work of local law enforcement in this case therefore is clearly cut out i.e. to plan, communicate, organize, and coordinate national wide response teams and first responders to achieve optimal response and effective terrorism risk management (Pelfrey, 2007, p.316).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the underlying principle in law enforcement as far as terrorism risk is concerned is the need for effective risk management i.e. adequate risk assessment to identify areas of high terrorists attack vulnerability for early intervention as well as preparedness in terms of manpower, equipment, strategic ness of first and long term responses as well as ICT for optimal efficiency in events when terrorism unexpectedly strikes e.g. 9/11
References
Corona, M. (2005). Orange County’s Response to Terrorism. Guest Commentary Orange County Sheriff. Web.
Funk, W. (2007). Electronic surveillance of terrorism: the intelligence/law enforcement dilemma–a history Lewis & Clark Law Review, Vol. 11 Issue 4, p1099-1139.
Kvetan, V. (2007). Critical care medicine, terrorism and disasters: Are we ready? Critical Care Med. 19; 27(5):873–874.
Pastor J, F. (2009) Terrorism & Public Safety Policing: Implications of the Obama Presidency New York, NY: Taylor & Francis pp23-29.
Pelfrey, W. V. (2007). Local law enforcement terrorism prevention efforts: A state level case study. Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 35 Issue 3, p313-321.
Willoughby, E. L. (Bud) & Tully, E. J. (2002). Terrorism: the Role of Local and State Police Agencies. Chapter one. Web.
The notion of terror, in contemporary sense of this word, has been introduced by Aristotle to denote a special type of fear, experienced by people in ancient Greek theatres, while watching staged performance of tragedies. This was the fear of non-existence, apprehended through pain, chaos and destruction. Such definition of terror coincides with many contemporary outlooks on psychological essence of this emotional experience. For example, in his article “What’s your Definition of Terrorism?”, Ziauddin Sardar refers to terror as individual’s mental anxiety, capable of completely overtaking his or her rational psyche: “Terror is all about overwhelming fear and coercion” (Sardar 1996, p. 26). In 1792, French revolutionaries have realized that, in order for citizens to be able to unquestionably recognize the political authority of a Republican government, they would have to be instilled with terror.
In her article “Robespierre and the Terror”, Marisa Linton provides us with insight onto the fact that, it is namely since the time of French Revolution in late 18th century that terror has been increasingly viewed as the most effective instrument of political governing: “For the first time in history terror became an official government policy, with the stated aim to use violence in order to achieve a higher political goal. Unlike the later meaning of ‘terrorists’ as people who use violence against a government, the terrorists of the French Revolution were the government” (Linton 2006, p. 27). However, it did not take too long for representatives of anti-governmental political movements, throughout the world, to realize that terror can be used to serve their agenda as well – this is how the classical notion of terrorism came into being, in the first place.
Nowadays, there are many varying definitions of terrorism, but the one found in Roberto Toscano’s article “More on Defining Terror”, appears to be the most comprehensive: “Terrorism is a warfare deliberately waged against civilians with the purpose of destroying their will to support either leaders or policies that the agents of such violence find objectionable” (Toscano 2007, p. 111). It is well worthy noticing that this definition of terrorism emphasizes terrorists’ foremost agenda as such that has very little to do with their intention to kill as many civilians as possible, but with terrorists’ desire to create a strong publicity over the fact of their very existence.
What terrorists strive for is to turn countries in which they operate into a sort of political theatre, with ordinary citizens being expected to act as filled-with-fear spectators. We can say that, by blowing up buildings and hijacking planes, terrorists indulge into what Michael Humphrey in his article “From Terror to Trauma: Commissioning Truth for National Reconciliation” refers to as “affective politics”: “Affective politics based on terror or trauma moves people through fear and empathy… affective politics tends to resort to cyclical renewal through a new instance of terror or victimhood to ‘move’ people again in order to refocus and identify momentarily” (Humphrey 2000, p. 308). Thus, we can also define terrorism as the method of psychological manipulation. Terrorism’s main objective is to mentally affect as many people as possible, by exposing them to a sight of other people being killed. This is what differ terrorist acts from the acts of sabotage – whereas, saboteurs aim at destroying strategically important objects and eliminating a concrete enemy, terrorists’ foremost agenda is being concerned with population’s demoralization and intimidation. For them – victimization of people is an operative tool, murder is a method.
There are two types of fear, which are being experienced by people, throughout their lives – rational and irrational. Whereas, rational fear often helps individuals to adequately address life’s challenges, the irrational fear (phobia) renders them absolutely helpless in time when they face danger. In their article “Primed Lexical Decision Task in Fearful and Non-fearful Individuals”, Kimberly Christopherson and Richard Ferraro state: “It is assumed that individuals who have phobia process fear-related information differently from those who do not have a phobia, due to their inability rationalize such information” (Christopherson & Ferraro 2009, p. 267). Intimidated people, affected by phobias, always act in a way that causes them the most harm, without realizing it. Those high-ranking officials, who keep “international terrorists” on a payroll, are fully aware of this fact. In its turn, this explains the way in which terrorists have been affecting politics in Western countries, during the course of a recent decade – immediately, after a particular terrorist act takes place (such as the events of 9/11), it results on this country’s citizens being deprived of many of their constitutional rights and freedoms, in exchange for “security”.
And, the reason why citizens perceive this process as being beneficial, is because they think of terrorism as such that poses clear and immediate danger to their very lives. In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that nowadays, not a day goes by without ordinary citizens in Western countries being exposed to the sights of terrorism-related violence on TV. This is exactly why people are being so terrified of a prospect of falling victim to a terrorist attack, despite the fact that such event’s likehood is being thousand times lesser then that of a prospect for these people to die in car accident.
Why is it that we are not being utterly terrified of cars? This is because Media magnates are not interested in instilling us with a fear towards cars, by the mean of showing us the victims of road accidents on TV 24/7. The reason why Henry Ford had reconsidered his anti-Semitic views, during the course of thirties, was because he had been approached by a group of Jewish Hollywood producers, who told him that they could make sure that car accident scenes in Hollywood movies would involve exclusively Ford automobiles.
Therefore, there can be no doubt that the significance of terrorist acts is being politically amplified by Medias. In her article “Terrorism as Breaking News: Attack on America”, Brigitte Nacos makes a perfectly good point, while stating: “Without publicity, terrorism would be like the proverbial tree that falls in the forest and the press is not there to report – it would be as if the incident never happened. The term “mass-mediated terrorism” signifies the centrality of media considerations in the calculus of political violence that is committed by non-state actors against civilians” (Nacos 2003, p. 23). The reason why Medias are being so committed to discussing the dangers of terrorism can be explained by Media magnates being in cahoots with governmental organizations that sponsor terrorists, namely secret services.
Why is it that America’s war on single individual Osama bin Laden has been lasting for eight years now, with no end in sight; whereas, it had only taken this country four years to defeat Germany and Japan, during the course of WW2? This is because American politicians appear to have the same agenda with terrorists – the more American citizens are being kept in constant fear of terrorists, the easier they can be governed and the less they are going to be capable of opposing government’s oppression. In 1989, bin Laden’s annual budget in CIA accounted for $280 millions. Therefore, the suggestions that this individual still remains on CIA’s payroll do not appear as being altogether deprived of rationale.
Nowadays, it is being assumed that the process of political governing in Western countries continues to be based on the principle of “checks and balances” – that is, government’s legislative, executive and judicial branches are believed to be operationally independent of each other. However, during the course of recent decades, these countries’ Medias had become not just the “fourth”, but the most important source of political power, simply because nowadays, no individual can seriously expect to be able to gain a political prominence without being favored by Media owners.
In his article “Media’s Impact on Educational Policies and Practices: Political Spectacle and Social Control”, Gary L. Anderson states: “As media become more and more ever present, whole societies become spectacular as citizens quite literally lose their sense of reality in a sea of images and language that is directed at them… The modern political spectacle, perpetuated through various media forms, exercises control by isolating and fragmenting, denying history, distorting reality, alienating, and monopolizing communication. Increasingly, we are both watching and being watched by media” (Anderson 2007, p. 109). In its turn, this created a precondition for the emergence of “conceptual” form of political governing, when citizens’ opinions have very little influence over the process of their countries’ socio-political policies being designed, due to these opinions’ illusive essence – people believe what they are being told on TV.
The concept of “conceptual governing” can be compared to the game of chess, when players are being periodically forced to sacrifice pieces, in order to attain a strategic advantage over their opponents. In chess language, such players’ moves are being discussed in terms of a “gambit”. If we closely analyze the most notorious terrorist acts that had taken place in U.S. and Russia, over the course of last decade, it will appear that these acts preceded the complete overhaul of political systems in these countries.
For example, the reason why Vladimir Putin was able to gain such popularity among ordinary Russians is because he succeeded in restoring constitutional order in rebellious republic of Chechnya. However, before he could proceed with such his agenda, he needed to be given a legally bounding precedent to do so. In September 1999, a series of powerful explosions in apartment buildings had rocked Russian cities of Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk. Putin immediately blamed Chechen terrorists for what had happened. In the same month, FSB (Russian secret service) agents had been caught bringing explosives into an apartment building in Russian city of Ryazan, with FSB’s officials being unable to find a better explanation to this fact then referring to these agents’ activities in terms of an “anti-terrorist exercise”.
In his book “Putin: Russia’s Choice”, Richard Sakwa subtly implies that “September bombings” had been orchestrated by Russia’s top-ranking officials: “FSB either deliberately or by omission was responsible for the bombings. The events, soon after the four actual bombings, in Ryazan where a ‘dummy’ bomb, explained as a test exercise by the FSB, was found in an apartment block primed and ready to explode, still requires full explanation” (Sakwa 2004, p. 266). Immediately, after explosions had claimed the lives of 300 people, Russia’s Medias launched an “anti-terrorist” campaign”, while aiming to emotionally disarm citizens, so that they would not resist the process of Putin assuming dictatorial powers.
The uncensored images of people torn to pieces were being featured in Russian TV prime-time news, without the regard to emotional well-being of small children and women. The countless “experts on terrorism” would never cease discussing the horrors of “religiously motivated terror” on TV, while suggesting that in order for Russian citizens to be able enjoy security; they would have to sacrifice their freedom. However, after having sacrificed freedom, Russian did not attain much of a “security” – the terrorist acts continue to take place in this country on monthly and even weekly basis. In its turn, this provides us with the insight on why there was no terrorism in former Soviet Union – this was due to the fact that Soviet Medias were forbidden from covering terrorism-related news.
In 1980, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said that “publicity is the oxygen of terrorism”. The events of 9/11 fully substantiate such her suggestion. Just as it was the case with “September bombings” in Russia, which had primarily benefited Vladimir Putin, the “attack on America” had primarily benefited George Bush and his cronies in high offices, because it provided them with the excuse to demand from American citizens to “temporally” yield their constitutional rights and freedoms.
Why did George Bush strive to deprive Americans of their freedoms? The answer to this question can be found in newsreels about Bush’s visits to Israel, during the course of which he never ceased banging his head against the “wall of sorrow” in Jerusalem and pledging his unwavering allegiance to Israeli cause, as if he was not a President of the greatest country on Earth but Israeli “mole” in
America’s highest office. As time goes by, more and more Americans begin to wonder what is the actual benefit of America allying itself with the state where policy of racial apartheid is being given and official status, which continues to occupy Palestine despite UN numerous resolutions, and which boasts on the strength of its resolution to use 200 nuclear warheads on just about any country it perceives as being “anti-Semitic”.
However, the events of 9/11 have provided America’s Medias, controlled by “chosen people”, with seemingly legitimate excuse to indulge in “exposing the dangers of international terrorism” as such that have solely to do with Islamic fundamentalism, despite the fact that it is namely Israel, which can be referred to as terrorism-supporting country, in full sense of this word.
As we have shown earlier, it is simply impossible to discuss terrorism outside of the context of how Medias cover terrorist acts. Yet, many self-appointed “experts on tolerance” actively strive to prevent people from realizing it. For example, in his study “Television Exposure Not Predictive of Terrorism Fear”, Alan Rubin had proven himself being ignorant enough to conclude that Medias’ coverage of 9/11 attacks did not contribute to ensuing panic among Americans, immediately in the aftermath of these attacks: “We sought to examine whether television, with its extensive coverage of terrorism, contributed to a culture of fear. We found that the young adults in our sample did not exhibit a high degree of faith in others. However, these young adults, contrary to what we expected, were not fearful and generally felt safe, despite the almost around-the-clock coverage of terrorist acts and the war on terrorism” (Rubin 2003, p.140). It is quite impossible to tell whether the “sample of young adults”, mentioned in Rubin’s study, consisted of hook-nosed “sophisticates” just like author himself, but there is very little doubt that only utterly naïve or intentionally malicious individual could have come up with suggestions like this, simply because the link between how American Medias cover terrorism-related events and the sheer intensity of terrorism-related paranoia among Americans is too clear not to be noticed.
Nowadays, if an odd individual accidentally forgets his briefcase in a public place, it is being viewed as something that poses a major threat to America’s national security. It is namely due to controlled Medias’ “objectiveness” that the majority of Americans seriously believe that the reason why attacks of 9/11 had taken place, was because Islamic fundamentalists simply cannot stand a sight of American women wearing short skirts. It is namely the Medias owned by representatives of “chosen people” (CNN, CBS, Fox News), which were able to momentarily identify Osama bin Laden as the evil mastermind behind the attacks, despite the fact that even today, there is no credible evidence as to his guilt in existence. Therefore, we will dare to refer to Rubin “study’s” findings as being utterly fallacious, while hoping that this will not result in us being accused of “anti-Semitism”.
Ancient Romans used to be well aware of the simple fact that, in order for just about anyone to realize the actual essence of a particular social or political phenomenon, he or she would simply have to ask itself a question quo bono? (who benefits?). As we have shown earlier, it is namely the representatives of Russia’s and America’s political elites, who benefited from “September bombings” and “Attacks of 9/11” the most. Therefore, it was them who stood behind sub-humans that had perpetrated both terrorist acts – the basic laws of historical dialectics leave no doubt about it. The fact that in both cases, Medias have substantially contributed to ensuing terrorism-related public hysteria in Russia and America, dispel the myth of these Medias’ independence. Nowadays, Western Medias is the essential component of “criminal triad”, which also involves secret service organizations and the actual perpetrators of criminal acts – triad’s ultimate agenda is the establishment of a “new world order”.
In his article “The Mass Media, Crime and Terrorism”, David Altheide provides us with the insight onto the fact Medias do not simply “cover” terrorism, but promote it rather blatantly: “The mass media promotes terrorism by stressing fear and an uncertain future. Major changes in US foreign and domestic policy essentially went unreported and unchallenged by the dominant news organizations. Notwithstanding the long relationship between fear and crime in the United States, the role of the mass media in promoting fear has become more pronounced since the United States ‘discovered’ international terrorism on 11 September 2001. Political decision-makers quickly adjusted propaganda passages, to emphasize domestic support for the new US role in leading the world” (Altheide 2006, p. 990). By doing it, Medias create additional preconditions for the process of American society’s marginalization to proceed unopposed.
Today’s America is nothing but the modern equivalent of Roman Empire in time of its decline. The racially and spiritually corrupted Roman citizens could not care less about anything but “bread and entertainment”, while being especially drawn to watching bloody spectacles of gladiator fights in Coliseum. In order for Roman Emperors to be able to gain popularity among citizens, they had to provide marginalized crowds of degenerates with increasingly bloodier and graphic “entertainment”. In the same manner, today’s Medias in Western countries provide ground for people’s animalistic urges to thrive upon, by presenting them with graphic sights of terrorist attacks, with journalists savoring the explicit details of what their bosses consider “news”.
Nowadays, in order for a particular Media product (such as movie) to attain popularity among the intended audience, it must necessarily be graphically-violent. What is especially despicable about Medias’ role in contributing to the decline of morals in Western societies is that Media owners are being fully aware of the fact that their money-generating activities undermine the national integrity of countries where they live. Yet, they continue on with such their activities, due to the fact that they have succeeded in convincing naïve citizens that even a slight criticism of Medias’ parasitic operational mode, automatically accounts for the “crime of hate speech”.
Thus, the foremost conclusion of this paper can be formulated as follows: it is not only that Medias actively promote terrorism as the only effective way of dealing with “governmental oppression”, but they strive to keep it hidden from the citizens that it is namely their own governments, which sponsor terrorists, so that people would be more likely to accept neo-Liberal ideological dictatorship as the legitimate form of political governing (as it already had happened in countries of EU, where citizens can be sentenced for 5-7 years in jail for simply suggesting that Jews were not only the people who had suffered during the course of WW2); thus, creating preconditions for the eventual establishment of “new world order”, under the leadership of “experts on tolerance”, in which Plutocrats will be able to freely move speculative capitals from one corner of the globe to another, without regard for countries’ national laws and regulations, while providing overly critical folks with a “security” of a prison cell. Therefore, Media owners who send journalists on the errand of discovering “shocking truth” about “international terrorism” should be dealt with as the actual terrorists.
Bibliography
Altheide, D. (2006). The mass media, crime and terrorism. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 4 (5), November, pp. 982-997.
Anderson, G. (2007). Media’s impact on educational policies and practices: Political spectacle and social control. Peabody Journal of Education. 82 (1), pp. 103-120.
Christopherson, K. & Ferraro, R. (2009). Primed lexical decision task in fearful and non-fearful individuals. The Journal of Psychology, 143 (3), pp. 267-278.
Humphrey, M. (2002). From terror to trauma: Commissioning truth for national reconciliation. Social Identities. 6 (1), pp. 299-309.
Linton, M. (2006). Robespierre and the terror. History Today, 56 (8), pp. 23-29.
Nacos, B. (2003). Terrorism as breaking news: Attack on America. Political Science Quarterly, 118 (1), Spring, pp. 23-52.
Rubin, A. (2003). Television exposure not predictive of terrorism fear. Newspaper Research Journal, 24 (1), pp. 128-145.
Sakwa, R. (2004). Putin: Russia’s choice. London, New York Taylor & Francis. Routledge.
Sardar, Z. (1996) What’s your definition of terrorism? New Statesman, 136 (3), p. 23.
Toscano, R. (2007). More on defining terror. World Policy Journal, 24 (3), pp. 111-112.
What is terrorism? The definition of Terrorism will indeed vary widely with the changes in social and historical circumstances. The meaning of terrorism when a country is at war e.g. were a military jet bombs the enemy territory will mean a different thing from that during a political revolution e.g. Political nationalists’ quest for power could also be regarded as a form of terrorism. Whatever the definition of terrorism, its existence dates from time immemorial. (White 2008)
Discussion
According to historical contexts of terrorism, modern terrorism originated from French, where the government inflicted violence and torture against its nationalists in the name of fighting terrorism. This could as well have meant shutting down the political nationalists who probably were fighting for a just course. In about 1848 it graduated to what was seen as a revolt against governments-revolutionary period. By the end of 1800s and early 1900s, violent activities of groups e.g. labor organizations, anarchists, nationalists groups revolting against foreign powers especially the European rule, and ultra nationalist political organizations. During the period from 1964 to1980 terrorism evolved into violent acts by the left-wing groups and political nationalists whom believed that they were fighting for human rights. In the today world, terrorism refers to large groups who are independent from state, violent religious fanatics and violent groups who terrorize for a particular cause. From all this it can be seen that all these definitions have been influenced by historical context. (White 2008)
A shift in terrorism acts has been much influenced by the democratic system which most countries of the world have adopted in modern day. In the name of human rights and equal rights on humanity, the war against terrorism has been hampered upon greatly, where terrorists have been set free in the lack of enough evidence. Due to lack of tangible evidence terrorists have been set free. This has led to not being able to convict them in a court of law which is a huge blow to the fight against modern terrorism. Authorities have been left with no choice other than to set the suspected terrorists free. (White 2008)
Terrorism financing involves where organizations or people collect funds for terrorist acts. Governments, organizations and people have been listed as supporting terrorism organizations which has played a big role in the increase of terrorism thereby causing a huge upset to the war against terror. To help stop this, states, world body’s e.g. United Nations, Canadian government etc, have adopted resolutions and legal frameworks to help curb this. Where individuals or groups have been designated for associating with terrorism groups. (Terrorist financing 2009)
These groups or individuals will have their assets being freezed by the necessary bodies or governments. Dramatic shifts in financing have also been observed. Governments have been designated to be funding these terror groups in the name of nationalism and political mileage. Religious groups have also been seen to fund terrorism groups in the name of holy wars which today are referred to as religion extremism. As a result of funding these terrorism organizations they have been able to hire learned expert to help them carry out their acts of terrorism. This has increased their expertise and skills in carrying out their acts. (Terrorist financing 2009)
With the improvement of modern technology terrorists have taken the advantage of internet and are using the internet as online training camps and therefore making it easier to learn the skills of terrorism just by the punch of a key. One is enabled to gain skills and knowledge of how to cause terror on other people in ones abode by use of a computer. Through researches that have been carried out by experts in terrorism, it’s been seen that terrorists are exploiting the accessibility, vast audience, and anonymity of the internet to raise money and recruit new members around the globe and therefore increasing its diversity and effectiveness. (Cumler 2009)
Conclusion
As a result of all this, it’s been necessary to have a contingency planning for the authorities to all these acts of terrorism. It’s necessary for the federal, state and local levels of authority to be prepared incase of any disaster at the same time to prevent these acts of terrorism from happening. Resolutions and acts of law have been passed which would even interfere with the privacy of the people in order to fight acts of terrorism. This has involved the federal to go through one’s documents e.g. e-mails without your permission. The federal has been equipped with high quality technologies to detect gadgets or even suspicious behaviors by the suspected terrorists. These facilities have been used in places like airports where terrorists target most. This will prevent them from being smuggled into the country which would otherwise be dangerous. Careful and keen collection of information and data by the federal and other authorities, from various agencies and the population at large, which can be relied upon may help a lot the authorities in detecting the acts of terrorism before they happen. This planning involves also training on its people on how to behave at particular situations of terrorism attacks. The people should also be informed to be watchful and report to the necessary authorities in case of any suspicious activities. (Cumler 2009)
Reference
White J.R., 2008, Terrorism security; An Introduction. Web.
Kumler E. (2009). Terrorists rely on tech tools. Web.
Algeria is one of the countries that was engaged in war in order to gain its independence from France.It is important to take into account that other possible means of gaining freedom had been exploited but bore no fruits.These included, the diplomatic measures had been considered prior to this option. In his preview of the Algerian decolonization Milrud Barkaoui argued that the French government had promised to grant independence but had no definite plan that could be trusted.( connelly 2005:34) This implied that,it was a mere talk to try and could down the international pressure, that had mounted allover the world to end imperialism. The Algerians had been influenced by the political events in the U.S, especially after president Nixon took over power. Their patience had worn out but the French still maintained their troops in large numbers.
Matthew Connelly, in his works of a diplomatic revolution; Algeria’s fight for independence and origins of post-cold war, clearly gave a preview of the events of the war. He outlined the importance of this colony to France.This included the fact that it was incorporated directly to French second republic in 1848.(2005:10) That led to the deployment of a large number of troops to check any form of resistance.The most important event however was, the testing of the atomic bombing on the hinterland. This argument however, did not underscore the importance of the presence of the settlers in Algeria. Their presence had a great impact on the colony than the French government could have imagined.
The Algerians were not contended with the presence of the French settlers. They interpreted that the troops were being used to protect the settlers’ interests. It can still be argued that settler presence, curtailed the freedom of the original inhabitants. This created animosity amongst the Algerians. They seemed to be foreigners on their own land, through the limits created on their speech, movement, trade and land. It is also apparent that religion played an important role in igniting the Muslim community against the perceived enemy in all aspects of their daily life. Connelly, further gave the general myths surrounding the fight for independence. According to him FNL were French initials referring to the Algerian national liberation front to which the French regarded as criminals because of their fight against colonialism (2005:67). However to the Algerians’ they were regarded as heroes, who labored to victory.
It is argued that the military tried in vain to counter insurgence through political goodwill but failed.They faced resistance from the settlers who were against them being treated as equals with the rest of the population.The troops on the other hand were not happy with the politicians plundering their economic gains. Matters worsened when the troops overthrew the colonial political regime and assumed all the rights that were enjoyed by the settlers. This weakened the stability of the French occupation culminating to further weakening of their power against the Algerians. Another myth depicted how the use of torture by the French troops to acquire information from the captured insurgents flared up anger against the colonialist. The French were considered a powerful country worldwide. They enjoyed the sovereignty of their state until great challenges came into fore. Such included the improvement of communication technology.which enabled the Algerians to get updates of the events allover the world. i.e. the independence of India and Ghana.it is these activities encouraged them to fight for their freedom.The French allies such as the US were against, imperialism and colonization and demanded that they pulls out of their colonies. That enlisted that the insurgents support of such sentiments.France also lacked the primary viability, economically and politically. The existence of the cold war, made the east block to support the insurgents through the communists pan Arab and pan-islamists.Further, it was clear that the French lacked the support they expected from the west. This was occasioned by the fact that Algeria was a member of the NATO. These kind political contradictions worked against them.
It is evident that FNL was as a result of the social upraising against the French.In their organization they opted to have a different approach in facing the French troops. This was interpreted to mean that they understood the fact that the French were well equipped with modern military equipment. They opted not to face them by open confrontation but resorted to underground measures, such as propaganda and terror to radicalize the population (James2001:286). This was to avoid collaboration and compromise from their members of the Muslim population. The FLN wanted to have a world wide approach towards the war. Its proponents lived abroad and gave the world all the reasons to believe that they were to be assisted in their quest for independence. They sought the ideological approach so as to attract international sympathy.
However, this was not to mean that they required sympathy, after all allover the world the mood was against imperialism and its forms such as colonialism. All other countries were engaged in the fight against colonialism. Connelly’s arguments tend to refer to the Algerian quest for independence as unjustified war that could have been avoided. It is quite clear that this was a tactic that managed to out do the military conquest of the third world. It pointed out the ability of the Algerians to develop skills that were unexpected to the perceived mighty French troops. This was a good example of the determination of the oppressed to regain their freedom after denial through the diplomacy.
The Algerian revolution began in 1954. It ended with the French president declaring Algeria’s independence on July 3.It consisted of various groups assembling using different tactics to fight against the oppressive regime of colonialism. Several factors contributed to the uprising of the insurgence, ranging from political, economical and social. It is clear that Algeria like any other colonized nation was against the occupation of their land they had hoped that the French would yield to their demands and be treated with respect..Proponents of this movement were the scholars from France, who had been enlightened on the benefits of freedom. It was well founded and wide spread.At the initial stages it begun as a political movement such as the founder movement. The star of the North Africa(Shepard 2006:249). This was formed to foster political coordination and fight for the rights of the Muslims: materially, morally and socially.Despite their determination , the French government resisted any such attempts.
The Algerians then opted to establish groups that would articulate their issues at the political scene both internally and abroad. That worsened matters for them as the French resorted to fight back using oppressive means such as arrests and banning of Islamic preaching.This led to the gaining of popularity by the Islamic groups.That culminated to religious unrest. The Islamic movements then decided to form secret political groups which grew in numbers. The social unrest was further fueled by poor wheat harvest, lack of employment and shortage of manufactured goodsThe Nationalists then resorted to protests, through the streets but met resistance from the police.The actions of the colonial government sparked violence throughout the country. Several settlers were attacked and killed. The army and the police responded by putting up strong retaliation, they attacked the Algerians by use of war planes and killed about 45000 people. That was a counter approach system in a bid to restore order in the colonial state. This was the first tactic that was used to counter military uprisings in the Algerian colony. The colonial government used excessive force as a means of instilling fear among its citizens. It was also a clear way of sending a signal that the French government was not ready to tolerate any kind battle challenges. After the failure of the political demonstrations through the legal channels, the F.N.L resorted to form a counter terrorist group to resist the terrorism of the French colonial government.
The groups mission was to conduct terrorist activities to the colonial government of the day. Their activities were: unprecedented murder of the settlers and attacks on government security apparatus..In the political arena the colonial government opted to instill terror to the democratic rights enjoyed by the Algerians. The measures put in place included the manipulation of municipal elections through fraud, intimidation and rigging. These send a clear message to the Algerians that independence through democracy was still elusive. The police further banned the political organizations that had been established. That action was interpreted by the Algerian as a terrorism geared towards silencing them. They reacted by forming another group led by historical chiefs regarded as leaders of the Algerian war of independence. It was this group that was later renamed as Algerian national liberation front popularly known as (front de liberation nation ale-FNL)(whittaker:2001:151) Its sole mandate was to conduct the war for independence.
Since the Algerians had lost several people through the military terror that rocked the whole of their country, the leaders of this movement sought to retaliate at the unexpected time. They attacked the settler community, forcing them to give up their grip on the land and move back to Algeria’s.The colonial government, responded swiftly by launching attacks on any suspected FNL members. It led to several Arab killings the whole of Algeria. The FNL members countered those.activities through, massacre of civilians. They aimed at any military and government unit. The government still responded with other terrorist attack on the FNL group, killing about1200 Muslims, that dealt a big blow to the war of liberation in Algeria. It was clear to the leadership that the colonial regime was determined to suppress them, by all possible means. They thought of through dreaded terrorist activities. It became apparent to them that the leadership had to think of a better plan to handle the complex situation. Public outcry by the international communitywas not able to save them from the brutal colonial regime. That led to the meeting of two groups of liberations. The political and military wings were joined to form one policy making body which was regarded as a formidable force to counter the terrorist activities of the colony (Rachid1986:15).
Those developments led toestablishment of the hit and run tactics by the new group. Collaborators of the colony were the main targets with their bodies being mutilated. That was thought was interpreted by the colonial regime as ritual killings. The people on the countryside were also engaged in carrying out of such killings. The events taking place were not brought to attention of the world, since France had claimed that Algeria was part of its sovereign state. In fact they justified their terrorist activities by claiming that they were dealing with internal criminal matters. That made the FNL to develop a different approach so to draw external attention. They launched attacks on cities and held several demonstrations. One of these events, was the general strike of 1957, which coincided with the UN debate on Algeria.The army general at the site was instructed to use whatever means to restore order in the cities.General Jacques Massu used paratroopers to destroy and suppress the FNL supporters including their infrastructure. That led to mass response to the FNL activities even from urban Arabs. These kind of French terrorist activities against Algerians casted doubt on their presence in Algeria. Their credibility as country that respects the rule of law worldwide was jeopardized. The French government refused to give up and resorted to a massive recruitment of military personnel. They then closed all the borders and developed a new tact of mobile forces, popularly known for search and destroy missions, there was even the construction of a long stretch electric fence along the Tunisian border so as to confine the Algerians within the manageable units and propagate terror in them without escape routes.
Later the French government formed an electoral body.Several people were registered as voters. In the later discussions a cease-fire was struck. Elections were carried out and the Algerians were granted their independence on July 3 by De Gaulle.
It is important to note that the counter terrorist activities played a vital role in the decolonization of Algeria.
The murdering of the settlers as retaliation to the French troops activities had a significant economic impact. This meant that the economic viability of Algeria was drastically affected, since there was none to carry out farming and other economic activities. This destabilized the economy of the colony. It also became clear that funds that could have been used in more economical viable projects were diverted to try and deal with the war that had just spread out. That impacted negatively on the economy back in France. The government was engaged in the funding of a very expensive war that seemed to require more funds as time progressed. That slowed down the economic growth of France.In a nut shell the Algerian war of independence negatively impacted on the economies of both Algeria and France. The granting of independence to the Algerians by the French made them to be the largest economic partner to boost the growth of the new nation.
On the political front the war was a blessing to the Algerians, this is because they got their hard fought for independence. The war also played a bigger role in ensuring that the international community was involved in urging the French country to be more responsive to the demands of their colonies not only in Algeria but even it other parts of the world. The international community through organizations such as UN and the NATO played a vital role in ensuring that France as one of their members was compelled to be more responsible for their activities in their colony. US also played a significant role in ensuring the end of imperialism in the world. Such forces forced France to grant Algeria its independence. The political activities back at home also forced the government to grant independence. The French nationals were tired of the killings and torture there fellow citizens, who had moved to Algeria as settlers. This forced them to demand to a quick fix to the problems facing their nationals.
On the social front it was clear that the war had a negative impact to both the colonizer and the colonized. The Algerians used religion to implore their countrymen to fight the French. That polarized the society between Muslim and other religions more notably Christianity of the French. That in fact can be attributed to the animosity that still exists to date between members of these two religions. The war also led to racist ideologies that were propagated between the Arab and the white. The Arab felt that the imperialistic activities of the French were totally unfounded and were meant to subdue other races. That encouraged the growth of negative sentiments among the two races.However the most important aspect of the result of the war, was the independence. That has led to the made Algerians to value their independence hence promoting patriotism. It also led to the alignment of Algeria to the Arab world hence joining the Arab League of Nations. To the world generally, this war had a significant impact: several nations that were colonies at that time followed suit in quest for their independence such as Zimbabwe. These kind of guerrilla tactics were used by other nations in their fight for their independence. The same tactics are also being used by the terrorists in the contemporary society.
References
James (2001) uncivil war: intellectuals and identity politics during the decolonization of Algeria.Nebraska: university of Nebraska press p286.
Shepard T (2006) the invention of decolonization; the Algerian war and the remarking of france.london: Cromwell university press p249.
Whittaker d (2001) The terrorism reader3 edition. U.K route ledge press.p151.
Rachi T (1986) State and Revolution in Algeria. London.zed books p53.
Matthew c (2005) A Diplomatic revolution: Algeria’s fight for independence and origin of the post cold war era. London: O.U.P P10.