How To Stop Terrorism Before It Starts
Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin BhattSince September 11, 2001, the idea that terrorist attacks are planned in distant failed states has snowballed into a new understanding of an omnipresent threat. Silber and Bhatt, two senior intelligence analysts working for the New York City Police Department Intelligence Division, have written an extensive report showing that the threat of terrorism is increasingly becoming a homegrown commodity, with ordinary citizens and residents playing a leading role in organizing and carrying out terrorist attacks. A better understanding of the process of radicalization will enable counterterrorist personnel to more effectively combat and prevent this growing domestic threat.
The Leap to Extremist Ideology
When Westerners become terrorists, their choice to radicalize is not triggered by oppression and suffering. Rather, they seek a cause to align with in order to escape lifestyle dissatisfaction. Silber and Bhatt claim that the Western social class system, coupled with widespread failure to integrate past generations of immigrants, has created an environment where individuals will take that unfortunate leap towards extremist Islamic ideology.
In many cases, an individual will begin exploring radical Islam, usually Salafism, using the Internet. Soon he or she will encounter like-minded people and the exploration will spread to the offline world. Groups like these will eventually gravitate away from former identities, becoming indoctrinated in new adopted beliefs. Over time, stronger radical beliefs reinforce themselves through group dynamics, with members of the group eventually designating themselves as holy warriors. It is at this jihadist stage that they are capable of organizing and planning operations and terrorist attacks.
The Road Ahead
Although it is alleged that the US and its allies have accomplished much in decreasing the operational capabilities of terrorists, whether through greater security or intelligence, there is still much to do in weakening their determination, communications, recruitment and message. Moreover, it remains difficult to define the point that one becomes a jihadist, and at what stage in the process of radicalization does one become an actual threat.
Policy makers and law enforcement must decide whether an individual who begins to radicalize but fails to become a jihadist should still be regarded as a potential threat, capable of a negative influence on young, disillusioned seekers. As a result of these challenges, the report advocates that efforts should be made to enhance intelligence gathering through greater community policing. However, this can only be accomplished properly when buttressed with a complete understanding of the various societal and behavior indicators and the motivations that cause a Westernized individual to follow such a potentially destructive path.
The summary above was prepared by the Atlantic Community editorial team from a New York City Police Department report by Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt.
Will this report change the way the West fights terrorism in the future? Is there a need for greater domestic surveillance? How can policy makers balance civil liberties and law enforcement? Is the type of prevention the authors advocate possible? Leave your thoughts below.
Related Materials from the Atlantic Community:
- Syed Saleem Shahzad on The New Frontlines of Jihad
- Will Nuland and Tobias Bock ask Can Saudi Arabia Be Trusted?
- Frédéric Grare says it is Time to Put Pressure on Pakistan
- The Aon Corporation’s Terrorism Threat Map Shows New Difficulties in Calculating Business Risk
Prepared by Ian Carver
Mon, Apr 21st 2008, 17:37
amarjyoti acharya
1. What would be terrorism - would need to be examined.
2. Who is the one who is defining - not merely about and over who is a terrorist but also who are the ones that water the pond where the fishes breed?
3. How far is a state innocent - because of its failures - of the reasons that leads someone to become a terrorist?
4. How far is a state terror-free? Not merely as the targets of acts of terrorism - but as states that are infiltrated by the sympathisers and/or those that profit from such exercises?
5.One assumes to understand here that states are democratic - in layperson's terms - that should translate into a state that guarantees an individual certain common rights he/she/it shares with others and that encourages and upholds Human Rights.
Once we can ensure the fifth condition, it becomes easier to begin thinking over the issue of how to stop terrorism before it starts. Usually, it is said - stop terrorising first, which again brings us back to the first condition. Hence - the fifth condition. It never is easy once it has started.