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SWJED
05-09-2007, 08:57 AM
Moderators Note

In March 2011 this thread was renamed after being merged with a thread in Threat & Adversary, to reflect the primary focus on terrorism and counter terrorism in the USA. There are other, long running threads that refer to these issue. On 2/5/2011 another thread The FBI and CT Intelligence was merged to here. On 26/10/14 the Boston Marathon bomb thread was merged to here. A 2017 thread now continues this theme:President Trump & Terrorism in the USA:threat & response (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/President Trump & Terrorism in the USA:threat & response) (ends).


9 May NY Times - 6 Men Arrested in a Plot Against Ft. Dix (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/us/09plot.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin) by David Kocieniewski.


Six Muslim men from New Jersey and Philadelphia were charged Tuesday with plotting to attack Fort Dix with automatic weapons and possibly even rocket-propelled grenades, vowing in taped conversations “to kill as many soldiers as possible,” federal authorities said.

The arrests came after a 15-month investigation during which the F.B.I. and two informers who had infiltrated the group taped them training with automatic weapons in rural Pennsylvania, conducting surveillance of military bases in the Northeast, watching videos of Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers and trying to buy AK-47 assault rifles.

The authorities described the suspects as Islamic extremists and said they represented the newest breed of threat: loosely organized domestic militants unconnected to — but inspired by — Al Qaeda or other international terror groups...

SWJED
05-09-2007, 09:04 AM
9 May Washington Times - Plot Illustrates Balkans' Role as Islamist Foothold (http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070508-110153-5728r.htm) by Bill Gertz.


The six foreign-born Muslims accused of planning a shooting attack at the U.S. military base included four ethnic Albanians, and U.S. officials say their arrests highlight how Islamist groups are using the Balkans region to help in recruiting and financing terrorism.

Prosecutors described the men as "radical Islamists," with four coming from the province of Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia, where the ethnic Albanian population of Muslims fought one of the several wars that grew out of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Suspect Agron Abdullahu, who faces only weapons violations in the case, was described in court papers as a "sniper in Kosovo."...

goesh
05-09-2007, 01:59 PM
sounds like displaced KLA members to me but then jihadism cuts across all borders and nationalities

Uboat509
05-09-2007, 06:43 PM
I doubt that these guys were al Qeda for the simple fact that I just don't think that AQ would try to make their next big attack against the US be a National Guard/Reserve post in New Jersey.

SFC W

SWJED
07-03-2007, 11:01 AM
3 July Washington Post - Attempts Seen As Model for New Attacks On U.S. Soil (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201943.html?hpid=topnews) by Karen DeYoung.


The next terrorist assault on the United States is likely to come through relatively unsophisticated, near-simultaneous attacks -- similar to those attempted in Britain over the weekend -- designed more to provoke widespread fear and panic than to cause major losses of life, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials believe.

Such attacks require minimal expertise and training and are difficult to prevent. Although British investigators have not claimed al-Qaeda involvement in the latest incidents, officials here said they may constitute a "hybrid" phenomenon, in which al-Qaeda inspires and guides local groups from afar but establishes no visible operational or logistical links.

"What is a direct link?" asked one counterterrorism official. "Is it couriers? Messengers?" U.S. officials "from very senior folks" on down, he said, are watching as the British work to reconstruct the attacks and trace their origin...

SteveMetz
07-03-2007, 11:18 AM
3 July Washington Post - Attempts Seen As Model for New Attacks On U.S. Soil (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201943.html?hpid=topnews) by Karen DeYoung.

It certainly bears watching but if this slate of buffoons in UK is any indication, we're dealing with the terrorism "D" team at this point.

What leaves me eternally perplexed is exactly what those guys are thinking. I'd love to talk to them and say, "Please connect the dots between murdering people on the streets and the conversion of the English to Islam and the adoption of sharia law." Do they really think millions of English are going to say, "Yowzee--a religion whose adherents murder women and children. Sign me up for that!"?

Graycap
07-03-2007, 12:24 PM
Do they really think millions of English are going to say, "Yowzee--a religion whose adherents murder women and children. Sign me up for that!"?

I don't think so. I think that they only want the Great Britain State to over-react in front of a choice: security vs normality. Do you want business as usual? No problem you will have all the bombs you can think of. Do you want security? Goodbye swinging London and multiculturalism.

Whatever choice you make the risk to have a social breakdown is real. After that to impose sharia law at islamic minority will be easy once it will be equal to say social security. And when we will have a portion of a western state run by sharia we will know that war will be on our soil.

Just my two cents..

Graycap

Jedburgh
07-03-2007, 01:12 PM
It certainly bears watching but if this slate of buffoons in UK is any indication, we're dealing with the terrorism "D" team at this point....
I second Steve's comment; relatively unsophisticated is an overstatement regarding these clowns. But that observation is offset by the point made in this 3 Jul 07 article in The Economist:

Britain under threat: Even failed attacks may promote terrorists’ interests. (http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9429130&top_story=1)

....Attempted bombings like these recent ones may not be carried out by the most effective al-Qaeda operatives, but even failed strikes take up a huge quantity of time from intelligence officers and police, potentially distracting them from other planned attacks. In Britain MI5 is expanding substantially, from 1,800 staff in 2001 to a projected 3,500 in 2008. But growth takes time, as does the training of new officers and the recruiting of informers. Meanwhile the number of suspected terrorist networks is growing exponentially, roughly doubling every year since the invasion of Iraq in 2003....

CPT Holzbach
07-03-2007, 01:18 PM
The English will overcome this just fine. They handled many years of IRA terrorism, shootings, and bombs. The real question is will we be smart enough to learn from them?

Tomorrow Ill be calling for people to tar and feather the hated English overlords. But for today, I say let's study what they do about these attacks and learn something.

Abu Buckwheat
07-03-2007, 01:36 PM
It certainly bears watching but if this slate of buffoons in UK is any indication, we're dealing with the terrorism "D" team at this point.

What leaves me eternally perplexed is exactly what those guys are thinking. I'd love to talk to them and say, "Please connect the dots between murdering people on the streets and the conversion of the English to Islam and the adoption of sharia law." Do they really think millions of English are going to say, "Yowzee--a religion whose adherents murder women and children. Sign me up for that!"?

Oh I really second this great post! This was horribly amateurish! I pray to god that AQ inspired terroristskeep up this level of incompetence ... however we should be cautious that mistakes are always learned by others and corrected. Still this was not much of a threat but they exposed themselves and now they will pay the price.

Old Eagle
07-03-2007, 02:29 PM
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this type of attack.

1. Amateurs are sometimes successful. Please don't write them off out of hand.

2. AQ has varying levels of influence on operations:
-- Those that are centrally planned by the A team
-- Those that are "nominated" from the field and then get support ($$, planning assistance, etc) from higher up
-- And those carried out by copycat/wannabes

3. We win by good police work and rule of law, even in the intelligence work that goes into prevention. It appears (obvious to me) that NSY/MI5 were onto some of this plot, but couldn't wrap it up before hand as they have some of the other recent attempts. If we sacrifice our freedoms and way of life in the name of security, the bad guys win.

4. The good news is that both the US and UK have decent LE and judicial systems. Both societies are very resilient.

Merv Benson
07-03-2007, 03:11 PM
I think it is a reflection of the lack of depth at the operational level. The guy who originally thought up the idea of limo bombs using propane cannisters was already in jail in the UK.

I am sure the deficiencies in the plan were also compounded by the arrogance of doctors who think that because they are smart in medicine they are smart in other "operations." An interview with one of the professors of the "brilliant" neurosurgeon leader of the group discloses earlier manifestations of hubris. This led to many errors that just kept compounding.

I would also point out that unlike the Iran-Hezballah operation in Karbala, these guys got no practice time with training to see if their device would even explode. At this point the Shia terrorist appear to be much more "professional." However, even their operations in Iraq are suffering from the roll up of "secret cells." BTW, anyone know how the Iranian-Hezballah cells came to be called "secret cells?" I thought all terrorist cells were supposed to be secret.

Stevely
07-03-2007, 03:27 PM
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this type of attack.

1. Amateurs are sometimes successful. Please don't write them off out of hand.


And success breeds imitators, and maybe even studied failure does too. They may have been "clowns" but I think the number is 7 now of the 12 in custody are medical doctors, so they are not stupid people by any means, just inexperienced. With the internet and other modern communications tools, the enemy is going to have his own "lessons learned" capability, and the quality of advice available to amateurs like these will only get better. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to create a lot of mayhem, and thus it is very disturbing to see MDs involved in this business. We may not be so lucky the next time. It's disturbing to see the enemy's ideology attracting people who really ought to know better, and I think it is a sign of worse to come.

120mm
07-05-2007, 06:20 AM
I am sure the deficiencies in the plan were also compounded by the arrogance of doctors who think that because they are smart in medicine they are smart in other "operations." An interview with one of the professors of the "brilliant" neurosurgeon leader of the group discloses earlier manifestations of hubris. This led to many errors that just kept compounding.

In my other life, I play a mild-mannered airplane mechanic. With as many doctors I count as customers, you have no idea how fricking funny (and true) this is.

SWJED
08-15-2007, 10:34 PM
NYPD Intelligence Division: The Homegrown Threat (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/08/nypd-intelligence-division-the-1/) - SWJ Blog.


Recently released report from the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division - Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/dcpi/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf) by Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt.

Preface

If the post-September 11th world has taught us anything, it is that the tools for conducting serious terrorist attacks are becoming easier to acquire. Therefore intention becomes an increasingly important factor in the formation of terrorist cells. This study is an attempt to look at how that intention forms, hardens and leads to an attack or attempted attack using real world case studies.

While the threat from overseas remains, many of the terrorist attacks or thwarted plots against cities in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States have been conceptualized and planned by local residents/citizens who sought to attack their country of residence. The majority of these individuals began as “unremarkable” -they had “unremarkable” jobs, had lived “unremarkable” lives and had little, if any criminal history. The recently thwarted plot by homegrown jihadists, in May 2007, against Fort Dix in New Jersey, only underscores the seriousness of this emerging threat.

Understanding this trend and the radicalization process in the West that drives “unremarkable” people to become terrorists is vital for developing effective counter-strategies. This realization has special importance for the NYPD and the City of New York. As one of the country’s iconic symbols and the target of numerous terrorist plots since the 1990’s, New York City continues to be the one of the top targets of terrorists worldwide. Consequently, the NYPD places a priority on understanding what drives and defines the radicalization process.

The aim of this report is to assist policymakers and law enforcement officials, both in Washington and throughout the country, by providing a thorough understanding of the kind of threat we face domestically. It also seeks to contribute to the debate among intelligence and law enforcement agencies on how best to counter this emerging threat by better understanding what constitutes the radicalization process...

Much more at the blog entry and on the NYPD site (entire report)

davidbfpo
10-24-2007, 09:21 AM
The link to this document no longer works (not known why). There are numerous Google links that do work, try:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf

I note the document caused considerable comment, mainly in the USA and little to date in the UK. Normally we would see a review from London.

Also found an Islamic critique, which I've yet to read in full:

http://conflictblotter.com/files/SalafiManhaj_NYPD.pdfNo onger readily available, although multiple hits on Google.

Back to the NYPD document, which I read at the weekend. It is a useful reference, especially as it is based on open source and interviews. Worth reading.

Added March 2011 post 115 on the following thread has a critique of the NYPD report:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=7188&page=6

davidbfpo

Jedburgh
11-07-2007, 07:42 PM
CQ Politics, 2 Nov 07: FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here (http://cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=hsnews-000002620892)

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/nsb/nsb_jmudd.htm) and Willie T. Hulon (http://www.fbi.gov/libref/executives/hulon.htm), according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason (http://www.fbi.gov/libref/executives/mason.htm), who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails......

Jedburgh
11-08-2007, 01:23 PM
The Investigative Project on Terrorism, 7 Nov 07:

Much has been written about the U.S. government's current bout of schizophrenia in its outreach to the American Muslim community, specifically related to the Department of Justice. While federal prosecutors in Dallas have labeled several Islamist organizations as unindicted co-conspirators – describing them as front groups for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood - in the terrorist financing trial against the Holy Land for Relief and Development (HLF), the FBI is meeting with the very same groups to hold outreach events and the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is setting up booths at their conferences.

As wrongheaded and shortsighted as these policies are, they do not hold a candle to a recent outreach event held by the FBI's Detroit field office at the end of last month.....

...follow-up on the Counterterrorism Blog: [URL=http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/11/fbis_new_friends_were_kicked_o.php]FBI's New Friends Were Kicked Out of UAE For "Talibanization" (]The FBI's Latest Outreach Outrage[/URL)

As a follow-up to Steve Emerson's post about the FBI's meeting with Tanzeem-e-Islami, I want to suggest to the FBI that they use a website named "Google" to comprehensively search the groups and individuals with which they are planning to meet. If they had done that search well, they would have found that the UAE government kicked Ahmad's supporters out of the country back in May, fearing "the spread of Talibanization.".....

slapout9
11-08-2007, 01:38 PM
Hi Jed, This really is pretty funny.


CQ Politics, 2 Nov 07: FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here (http://cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=hsnews-000002620892)

Rifleman
11-10-2007, 03:35 PM
Maybe an FBI special agent should sit down and have coffee with a CIA case officer. :rolleyes:

Who knows, something positive and productive might happen for both sides.

JeffC
11-12-2007, 02:06 AM
Most FBI agents still don't have computers at their desk. Many don't have e-mail accounts.

http://idolator.typepad.com/intelfusion/2007/10/2-out-of-3-fbi-.html

Schmedlap
11-12-2007, 02:16 AM
Most FBI agents still don't have computers at their desk. Many don't have e-mail accounts.
This is encouraging. I suspect that this means they don't fritter away their time creating PowerPoint presentations.

bourbon
11-12-2007, 02:50 AM
Maybe an FBI special agent should sit down and have coffee with a CIA case officer. :rolleyes:

Who knows, something positive and productive might happen for both sides.
Phil Mudd had 20 years at CIA and was the deputy director of CIA's Counterterrorism Center. My understanding is that was the whole point of putting him at FBI's National Security Service, to have someone who knows the difference between the West Bank and the West Side. I hope there is another angle to this story.

Ponce
12-31-2007, 01:04 AM
The key word here is "homegrown"...... anything need fuel in order to grow just like a plant needs soil, sun and water.

A homegrown "terrorist" is nothing more than someone who has decided to do something against the dictators that are at this time running the government.

The American people like to make fun of the "bananas" latin countries for having a revolution all the time...... well, if 26% of the people are against the government and the government do nothing about the situation then there will be a revolution. Here in the US 72-79% of the people are against Bush and yet........ he is stil in power......who is more free?

"Is is the right of the people to declare war on its govenment if they are for the people, after all the people are the real government"... Ponce

Ron Humphrey
12-31-2007, 01:24 AM
The key word here is "homegrown"...... anything need fuel in order to grow just like a plant needs soil, sun and water.

A homegrown "terrorist" is nothing more than someone who has decided to do something against the dictators that are at this time running the government.

The American people like to make fun of the "bananas" latin countries for having a revolution all the time...... well, if 26% of the people are against the government and the government do nothing about the situation then there will be a revolution. Here in the US 72-79% of the people are against Bush and yet........ he is stil in power......who is more free?

"Is is the right of the people to declare war on its government if they are for the people, after all the people are the real government"... Ponce

We are because:

1- We the People chose the process through which our President is elected

2- We the people have the ability to partake in the process to elect those who represent us

3- We the people have three branches of government which work in an effort to maintain a balance between the three

4- Those we as elect are as We the people (only human) and thus prone to err from time to time
a- In the case that this happens we refer back to number 2 to attempt
to correct any mistakes


It is easy enough to find something to fight against anywhere you look in this world, it's finding something to fight for which comes at a much greater price but with much greater reward

JeffC
12-31-2007, 01:37 AM
The link to this document no longer works (not known why). There are numerous Google links that do work, try:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf

I note the document caused considerable comment, mainly in the USA and little to date in the UK. Normally we would see a review from London.

Also found an Islamic critique, which I've yet to read in full:

http://conflictblotter.com/files/SalafiManhaj_NYPD.pdf

Back to the NYPD document, which I read at the weekend. It is a useful reference, especially as it is based on open source and interviews. Worth reading.

davidbfpo

Thanks, David. You've just taken care of my reading for the next few days! :eek:

Ponce
12-31-2007, 02:29 AM
Ron? you should know by now that Bush stole the election..... and like he said "The Contitution is nothing but a piece of paper" that in itself voided him as MY president........ my president is by the people and for the people according to the US constitution.

Ken White
12-31-2007, 05:02 AM
NYPD Intelligence Division: The Homegrown Threat.

Let's try to stay on topic. I'll also point out that this in not a political weblog; for anyone who wishes to make political commentary, there are plenty of weblogs out there that welcome such comments. Here, we avoid it and try to stick to the subject of threads.

Thanks, Guys.

Ron Humphrey
12-31-2007, 06:21 AM
NYPD Intelligence Division: The Homegrown Threat.

Let's try to stay on topic. I'll also point out that this in not a political weblog; for anyone who wishes to make political commentary, there are plenty of weblogs out there that welcome such comments. Here, we avoid it and try to stick to the subject of threads.

Thanks, Guys.

I probably should have just left that one alone:o

Although in my own defense, since my crack team of defense lawyers are on vacation; I did try to make the answer as apolitical as possible:wry:

bourbon
12-31-2007, 07:09 AM
Ponce,

I may just happen to share some of your sentiment, I've even mistakenly crossed the apolitical line here in some posts. We both may even agree that the term 'terrorist' is malleable and oft bastardized. That said, I think we can delineate between Guy Fawkes and say; a Mohamed Atta, Mohammad Sidique Khan, or Adam Gadhan. The NYPD article - which is excellent btw - illustrates the 'homegrown threat' as far more than "someone who has decided to do something against the dictators that are at this time running the government."


Thread Related:
The Fort Dix Conspiracy (http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1691609,00.html), By Amanda Ripley. Time, Dec. 06, 2007.


A TIME investigation of the Fort Dix case shows that it is indeed an important prototype. Six years after 9/11, the U.S. government has begun to settle on a strategy for finding and stopping potential homegrown terrorists before they strike. Fort Dix offers a case study of this new and sometimes precarious method. The model is called pre-emptive prosecution, and like other pre-emptive strikes of late, it is risky. It means relying on often unreliable informants to infiltrate insular communities, and it means making arrests before anything close to a terrorist attack actually happens. The process sometimes ends with a trial but not necessarily a conviction, and that may be beside the point. It is, in all, a messy and unsatisfying ordeal, and possibly the best available option.

Decent article on the NYPD's intel division:
The Terrorism Beat: How is the N.Y.P.D. defending the city? (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/25/050725fa_fact2?printable=true), by William Finnegan. The New Yorker, July 25, 2005.

marden
01-10-2008, 08:16 AM
The key word here is "homegrown"...... anything need fuel in order to grow just like a plant needs soil, sun and water.

A homegrown "terrorist" is nothing more than someone who has decided to do something against the dictators that are at this time running the government.

The American people like to make fun of the "bananas" latin countries for having a revolution all the time...... well, if 26% of the people are against the government and the government do nothing about the situation then there will be a revolution. Here in the US 72-79% of the people are against Bush and yet........ he is stil in power......who is more free?

"Is is the right of the people to declare war on its govenment if they are for the people, after all the people are the real government"... Ponce

Can you cite the sources for your %'s?

bourbon
01-10-2008, 06:18 PM
Can you cite the sources for your %'s?
Marden, Ponce had a brief tenure on the forum and is no longer a member. It would appear that he was basing his “72-79% of the people are against Bush” on job rating polling. Approval ratings for 2007 have been in the high 20’s to mid 30’s. He incorrectly assigned the remained to disapproval. Job approval polling offers three choices: approve, disapprove, and unsure. ‘Unsure’ has ranged between 5-10% for 2007, ‘disapprove’ has fell between 55-65% for most of the year.

pollingreport.com is an excellent website for this stuff btw.

Jedburgh
04-08-2008, 01:15 PM
Robert S. Mueller, FBI Director, 7 Apr 08:

From 9/11 to 7/7: Global Terrorism Today and the Challenges of Tomorrow (http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/events/download/-/id/782/doc/transcript/)

.....We in the FBI are panning for gold. First, we have to determine in which streams we are likely to find gold. Which suspected networks? Which human sources? Which websites? Then, agents and analysts must take their pans and wade through the waters of intelligence, carefully searching for nuggets of gold amid streams of repetitive or irrelevant information.

The gold might be a phone number, or a name, or a receipt from a bank transaction. It will likely be hidden among thousands of other scraps of information. With deft, methodical sifting, we can separate the gold from the dross, as Dame Eliza would say. But as she also points out, gathering the intelligence is just the start. It then must be verified and connected to other intelligence. And even then we are only seeing part of the picture.

Our goal is to get as close as possible to having the complete picture. For the FBI, this means we often continue to collect information long after we have gathered enough evidence for prosecution. Once we have the threat under control, we use these cases as intelligence collection platforms. Our mission is not just to disrupt an isolated plot, but to thoroughly dismantle the entire network that supports it.....

jcustis
04-08-2008, 01:38 PM
I have a very close friend who just graduated the academy, career pathed to CT. I'll have to remember to refer his butt to this thread.

jkm_101_fso
12-23-2008, 05:12 PM
All of them may get life in prison. Glad to see some closure to this.


5 Men Are Convicted in Plot on Fort Dix

By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
NY Times
Published: December 22, 2008

A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press.

The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers -- Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka -- and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.

Defense lawyers argued that the men were never serious about attacking Fort Dix, and that the government informants repeatedly coaxed the men into making incendiary comments on government wiretaps.

jmm99
12-23-2008, 09:38 PM
(no surprise there) if the judge gives them life; however, basic conspiracy to commit murder is Base Offense Level: 33 (under US Sentencing guidelines, whcih are here (http://www.miami-criminal-lawyer.net/federal-sentencing-guidelines/2006guid/2a1_5.html)).

However, I expect the base level of 33 (2nd degree murder is base level 38, here (http://www.miami-criminal-lawyer.net/federal-sentencing-guidelines/2006guid/2a1_2.html)) could be enhanced. Life is a base level 43, as in 1st degree murder, which you see here (http://www.miami-criminal-lawyer.net/federal-sentencing-guidelines/2006guid/2a1_1.html).

sgmgrumpy
01-06-2009, 02:01 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Police spent the day searching the house of a decorated, two-tour Iraq war veteran on Tuesday, one day after he was arrested and charged with making explosive devices and attempting to sell them.


For as little as $100, Jordal was making the same kinds of weapons he saw used against his fellow soldiers in Iraqi and selling them on the streets of Okalahoma City to gang members and known criminals, according to the document.

STORYhttp://www.military.com/news/article/police-say-vet-made-sold-ieds-to-gangs.html

Bob's World
01-06-2009, 02:56 PM
It certainly bears watching but if this slate of buffoons in UK is any indication, we're dealing with the terrorism "D" team at this point.

What leaves me eternally perplexed is exactly what those guys are thinking. I'd love to talk to them and say, "Please connect the dots between murdering people on the streets and the conversion of the English to Islam and the adoption of sharia law." Do they really think millions of English are going to say, "Yowzee--a religion whose adherents murder women and children. Sign me up for that!"?

Excelent point; however I think it is more instructive to view the use of islamic based ideologies to motivate Muslim populaces today in a similar light as communist ideologies used to motivate populaces in SEA in the sixties that were striving to throw off colonial governments. Or perhaps more accurately, the protestant christian ideologies that were used to throw off the Catholic governance of the Holy Roman Empire over Europe a few years back.

While religion is at the root of the ideology in two of the cases, in all of the cases the role of ideology is to motivate the populace to support the insurgency, while at the same time taking a position that the counterinsurgent is either unable or unwilling to co-opt or concede.

We get too focused on the message, and lose sight of the purpose and effect. It does not matter if it is an accurate portrayal if Islam, what matters is that it is effective in getting people to join the cause. What we must do is break down the message, and where we can, agree or co-opt the platform as our own. We must then, not attack the message, but instead compete a more effective message in that same marketplace of ideas.

You don't buy Toyotas over Chevys because Toyota runs a major ad campaign attacking Chevy. You buy Toyotas because they build a better product and sell the benefits of buying that product.

So, are we building a better product and if so, are we selling it?

I believe the populace-based ideology crafted by our founding fathers is a piece of timeless genius. I recommend we step back from some current concepts of what America is and go back to our roots, and start selling that.

120mm
01-06-2009, 05:14 PM
In the book, "What Muslims Really Want" by the Gallup organization, they show that the great majority of adherants to Islam really, really like the fundamental precepts of America's political system.

So, I think Bob's World has an incredibly salient point, right there.

Bob's World
01-06-2009, 06:09 PM
For those interested, I went into greater depth on this in an article posted back in April.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/mag/2008/04/winning-the-ideological-battle.php

jmm99
01-06-2009, 07:00 PM
re: SGMGrumpy's post.

This is one that has plagued my imagination since Oklahoma City. So much toothpaste has exited the tube as more and more people are trained in nasty tactics. It stands to reason that some of them will use those tactics in their "real world" lives - and not as part of some AQ- or Hez-linked org.

The havoc raised by two simple operations - anthrax letters and DC snipers - proves that our nation is very over-reactive to these things. The consequential economic and psychological damage far exceeds the immediate damage done by the operations.

I see this as a problem that will continue - and will probably grow. Thanks for giving us a headsup on this incident.

jmm99
01-06-2009, 07:18 PM
120mm
In the book, "What Muslims Really Want" by the Gallup organization, they show that the great majority of adherants to Islam really, really like the fundamental precepts of America's political system.

In drawing conclusions from such polls, I believe it is important to analyze them in terms of BW's concept making a distinction between principles and values. Adding some of my words here:

1. Principles (the abstract theories - e.g., all men are created equal).

2. Values (the culmination of valuation processes; that is, the reductions to real world practices of the abstract principles).

I think (having read a few) that these polls tend to ask whether there is agreement with the abstract principle. As an example, UBL, Zawahiri and Maududi would agree that "all men are created equal" - in fact, it is fundamental to their ideology. Where they go with that principle is different from where we go in its valuation process.

The problem is obvious. That "foreign guy" agrees with all of my principles, but then does a 180 in what he does - as compared to what I do - "What a f...ing liar. Can't trust these damn furriners." Etc.

------------------
BW: would like to do a line by line on your April article - not necessarily on a thread. Have to think about that one - also still owe you a PM on Quakers, with some thoughts that have some relevance to this and other topics.

Further PS: Another distinction has to be made between fundamental ideology (which at most evolves) and "tactical manipulation of causes" (which may or may not affect the fundamental ideology) - Galula's take on that I've cited in another thread.

davidbfpo
01-06-2009, 11:15 PM
A couple of points having quickly looked through the comments here, after the Fort Dix verdicts. I've also looked at the article cited by Steve Metz, after the London and Glasgow attacks in July 2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201943.html?hpid=topnews

The article looks rather different after the trial of one bomber (who survived the Glasgow airport attack and found guilty) and a suspected accomplice (found not guilty). There are many articles on the case and one nearly slipped past that one of the bombers had appeared in a Security Service / Police surveillance of suspects and had been excluded as a person worth investigating: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3797943/Car-bomber-Bilal-Abdulla-was-known-to-MI5.html

Behind all the policy announcemets over prevention at home, part of the UK's CT strategy (known as Operation Contest), there is a fine plan largely borrowed from the UK model of intervention with prolific / persistent criminals (often juveniles) and INHO little practical knowledge. I liken this to a desperate search for the right "tools" and the correct "repair" manual. As you may detect I am not convinced a national bureaucratic response is the answer.

davidbfpo

bourbon
05-28-2009, 04:30 AM
FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28-2009may28,0,694540.story), by Josh Meyer. Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2009.

The FBI and Justice Department are significantly expanding their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions.

Under the "global justice" initiative, which has been quietly in the works for several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases. They will question suspects and gather evidence to ensure that criminal prosecutions are an option, officials familiar with the effort said.

davidbfpo
05-28-2009, 09:37 PM
FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28-2009may28,0,694540.story), by Josh Meyer. Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2009.

I assume in some places the host nation allows the FBI to interview suspects, many others would recoil at such a practice as I would. Are FBI methods compatible with host nation laws and procedures, for example audio-visual recording throughout? Same applies to gathering evidence. Another website refers to the Italians seeking a CIA kidnap team.

Liasion is very different and usually is not "hands on".

davidbfpo

bourbon
05-29-2009, 03:25 AM
Legal attaches work out of the embassy and are part of the country team. In this diplomatic environment I imagine the State Department tries to keep them on a short leash and in line.

I don’t know how useful this is going to be if more agents are assigned to the semi-isolation of the embassy. NYPD liaison officers work from a desk provided by the host law enforcement agency. The responsibilities between FBI legal attaches and NYPD liaison officers are of course different; the NYPD doing strictly CT, and the legatts having more areas to cover. If this is strictly CT the FBI should do more like the NYPD has done.

bourbon
06-04-2009, 05:54 PM
Counterterrorism: A Role for the FBI, Not the CIA (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902335,00.html), by Robert Baer. Time Online, June 03, 2009.

And that, despite what some CIA loyalists might reflexively think, would be great news for the agency. In fact, if I were Panetta, I would neatly gift wrap counterterrorism, put a bow on the top, and hand it over to FBI Director Robert Mueller. It can't be any clearer that renditions, harsh interrogations (if not torture) and secret prisons have been a catastrophe for the CIA, promising to tie it up legally for years to come, not to mention completely overshadow its successes. With the torture scandal sucking up all the oxygen, who today remembers that it was the CIA in the months before 9/11 that was jumping up and down on the table warning that bin Laden was about to attack us?

Boondoggle
06-04-2009, 08:07 PM
Counterterrorism: A Role for the FBI, Not the CIA (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902335,00.html), by Robert Baer. Time Online, June 03, 2009.

I saw Baer speak at a small gathering about a month ago. This is right in line with what he said. Actually, he even went further arguing that the CIA should get completely out of their direct action business and hand it completely over to the DoD.

In my personal opinion, I don't agree. While it should be exceptionally rare, there are things that uniformed soldiers should not be doing. When someone wears a US uniform, that should conotate a great many things, including the fact they are acting (more or less) within the GC in their conduct. Another reason Abu Ghraib was such a.... boondoggle.

But I disagree with him here. He should know better. The FBI, as a law enforcement agency, is culturally interested in what did happen, and sheparding a case through trial. The CIA is culturally interested in what might happen. They can conflict, especially when the target has tactical intelligence that can help on the battlefield or in preventing a terrorist attack. While I think it's great when you can do both, its not always possible, at some point whether you are focusing on a trial, or on maximizing intel for troops/agents in the field, you've got to prioritize one over the other.

jmm99
06-04-2009, 08:20 PM
will regularize CIA involvement in the detainment process - in essence, X-ing out the CIA boxes in this chart (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=73125&postcount=308). That will not affect or solve the DoD detainment process in row 3 - also discussed here (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=73202&postcount=13).

It also does not address the issue of CIA direct action missions (although those generally will not end up with detainees).

Ken White
06-04-2009, 08:37 PM
well at it themselves. The FBI should do cop things, the CIA should do intelligence collection and analysis stuff -- and two new agencies should have been created. One to do the counterspy / counter terror thing for and another for overseas direct action. None of those four things mix well with the others and you badly taint the ability and reputation of any one when you connect it with things it should not be doing.

Spy or Terr catching is dirty work and requires watching and waiting too often; Cops are intrinsically unable to do those two things. Anyone notice that most all the FBI terrorism related convictions entail a sting operation and the alleged perps are blithering idiots?

Using the CIA for DA exposes case officers to retaliation for things not their fault. It upsets the equilibrium and it causes dissension within the agency. The DA mission requires doers, the intel mission require thinkers. Yes, you can find people that can do both -- but not often. The CIA does not have a good record of catching its own spies, much less those from other places. Not their yob...

Unfortunately, given post Nixon, post Church Commission, post Carter and post 9/11 chances to better organize our assets; we instead continued to to bobble the punt. In the last case, we elected to create two massive bureaucracies to oversee the other Bureaucracies and changed nothing for the better. Sheesh. :mad:

davidbfpo
06-04-2009, 09:45 PM
Spy or Terr catching is dirty work and requires watching and waiting too often; Cops are intrinsically unable to do those two things.

Ken,

I fully accept terrorist catching is dirty work etc, but profoundly disagree that 'Cops are instrinsically unable to do these things'. Or do you mean only in the USA?

Before the 'new age of terrorism' there were many examples where CT campaigns succeeded, for example one booklet cited Italy, Germany, France and Spain. In all of them the police were the main player IMHO.

Leaving prevention aside for now, a lot depends on whether your strategy involves criminalisation and so the need for evidence to present in court.

davidbfpo

Ken White
06-04-2009, 11:24 PM
I fully accept terrorist catching is dirty work etc, but profoundly disagree that 'Cops are instrinsically unable to do these things'. Or do you mean only in the USA?Yes.
Leaving prevention aside for now, a lot depends on whether your strategy involves criminalisation and so the need for evidence to present in court.That's why.

No question MI5 and most european agencies do a good to great job -- but they are not driven (too often) by hordes of lawyers... :mad:

My point was that generally -- and specifically here in the US -- the idea of getting the evil one to court overrides the ability to let the case or activity build to get other than the sardines in the net. The Police are hard wired to protect -- and that's good. They also are opposed (one would hope) to breaking the law. Both those factors can intrude if not interfere with catching bad guys who deliberately use your laws against you. I also suspect that there are occasional differences between the CI and Special Branch elements in your police services on those issues.

I'll again note that most 'successful' FBI counter terrorist efforts that have been publicized are sting ops and the miscreants seem to be short a few cards. :rolleyes:

jmm99
06-05-2009, 01:27 AM
from Ken
... but they are not driven (too often) by hordes of lawyers ...

The Euro-centric approach to terrs (violent non-state actors) is very much driven by law-lawyers (whether in hordes is perceptional) - e.g., the Eminent Jurists Report and a number of UK policy papers cited by David in War Crimes. The approach is purely a law enforcement and intelligence approach.

Possibly, that has made some Euro agencies more keen on developing the facts before events go down - and sharpening both intelligence and counter-intelligence skills - because of what in effect are tougher legal standards.

Personally, I would not give up our dual track system (FBI-DoJ and DoD; and perhaps some more alphabet soup for special missions); but one has to realize they are separate tracks - different rules and cultures.

---------------------

Speaking of hordes, picked up a book on Subotai - haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Ken White
06-05-2009, 02:09 AM
The Euro-centric approach to terrs (violent non-state actors) is very much driven by law-lawyers (whether in hordes is perceptional) - e.g., the Eminent Jurists Report and a number of UK policy papers cited by David in War Crimes. The approach is purely a law enforcement and intelligence approach.True on the last. On the first I'd agree that they are law driven but do not agree they're lawyer driven -- there is, to my mind a difference -- to the extent we happen to be. Our extremely litigious society breeds (nowadays and among the kids... ;) ) lawyers who are IMO excessively cautious in order to avoid suits or potential liability in any form. They and other factors cause our law enforcement folks to be excessively cautious. Excessive caution in pursuit of truly bad (as opposed to mildly criminal) guys is not at all helpful.

I'd also submit most European and virtually all Asian agencies involved have and take more latitude in treatment of suspects and in not apprehending at the first scent of a crime.
Possibly, that has made some Euro agencies more keen on developing the facts before events go down - and sharpening both intelligence and counter-intelligence skills - because of what in effect are tougher legal standards.Agreed; tougher but also rather different with respect to the 'rights of the accused.'
Personally, I would not give up our dual track system (FBI-DoJ and DoD; and perhaps some more alphabet soup for special missions); but one has to realize they are separate tracks - different rules and cultures.As long as you realize it is not dual track in several senses of 'not' -- and that DoD (and the CIA; NSA also to an extent...) cannot and should not do anything domestically.
Speaking of hordes, picked up a book on Subotai - haven't had a chance to read it yet.Interesting lad. I suspect he was sharp enough and flexible enough to figure out a way of operating under today's constraints (with none of which I disagree; merely noting that they exist).

jmm99
06-05-2009, 03:40 AM
from Ken
They and other factors cause our law enforcement folks to be excessively cautious.

That depends on the jurisdiction - dependent on how much prosecutorial and official immunity is given by law; and how judges apply that law. Reasoned discourse would require stats on civil actions brought vs prosecutors & cops, how many are successful, how prosecutions were affected by the suits, etc. I don't have stats at hand for that. If you do, present your evidence. You know I'll listen.


from Ken
I'd also submit most European and virtually all Asian agencies involved have and take more latitude in treatment of suspects and in not apprehending at the first scent of a crime.
.....
Agreed; tougher but also rather different with respect to the 'rights of the accused.'

Different systems from US (except in UK), based on judicial investigations akin to one-person grand juries with broad inquisitional powers. Also, generally in their criminal law, there is less emphasis on defects in procedure and presenting evidence - and much more emphasis on the degree of the crime and the term of punishment. Which is one reason which probably lies behind the decision to shift investigation and initial processing to foreign countries. Once a case is established in the foreign country, the FBI-DoJ can accept delivery, etc.

UK is similar to US. The differences favor / unfavor perps are probably a push; except that the UK has more EU conventions, etc. that they take seriously - and I think, make the job tougher as to terrs. David has the final call on UK issues.


from Ken
As long as you realize it is not dual track in several senses of 'not' -- and that DoD (and the CIA; NSA also to an extent...) cannot and should not do anything domestically.

My chart and explanation covers this to some extent - and the restrictions (and exceptions - "anything" is too broad under existing law, conservatively applied) to various agencies' charters re: domestic activities - has been covered in War Crimes and elsewhere. Anyway, they are well known to me and within my realization.

Hey, Subotai was a taiga forest boy. I can relate to that. :)

Ken White
06-05-2009, 04:19 AM
I don't have stats at hand for that. If you do, present your evidence. You know I'll listen.Nor do I have stats -- do have two sons who are Cops, two relatives who are prosecutors and one who's a judge. All the legal types have traveled in Europe far more extensively than have I and one lived in France for three years not long ago. My comment is based partly on their experiences related to me and partly on what I read. It's also based partly on long expereicne with the US government and watching that government and its application of legal advice change over the last 30 plus years. I'm comfortable that my comments are reasonably accurate and am entirely too lazy to dig up Stats to validate an opinion.
...Once a case is established in the foreign country, the FBI-DoJ can accept delivery, etc.All true but not relevant to my point that the European law enforcement approach and ours differ as you acknowledge and they essentially do a better job than we do, not least IMO due to the fact that US giovernmental elements of all types get overly cautious to avoid blame / responsibilty / bad publicity and that the threat of liability is often used as a justification by LE agencies for not doing things -- that in self defense on their part, not as a responsibility evader...
David has the final call on UK issues.[Who's calling what? I stated an opinion -- does he have a call on my opinion?:confused:

Who knew...:D

Nor does any of that address my principal point -- that the Police have restraints --as they should -- on actions they can take which means they are not the best agency to do counterespionage and/or counter terror work. Since I'm not god and offer no links, that's probably an opinion on my part. Others can differ and that should be acceptable; it certainly is okay with me if others do not agree.
...Anyway, they are well known to me and within my realization.Well, good, then you knew all along that DoD doesn't do domestic counter terror so I didn't need to say that. I wonder why I did?
Hey, Subotai was a taiga forest boy. I can relate to that. :)Certainement. You two should get along swimmingly. In August, for two weeks -- too cold the rest of the year... :D

jmm99
06-05-2009, 04:58 AM
Reference to David's call was with respect to this statement by me:


from JMM
UK is similar to US. The differences favor / unfavor perps are probably a push; except that the UK has more EU conventions, etc. that they take seriously - and I think, make the job tougher as to terrs. David has the final call on UK issues.

If I am wrong on UK issues, I expect David to correct me because he has more expertise. Frankly, it had nothing to do with you or your opinions.

Ken White
06-05-2009, 05:13 AM
Reference to David's call was with respect to this statement by me:...If I am wrong on UK issues, I expect David to correct me because he has more expertise. Frankly, it had nothing to do with you or your opinions.nominally addressed to the three quotes from moi, Eh? ;)

As for rehashing opinions, your or mine; certainly true. I doubt we're entertaining anyone or that either of us is learning a thing...:wry:

davidbfpo
06-05-2009, 10:28 AM
There has been comment, if not speculation, that in some UK CT arrest operations have gone early because of: a) pressure to act from the USA (who may have originated the information / intelligence), notably cited over the airliner plot known as Operation Overt; b) an assessment that the plot was suffiecently advanced to pose a threat to public safety, e.g. the recent arrests in Manchester and the plot to kidnap a soldier in Birmingham.

Curiously some of the best commentaries on UK CT trials have been the detailed papers by NEFA, a US-based think tank: http://www.nefafoundation.org/ . I know some of their experts act as witnesses here, but the detail is astounding. Yes, all public record.

Clearly there is a price to pay for early intervention; no-one was charged in Manchester and the UK stats on arrests & charges are IMHO not helpful, notably in keeping the support of the wider communities: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/terrorism.html

A contribution to the debate.

davidbfpo

goesh
06-05-2009, 12:26 PM
I'm all for sending them into the Paki frontier region to so some interviewing and questioning - shiny black shoes on goat trails backed by the rule of Law, peace shall soon prevail... the Feds had to break the Law to nail the KKK during the Civil Rights upheaval here at home so I wish them all the best in 3rd world environments. When Joe Terrorist lawyers up, what are they going to do, waterboard him? Threaten to send him to Syria to have his testicles put in a garlic crusher?

Boondoggle
06-22-2009, 06:03 PM
Monograph on Information Sharing prepared for the 9/11 Commission is released:

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/wall.pdf

Legal Barriers to Information Sharing:
The Erection of a Wall Between Intelligence and Law Enforcement Investigations
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Staff Monograph
Barbara A. Grewe
Senior Counsel for Special Projects
August 20, 2004

And if you want to skip to the end....


It is clear, therefore, that the information sharing failures in the summer of2001 were not the result of legal barriers but of the 'failure of individuals to understand that the barriers did not apply to the facts at hand. Simply put, there was no legal reason why the information could not have been shared.

jmm99
06-22-2009, 07:00 PM
I will have to read this (previously "Secret") memo with some care.

I kid Ken about his emphasis on training, training, training .... But, here we seem to have another example (based on the bottom line you quoted) of an education and training failure - in the civilian sector.

This memo may remind us that spin (and I recall a lot of spin from both sides of the spectrum on these issues) is often - almost always ? - dead wrong.

Since you're the catcher here, why don't you do the blow by blow legal analysis ? ;)

davidbfpo
06-22-2009, 09:23 PM
Legal Barriers to Information Sharing: The Erection of a Wall Between Intelligence and Law Enforcement Investigations Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

I have just read the document, much of which IMHO has appeared before, possibly in parts; rightly the conclusion needs to be read - as a lesson learnt I hope! Yes, it is written in a prose and style that some will find difficult.

Good catch.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
06-26-2009, 11:46 AM
Somewhat long and for a non-American only a few nuggets: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/html/pdf/falkenrath20090623.pdf

davidbfpo

Boondoggle
06-26-2009, 03:38 PM
and the Falkenrath too. :)

For the first, the last paragraph seems to have little correlation to what the author was writing. If anything, it shows the great difficulties the admin is going to have if they really want to use the Federal criminal process to handle terrorists. It may crimp our intel methods once that road is taken and it clearly slows, in fact did slow our decision making processes when time was precious. I'd disagree with the author's premise.

As an aside, after reading this, I wonder if there will be a time where terrorists will send some of their ilk to US law schools to become their own "mob" attorneys. There are clearly some seams to pick here and a lawyer could help them. With the admin's recent decision to emphasize the courts, this may be an unintended consequence, and a new weapon to be "acquired" by terror organizations. If the mob and drug cartels can do it, so can they now that they may end up in the courts.

As for the second article I'm depressed I didn't get a chance to see that. Quite, quite interesting for me, especially as some of my work got brought up in it (not me personally, but my work ). And I'd have loved to have pinged him on it because I disagree with his position (I'll leave you to guess what I am talking about. :)

That said, I thought he made some good cautioning arguments of the second hand effects that may result from using the federal courts. I hadn't seen the effect on law enforcement resources articulated like that before.

jmm99
06-26-2009, 07:41 PM
I must have downloaded the initial article at the office. Couldn't find it here at home. So, both articles are now DL'd in the correct sub-folder here.

Have to read both later.

We probably could use a thread on Lawfare. Not sure what it would look like or whether there'd be interest.

Thoughts on Lawfare thread - everyone.


from Boon...
As an aside, after reading this, I wonder if there will be a time where terrorists will send some of their ilk to US law schools to become their own "mob" attorneys. There are clearly some seams to pick here and a lawyer could help them. With the admin's recent decision to emphasize the courts, this may be an unintended consequence, and a new weapon to be "acquired" by terror organizations. If the mob and drug cartels can do it, so can they now that they may end up in the courts.

Steve Blair
06-26-2009, 07:44 PM
Post something and see what happens. That's usually the best way to determine interest.:)

slapout9
06-26-2009, 08:14 PM
We probably could use a thread on Lawfare. Not sure what it would look like or whether there'd be interest.

Thoughts on Lawfare thread - everyone.


Build it and they will come:)

davidbfpo
06-27-2009, 09:53 AM
JMM has opened a thread in response to encouragement: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=7665

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
07-13-2009, 10:49 AM
A fascinating NYT article on the home grown radicalized Somali youth from Minneapolis, who are reported to have left for Somalia and an active part in the violent Jihad: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12somalis.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

It has all the ingredients of the process - as the NYPD report illustrated.

The FBI are investigating and the community itself has taken some action, e.g. parents hiding children's (US) passports.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
10-30-2009, 05:01 PM
Thanks to a vigilant US press watcher: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/us/29manual.html?_r=2&hp and linked is a FBI December 2008 'Domestic Investigations Current Operations Guide', obtained in a FOI court case and has large parts blanked out: http://documents.nytimes.com/the-new-operations-manual-from-the-f-b-i#p=1

Too large, 269 pgs, to readily absorb on a fine autumn afternoon. So try this;

“It raises fundamental questions about whether a domestic intelligence agency can protect civil liberties if they feel they have a right to collect broad personal information about people they don’t even suspect of wrongdoing,” said Mike German, a former F.B.I. agent who now works for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Interesting that this domestic issue has similar echoes in the UK, not over invesigations, but preventative activity by public agencies to stop the flow of recriuits to violent extremism.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
10-30-2009, 05:12 PM
Slightly dated as this was a speech on 22nd October 2009, entitled Los Angeles Police Department's Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau "Counterterrorism and Crime Fighting in Los Angeles": http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/html/pdf/LAPD-Stein.pdf (Hat tip http://counterterrorismblog.org/ ).

Amidst the speech is a section on Legitimacy and Constitutionality and
Legitimacy and intelligence are equally important tools for U.S. law enforcement to use in counterterrorism efforts. Legitimacy starts with an organizational knowledge and pride in operating constitutionally and within the law. The need for transparency - being perceived to be and authentically honoring this principle - in intelligence and counterterrorism activities cannot be understated. Taking great care to ensure that intelligence and enforcement operations are narrowly targeted against terrorist cells determined to go operational is critical.


The hardware of surveillance --CCTV cameras, license plate readers, "rings of steel" - which has become widespread despite a demonstrable lack of effectiveness in crime prevention or solution is less compatible with the freedoms and privacies Americans expect. Those methods, designed to fill a gap in law enforcement capabilities, are the worst of all worlds when compared with proper intelligence gathering; they are intrusive - despite the legalistic arguments that there should be limited expectations of privacy in public spaces; they are without question damaging to the freedoms of expression and speech that are constitutionally enshrined (unless you are of the persuasion that authorities should be the uninvited guest at the party whenever they choose to join in); they fail the test of logic (can cameras and license plate readers effectively stop secret plans?); they turn on its head the value systems we hold dear because like it or not, their placement speaks for itself -- they enshrine property and capital above human life.

Coming from a police officer in CT this is fascinating and shows how different the USA is from the UK on the use of mass surveillance, notably CCTV. Admittedly CCTV is invariably post-incident and may act as a deterrent. This is regular debate in the UK, albeit on the fringes and in some surprising places, like a conservative paper - The Daily Telegraph.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
10-31-2009, 12:03 PM
In recent weeks it appears that a series of un-connected 'home grown' plots to attack targets in the USA have been revealed. The first article suggests a way of grading threats: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114343626 Note the reference to the Zazi plot (Denver to NYC) having a direct link and communications with AQ. Hence the assessment this was the most serious threat since 9/11.

There is a good descriptive piece on the Zazi plot: http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefa_NY-DenverArrests.pdf This IMHO lacks a good analysis and Bruce Hoffman has provided that - if wanted please PM (no link found for a recent lecture he gave at Oxford University).

jmm99
11-02-2009, 02:07 AM
Constitutional Questions

You certainly have been busy. Your first two posts are the stuff of which books are written - and many have been written, covering such "illustrious" US "constitutional" eras as WWI's German and Red Scares, WWII's German and Japanese Scares, the initial Cold War Red Scares, the Vietnam Era Domestic Radicals Scares, etc. You could go back further in our history to the Civil War, the Alien & Sedition Acts and finally to the Revolutionary War.

For every action, there is a reaction (not necessarily equal or proportionate); and to that reaction, a reaction, etc., etc. Whether we are going to perdition in a handbasket depends very much on the people in office, but more so on the people who put them in office. Eventually, things tend to level out as folks on one side of an issue realize that their own oxen could be gored by the same LE measures they are advocating.

People also begin to live with the threat that initially seemed so large. The sight of 3000 dead from 9/11 loomed large, but once people begin to compare it to the 110K that die each year in accidents (home, industrial and auto), that threat is placed in perspective. And those of us who lived through the early Cold Wars "duck and cover" and after, realize that the "GWOT" scenarios, even the most extreme (and hence unlikely), are frankly chump change (harsh words, but comparatively true). We are still maturing in this "GWOT" thing.

-------------------------
Degrees of Separation

The articles on AQ affiliation and degrees of separation are dear to my own heart (nice to see some re-inforcement), since I last beat that drum here about six weeks ago (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=82879&postcount=386):


The domestic US cases seem to fit three basic patterns (as to which, there is some legitimate and some illegitimate arguments about classification):

1. AQ members (in effect, their "SOF" teams) - e.g., 9/11 perps.

2. Domestic US insurgents (US citizens, legal resident aliens, illegal resident aliens) linked to AQ by some training and mission support - there have been quite a few of these cases.

3. "Parallel thinkers" (not clearly linked to AQ, but ideological counterparts) - e.g., DC snipers and Arkansas shooter.

The present case, on the basis of its present (limited) facts, fits into the second category - i.e. the theory of COL Jones that AQ is the base for waging unconventional warfare (in its traditional SF sense) via use of domestic insurgent groups who have a common ideology.

From a legal standpoint, that classification has no bearing - homicide is homicide; and a conspiracy to manufacture and use explosive devices is just that. From a military and law enforcement standpoint, classification is important to determine what systems we are confronting (e.g., the nodes of the network and which ones are most important).

Ranking threats on the basis of proximity to AQ is IMO a stretch, except as perhaps a necessity if resources are inadequate to cover all or most threats. This from the NPR article (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114343626) is desirable but not always feasible:


Finding The Connections

Sam Rascoff used to work the intelligence desk at the New York Police Department. He says that ranking plots based on how closely they are connected to al-Qaida or its affiliate groups is a good first step toward understanding them. But that's only the beginning.

"Part of what you do when you do counterterrorism is not to think about just this case, but the run of cases that are currently going on or may go on in the future," Rascoff says. Rascoff says law enforcement has to figure out why people in this country turn to violent jihad in the first place — and why the number of homegrown plots is growing at such an alarming rate.

My view (modifying Bruce Hoffman) is that one must also consider the possible threats that can be generated by small groups that are only loosely linked, or not at all to AQ. Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols come to mind - one large bomb can kill 100s. And, groups the size of the Detroit and Boyd extremists could, by taking over a school or event Chechniya-style, could easily exceed that total with far more publicity.

The bright point in these cases is that people are informing. In "COIN" terms, we (USG) have not isolated ourselves from the people and they are doing what they as US citizens or resident aliens should be doing - turning on the bad guys.

I will also add my mantra: the best defense a people have against terrorists is not to be terrorised - and retribution is best savored eaten with cold anger.

Regards & thank you for the interesting (to me) links.

Mike

davidbfpo
11-02-2009, 10:47 PM
JMM in his comment referred to:
The bright point in these cases is that people are informing. In "COIN" terms, we (USG) have not isolated ourselves from the people and they are doing what they as US citizens or resident aliens should be doing - turning on the bad guys.

One point made by Bruce Hoffman in the Zazi case was that he moved from NYC to Denver, where purchasing supplies was far easier as NYPD had in place a robust reporting system - which acted as a deterrent. I'm not sure how much public involvement there has been.

In the UK there have been very few examples of public information on real plots; which has been commented upon in public statements. Northern Ireland was different, anecdote suggests for Republicans public information was not a significant factor and of greater use with Loyalists.

One of the few open source articles that provides some context for the role of the public is from Turkey:http://ccj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/2/142 (Behind a pay wall, although I have a copy)


In November 2003, a series of coordinated suicide bombings were carried out by
al-Qaeda in Istanbul. The targets represented Israel and the West, including two synagogues,
an HSBC bank, and the British consulate. The attacks resulted in 68 deaths and more than 700 injured. The investigation and arrests that ensued revealed that the network involved in the bombings had trained in Afghanistan. Of particular interest was the interpersonal web that grew from the four suicide bombers as well as the range of materials confiscated in the investigation. Specifically, nearly 300 people were identified who had some knowledge of the planned attack. Of these, 48 were viewed as hard-core committed terrorists, leaving approximately 250 community members who were not ideologically committed to al-Qaeda’s goals and who had some information that potentially could have been used in preventive action.

Chilling and possibly a reason why it is the only example in the public domain I know of.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
11-02-2009, 11:12 PM
Changing the focus Bill Roggio provides a 2009 timeline of the US plots: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/10/in_recent_months_the.php

This misses one other plot (details tomorrow).

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
11-03-2009, 11:13 PM
An indictment has been issued for an Alabama resident of Somali origin:
http://blog.al.com/live/2009/09/report_former_daphne_high_and.html

Once again the mystery is why he was radicalised; limited comment in the story:
Before moving to Somalia and taking on his battlefield name, al-Amriki grew up near Daphne, just east of Mobile, under his given name, Omar Hammami. By all accounts, he lived a normal suburban life and even spoke out against terrorism. He left Daphne High School, where he participated in a Model United Nations program, after his junior year.

Shortly after Muslim terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, Hammami, then a University of South Alabama student, told the student newspaper that he was shocked and found it difficult to believe a Muslim could have done it.

Thanks to George Singelton who sent this item over.

davidbfpo

jmm99
11-04-2009, 03:06 AM
The indictment (one probably exists) is still sealed - so, the actual facts and charges are not known. There has been a good deal of media speculation about this case. Until al-Amriki is captured and returned to the States, speculation is what we are likely to know - except for his media efforts in Somalia if they continue.

82redleg
11-04-2009, 12:16 PM
JMM99, regarding your classifications, it seems to my legally untrained mind that there is (or should be) significant differences in your category 2, between US citizens, legal residents, and illegal aliens. As far as I'm concerned (this may not be the law) if they are illegal, and they get caught planning or conducting terrorism, we should shoot them for spies. Legal residents probalby have some more rights, while US citizens must have full constitutional protections.

jmm99
11-04-2009, 08:53 PM
The classifications (probably as well or better expressed as patterns) are, as stated, for intelligence and military use.

A crime is a crime whether the perp is a US citizen, legal resident or illegal alien . If the proceedings are in a Federal District Court, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure apply; if the proceedings are before a military commission (MCA), its rules of procedure apply. The apparent choice has been made to try US citizens, legal residents, and some illegal aliens (or foreign nationals detained in foreign countries and extradited or rendered to the US) in Federal District Courts. The future of MCA trials has not been finally determined by the Obama administration.

I find this interesting:


from 82redleg
As far as I'm concerned (this may not be the law) if they are illegal, and they get caught planning or conducting terrorism, we should shoot them for spies.

I suppose what you expect is some lecture on "rule of law" or whatever. The only little legal lecture is that espionage is a defined crime (regardless of status) and that purely planning or conducting terrorism is not espionage. So, I will end your sentence with "shoot them".

I suggest we throw the "Law" out the window for the moment.

I'd have no moral or ethical qualms about judging all by myself someone charged with planning or conducting terrorism which led to loss of life; and also no moral or ethical qualms, if I found that person guilty of the charge, of my putting a round through his or her head.

What and how I would do in the latter execution phase is something I honestly don't know. I might make a bloody hash of it.

I do know that in the former trial phase, I would use exactly the same standard to determine guilt in a capital case (evidence beyond a reasonable doubt), regardless of whether the person before me was a US citizen, legal resident or illegal alien.

Now, you are a field grade officer. So, perhaps, you might suggest a somewhat different process. A panel of three field grade officers ? Your standard for determining guilt ? Who does the shooting ?

I'd be interested in hearing your views (and those of others) - remember the "Law" is out the window. We are talking morals and ethics.

Regards

Mike

-----------------------------

We could make some distinctions for certain crimes. E.g., Treason applies only to US citizens (and arguably to legal residents). Habeas rights differ depending on citizenship and (probably) legal residence status.

Most of the crimes we talk about in War Crimes involve giving false information to Fed LE, providing material support for a terrorist organization, explosives & firearms violations and conspiracy to commit murder. No real distinction there on the crime charged based on status; but the venue (Fed Dist Ct or an MC) might be affected by status.

davidbfpo
11-07-2009, 01:32 PM
From another website:http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/11/transnational_terror_lashkar-e.php


The US investigating agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have so far neutralized what is now dubbed as LeT’s ‘Chicago Terror Plot’.

Note the potential targets were outside the USA; some of those involved in Pakistan were supposedly killed in drone attacks and speculation abounds on what comes next.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
11-09-2009, 11:29 PM
An odd story in the UK on the Zazi case:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6533021/British-intelligence-cracks-trans-Atlantic-terrorist-network.html


The arrest of an alleged al-Qaeda gang in Manchester and Liverpool said to be planning an Easter bombing campaign earlier this year led investigators to Najibullah Zazi in New York....Security sources have told the Daily Telegraph that Zazi and the men arrested in Manchester were part of a complex network directed from Pakistan.

Sounds like an odd variation, nay spin, on our special relationship.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
11-09-2009, 11:50 PM
A more unusual review of the Zazi case:http://www.juancole.com/2009/11/mueller-on-zazi-case-this-is-it.html


Zazi allegedly spent the better part of a year trying to concoct the bomb he had supposedly learned how to make.

Mueller also cites an academic whose work I recommend:
It follows that any terrorism problem within the United States principally derives from homegrown people like Zazi, often isolated from each other, who fantasize about performing dire deeds. Penn State’s Michael Kenney has interviewed dozens of officials and intelligence agents and analyzed court documents, and finds homegrown Islamic militants to be operationally unsophisticated, short on know-how, prone to make mistakes, poor at planning, and severely hampered by a limited capacity to learn.

The cited work of Kenney's is around a hundred pages, so yet to read fully: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/226808.pdf

Yes, I know Juan Cole and Mueller are not universally loved.

From one of my favourite blogsites:http://www.schneier.com/blog/


(Note written in 2007)Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots -- and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse -- is wrong.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have all the facts in any of these cases. None of us do. So let's have some healthy skepticism. Skepticism when we read about these terrorist masterminds who were poised to kill thousands of people and do incalculable damage. Skepticism when we're told that their arrest proves that we need to give away our own freedoms and liberties. And skepticism that those arrested are even guilty in the first place.

davidbfpo

davidbfpo
12-05-2009, 09:44 PM
From this across the water vantage point the tiny exodus of US born Somali male youths to Somalia appears to have "fallen off the radar", although I know Bruce Hoffman reminds audiences here the exodus is part of a worrying trend in the USA.


On November 23, federal prosecutors in the United States unsealed indictments against members of a group of Minneapolis natives accused of being at the heart of a cell sending men and boys to fight with al-Shabaab, a radical Islamist movement in Somalia with close ties to al-Qaeda.

...the role of a former fighter in the recruitment of others highlights the risk of such individuals returning home.

Using that and other open sources Raffaello Pantucci has added a commentary:
http://raffaellopantucci.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/american-jihad/#more-181

jmm99
12-06-2009, 01:52 AM
The court documents are linked at this post, Multiple Minneapolis indictments unsealed (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=87689&postcount=428).

Given the situation in Somalia (3 cabinet ministers KIA in last blast), the presence of jihadists among its diaspora should not cause surprise.

Cheers

Mike

europhobe
12-12-2009, 03:26 AM
An interesting addenda to this is why is it that there are so many foreigners who appear to get involved in suicide attacks in Somalia? Are they simply more zealous? or is this some tactic?

Schmedlap
12-12-2009, 06:41 AM
... my president is by the people and for the people according to the US constitution.
Is that a recent amendment (http://www.gargaro.com/sounds/bc.wav)?

davidbfpo
12-12-2009, 03:27 PM
An interesting addenda to this is why is it that there are so many foreigners who appear to get involved in suicide attacks in Somalia? Are they simply more zealous? or is this some tactic?

I am sure the motivation aspect of suicide bombing was covered on the main, if not only thread on that topic: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=2304

Have a look there and give a thought to providing some introductory remarks, within privacy and OPSEC; many here like to know what lies behind the posts and it can be on your profile or in the 'Hail & Farewell' thread.

IIRC in Iraq at one point many suicide bombers were not Iraqis and in the Lebanon it was inter-denominational locals.

davidbfpo
12-25-2009, 05:10 AM
An interesting assembly of the plots or the 'Home grown Threat' in the USA, via 'Free Radicals' website: http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/rielcano_eng/Content?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/Elcano_in/Zonas_in/ARI171-2009


This paper analyses the five concurring reasons traditionally used to explain the divergence between the levels of radicalisation in Europe and the US: better economic conditions, lack of urban ghettoes, lower presence of recruiting networks, different demographics and a more inclusive sense of citizenship.

The article is in English and maybe balanced by one on Al-Jazeera:http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/2009121784234277996.html

davidbfpo
02-02-2010, 11:26 PM
Two articles by the IPT on the flow of Somali youths to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, from Minneapolis and Canada. They do add new aspects, like the effect on the families and a Canadian reaction: http://www.investigativeproject.org/1764/how-al-shabaab-targets-western-youth and http://www.investigativeproject.org/1763/jihadist-recruitments-human-toll-one-american

Placed here as this thread contains earlier references, although there is another 'live' thread on radicalisation.

davidbfpo
02-26-2010, 06:34 PM
On Feb. 22, Afghan native Najibullah Zazi pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Arrested in September, he now faces life in prison. Zazi and his associates -- two of whom were charged on Feb. 25 -- had allegedly planned to bomb targets in New York City.

The plea deal marks a victory for Attorney General Holder, who said that "the criminal justice system has proved to be an invaluable weapon for disrupting plots and incapacitating terrorists, one that works in concert with the intelligence community and our military".

From:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/25/the_lwot

OfTheTroops
02-27-2010, 06:35 AM
I suppose we are pretty sensitive about HUAC and PATRIOT and government information gathering not related to criminal activities. Can hardly repeal that pesky posse comitatus either? jk

It is good to be an American at times.

Information gathering in Iraq shocked me as well the police could inquire into pretty much anything that they wanted to with out basis.

My shortage of understanding is how do American rights get transferred to anyone that we interact with. I kinda get it but would like to be smarter. Whats the point of being a citizen if you dont get special treatment?

John T. Fishel
02-27-2010, 01:42 PM
2 quick points (for his consideration): (1) Frank Keating, formerGov of OK and former DOJ official argued in an op ed that the arrest of Abdulmutallab took place in the air before he entered the US and therefore he was not entitled to Miranda rights. (2) The SCOTUS just accepted a case based on a provision of the Patriot Act which makes material aid (including advice on now to negotiate peace) to any DOS designated terrorist org a crime.
On #2 I have to problems with the law as currently interpreted: How can we define material assistance so broadly? And, the DOS designation has no appeal nor does it only affect terrorist orgs. Caught up in that was the denial of a visa to the US to one of the key FMLN leaders who negotiated peace with the GOES just because State had once designated the FMLN a terrorist org.

Cheers

JohnT

jmm99
02-27-2010, 08:49 PM
mummy told me never to leap from the frying pan into the fire. Who should take the leap are the executive and legislative branches. We need clear legislation dealing with all facets of "terrorist" detentions and prosecutions under both Military Law and Civilian Law.

I'd agree with Keating where the detention is of a non-citizen under Military Law, following this flow chart which sums the situation for most of the Bush II administration.

1057

The position of the Obama administration has been somewhat variable. Congress has shown no inclination to tackle these issues.

As to "material support", all of the briefs are linked here in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Holder_v._Humanitarian_Law_Project ); as well as the transcript of this Tuesday's oral argument (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-1498.pdf).

These areas (HUAC, PATRIOT, government information gathering, Miranda and search & seizure, support to violent non-state actors, posse comitatus) are a mishmash of constitutional and legislative expansions and limitations. E.g., an FBI agent may be required to give Miranda to a detainee not because the 5th & 6th Amendments require that, but because his administrative handbook requires it.

davidbfpo
03-01-2010, 09:34 PM
A BBC TV report on the five US-Pakistanis who left for the Jihad and were arrested in Pakistan, under the title 'The rising threat of home grown extremism in US (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8543422.stm)' and a chunky quote:
Five US citizens accused of plotting jihad, attempting to join Al-Qaeda and planning terrorist attacks are due to appear in court in Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday. Peter Marshall considers whether a lack of opportunity for open debate in the US might have led these young Muslims to extremism.

When five US students were reported missing in November last year, their relatives had no inkling they had left the country. Yet nine days later the young men had turned up on the other side of the world in deep trouble.
So how did these young men go from quiet lives in a Virginia suburb to terrorism charges and a prison cell in Pakistan in little more than a week?

Link:

Jedburgh
03-09-2010, 03:40 PM
CSIS, 8 Mar 10: A Growing Terrorist Threat? Assessing "Homegrown" Extremism in the United States (http://csis.org/files/publication/100304_Nelson_GrowingTerroristThreat_Web.pdf)

The five “cases” discussed in this paper—which were part of a larger trend of heightened domestic extremism during 2009—proved so unsettling, in part, because they seemed to contradict much of the recent thinking concerning radicalization and terrorism in the United States. Both policymakers and the public have tended to classify extremist violence as a problem with origins outside the United States. This trend gained momentum after the September 11, 2001, attacks, when President George W. Bush invoked the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars as part and parcel of the United States’ counterterrorism strategy. As the president said in a June 2005 speech, we were focused on “taking the fight to the terrorists abroad, so we don’t have to face them here at home.”

But what if the terrorists we face already live here at home? As this report shows, the acceleration of domestic extremism poses a number of serious considerations for U.S. policymakers and officials in charge of counterterrorism and homeland security. Had they successfully linked up with militants in Afghanistan, for instance, the “Northern Virginia Five” could have used their fluency in English and understanding of American culture to aid Taliban attacks on U.S. troops. David Coleman Headley appears to have utilized his U.S. passport to gain access to India to undertake preparations for the Mumbai attacks (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=6345); his alleged coconspirators, operating with Pakistani documentation, faced far more significant barriers to entry.

Najibullah Zazi offers the clearest example of an oft-discussed hypothetical—namely, that U.S. legal residents and citizens might travel abroad to receive explosives or weapons training in terrorist camps, then return here to plan and execute attacks. Given the United States’ largely effective post-9/11 efforts to prevent foreign terrorist infiltration, these sorts of homegrown recruits may represent the best chance for al Qaeda and other global terrorist organizations to launch a major attack in the United States. Of course, would-be domestic extremists need not acquire training abroad to inflict substantial harm at home, as the Fort Hood shootings revealed. The threats posed by homegrown extremism, then—even if not widespread—demand a close examination....

davidbfpo
03-09-2010, 10:22 PM
Jedburgh,

A good catch the CSIS paper, although I note many of the cited examples have featured here - in other threads. Descriptive part aside tackling the Jihadist narrative is acknowledged to be key and then IMHO is not grasped.

I do wonder if the 'home grown threat' has just become more visible. IIRC there was a period when this threat was far greater, during the Vietnam War era with almost daily bombings and the militia movement's antics (including Oklahoma City '95).

davidbfpo
03-09-2010, 11:09 PM
Refer to Post No.12 for the original report of a link between the Zazi plot and arrests in the Manchester & Liverpool.

Those arrested and none were charged with terrorism offences, bar one who is a UK citizen, are now subject of proceedings before an immigration tribunal (SIAC):
With the headline:
Al-Qaeda came within days of terror attack on Britain last year, court hears. An alleged al-Qaeda terrorist cell arrested in the North West was within days of launching an attack on Britain a senior officer in MI5 has told a tribunal.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/7406336/Al-Qaeda-came-within-days-of-terror-attack-on-Britain-last-year-court-hears.html

Firn
03-30-2010, 02:53 PM
Militia Charged With Plotting to Murder Officers (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/us/30militia.html?ref=global-home)


In an indictment against the nine unsealed on Monday, the Justice Department said they were part of a group of apocalyptic Christian militants who were plotting to kill law enforcement officers in hopes of inciting an antigovernment uprising, the latest in a recent surge in right-wing militia activity.

The court filing said the group, which called itself the Hutaree, planned to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer and then bomb the funeral caravan using improvised explosive devices based on designs used against American troops by insurgents in Iraq.


I have a hard time to fit this in, but it sounds rather dangerous than mere idiotic. Any thoughts on that matter?


Firn

davidbfpo
03-30-2010, 02:59 PM
Firn,

This reported plot does fit in with open source comments, some of which are on the Law Enforcement thread.

It will be interesting when in the court documents are in the public domain how the plot was discovered, especially if the group were infiltrated by law enforcement.

In contrast most extreme right wing plots here are discovered by chance encounters with the police, along some investigations, although there is a history of infiltration years ago.

Schmedlap
03-31-2010, 03:46 AM
I don't know if you were suggesting it, but I don't think this fits into the "right wing" category any more than Earth Liberation Front fits into "left wing". While they were targeting law enforcement (which, I guess could be considered "anti-government" and thus closer to the "limited gov't" right wing), the motivation seemed to be not political, but rather some kook supernatural belief that, unfortunately, they think is justified in scripture.

Earlier today I had the pleasure of hearing people talk about this incident as though this is mainstream Christianity (or even substantially similar to Christianity). It's moments like these when I can better relate to Muslims who get annoyed when their religion gets a bad name from terrorists. Start with an ideology, go find a religious text, skim through it to find selected passages taken out of context that you can twist to fit your ends and then, presto, you're now a representative of that religion. Awesome.

davidbfpo
03-31-2010, 11:20 AM
As if by magic:
An undercover agent played a role in the investigation that led to Monday's indictments. Grand jury testimony by a law enforcement officer referred to an "undercover FBI agent" who worked on the case.

Less certain and an opinion:
At first "they just seemed like a down-to-earth hillbilly family," he said. "After 20 minutes into the meeting, I realized these guys are not dealing with a full deck.

Link:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304739104575154041322442962.html?m od=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

JPS
03-31-2010, 11:21 AM
The operational and strategic mistakes of the Hutaree are almost comical. Based on the open source material available and assuming that the reports of the indictment are accurate, they have shown exactly how not to run a sectarian cell.

Ken White
03-31-2010, 03:36 PM
that are 'plotting' evil acts. Funny how so many of those publicized are like that, flakes that possibly pose some potential danger but also seem likely to never do much more than think grand thoughts -- and do little...

Bullmoose Bailey
03-31-2010, 08:19 PM
Ironically enough this case proves that there are WMDs in Iraq, ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutaree

davidbfpo
03-31-2010, 09:07 PM
Ironically enough this case proves that there are WMDs in Iraq, ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutaree

That statement is puzzling. Where in this unqualified, if useful Wikipedia source is the proof there were WMDs in Iraq?

Sumtingwong
03-31-2010, 09:37 PM
The definition of WMD, which is linked.

davidbfpo
03-31-2010, 09:47 PM
The definition of WMD, which is linked.

How does a US criminal code definition of WMD prove their presence in Iraq?

JPS
03-31-2010, 10:04 PM
The WMD charge is predicated on the seeking of manufacture of EFPs. A wee bit of a stretch in my humble opinion but if an EFP is a WMD...

Schmedlap
04-01-2010, 12:28 AM
WMD in Iraq was a purely rhetorical argument. One cannot even attempt to objectively prove or disprove rhetoric.

jmm99
04-01-2010, 12:42 AM
Weapon of mass destruction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_mass_destruction#Legal_definitions); specifically this section:


The US Code provides several different definitions of weapons of mass destruction, applicable in different contexts:

For the general purposes of national defense,[19] US Code[20] defines a weapon of mass destruction as:

"any weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release, dissemination, or impact of—

toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors;

a disease organism; or

radiation or radioactivity."[21]

For the purposes of the prevention of weapons proliferation,[22] US Code defines weapons of mass destruction as:

"chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and chemical, biological, and nuclear materials used in the manufacture of such weapons."[23]

For the purposes of US Criminal law concerning terrorism,[24] weapons of mass destruction are defined as:

"any destructive device as defined in section 921 of this title;

any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or poisonous chemicals, or their precursors;

any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector ...; or

any weapon that is designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life."[25]

The cited section 921 defines a destructive device as:

"any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas—bomb, grenade, rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces [113 grams], missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce [7 grams], mine, or device similar to any of the devices described in the preceding clauses...."[26]

19.^ US CODE: Title 50—War and National Defense
20.^ US CODE: 50, ch. 40—Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction
21.^ US CODE: 50, ch. 40, § 2302. Definitions
22.^ US CODE: 50, ch. 43—Preventing Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism
23.^ US CODE: 50, ch. 43; § 2902. Definitions
24.^ US CODE: Chapter 113B—Terrorism
25.^ US CODE: Title 18, § 2332a. Use of weapons of mass destruction
26.^ US CODE: Title 18, § 921. Definitions

Context, context, context.

Seabee
04-01-2010, 04:29 PM
Are any of these "heroes" ex military?

carl
04-01-2010, 07:05 PM
Ken's take on all this is the wisest. I wouldn't make any kind of judgment until the exact details of the offenses are known, what evidence they have and, maybe most important, who exactly the "undercover agent" was and how he fit into the whole thing.

davidbfpo
04-02-2010, 01:27 PM
A curious, if wandering NYT article 'Militia Draws Distinctions Between Groups' and within is this:
The crucial moment of that tension came Saturday night when one of the Stone family members — desperate and on the run from the law — called the local militia commander, Matt Savino, and begged for help in getting guns or shelter. Mr. Savino offered neither, not only refusing to help but in fact calling the State Police, who passed the call to the F.B.I.

Note:
Mr. Savino said that he converted to Islam in the late 1990s...Now that seems likely to be a catalyst for angst amidst the militia scene; a comment from an armchair afar.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/us/01michigan.html?hp

bourbon
04-02-2010, 05:12 PM
A curious, if wandering NYT article 'Militia Draws Distinctions Between Groups' and within is this:

Note:Now that seems likely to be a catalyst for angst amidst the militia scene; a comment from an armchair afar.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/us/01michigan.html?hp
Maybe, but it is an inaccurate perception that religion or racial issues are the main driving issues behind the militia movement - or at least in the 1990's version.

The hipsters from Vice magazine had a good program on VBS.TV called Norm’s Militia Scrapbook (http://www.vbs.tv/watch/americana/norm-s-militia-scrapbook), where they went and talked with the founding members of the Michigan Militia. It is an illuminating video; these guys weren’t hung up on any racial or religious issues.

davidbfpo
04-25-2010, 07:10 PM
Rashid Rauf, a UK citizen and "mastermind" has re-appeared in spirit, if this news report is believed:
A British al-Qaeda commander planned to emulate the July 7 London suicide bombings with a coordinated attack on the New York subway system, it has emerged....(meeting the conspirators in the summer of 2008)...

Intelligence agencies believe he died in an attack by a Predator unmanned drone in November 2008.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7632275/British-al-Qaeda-commander-planned-July-7-style-attack-on-New-York-subway.html

Kevin23
05-02-2010, 06:18 PM
Last night in Times Square New York City, a vehicle was found to be equipped with what appeared to be a possible car bomb after arising the suspicions of the vendor in the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8657161.stm

davidbfpo
05-03-2010, 01:39 AM
I've watched the CNN footage and listened to some "talking heads" passing comment. Compliments to NYPD and others on the response after a member of the public called in.

Some interesting comments - at a strategic level - by Steve Coll:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2010/05/terrorism.html


The country’s vulnerability arises not so much from the damage terrorists will cause but from American society’s self-defeating inability to see such violence in perspective and to find leadership and language to define national resilience.

Further away and from a CT viewpoint:
..what strikes me about it all is the problem that repeatedly faces terrorists…actually getting something to go boom.

Link:http://allthingsct.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/a-note-on-the-failed-vbied-in-times-square/

Kevin23
05-03-2010, 03:33 AM
I've watched the CNN footage and listened to some "talking heads" passing comment. Compliments to NYPD and others on the response after a member of the public called in.

Some interesting comments - at a strategic level - by Steve Coll:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2010/05/terrorism.html



Further away and from a CT viewpoint:

Link:http://allthingsct.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/a-note-on-the-failed-vbied-in-times-square/

Apparently this all was connected to something larger,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/02/local_nyc_channel_reports_failed_bomb_at_times_squ are_was_a_diversion_for_massive_explosion.htm

Also surveillance could a "middle-aged white male" fleeing from the vehicle earlier before the incident. Although some are pointing to this as domestically connected the vehicle in question's tags were stolen and so does it appear the rigged vehicle also was.

Dayuhan
05-03-2010, 04:07 AM
Apparently this all was connected to something larger,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/02/local_nyc_channel_reports_failed_bomb_at_times_squ are_was_a_diversion_for_massive_explosion.htm


That needs to be taken as something less than revealed truth, as the sole source appears to be a 911 call. This sort of thing tends to draw all sorts out of the woodwork, and the call may have had no basis at all.

Given the generally amateur appearance of the work and the amount of evidence left behind I don't expect it will take too long to find out who's responsible, and more will doubtless be known.

William F. Owen
05-03-2010, 04:12 AM
IIRC correctly this device seems pretty similar to the one left near Piccadilly Circus in 2007. - I would have thought this latest one provides Forensic playground for anyone interested.

jmm99
05-05-2010, 03:48 AM
From the NY Times, Militia Members Released Until Trial in Michigan Plot (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/us/04militia.html?ref=us):


By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: May 3, 2010

DETROIT — A federal judge on Monday ordered that nine members of an extremist militia accused of plotting to kill police officers be freed on bond until their trial, saying that prosecutors did not demonstrate that the defendants would pose a danger if released.

The judge, Victoria A. Roberts of Federal District Court, said the defendants would be subject to home detention, electronic monitoring and curfews. Judge Roberts said they were not allowed to have access to weapons or have contact with one another unless their lawyers were present.
....
“They were talking about killing police officers,” Leslie Larsen, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of the Hutaree investigation, testified. “I don’t think you can joke around about that.”

Judge Roberts and the defendants’ lawyers expressed frustration that Ms. Larsen was unable to answer most questions she was asked, generally saying that she needed to review her notes or that she had not read many of the reports her colleagues had prepared about the group.

Ronald W. Waterstreet, an assistant United States attorney, told the judge that about 25 Hutaree members had not been indicted and could potentially help the defendants flee if they were released. But Judge Roberts cited the other members who had not been charged with any crimes as reason to believe “the offenses charged against these defendants may not be as serious as the government contends.”

Judge Roberts' official bio (http://www.mied.uscourts.gov/Judges/guidelines/topic.cfm?topic_id=210) and Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_A._Roberts).

Schmedlap
05-05-2010, 06:43 AM
Judge Roberts and the defendants’ lawyers expressed frustration that Ms. Larsen was unable to answer most questions she was asked, generally saying that she needed to review her notes or that she had not read many of the reports her colleagues had prepared about the group.

As my old Civ Pro professor has preached to law students for more than 40 years: law is a lawyer-driven process.

davidbfpo
05-06-2010, 09:48 PM
Last night Majid Nawaz, of the UK-based Quilliam Foundation was interviewed on CNN by Larry King and being familiar with his arguments I didn't listen closely. Today in an email circular he highlights:
Nawaz also highlighted the importance of challenging the flawed Islamist narrative that the West and Islam are at war, pointing to the fact that the Times Square car-bomb was first brought to the police’s attention by a Muslim Senegalese immigrant named Aliou Niasse as something that the media and US law enforcement agencies should have drawn greater attention to.

I'd seen footage of Mr Niasse, but missed any details. The CNN transcript is here, although you have to wade past a certain NYC mayor first:http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1005/05/lkl.01.html

omarali50
05-07-2010, 03:04 PM
My piece with the above title is posted at Wichaar.com:

http://wichaar.com/news/284/ARTICLE/20008/2010-05-07.html

Rex Brynen
05-07-2010, 06:46 PM
My piece with the above title is posted at Wichaar.com:

http://wichaar.com/news/284/ARTICLE/20008/2010-05-07.html

Great piece, and not only for linking Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch to the Caliphate :D

omarali50
05-11-2010, 02:21 PM
This may not actually be true of Faisal Shahzad, but is true enough about many other American educated Pakistanis (its about where "radicalisation" usually takes place)..
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C05%5C10%5Cstory_10-5-2010_pg3_4

davidbfpo
05-30-2010, 07:50 PM
A paper from RAND: Would-Be Warriors: Incidents of Jihadist Terrorist Radicalization in the United States Since September 11, 2001 by Brian Michael Jenkins: http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP292/

I've only read the summary, which makes an interesting point that domestic terrorism was higher and killed more people in the late 1970's than since 9/11.

Rex Brynen
06-01-2010, 08:32 PM
I've only read the summary, which makes an interesting point that domestic terrorism was higher and killed more people in the late 1970's than since 9/11.

Here's an interesting graphic of US terrorist attacks since 1970:

http://pre.cloudfront.goodinc.com/posts/post_full_1274205144header-terror-in-america.jpg

The full-sized version is here (http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1005/terror-in-america/flat.html).

Off topic, but GOOD Magazine is a great website for those who appreciate the graphic display of information. The how-the-bill-becomes-a-law graphic (http://www.good.is/post/infographic-how-a-bill-actually-becomes-a-law/) is classic. Graphic Sociology (http://contexts.org/graphicsociology/) is a good site too, as is the Strange Maps (http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/) blog.

Now, back to our original topic... :D

davidbfpo
06-02-2010, 11:10 PM
A long article, with some new and old themes, for those who have read his work before: http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=23200

This could be posted on the Detroit bomber thread, but has a wider remit.

Hat tip to Raff on:http://icsr.info/blog

davidbfpo
06-05-2010, 08:57 PM
Written by a former Pakistani diplomat, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, who is studying in the USA, entitled 'Chess or chequers' (mistype I say, should be Checkers):http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=242376

Her last paragraph:
The question Washington also needs to ask is whether its anti-terrorism efforts can succeed in an environment of intense and growing anti-American sentiment. The only way to reverse this trend is to move decisively to resolve disputes, heal conflicts and engage with the grievances in the Muslim world that are leveraged by extremists. Until strategies are fashioned to deal with the unjust situations in which Muslims find themselves the danger of radicalisation will increase.

jmm99
06-05-2010, 10:04 PM
and call it: Draughts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draughts). :) My uncle Ed's major claim to fame was being California state checker champion. So, I too would say "checker". And, uncle Ed if still breathing would say there is a hell of a lot more to checkers than brute force. ;)

On the other hand, "chequer" for "checker" seems to be regarded here (USA) as a Brit thing (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chequer): "Chiefly British"). And indeed, a very old usage is your Exchequer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchequer), which according to the Oxford Dictionary comes from the Old French "eschequier". Thus, we can blame our spelling difficulties on Lagrange. :D

Levity aside, the longer Hoffman article and the much shorter response look primarily to AQ recruitment (let's say that is either checkers or chequers). Recently (2 Jun 2010), SWJ ran an article by Commander Youssef Aboul-Enein, MSC, USN, Discourse on Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami and Its Founder Abu al-Ala al-Mawdudi: Uncovering the Philosophy and Nuance of America’s Adversary in Pakistan (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/06/discourse-on-pakistans-jamaate/) (only 6 pages, despite title length):


Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has expended extensive efforts in imposing their vision of Sharia on Pakistan’s public life since the founding of the state in 1947. They stand opposed to any secular ideas introduced into Pakistan and are intolerant of other Muslim belief systems that do not espouse their views. JI, like other Islamist groups, confuse secularism as a modern form of religion versus as a mechanism to manage Pakistan’s diverse ethnic and religious (Muslim and non-Muslim) groups. In order to interact effectively with Pakistan, America’s leaders must gain an understanding of the core struggle between two of Pakistan’s founders: the secular vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), and the Islamist vision of Abu al Ala al-Mawdudi (1903-1979). This essay is a distillation of a dozen books written by Mawdudi and published in Arabic, and attempts to get into the mind of an important ideologue of modern radical Islamist movements. Mawdudi’s books are referenced in this essay. Commentary and analysis of Mawdudi’s work, as well as comparisons are listed at the end of this work.

(.pdf download (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/448-aboul-enein.pdf)).

Maududi's works (including Jihad in Islam (http://www.muhammadanism.org/Terrorism/jihah_in_islam/jihad_in_islam.pdf), which I've cited a number of times) do NOT have exactly the same flavor as AQ's theorists - so, he is not exactly "chequers or checkers". The question is whether he (and his many Pakistani and Astani followers) are "draughts" or "chess".

From the Aboul-Enein article:


It is hoped that this work will stimulate debate among counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency specialists using direct Arabic sources, and that among those is a scholar, leader, and writer with command of Urdu who can add to the discussion by exposing us to the purely Pakistani perspective of Mawdudi and JI.

I'm curious what Omarali (if he happens upon this) thinks about Maududi's importance in Pakistan and Astan - vs the AQ theorists that we pay much more attention to.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
06-06-2010, 07:32 PM
That's the headline and not much detail (rightly so IMHO): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7806909/Two-US-men-arrested-at-JFK-airport-on-terrorist-charges.html

The BBC has more, notably both men wanted to reach Somalia and it was a long running investigation, with an undercover officer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10250525.stm

Pete
06-07-2010, 02:03 AM
The question Washington also needs to ask is whether its anti-terrorism efforts can succeed in an environment of intense and growing anti-American sentiment. The only way to reverse this trend is to move decisively to resolve disputes, heal conflicts and engage with the grievances in the Muslim world that are leveraged by extremists. Until strategies are fashioned to deal with the unjust situations in which Muslims find themselves the danger of radicalisation will increase.
Gosh, if Dr. Lodhi is correct all the U.S. has to do to bring about an end to terrorism is resolve all the disputes, conflicts and grievances in the world. Apparently Francis Fukuyama spoke a little too soon when he wrote his book The End of History.

davidbfpo
06-21-2010, 09:19 PM
With a sub-title:
Nine years after 9/11, we still don’t know how to deal with radical Islam.

Interesting article I thought:http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/17/a-politically-correct-war.html

I agree with:
Yet both law-enforcement agencies and the FBI have traditionally been ineffective at probing the deeper causes. In order to do that, the FBI and other U.S. authorities need to... establish liaisons at the grassroots of the various Muslim communities in the U.S. They need to develop relationships at the level of the mosque and the imam and the community organization, and disagree with this
..as is being done with some success in Britain’s “Prevent” program.

Listening to grievances or 'probing deeper causes' is not principally a law enforcement role, it may help establish empathy and enable policing. The people and institutions who should be listening and probing in the Political realm.

davidbfpo
09-07-2010, 07:05 AM
This article 'The FBI: Foiling its own plots since 2001' is sub-titled:
Many failed "terrorist" attempts would never have gotten off the ground without aid from the authorities. And ends with:
Both Newburgh and Detroit are, indeed, instances of "unterrorism," as the Newburgh judge said of the "plot" before her. Yet both are starkly framed by the on-going war on terror, both involve elaborate set-ups arranged by federal informers and covert agents, and both ensnared inept, virtually destitute black people scrambling to get by in post-racial America.

Link:http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/07/06/fbi_foiled_terrorism_plots

The author is: Stephan Salisbury a cultural writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. His most recent book is "Mohamed's Ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland" (Nation Books.

Hat tip to http://www.schneier.com/

jmm99
09-08-2010, 02:31 AM
and I'll take an APC for my headache. Briefly, Salisbury, Salon and TomDispatch (where the article first appeared) have an agenda - in very basic terms, everything the USG does in the "GWOT" (whether under the Bush II or Obama administration) is wrong and probably illegal.

I've learned not to credence anything said about these cases unless it is borne out by the court records - and that means what the original documents say and not what Salisbury or some other writer claims they say.

And that is why I always cite to the court record so that readers can judge within the actual context.

Cheers

Mike

davidbfpo
09-28-2010, 09:24 PM
A long report by the Congressional Research Service, with details of all the known plots and on a quick read a useful document to keep in view:http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R41416.pdf

Some frank comments on the intelligence problems, but I suspect some here will know of them.

davidbfpo
11-27-2010, 07:08 PM
No doubt the US media will be reporting this, so just a couple of links: the BBC states:
A teenager has been arrested in the US state of Oregon after allegedly plotting to carry out a car bomb attack at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested after reportedly making a telephone call he thought would set off the bomb in the centre of Portland.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11852953

The NYTimes:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/us/28portland.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1290884531-ASdNpYr8HDt06ve78774Mg

Yet again a lone radicalised American comes to LE's attention, via email traffic to Pakistan and then the FBI befriend him ensuring the plot comes to naught. Two immediate points: his desire to launch an attack at home, not going to Somalia and a local target.

It will be interesting to see if there was any community or public involvement in alerting the authorities - parallel to email interception.

Mod's Note this post and the next two appeared in a separate thread and were merged on 6/12/10; partly as the episode illustrate aprt of the US CT approach at home.

Kevin23
11-27-2010, 07:43 PM
No doubt the US media will be reporting this, so just a couple of links: the BBC states:

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11852953

The NYTimes:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/us/28portland.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1290884531-ASdNpYr8HDt06ve78774Mg

Yet again a lone radicalised American comes to LE's attention, via email traffic to Pakistan and then the FBI befriend him ensuring the plot comes to naught.
Two immediate points: his desire to launch an attack at home, not going to Somalia and a local target.

It will be interesting to see if there was any community or public involvement in alerting the authorities - parallel to email interception.

I read about this earlier and was actually going to post it.

However, I did realize this plot was as far along as actually attempting to complete the final stage of it, as I thought the "bomb" to detonated which caught this individual in question was another practice run?

davidbfpo
12-01-2010, 11:01 PM
In my initial post I said:
It will be interesting to see if there was any community or public involvement in alerting the authorities - parallel to email interception.

Thanks to LWOT:
According to the indictment filed against Mohamud, the suspect came to the attention of the FBI after someone (possibly his father) alerted them to his suspected radicalization.

Possible downside:
Friends and neighbors expressed surprise at the arrest, with community leaders condemning the planned attack but also raising questions about the FBI's tactics in the investigation.The New York Times looks at the recent rash of sting operations against alleged terrorist plots, which some have suggested toe the line between investigation and entrapment. The arrest also prompted fears of radicalization and retribution in Somali and other Muslim communities in Oregon and elsewhere, and a mosque where Mohamud worshipped was targeted by a suspected arsonist this past weekend.

The link has the links to cited reports e.g. NYT:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/30/the_lwot_oregon_teen_arrested_in_intricate_sting_o peration_wikileaks_reveals_inf

davidbfpo
12-06-2010, 09:12 PM
A classic tale of how an informant is used and exposed:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403710.html?sid=ST2010120404317

Near the start:
In the Irvine case, Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired. Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a restraining order against him.

Ends with:
As worshipers milled around outside, they said they support the FBI's role in fighting terrorism but feel betrayed by the infiltration of their sacred place.

"The FBI wants to treat the Muslim community as a partner while investigating us behind our backs,'' said Kurdi, the Loyola student. "They can't have it both ways."

davidbfpo
12-06-2010, 10:38 PM
Appearing in The Guardian last week was this commentary by Raffaello Pantucci, with a sub-title:
Is entrapping low-level wannabe jihadists with elaborate FBI sting operations the best way of handling domestic radicals?

Link:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/30/mohamed-osman-mohamud-portland

AdamG
12-08-2010, 03:23 PM
The full-sized version is here (http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1005/terror-in-america/flat.html).


This has the Columbine Massacre listed as "Christian Fundamentalists".
Harris or Klebold were just psychotic malcontents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Harris_and_Dylan_Klebold

Nice to see journalistic integrity in action.

jmm99
12-09-2010, 06:44 PM
From the DoJ press release, in full at Lawfare, Another FBI Sting Nets Another Would-Be-Bomber (http://www.lawfareblog.com/2010/12/another-fbi-sting-nets-another-would-be-bomber/):


BALTIMORE – Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, age 21, of Baltimore, a U.S. citizen, was charged by criminal complaint today with attempting to murder federal officers and employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property, in connection with a scheme to attack an Armed Forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland. Martinez was arrested this morning after he attempted to remotely detonate what he believed to be explosives in a vehicle parked in the Armed Forces recruiting station parking lot.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein stated, “First, there was no actual danger because the people Mr. Martinez asked to help carry out his attack actually were working with the FBI. Second, every person Mr. Martinez asked to join in his scheme either declined to participate, tried to talk him out of it or reported him to the FBI, and there is no evidence that Mr. Martinez received direction or support from any other person. Third, undercover investigations are pursued only when supervisory law enforcement agents and prosecutors conclude that there is a serious risk that cannot be ignored. I am grateful to the FBI for the care it takes to evaluate all credible allegations of terrorist threats and to investigate people who threaten violence.”
...
Martinez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for attempting to murder federal officers and employees, and life in prison for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property. ... (more at link)

The criminal complaint is here (http://www.lawfareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/MartinezAntonioCriminalComplaint.pdf).

This is the second recruiting station incident (the other one in Arkansas was a shooting). Our local station (four services) is located in a building I own, so this and the prior incident got my attention - especially today when I happpened to go over there. I would be an unsympathetic juror vice entrapment claims.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
12-14-2010, 08:12 PM
The US Attorney-General in a speech to a Muslim advocacy group, note the comments on his reception; opens with:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has defended the use of sting operations orchestrated by government informers, telling advocates for the civil rights of American Muslims on Friday night that the tactic is an “essential law enforcement tool in uncovering and preventing terror attacks.”

Link thanks to LWT mailing:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/us/politics/12holder-1.html?_r=2&src=me

AdamG
12-16-2010, 10:24 PM
Related, catalyst -


(AP) Iraqi authorities have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who claim al Qaeda is planning suicide attacks in the United States and Europe during the Christmas season, two senior officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press that the botched bombing in central Stockholm last weekend was among the alleged plots the insurgents revealed. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in a telephone interview from New York, called the claims "a critical threat."

Both al-Bolani and Zebari said Iraq has informed Interpol of the alleged plots, and alerted authorities in the U.S. and European countries of the possible danger. Neither official specified which country or countries in Europe are alleged targets.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/15/world/main7152700.shtml

AdamG
12-17-2010, 06:47 PM
This is almost as good as the old Jane Curtin/ Chevy Chase Point/Counterpoint skits.



U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity so they could discuss security matters, said there was specific intelligence about attacks being planned against Europe during the holiday season.

U.S. intelligence officials say they have not uncovered specific details of threats aimed at the United States,

But two British officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their work said that although security officials are on higher alert during the holidays, there was no new specific plot. Britain's terror level has also remained unchanged.

"There has been a general threat to the U.K., Germany and France," one British official said. "There have been no new developments."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_europe_terror_threat;_ylt=AgMhgJwBAxN_kLC_fzNfE C9v24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTM1czM2dGRjBGFzc2V0Ay9zL2FwL2V1X 2V1cm9wZV90ZXJyb3JfdGhyZWF0BGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTA EY3BvcwM1BHBvcwM1BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDd WtnZXJtYW5vZmZp

AdamG
12-17-2010, 10:40 PM
A Department of Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement nationwide Thursday says that federal authorities worry terrorists will try to rattle Americans by attacking during the holidays, and lists concerns including car bombs, trucks ramming crowds and a Mumbai-style small arms attack.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/holiday-terror-warning-cites-car-bombs-small-arms/story?id=12417968

davidbfpo
12-17-2010, 10:51 PM
From the NYT:
The Republican who will head the House committee that oversees domestic security is planning to open a Congressional inquiry into what he calls “the radicalization” of the Muslim community when his party takes over the House next year....he was responding to what he has described as frequent concerns raised by law enforcement officials that Muslim leaders have been uncooperative in terror investigations.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/nyregion/17king.html?_r=2&ref=us

I expect some expected this. Too much is expected of the so-called 'Muslim leaders' and in the UK, if not other places, there are very few genuine leaders. The important people are those further down who actually see something and for a host of reasons do nothing.

I do commend this report on the issue, which was posted earlier:http://www.worde.org/articles/WORDE_Counter_Radicalization_Report_Final.pdf

davidbfpo
12-20-2010, 10:54 PM
Some months ago the Washington Post published a series on 'The Secrets Next Door' (see links below) and today added a new report 'Monitoring America', a good part revolving around Memphis:http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/

I have merged the SWJ post (x5) to this:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=10956

AdamG
12-21-2010, 02:43 PM
Holder warns about more attacks by American AQ sympathizers
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/attorney-general-eric-holders-blunt-warning-terror-attacks/story?id=12444727&tqkw=&tqshow=GMA&tqkw=&tqshow=GMA

+


According to CBS News , the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reports a possible credible terrorism plot that targets food products in the restaurant and hotel industry, though the threat is non-specific about time and location for the plot. CBS reports that the poisons at the focus of the threats are Ricin and Cyanide .
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Local/2010/12/21/Possible-Terrorism-Threat-to-Food-Supply-Reported/11-7669975e79

davidbfpo
01-24-2011, 09:49 PM
A title guaranteed to get attention, well it is in Time magazine and on an initial read interesting. Last paragraph:
And yet al-Qaeda is weaker and less capable today than it was before Sept. 11; its appeal to mainstream Muslims around the world is shrinking, rather than increasing. The fact that Osama bin Laden wannabes like al-Awlaki have risen to such prominence is testament to the evisceration of al-Qaeda's leadership. The U.S. faces far bigger and immediate challenges to the welfare and security of its citizens, not least from the ease with which unstable individuals can legally obtain and use deadly firearms. Addressing that danger will do more to protect Americans than obsessing about the phantom threat of homegrown terrorism ever will.

Link:http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2044047,00.html#ixzz1BzYV0eWT

AdamG
02-07-2011, 04:01 PM
Terrorism or Performance Art?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-co-toilet-bomb-scare-20110207,0,2690199.story?track=rss
Floor cleaner or dessert topping?

davidbfpo
02-14-2011, 09:52 PM
I recall spotting a report on an IED in Spokane recently and then nothing was spotted. So thanks to FP Blog for a short article:
Nearly a month after a cleanup crew found the live bomb along the planned route of a large downtown march honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the F.B.I. is investigating the incident as an act of domestic terrorism.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/us/14spokane.html?ref=us

Clearly the focus appears to be on a 'lone wolf' and from the extreme nationalist fringe.

jmm99
02-15-2011, 05:04 AM
David, what evidence do you see (if any) that points to "the extreme nationalist fringe" - whatever "the extreme nationalist fringe" is ?

Apparently, they investigated the local "neo-nazis" without any success. This incident was the darling of our more "progressive" media when the IED was first discovered.

Based on this statement from the police chief:


This time, Chief Kirkpatrick said, “It’s scary the level of the calculation that was involved.”

one would suppose (for one to say that) that one must know the facts concerning what was calculated. If one knows that much about the calculations, I might think that one would know enough to have probable cause to ID the calculator.

If this leads to an arrest, it will be interesting to see who is arrested.

Regards

Mike

Bill Moore
02-15-2011, 06:08 AM
Homegrown terrorism is nothing new in the U.S., whether from left wing or right wing extremists and of course now from those religiously motivated whether it is Muslims attempting mass slaughter or those claiming to be Christians bombing abortion clinics. Everything pales in comparison to 9/11, but not too many years prior to the 9/11 attacks we had the Okalahoma City Federal City bombing, and you can pull down the stats for the large number of leftist attacks in the U.S. during the 60s and 70s. It will be interesting to see who was behind this, but I doubt it will be the beginning of a new trend.

jmm99
02-15-2011, 07:10 AM
The 1920 Wall Street Bombing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_bombing), centered on Morgan's 23 Wall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Wall_Street), was never solved - speculation pointed to an "anarchist" group. It was the worst "man-made disaster" (:rolleyes:) in US history up to that time.

It was soon (7 years later) eclipsed by a Michigan bombing I'd never heard of (until I read the Wall Street Bombing Wiki), the Bath School Disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster) (Bath (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_Township,_Michigan) is just North of Lansing, the state capital):


The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 38 primary school children and 7 adults, and injured at least 58 people. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–12 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife, then set his farm buildings afire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. During rescue efforts searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing. .. (long Wiki article with links)

What is interesting about this "lone wolf" incident is that Kehoe set the scene at the school with one explosion - and then, acting as a suicide bomber, attacked the rescuers and bystanders who had responded.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
02-15-2011, 08:30 AM
JMM asked:
David, what evidence do you see (if any) that points to "the extreme nationalist fringe" - whatever "the extreme nationalist fringe" is ?

No evidence, just from reading two reports, mainly the cited article. Ah, the "extreme nationalist fringe" was a poor phrase; I should have used the extreme right, notably those who oppose Martin Luther King being commemorated and I exclude the extreme left / Islamist fringe.

I prefer the "lone wolf" option; the individual who tells no-one else of their intentions and has some skill in making an IED.

jmm99
02-15-2011, 04:30 PM
Kehoe of the 1927 Bath School Disaster (with a stictly personal grudge) proves how calculating (and seemingly "professional") a "lone wolf" can be.

So, when someone says an IED has all the markings of an AQ or Aryan Nation operation, my BS meter tends to respond negatively until some real linking evidence appears.

To the extent that right and left have any real materiality, I'd class the "Islamist fringe" as extreme right - even reactionary.

Regards

Mike

Bill Moore
02-16-2011, 02:40 AM
Mike, appreciate the link on the Wall St attack (I wasn't aware of that one).

As you know not all lone wolf attacks are terrorist attacks and it is important to point out the difference. If the attack doesn't have a political agenda then it isn't terrorism, even if it terrorifies those exposed to it. While the numerous school shootings in our country and workers going postal are equally tragic regardless of motivation they are not generally terrorism. I think the attack on the Bath School was a guy that was pushed over the edge and went postal on his family and the school (local gov).

Timmy McVeigh wasn't a lone wolf, but supposedly he was part of a very small cell and his attack on Okalahoma City was clearly terrorism (politically motivated). Some lone wolf terrorists in the U.S. were the unibomber and MAJ Hason at Ft Hood. I agree that lone wolfs are probably harder to detect, and therefore their attacks may be more likely to succeed, but not necessarily be overly effective.

jmm99
02-16-2011, 05:56 AM
contained in just two paragraphs:


from Bill

As you know not all lone wolf attacks are terrorist attacks and it is important to point out the difference. If the attack doesn't have a political agenda then it isn't terrorism, even if it terrorifies those exposed to it. While the numerous school shootings in our country and workers going postal are equally tragic regardless of motivation they are not generally terrorism. I think the attack on the Bath School was a guy that was pushed over the edge and went postal on his family and the school (local gov).

Timmy McVeigh wasn't a lone wolf, but supposedly he was part of a very small cell and his attack on Okalahoma City was clearly terrorism (politically motivated). Some lone wolf terrorists in the U.S. were the unibomber and MAJ Hason at Ft Hood. I agree that lone wolfs are probably harder to detect, and therefore their attacks may be more likely to succeed, but not necessarily be overly effective.

A valid answer to all of these (but certainly not one providing bright lines) is "it depends" - and that answer then expands multi-fold when you get into the remedies. I've been staring at this post for a half hour thinking about ways to address strategic, tactical and legal differences. Nothing bubbled up.

Obviously, all of this has everything to do with how and why we kill - and the lines we draw to justify or condemn killing. The morals, ethics, legalities, strategy and tactics are much easier to analyze where we have a defined person declared hostile - e.g., as in a targeted killing situation or in a conventional war.

Regards

Mike

jmm99
02-16-2011, 09:34 PM
my comments in this post, Adding some balance ... (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=115760&postcount=75), which presents a raw start to a methodology which addresses some of the issues presented in your two paragraphs.

That approach gives very little truck to the primacy of formal legal definitions, etc. - for example, whether a "terrorist" or "non-terrorist". It would look to the degree of violence and the motive for the violence since choice of strategy and tactics would hinge on those and other factors.

Regards

Mike

AdamG
02-24-2011, 08:31 PM
Federal officials on Thursday announced the arrest of a Saudi citizen who was attending a community college in Texas while allegedly plotting to conduct a bombing campaign within the United States.

No. 1 priority for US security: domestic terrorism, threat report says
Terrorist plots uncovered in the US since 9/11
Homegrown terrorism a growing concern for US intelligence
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after an intense 'round-the-clock investigation uncovered ongoing efforts to obtain and mix explosive chemicals and to identify potential targets, officials say.

Agents found an e-mail file entitled “Tyrant’s House” containing the Dallas address of former President George W. Bush. Other files included information about hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, and the names and addresses of three individuals previously stationed with the US military at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0224/Saudi-bomb-suspect-eyed-home-of-President-Bush-dams-nuclear-plants

AdamG
03-07-2011, 10:46 PM
White House defends Muslims ahead of hearing on 'homegrown terrorism'
By BARBARA FERGUSON | ARAB NEWS
Published: Mar 7, 2011 22:03 Updated: Mar 7, 2011 22:04


WASHINGTON: Rep. Peter King, R-New York, defended this Thursday's scheduled hearings on homegrown radical Islam against protests that his Homeland Security Committee is unfairly targeting a single religious group.

"The main goal is to show the extent of radicalization within the Muslim-American community, how dangerous that is, how serious that is," he said Monday on Fox News's Fox and Friends. "I will have witnesses there to show it's a real threat. It's a growing threat, and it's not just me saying this."

*

In Washington, the White House extended its hand to Muslims by sending Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough. He told an audience on Sunday at a Virginia mosque — known for its cooperation with the FBI — that the White House is committed to a positive and productive relationship with Muslims, and that "we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few."

"We must resolve that, in our determination to protect our nation, we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few. In the US, we don't practice guilt by association," McDonough told the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, or ADAMS mosque.

http://arabnews.com/world/article306235.ece



STERLING, Va. — As a Republican congressman prepares to open hearings on the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser visited a mosque here on Sunday to reassure Muslims that “we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few.”

The White House billed the speech by the adviser, Denis McDonough, as a chance for the administration to lay out its strategy for preventing violent extremism. But the timing was no accident; Mr. McDonough was in effect an emissary from the White House to pre-empt Representative Peter King of New York, the Homeland Security Committee chairman, who has promised a series of hearings beginning Thursday on the radicalization of American Muslims.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/us/politics/07muslim.html?src=me

davidbfpo
03-10-2011, 06:44 PM
Post 48 referred to a mystery device in Spokane and thanks to CLS mailing:
A man with past ties to a white supremacist group was arrested early Wednesday by federal agents in connection with the bomb found on January 17 along a MLK parade route in Spokane, Washington. The suspect was identified in multiple reports as Kevin William Harpham, 36, of Colville, Wash. He was charged Wednesday with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of knowingly possessing an improvised explosive device. The AP reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States, says Harpham, who has served in the U.S Army, has been a member of the National Alliance, a white supremacist group.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/us/10bomb.html?_r=1

Not much detail and yes the SPLC is not admired by all.

davidbfpo
03-10-2011, 10:15 PM
Thanks to a CLS pointer to a Wired story:
In a forthcoming report, Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert and senior advisor at the Rand Corporation, updates a previous study on the subject and counts the number of Muslims in America who’ve participated in jihadist-related crimes from 9/11 through 2010. He shared the results with Danger Room ahead of publication.

181 Muslims have either been indicted, arrested or self-identified (such as through suicide bombings in Somalia) as participating in jihadist-related crimes since 9/11, according to Jenkins’ study. Estimates on the number of Muslims in America population are numerous and inconsistent; the Pew forum fixes the number at 2.6 million, Jenkins uses a figure of 3 million. In either case, the figure lies between 0.007 to 0.006 percent of American Muslims — an extreme minority in the fullest sense of the words.

“This is half-hearted jihad,” says Jenkins. Even if hundreds or thousands of American-based Muslims support or tolerate the radicals on the sly, it’s still a tiny, tiny percentage of the whole.

Link:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/u-s-jihadists-to-american-muslims-you-suck/

davidbfpo
03-14-2011, 04:21 PM
The issue of community assistance in CT re-appeared in the USA, during the furore over the Rep. King hearings and this struck me as good quotation:
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, says he wants the upcoming hearings in Washington to focus on “Muslim radicalization”, but Baca says the burden of proof rests on the congressman, not the Muslim community at large.(My emphasis)If he has evidence of non-cooperation, he should bring it forward ... We have as much cooperation as we are capable of acquiring through public trust relationships. King has said that retired law enforcement officials are more likely to voice their concerns — albeit privately — about the reluctance of many Muslim community leaders to cooperate with law enforcement, but also notes that active duty officers are much more hesitant to go on record about the issue.

Link:http://topics.npr.org/quote/01X9fKvbPic25?q=CBS

davidbfpo
03-17-2011, 10:44 PM
For those who are following this plot, some details on the device / IED and after a long day not perused:http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/mar/17/fbi-report-details-bombs-makeup/

Bob's World
03-18-2011, 10:55 AM
For the U.S. the real key will be coming to grips with the difference between those who threaten us and those who are a threat to us.

AQ, for example, threatens us. As does a handful minor knuckleheads such as Chavez, Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong il.

None of these, however, are truly a threat to us. Not in a significant way.

Yet we go chasing after these minor annoyances in a very reactive and predictable way. People will say crazy things. Small attacks, and likely even some fairly large attacks will happen. These are symptoms of discontent and there will always be discontent. By chasing symptoms of discontent and making that our focus we end up engaging in overblown antics that make the underlying reasons for discontent worse in many ways

Better to learn to ignore minor irritants, ignore the minor threats; and focus more on the big picture and how we best achieve big picture goals in a manner that deters those things that truly threaten US in significant ways while consciously seeking to not inflame discontent unnecessarily.

Its really a simple matter of discipline and perspective. Americans as a culture tend to be undisciplined and fairly short and narrowly focused in terms of perspective.

Oh, and for my money, Islamist ideology driven terrorism has little to nothing to do with evangelizing Islam any more that the wars of reformation were about spreading Protestantism. Both are tools to mobilize bold and broad action among the people to challenge powerful political constructs. Sure, some of the individual actors I am sure truly believe they are doing God's work, but at the end of the day they are victims also, manipulated to conduct a violent political act that is actually in violation of the very religion they are so committed to. The men they have placed their greatest faith in betray them for their own selfish desires for personal power and also to take down the current political structure they find so offensive.

davidbfpo
03-18-2011, 12:54 PM
A long article on an American Muslim who now prefers the label orthodox; it is a good illustration of the difficulties such individuals and wider society face when talk turns to the 'J word'. Not surprisingly it reflects the dilemma for the state in can we talk to such people, who are often now labelled non-violent extremists?

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Salafis-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

A short UK comment on this dilemma in the UK:http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jamie-bartlett/should-britain-work-with-extremists-to-prevent-terrorism-where-do-we-draw-?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=201210&utm_campaign=0

AdamG
03-24-2011, 10:49 AM
More importantly, based on the Defendant’s recorded statements and admissions made to law enforcement agents, the Defendant was a former member, or at the very least, associated with [Al-Ittihad al-Islami] AIAI, an SDGT, and that he believed that there was no separation of personnel between AIAI, the Council of Islamic Courts, and Al-Shabbab, a designated [Foreign Terrorist Organization] FTO.

He admits that he knowingly believed he was smuggling violent jihadists into the United States with the full knowledge that if the decision was made by the SDGT, for which he was associated with in the past, to commit terrorist acts in the United States, these jihadists would commit violent acts in and against the United States. Because the law enforcement authorities are constantly trying to investigate, detect, and prevent the infiltration of potentially violent jihadists, the Defendant’s lies hid critical information from the United States authorities regarding his successful smuggling activities. Thus, the preponderance of the evidence proves that the other obvious motivation for him to lie on his asylum application was to cover up and obstruct the fact from United States authorities that he facilitated the smuggling of violent jihadists who are now present into the United States. (pp. 10-11)

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/doj-memo-confirms-terrorists-have-crossed-the-border-pjm-exclusive/?singlepage=true

And for sheer comedic face-palming,


In what appears to be a major security breach, components for a live bomb were allowed to remain in the federal building in Detroit for three weeks before the bomb squad was called in to remove it.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/active-bomb-sat-detroits-mcnamara-federal-building-weeks/story?id=13202135

AdamG
03-24-2011, 11:58 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When an admitted al-Qaida operative planned his itinerary for a Christmas 2009 airline bombing, he considered launching the strike in the skies above Houston or Chicago, The Associated Press has learned. But tickets were too expensive, so he refocused the mission on a cheaper destination: Detroit.

The decision is among new details emerging about one of the most sensational terrorism plots to unfold since President Barack Obama took office. It shows that al-Qaida's Yemen branch does not share Osama bin Laden's desire to attack symbolic targets, preferring instead to strike at targets of opportunity. Like the plot that nearly blew up U.S.-bound cargo planes last year, the cities themselves didn't matter. It's a strategy that has helped the relatively new group quickly become the No. 1 threat to the United States.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AIRLINE_ATTACK?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

davidbfpo
03-25-2011, 02:50 PM
From the consistently good daily email news round-up from the NY-based Center for Law & Security, available via:

A comment on this US practice:
Reuters cites data from the Center on Law and Security to illustrate that entrapment defenses in terrorism prosecutions have not been successful over the past decade. The Reuters report states that “[s]ince 2009, the FBI has arrested 41 people on terrorism charges through sting operations — where law enforcement posed as extremist militants — the Center said. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, 10 suspects in six trials have formally used entrapment as a defense and none were successful.

Link:http://centerlineblog.org/2011/03/25/todays-terrorism-news-204/

jmm99
03-25-2011, 03:43 PM
From 2005 Michigan Law Review, Psychology, factfinding, and entrapment (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-132002055.html):


Although accurate statistical evidence of the frequency with which the entrapment defense succeeds is difficult to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is seldom successful. One survey of practicing criminal defense attorneys described it as "judicially unpopular," (17) best used only "in desperate circumstances," (18) or "in a few cases with ideal facts," where "plea bargaining has proved unsuccessful," (19) and "no other defense is possible." (20) Another survey of State's Attorneys in Chicago reveals a perception that in narcotics sales cases where the defendant pleads entrapment, "the jury will convict almost every time." (21) The author of one police manual on the execution of sting operations states that he has "never, in hundreds of cases, ever lost one to entrapment," and that in all the sting operations he has studied, he has "not heard of a single case being lost to a defense of entrapment." (22)

Still, this "defense" is a favorite of the pro-defendant chattering class.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
04-19-2011, 08:27 PM
A BBC Radio 4 report:
In the years after 9/11 the threat to America from Islamist militants seemed to come exclusively from abroad, but recent events have disproved that assumption - and posed the question how to prevent the radicalisation of Muslim immigrants.

Link to report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13068133

Link to podcast, which is far better IMHO:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010dp1k

In that Peter Neumann, from ICSR @ Kings College London, commented that the USA will now be asking itself the questions the UK has asked for the past ten years. Please do not repeat what the UK state did.

This is a RUSI commentary:http://www.rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C4D90A51D14AB0/

davidbfpo
05-02-2011, 03:16 PM
Spotted on the CLS e-alert an article in The Economist, which opens with this:
AMERICA has increased homeland security spending by more than $1 trillion in the decade since the 9/11 attacks. A new academic paper from John Mueller (of The Ohio State University) and Mark Stewart (of the University of Newcastle in Australia) attempts to determine whether the return on investment justified those huge expenditures. They also ask whether policymakers ever considered anything remotely resembling a cost-benefit analysis before they spent all that money. The answer in both cases, it seems, is no.

Link:http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/04/deterring_terrorism?fsrc=rss

Note the academic paper is on a Scribd link within and is approx. 28 pgs. Not read through today; not really a day to read such thoughts!

Steve Blair
05-02-2011, 03:21 PM
I would hazard that we are just based on the number of TSA types I see loitering around my local airport (BFE Montana with a population just over 90k in the entire county).

davidbfpo
05-09-2011, 10:00 AM
A rather long article, the correct title is: 'Pass Em’ Right: Assessing the Threat of WMD Terrorism from America’s Christian Patriots'; which maybe of interest and is from the abstract:
Within the field of terrorism studies, great effort has been devoted to the topic of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their potential usage in the hands of terrorist organisations. This article deepens the discussion of WMD terrorism by focusing upon an oft-overlooked movement that resides within American borders. The Christian Patriot Movement – which rightfully claims the likes of Timothy McVeigh – is a phenomenon that has gone largely unnoticed as American counterterrorism efforts focus largely upon Islamist terrorist organizations. Here we aim to bring the Patriots back into discussions of terrorist threats by assessing their potential to use WMD. We conclude that, although the Patriots have demonstrated intent to employ such weapons, they lack the overall capability to design, acquire, or employ a WMD of significant lethality. We end by looking at the pathways which the Patriots are currently exploring to narrow the divide between intent and capability.

Link:http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/brister-pass-em-right/html

jmm99
05-18-2011, 06:38 PM
Here's the Khan indictment and the 27 overt acts (http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/05/14/indictment.pdf).

Yes, admittedly, “sensitivity training” (if that’s what one should call it), still has a way to go so far as enhancing the "sensitivity" of some US citizens to their obligations as citizens (not to provide aid and comfort to the enemy) is concerned.

Regards

Mike

AdamG
05-20-2011, 04:24 AM
New CIA Theme Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EheLN-MDzrA)


WASHINGTON – CIA director Leon Panetta is warning his employees that leakers will be investigated and possibly prosecuted after a flurry of reports in the media about the technology and methods used to track and ultimately kill Osama bin Laden.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110518/ap_on_re_us/us_cia_leaks_1

slapout9
05-20-2011, 05:23 AM
New CIA Theme Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EheLN-MDzrA)



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110518/ap_on_re_us/us_cia_leaks_1

Great song!

davidbfpo
05-26-2011, 07:32 PM
The full title of this analysis by the Heritage Foundation is: '39 Terror Plots Foiled Since 9/11: Examining Counterterrorism’s Success Stories – Analysis':http://www.eurasiareview.com/39-terror-plots-foiled-since-911-examining-counterterrorism%E2%80%99s-success-stories-analysis-20052011/

It is useful for the list of plots, the
..six key principles for policymakers are different and the
..lessons about what works in terms of stopping terrorism.. are questionable from this armchair across the Atlantic.

I was surprised to see this:
Lesson # 9: Current Aviation Security Is Expensive and Largely Inconsequential. and the comments under the Miranda Warning in effect extending interview without a lawyer etc are a double-edged weapon.

Finally there are:
Essential Principles for Congress and the Administration

davidbfpo
06-02-2011, 01:31 PM
I'm sure there is a post on the value of fingerprints in CT, but too may matches on fingerprints and so added here.


...federal authorities unknowingly had evidence that already linked him a roadside bomb in his home country 2005.

National security experts said the 21-month lapse in linking fingerprints from the bomb to the suspect shows poor communication among the several federal agencies in charge of anti-terrorism efforts.

Link:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyVnqslrhCkbM-bL2y67fWGPiSzw?docId=35db41eb177a4d7e8f93f318b64ae d4d

I am puzzled that this suspect was even given asylum, an issue that appears not to have been picked up in the report.

davidbfpo
06-08-2011, 12:54 PM
Well it seems that a spotlight is to be directed at this matter:http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/137033910/terrorism-case-exposes-gaps-in-refugee-screening

It includes a CT expert commenting:
Here, as I understand it, the real intent was not just to come to the United States, but rather for Alwan to seek the so-called golden passport, the U.S. passport, so he could travel freely and raise fewer suspicions around the world

I note to date there is no reporting on how both men got asylum. My assumption was to claim - after working for the USA - they were in danger.

ganulv
06-08-2011, 02:47 PM
I note to date there is no reporting on how both men got asylum. My assumption was to claim - after working for the USA - they were in danger.

I have no idea how the process of approving or denying asylum works but I get the impression that there are a lot of hands in the pot and that there are a lot of places where the process can go wrong. There is a wonderfully good This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) entitled “Iraq after us” (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/416/iraq-after-us)—check out the first act for the story of a fellow who seems worthy of a visa to the U.S. but for reasons that are unclear is not receiving one.

davidbfpo
06-10-2011, 08:02 PM
An intriguing spreadsheet to use:http://homegrown.newamerica.net/table

the author's explain:
Just how real is the “homegrown” Islamist terrorist threat? The New America Foundation and Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Policy have examined the post-9/11 cases of Americans or U.S. residents convicted or charged of some form of jihadist terrorist activity, as well as the cases of those American citizens who have traveled overseas to join a terrorist group.

Preliminary results of that research are available below. You may sort the table by any of the columns, or click on an individual's name for full details and reference sources.

Probably a unique information source.

AdamG
06-16-2011, 04:27 AM
(CNSNews.com) - As the United States Postal Service looks at ways to cut budgets and deal with declining revenue, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers is going against the grain by suggesting the agency should be increasing the services offered, including thwarting terrorists.
President of The National Association of Letter Carriers Fredric Rolando, has several ideas to increase the responsibility of some postal workers. Among them is to outfit postal trucks with sensors so letter carriers can thwart biological terrorist attacks, according to recent reports.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/union-suggests-mailmen-should-thwart-ter

AdamG
06-24-2011, 12:06 PM
Two men who converted to Islam have been arrested and charged by federal authorities with plotting a Ft. Hood-style assault on a Seattle military installation in which they could kill military personnel and then either escape or die as "martyrs."

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, born Joseph Anthony Davis, and Walli Mujahidh, born Frederick Domingue Jr., are accused of planning to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle with grenades and machine guns on July 5. Abdul-Latif, 33, and Mujahidh, 32, allegedly purchased machine guns from undercover agents to use in the assault. Their alleged objective was to deter further American military action in Islamic countries.

The defendants allegedly planned to attack Joint Base Lewis-McChord, a sprawling Army and Air Force installation south of Seattle that houses almost 20,000 military personnel and family members, but then changed targets. The Military Entrance Processing Station on East Marginal Way in Seattle is where enlistees report.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/prison-converts-extremist-islam-planned-ft-hood-style/story?id=13915159

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/06/24/2_arrested_in_seattle_terror_plot/

AdamG
07-28-2011, 04:33 PM
At least one U.S. military serviceman has been arrested after raising concerns over another alleged plot to attack Fort Hood, Fox News has learned exclusively.

Pvt. Nasser Jason Abdo, an AWOL soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested by the Killeen Police Department near Fort Hood and remains in custody there. Authorities, however, will not say if Abdo is the one who raised security concerns.

Abdo was found with weapons and explosives at the time of his arrest, a senior Army source confirms to Fox News. He was arrested at around 2 p.m. Wednesday after someone called authorities to report a suspicious individual.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/28/exclusive-us-military-serviceman-arrested-in-second-alleged-attack-on-ft-hood/#ixzz1TPzp0UKn

jmm99
07-31-2011, 03:33 AM
are here (http://www.lawfareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Signed-Abdo-Complaint.pdf). Vanilla Federal Court case - so far.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
07-31-2011, 09:19 AM
JMM99,

What please is a:
Vanilla Federal Court case(?)

I assume clear-cut, but lawyers use of words can often baffle.

jmm99
07-31-2011, 05:04 PM
plain ice cream.

In this case, so far, the complaint and affidavits charge a single-person crime (no conspiracy); single set of "bad things" (all to be assembled by the "single person"); and no alleged "outside influences" (such as al-Awlaki). The facts, so far, are about as simple as you can get - "bad stuff" (physical evidence) + defendant's admissions = conviction. At least that's how I'd want the case to present if I were the prosecutor.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
07-31-2011, 06:18 PM
JMM99,

Thank you. Here we'd call it an "open & shut" case.

(An aside. Criminal justice here still records a very high guilty plea level in cases heard before magistrates, not sure about at Crown court level; policing has moved away from a "confession" culture and IIRC a majority confess).

ganulv
07-31-2011, 06:54 PM
Thank you. Here we'd call it an "open & shut" case.

In the States an open and shut case is one in which the outcome seems assured from the get-go. Not to put words in his mouth, but I think what jmm99 is more trying to get at with the term is that the case looks pretty straightforward (as in “nothing particularly exotic (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Vanilla%20Sex)”) at this point. A bit of a fine semantic distinction to be sure, and I could be wrong, of course!

jmm99
07-31-2011, 08:45 PM
"the case looks pretty straightforward."

If the charges (physical evidence + defendant's admissions) are proved beyond a reasonable doubt, then it will also be an "open & shut" case. If the physical evidence and admissions are excluded (to be determined by a pre-trial evidentiary hearing), the case evaporates.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
08-05-2011, 09:43 PM
A short report by the New America Foundation, full title 'Countering Domestic
Radicalization: Lessons for Intelligence Collection and Community Outreach', published in June 2011 and just referred to on the CLS mailing:http://www.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Fishman_Lebovich_Domestic_Radicalization.pdf

Draws mainly on the experience of LA, London and NYC.

AdamG
08-09-2011, 10:29 PM
You won't see the American MSM trumpeting this threat like they do the dreaded "Right Wing Extremists":


“Do we need a militant movement to save the planet (and ourselves)?”

That was the question posed in recent article on the left-wing site Alternet when it interviewed a group of radical environmentalists who are allegedly endorsing “Decisive Ecological Warfare.” And in order to realize their goal of ridding the planet of industrial civilization — even modern agriculture — the group intends to employ tactics “of both militaries and insurgents the world over.”

One of the activists, Derrick Jensen, allegedly even believes those who destroy the environment should be summarily executed: “If it were up to me, all the people associated with the Gulf oil spill, which is murdering the Gulf, would be executed. That would be part of the function of a state,” said Jensen.

In addition to Jensen, the two other environmentalists interviewed in the article – Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay — have spearheaded a fringe movement called the “Deep Green Resistance” (with a book of the same name) that calls for “direct attacks on infrastructure” and an annihilation of civilization as we know it.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/militant-environmentalists-call-for-executions-and-decisive-ecological-warfare/

davidbfpo
08-22-2011, 09:59 AM
An investigative journalism report on the use of informants by the FBI, I am curious that insiders spoke to them and was not surprised over some of the court documents. Nothing startling from my previous reading; I have not checked the database alongside.

Link:http://motherjones.com/special-reports/2011/08/fbi-terrorist-informants

NPR have a summary:http://www.npr.org/2011/08/21/139836377/the-surge-in-fbi-informants?ft=1&f=1001

An update on one informant who was dumped by the FBI:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fbi-plant-banned-by-mosque-ndash-because-he-was-too-extreme-2153057.html

bourbon
08-29-2011, 02:57 AM
A lengthy and revealing article on the NYPD Intelligence Division:

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in hunt for terrorists (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/with_cia_help_nypd_moves_covertly_nAWB4QiIn4tG1oIs qGWoUJ), by Associated Press. New York Post, August 24, 2011.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NYPD has become one of the country's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. A months-long investigation by The Associated Press has revealed that the NYPD operates far outside its borders and targets ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government. And it does so with unprecedented help from the CIA in a partnership that has blurred the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.

Neither the city council, which finances the department, nor the federal government, which contributes hundreds of millions of dollars each year, is told exactly what's going on.

The department has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.

Many of these operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit.

A veteran CIA officer, while still on the agency's payroll, was the architect of the NYPD's intelligence programs. The CIA trained a police detective at the Farm, the agency's spy school in Virginia, then returned him to New York, where he put his new espionage skills to work inside the United States.

And just last month, the CIA sent a senior officer to work as a clandestine operative inside police headquarters.

While the expansion of the NYPD's intelligence unit has been well known, many details about its clandestine operations, including the depth of its CIA ties, have not previously been reported.

bourbon
09-01-2011, 02:52 PM
Inside the spy unit that NYPD says doesn't exist (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gHc_1HtSxco67F1IoTZM0Wra4rWw?docId=97320a5da f684319b2221e0f97da3841), by Adam Goldman. Associated Press, 31 August 2011.

NEW YORK (AP) — From an office on the Brooklyn waterfront in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, New York Police Department officials and a veteran CIA officer built an intelligence-gathering program with an ambitious goal: to map the region's ethnic communities and dispatch teams of undercover officers to keep tabs on where Muslims shopped, ate and prayed.

The program was known as the Demographics Unit and, though the NYPD denies its existence, the squad maintained a long list of "ancestries of interest" and received daily reports on life in Muslim neighborhoods, according to documents obtained (http://wid.ap.org/documents/nypd-demo.pdf) by The Associated Press.

davidbfpo
09-01-2011, 06:03 PM
This 'mapping' is a well known UK CT tool, often arousing controversy amongst those normally targeted an I've selected one of the first Google hits:
‘Rich Picture’ is a mechanism to gather National Security intelligence to identify investigative opportunities for both local and regional levels. ‘Rich picture’ has been termed ‘neighbourhood policing intelligence for counter terrorism’....These will inform local decision-making and guide suitable interventions involving local strategic partners and communities.

Link:http://www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/mpa/2008/080724/08/

IIRC there are older posts on the subject, which has roots in what the UK did in Northern Ireland; others refer to it as 'ground cover'

jmm99
11-02-2011, 04:44 PM
The Eleventh Circuit, United States v. Augustin (http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200915985.pdf), has affirmed the convictions of Burson Augustin, Stanley Grant Phanor, Patrick Abraham, Rotschild Augustine, and Narseal Batiste (collectively, “Appellants”).

They were all convicted of:


(1) conspiracy to provide material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization (Al Qaeda) by agreeing to provide personnel (including themselves) to work under Al Qaeda’s direction and control, knowing that Al Qaeda has engaged or engages in terrorist activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B;

and (2) conspiracy to provide material support by agreeing to provide personnel (including themselves), knowing and intending that they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out a violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(f)(1) and (i), and to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, and ownership of such material support, all in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339A.

Abraham and Batiste were also convicted of conspiracy to maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive a building leased to an agency of the United States (the FBI) and a building used in interstate and foreign commerce (the Sears Tower), all in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(n). Additionally, Batiste was convicted of conspiracy to levy war against the Government of the United States and to oppose by force the authority thereof in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2384.

This opinion dealt with multiple issues, which Bobby Chesney has summarized at Lawfare, Convictions Affirmed in “Miami Seven” Case (http://www.lawfareblog.com/2011/11/convictions-affirmed-in-miami-seven-case/):


* Charges under the material support statutes (2339A and 2339B) are not subject to the Treason Clause because the elements of those offenses differ from a charge of treason.

* The evidence was sufficient to support the conclusion that the defendants conspired to act under al Qaeda’s direction and control, rather than to act independently.

* The opinion is somewhat unclear regarding the defendants’ argument that taking photographs of federal buildings from public viewpoints cannot constitute material support. On one hand, the opinion clearly rejects the argument that such activity implicates the language in Holder v. HLP in which the Supreme Court discussed whether speech imparted specialized knowledge. On the other hand, the panel went on to focus on the defendants’ participation in an al Qaeda oath ceremony as well as their acts of photography, rather than just saying that the photography was itself an act of material support.

* It does not matter if a person takes an oath to support al Qaeda based on financial motivations rather than ideological affinity.

* It is not clear whether the definition of “personnel” contained in 18 USC 2339B(h) apply as well to a material support charge based on “personnel” under 18 USC 2339A, though that turned out not to matter in this case since the evidence sufficed to meet the direction-and-control standard.

* On the overall strength of the evidence and the fact that there were two prior hung juries: “We recognize that the evidence supporting Augustin’s, Phanor’s, and Augustine’s convictions on both Count 1 and Count 2 is far from overwhelming. Indeed, two juries failed to convict on these counts. But those juries also failed to acquit. Ultimately, with the benefit of three months of testimony and over five days of deliberation, the third jury arrived at a verdict, distinguishing between the various defendants and various counts. We cannot say that the jury was unreasonable in concluding that the government carried its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Augustin, Phanor, and Augustine violated § 2339A and § 2339B as charged.”

* Applying a plain error standard, the panel rejected the argument that the FBI’s role in the scheme amounted to outrageous government conduct in violation of the Due Process Clause.

* It was permissible for one of the investigating agents to testify about how various statements by a defendant had impacted the course of the investigation; this did not constitute improper testimony about the defendant’s state of mind, though the court called this a “very fine line.” The testimony also was relevant in that it was probative of why the investigation unfolded as it did, an issue that had become material because of the entrapment issue.

The importance of this case is that, from start to finish, the plot was fabricated by the FBI and its informant from the local Muslim community - and was, in that sense, not "real". As I've said a number of times, the defense of entrapment (in one form or another) is often asserted, bur rarely successfully.

Regards

Mike

Kevin23
11-21-2011, 01:16 AM
An unspecified individual and threat was arrested earlier today in NYC after they were reportedly planning a lone wolf attack on armed service members returning home from deployment.

This is a just breaking story,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/20/new-york-city-terror-news-conference_n_1104195.html

omarali50
11-21-2011, 01:29 AM
Looks like the most incompetent and closely surveilled "lone moron" yet.
The Jihadi cause in the US seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
To an outsider like me, it does look like the threat from a real organization with state patronage may be the only serious threat. Everything else is just police work and dumb luck (or lack of it). Organizations that used to have state patronage may still have some serious capabilities, but without a sanctuary, a serious well planned attack seems hard to imagine.
And before anyone jumps on me, let me note that I think 9-11 plotters did indeed have a sanctuary and did have training and support from more than one state (including, for some of their helpers, from the US in the 1980s). No self-started group of wannabe jihadis could have done it then and none can do it now.
Of course, there may be a whole secret world of plotters out there about whom I am clueless. But from reading the news, doesnt this look like a fair summary?

Bill Moore
11-21-2011, 01:53 AM
I agree there are a lot of incompetent want to bes out there, especially the self actualized the ones who are limited to training via the internet. However, I disagree that without State support we don't have to worry about a serious terrorist attack. Of course depending on your view of serious. I would consider Tim McVeigh's (sp?) attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma a serious attack without a State sponsor. There are plenty of opportunities for ex-military members/police from numerous nations to train indepedent actors (with no state sponsors) to be fairly competent with small arms and to develop home made explosives. The Mumbai attack was state sponsored, but it definitely doesn't have to be. I think of two incidents off hand where one or two attackers without State sponsors caused a lot of mayhem. The bank robbers in L.A. a few years back who wore head to toe body armor and held off a number of police officers for an extended period of time. If it was their intent to kill civilians and a lot of them, they easily could have. The kid at the college/university in W. VA who managed to kill several students before the police responded. Some consider MAJ Hansan's attack in TX a serious attack. A couple of other attacks come to mind overseas. First the chemical in Japan by Aum Shinrikyo, and the right wing Italians who denotated a large bomb in a train station in Bologna that killed over 80 people.

If you're asking if a non-state sponsored group can conduct a 9/11 level attack, I think the answer is a definite yes, but those attacks will outliers not the norm, because most people who gravitate to terrorism are relatively incompetent to begin with, but there are exceptions and for those exceptions there are opportunities for mass mayhem.

omarali50
11-21-2011, 05:30 PM
you are right about the possibility of mayhem with lone rangers (the Norway Shooter would also qualify). I was wrong. What I would now say (having been corrected) is that whether they kill a lot of people or not, they are then police problems, not military problems. No war needs to be launched to stop such attacks and no war can do anything about them. State-sponsored terrorism is an entirely different problem and is a more logical target for state-to-state confrontation, pressure and even war (though the cost-benefit in favor of war may be relatively rare, dont you think?).
Something like that. As you can see, I am making this up as I go along. I aim to learn.

Bill Moore
11-22-2011, 05:36 AM
What I would now say (having been corrected) is that whether they kill a lot of people or not, they are then police problems, not military problems. No war needs to be launched to stop such attacks and no war can do anything about them.

I can understand the logic behind this statement, but I am not entirely convinced this is true. I definitely agree there is no requirement for large military forces to occupy foreign lands to fight terrorism, but I think there is still a major (I would argue a critical) role for intelligence and special operations forces to continue waging a war against these groups in the shadows. That is sustainable long term (from the cost perspective) and I think ultimately more effective. The example given for this thread was a homegrown threat that clearly was a police problem, but his mentor Anwar Awlaki was an intelligence/SOF problem, as are many others who plan and inspire operations against the U.S. from afar. The police can only act defensively, which doesn't give us much depth when it comes to defense. I think an offensive element for this conflict is critical.

tequila
11-22-2011, 03:23 PM
In Jose Pimental Terror Case, FBI Worries Over Informer (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nyregion/for-jose-pimentel-bomb-plot-suspect-an-online-trail.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print)



The suspect had little money to speak of, was unable to pay his cellphone bill and scrounged for money to buy the drill bits that court papers said he required to make his pipe bombs. Initially, he had trouble drilling the small holes that needed to be made in the metal tubes.

The suspect, Jose Pimentel (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/jose_pimentel/index.html?inline=nyt-per), according to several people briefed on the case, would seek help from a neighbor in Upper Manhattan as well as a confidential informer. That informer provided companionship and a staging area so Mr. Pimentel, a Muslim convert, could build three pipe bombs while the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_city_police_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org) built its case ...

Mr. Pimentel, 27, who lived with his uncle in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood after his mother threw him out recently, appears to be unstable, according to several of the people briefed on the case, three of whom said he had tried to circumcise himself ...

In the task force, investigators were concerned that the case raised some entrapment questions, two people said. They added that some investigators wondered whether Mr. Pimentel had the even small amount of money or technical know-how necessary to produce a pipe bomb on his own, had he not received help from the informer ...

There is a practical advantage to bringing the case in New York State court: state prosecutors said they were allowed to charge Mr. Pimentel with a conspiracy, even if he were acting with just the informant; federal law does not permit charging such a conspiracy.

omarali50
11-22-2011, 03:28 PM
OK, so we may be converging to the same points.
1. A state that clearly sponsors terrorist groups would face at least the possibility of war, if other means don't work. But other means can probably work against most states except a couple of big powers (if you include blockade and such-like in other means) as long as "the international community" knows what it wants and why?
2. A group that operates without direct state support still lives in some state (like Awlaki in Yemen). Either that state takes care of him (which may take us to 1 if they don't) or if they don't have the capacity, then someone or something (these days, thing more likely than one) goes and blows him up? Is that what you are saying?
3. In both cases, occupation is not the first or even the tenth choice.

So what to do about occupations already in progress?
and what if other considerations set aside 1 and 2?
Does the US still occupy countries to get oil or bases or copper mines (or better terms for United Fruit)? This is not a rhetorical question. I am genuinely curious. Coming from a left-liberal universe, we were always exposed to the idea that those are primary goals in most interventions. Some (like the United Fruit business) obviously happened, but maybe events in small banana republics in the home hemisphere were never typical of worldwide US actions (i.e., the Left used them for propaganda even where it was not remotely true). In any case, is that the case any longer? does the US ever intervene militarily for these reasons? and if so, how can it ever pass a cost-benefit analysis? and if not, then what was the thought process behind, say, the occupation of Iraq? Just one of those things that happen (as in "#### happens"). Perhaps because it IS profitable for a number of individuals and companies even if it is a huge loss for everyone else?
I personally lean more towards the last two sentences, but am genuinely open to being convinced otherwise.

Stan
11-22-2011, 03:56 PM
The example given for this thread was a homegrown threat that clearly was a police problem, but his mentor Anwar Awlaki was an intelligence/SOF problem, as are many others who plan and inspire operations against the U.S. from afar. The police can only act defensively, which doesn't give us much depth when it comes to defense. I think an offensive element for this conflict is critical.

And at home under the guise of support to law enforcement ? Our military would have no problem protecting our borders and supporting our police.

I realize I'm a bit out in left field, but, what good is it to have our intel and military if they are not covering home plate ?

Short of martial law that is :eek:

Bill Moore
11-23-2011, 06:33 AM
Stan,

If the military is required to protect the homeland by operating in the homeland it can do so (if they're directed to by the appropriate authorities), but the current threat sure as heck doesn't require that and it is unlikely that this particular group will ever require augmenting the police with the military again in the near term with the possible of exception of deploying troops to airports in reaction (not to prevent) a successful attack. I think the local police and feds can handle most of the issues. For the ones they can't they can always ask for help.

davidbfpo
12-01-2011, 01:44 PM
Reading US coverage of suspected terrorism within the USA I have been puzzled at the series of plots uncovered - as my earlier posts indicate - and of late the difference between NYPD and the FBI over the threat posed in plots NYPD investigated.

This FP article is rather stark:
Pimentel had managed to scrape down "over 700" match heads -- which usually utilize phosphorus as the active agent -- to manufacture his explosive material. Leaving aside the stupidity of scratching match heads when gunpowder works just as easily, fans of the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters might recall that the show's hosts failed to produce an explosion when they ignited one million match heads. The idea that the scrapings from 700 match heads dispersed across three pipe bombs would kill "a lot of people" is suspect at best.

This paragraph refers to statistics and cites melons:
That statistic warrants repeating: Despite dozens of plots, homegrown jihadists have only managed to kill 15 people in the United States since 9/11 -- and 13 of those deaths were the result of one unstable soldier's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. Just to put this in perspective, more Americans have been killed here at home by contaminated cantaloupe in the past few months than have been killed by violent Islamic extremists in the past decade!

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/30/the_idiot_jihadist_next_door?page=0,0

For a host of reasons, many political, others bureaucratic and some sinister it is hard to get a sensible, public statement on the real threat posed by the "enemy within".

AdamG
12-01-2011, 03:05 PM
The Nigerian Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram poses an “emerging threat” to the United States and is set to join other al Qaeda affiliates in plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland, a congressional panel said Wednesday.

U.S. intelligence agencies must not underestimate Boko Haram’s ability and desire to strike directly at the United States, a mistake they made with al Qaeda affiliates in both Pakistan and Yemen in recent years, a House Homeland Security subcommittee said in a bipartisan staff report published at a hearing Wednesday.

“The U.S. intelligence community must not underestimate Boko Haram’s intent and capability to strike U.S. interests and most importantly, the U.S. homeland,” said Rep. Patrick Meehan, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/nigerian-terrorists-pose-threat-to-us/



On Tuesday, Defence Minister Bello Haliru Mohammed said Nigeria was strengthening defence ties with neighbouring Niger to stem the flow of weapons from Libya, Nigeria's privately owned Tribune newspaper reports.

"We are very much aware of the movement of arms and explosives that were stolen from Libya," he is quoted as saying.

Mr Mohammed said the European Union (EU) had also offered to assist.

"They have fears also of disruption in our sub-region, if these weapons are allowed to proliferate without challenge. And Mali, Central African Republic, Mauritania [and] Niger are all coming together to set a joint operation to fight movement of these weapons," he is quoted as saying.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15981656

See also
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=7914

davidbfpo
12-02-2011, 05:57 PM
Hat tip to LWOT that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) have published this report, which on a quick skim is encyclopaedic in coverage and sources. Maybe useful as a reference guide:http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R41416.pdf

Chowing
12-07-2011, 04:59 PM
Post created for a new thread; please refer to Post 5 for cross-references.

So much for African terrorism not being of concern to the US. In a story just out today by longtime federal prosecutor W. Anders Folk in testimony before th the Investigative Project on Terrorism:
According to an investigative report issued in July by the House Homeland Security Committee's majority staff, Shabaab-related federal indictments "account for the largest number and significant upward trend in homegrown terrorism cases" filed by the Justice Department, with at least 38 cases unsealed since 2009

Link:http://www.investigativeproject.org/3323/prosecutor-warns-not-to-ignore-al-shabaab-threat

KingJaja
12-07-2011, 07:27 PM
Doesn't Al Shabab in the US have more to do with a large concentration of Somali immigrants in places like Minnesota?

That is a risk that has to be dealt with, but it is nothing like the Muslim enclaves in Bradford, Birmingham and London. (I once lived in Leeds, not too far from Bradford).

America is great at integrating immigrants unlike most of Europe.

Stan
12-07-2011, 08:10 PM
Al Shabaab (http://homeland.house.gov/sites/homeland.house.gov/files/Investigative%20report.pdf): Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American
Community and the Threat to the Homeland


COMMITTEE FINDING: More than 40 Americans from Muslim-American
communities across the U.S. have joined Shabaab since 2007, including two-dozen
recruits from Minneapolis, Somalia experts told the Committee’s Majority staff. Three
who returned home have been charged in U.S. courts, one awaits extradition from The
Netherlands, and 15 are believed dead, leaving as many as 21 American Shabaab
fighters still at large or unaccounted for. At least 20 Canadians of Somali descent,
many from Toronto, also have disappeared and are believed to have joined Shabaab,
according to Canadian security officials.

Much more at the link

KingJaja
12-07-2011, 08:36 PM
Is Al Shabab:

1. Purely an Islamic terrorist organisation.
2. A nationalist movement triggered by the US sponsored invasion of Somalia.
3. Equal parts (1) and (2).

I'm asking because I suspect it is not only Islam motivating a significant number of ethnic Somalis to fight against foreign forces in Somalia or to attack the US.

davidbfpo
12-07-2011, 09:48 PM
Post created for a new thread and so will appear out of sequence.

Three members have drawn attention whether the Jihadist group in Somalia, Al-Shabaab / Al-Shabab poses a threat to the USA and this discussion may take-off.

There are several threads on the subject, notably Terrorism in the USA:threat & response (merged thread):http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=8828

Somalia: not piracy catch all thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=8468

Horn of Africa historical (pre-2011): catch all thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=789

davidbfpo
12-14-2011, 04:05 PM
Hat tip to LWOT for this 'must read' in the NYT, which opens with:
It is the other Guantnamo, an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away on back roads. Today, it houses far more men convicted in terrorism cases than the shrunken population of the prison in Cuba that has generated so much debate.

Nice to know the numbers:
Today, 171 prisoners remain at Guantnamo. As of Oct. 1, the federal Bureau of Prisons reported that it was holding 362 people convicted in terrorism-related cases, 269 with what the bureau calls a connection to international terrorism up from just 50 in 2000. An additional 93 inmates have a connection to domestic terrorism.

That hardy perennial how many fight again?
Rare recidivism. By contrast with the record at Guantnamo, where the Defense Department says that about 25 percent of those released are known or suspected of subsequently joining militant groups, it appears extraordinarily rare for the federal prison inmates with past terrorist ties to plot violence after their release.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/beyond-guantanamo-bay-a-web-of-federal-prisons.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

davidbfpo
12-15-2011, 08:45 PM
In a wide ranging commentary on current US CT strategy a South African academic, Hussein Solomon, includes a reminder that I only vaguely remembered:
..the terrorist challenge the United States was confronted with in the form of Puerto Rican nationalists and militant leftists. Between January 1969 and October 1970, 370 bombings occurred in New York City alone.

For the current situation he writes:
The American resolve remained undaunted and the challenge posed by these violent nationalists and the Weather Underground joined history’s legions of other failures.

Unfortunately this aspect of America is not getting through to those who believe that Americans are essentially weak and will easily give in to blackmail. To the extent that this perception of American weakness persists, it will continue to encourage terrorists to strike American targets in the hope of affecting some change in policy.

This constitutes a missing dimension in US counter-terrorism efforts.

Link:http://icsr.info/blog/The-Missing-Dimension-in-Counter-Terrorism

He wrote this before the most recent legislation was passed:
the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. The legislation is supposed to provide the money for the Pentagon to keep America safe.....

The new NDAA effectively allows the military to act on American soil and detain indefinitely anyone, including a US citizen, suspected of terrorism.

Link:http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/12/15/us-opinion-so-american-citizens-can-be-detained-indefinitely.html

davidbfpo
01-07-2012, 03:56 PM
A lengthy article reviewing home-grown terrorism in the USA:
My conclusion should be generally reassuring to Americans: Muslim homegrown terrorism does not at present appear to constitute a serious threat to their welfare. Nor is there a significant analytical or evidentiary basis for anticipating that it will become one in the near future. It does not appear that Muslim Americans are increasingly motivated or capable of engaging in terrorist attacks against their fellow citizens and residents

That also cites former National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair’s characterization in February 2011 of violence
..from “homegrown jihadists” as “sporadic,” in which a “handful of individuals and small, discrete cells will seek to mount attacks each year, with only a small portion of that activity materializing into violence against the homeland.

Link:http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21390/muslim_homegrown_terrorism_in_the_united_states.ht ml

AdamG
01-10-2012, 05:41 PM
Pinellas Park, Florida -- A Pinellas Park man is accused of planning to attack crowded Tampa locations -- including night clubs -- with a car bomb, assault rifle and other explosives.

Sami Osmakac, 25, was arrested Saturday night. He is charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. A federal judge ordered him held without bond during his first court appearance Monday afternoon. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/article/230979/250/Pinellas-Park-man-accused-of-bomb-plot



Tampa, Florida -- His arrest affidavit suggests Sami Osmakac's first choice was to go after military targets in the Bay area, but thought they were too secure.

"I would love to go after the Army people," he said, according to the affidavit. "But the bases are so locked up."
http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/231011/8/Sami-Osmakac-Potential-targets-find-alleged-Tampa-terror-plot-disturbing

davidbfpo
01-24-2012, 07:59 PM
The importance of New York City, with NYPD as a key partner, in reducing crime and improving quality of life is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. That does not mean the methods used by NYC & NYPD are understood.

Today I found a Labour Peer's blogsite pointing at the work of a University of Berkeley criminology professor, Franklin Zimring; which might impact the Metropolitan Police's Commissioner's policies:http://www.lordtobyharris.org.uk/will-commissioner-bernard-hogan-howe-follow-a-new-york-model-of-policing-in-new-york/

Here are the links to:

a) Vera Institute podcast (9mins):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXZgSnKfN5U
b) Scientific American interview (30 mins): http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-city-that-became-safe-what-new-11-08-09
c) Website article:http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2011-10-the-new-york-miracle
d) Professor's book:http://www.amazon.com/City-that-Became-Safe-Lessons/dp/0199844429

In this discovery LAPD is mentioned in this article, which is more about police reform:http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/articles/2012-01-an-lapd-critic-comes-in-from-the-cold

Undoubtedly the professor has his critics, as does NYPD, but this maybe of interest to SWC readers.

AdamG
01-25-2012, 03:45 PM
RALEIGH, N.C. — One of the men involved in a Johnston County terrorist cell that authorities said plotted attacks on a Marine base in Virginia and foreign targets tried to have witnesses in his trial last fall killed, according to federal records unsealed Monday.

Hysen Sherifi was found guilty after a month-long trial of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism and conspiring to carry out attacks overseas, two counts of firearms possession and conspiring to kill federal officers or employees. He was sentenced two weeks ago to 45 years in prison.

Federal authorities said Sherifi tried to hire someone to kill and behead at least three witnesses in the case, and he wanted pictures of the corpses to prove that they were dead. He also wanted a fellow inmate killed, believing the man tricked him out of some money, according to court documents.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/10637165/

AdamG
02-01-2012, 07:01 PM
Interesting perspective -


PALO ALTO, California - Like left-over food repeatedly reheated for public consumption, United States allegations of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington received a new lease of life on Monday via the congressional testimony of the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, as a dress rehearsal for a fuller bout of Iran-bashing at this week's "threat assessment" hearings in congress.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB02Ak01.html

Also, cross-reference (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showpost.php?p=131803&postcount=39)

davidbfpo
02-22-2012, 04:01 PM
Hat tip to FP Blog for this excellent article on the Lone Wolves / Lone Wolf aspect to modern terrorism; admittedly I thought there was a thread on the loners, so I've placed it here as every example bar one is American:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/21/lone_wolves?page=0,0


The lone wolf we need to worry about is truly solitary and self-motivated: someone who doesn't talk to people about his plans and doesn't require meaningful assistance from informed accomplices. Anyone who fails to meet those conditions is a different kind of threat...

I do like these two passages, which I have juxtaposed:
They are essentially al Qaeda volunteers -- people who step forward and offer their services to a terrorist organization that can provide them with resources and support.


They were receiving advice, concrete assistance, and passive reinforcement from people they believed -- rightly or wrongly -- to be part of larger terrorist organizations.

And who:
were actually undercover law enforcement agents or informants..

davidbfpo
03-22-2012, 10:27 PM
The activity of NYPD has appeared here before and there is a SWJ article that should be read:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=15307

Assessing the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Efforts Targeting America’s Muslims

jmm99
03-29-2012, 01:08 AM
From AP-Time, Mich. 'Hutaree' Militia Members Acquitted (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2110340,00.html) (by ED WHITE; Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2012):


(DETROIT) — A federal judge on Tuesday gutted the government's case against seven members of a Michigan militia, dismissing the most serious charges in an extraordinary defeat for federal authorities who insisted they had captured homegrown rural extremists poised for war.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said the members' expressed hatred of law enforcement didn't amount to a conspiracy to rebel against the government. The FBI had secretly planted an informant and an FBI agent inside the Hutaree militia starting in 2008 to collect hours of anti-government audio and video that became the cornerstone of the case. "The court is aware that protected speech and mere words can be sufficient to show a conspiracy. In this case, however, they do not rise to that level," the judge said on the second anniversary of raids and arrests that broke up the group.

Roberts granted requests for acquittal on the most serious charges: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the U.S. and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Other weapons crimes tied to the alleged conspiracies also were dismissed. "The judge had a lot of guts," defense attorney William Swor said. "It would have been very easy to say, 'The heck with it,' and hand it off to the jury. But the fact is she looked at the evidence, and she looked at it very carefully."

The trial, which began Feb. 13, will resume Thursday with only a few gun charges remaining against militia leader David Stone and son Joshua Stone, both from Lenawee County, Mich. They have been in custody without bond for two years. ... (more)

Extended coverage:

A New Name in American Paranoia: The Hutaree Militia (http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2010/03/29/a-new-name-in-american-paranoia-the-hutaree-militia/)

The Hutaree Among Us: A Michigan Town in the Glare (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1976665,00.html)

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
04-15-2012, 11:58 AM
An ICSR article looking back at the BLA in the early 1970's; which ends with:
The case of the BLA does not offer any tidy counterterrorism lessons. But it does help us remember that homegrown U.S. terrorism did not begin on 9/11. Moreover, the BLA reminds us that domestic violent extremism is not confined to individuals or groups who identify themselves as Muslims. Finally, the campaign against the BLA shows that even extremely violent terrorist groups can be dismantled by relatively mundane counterterrorism tools like police investigations, aggressive prosecutions, and long prison sentences—in other words, by treating terrorists like dangerous criminals.

Link:http://icsr.info/blog/The-Black-Liberation-Army-and-Homegrown-Terrorism-in-1970s-America

jmm99
04-15-2012, 07:29 PM
As Bob Hope (our expat Brit) used to sing - Thanks for the Memory ....

We should remember context, of course ...

From the START database (its history and methodology (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/about/History.aspx)), we have four of the USAian groups mentioned in the article:


Perpetrators: (Black Liberation Army) - SEARCH RESULTS: 37 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=&casualties_max=&perpetrator=3497&count=100&charttype=line&chart=overtime&ob=GTDID&od=desc&expanded=yes#results-table)

Perpetrators: (Black Panthers) - SEARCH RESULTS: 25 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?expanded=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&success=yes&perpetrator=4659&ob=GTDID&od=desc&page=1&count=30)

Perpetrators: (Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)) - SEARCH RESULTS: 7 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&perpetrator=3573&charttype=line&chart=overtime&ob=GTDID&od=desc&expanded=yes#results-table)

Perpetrators: (Weather Underground, Weathermen) - SEARCH RESULTS: 45 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?expanded=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&success=yes&perpetrator=1231&ob=GTDID&od=desc&page=1&count=50)
and, for comparison, the IRA (not including splinter IRA groups):


Perpetrators: (Irish Republican Army (IRA)) - SEARCH RESULTS: 2673 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&perpetrator=417&count=100&charttype=line&chart=overtime&ob=GTDID&od=desc&expanded=yes#results-table)

the last being quite a different kettle of fish.

Adding to the foregoing:


Country: (Northern Ireland)(not including attacks related to Northern Ireland, but occuring elsewhere) - SEARCH RESULTS: 3885 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&country=233&count=100&charttype=line&chart=overtime&ob=GTDID&od=desc&expanded=yes#results-table)

Country: (United States) - SEARCH RESULTS: 2347 INCIDENTS (http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?expanded=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&dtp2=all&success=yes&country=217&ob=GTDID&od=desc&page=1&count=100)

Note that (in #s per year) the early 70s in the US far exceeded what has occured since.

Regards

Mike

Presley Cannady
04-17-2012, 04:59 AM
We should remember context, of course ...

Context is the last refuge of the guy who says "Hey, simmer down now! Are they really shooting at us?"


From the START database...

Data entry, unlike terrorism, will never die.

jmm99
04-17-2012, 06:19 PM
What are you trying to say here ?

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
04-20-2012, 12:41 PM
A lengthy FP Blog article 'Patriot Games' and better explained by the sub-title:
How the FBI spent a decade hunting white supremacists and missed Timothy McVeigh.

Yesterday being the seventeenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City mass murder.

Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/18/patriot_games?page=full

The article ends with:
There are obviously fundamental differences between targeting the radical fringe Patriot movement and targeting the mainstream Muslim community. Targeting all Muslims for infiltration is akin to targeting all white Americans to gain intelligence on supremacists. And the social consequences of fomenting paranoia and mistrust of government in overwhelmingly law-abiding communities are different than within a movement that fundamentally presumes government malfeasance....

The issue of how the government uses infiltration will continue to be hotly debated. By looking at the lessons of the past, we can start to craft the right questions for the future.

AdamG
05-01-2012, 03:30 PM
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Five men, at least three of them anarchists, plotted to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, but there was no danger to the public because the explosives were inoperable and were controlled by an undercover FBI employee, the agency said Tuesday in announcing the men's arrests.

The target of the plot was a bridge that carries a four-lane highway over part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the Brecksville area, about 15 miles south of downtown Cleveland, the FBI said.

Authorities said three of the men were arrested Monday and are self-described anarchists, not tied to international terrorism.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLEVELAND_ARRESTS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=

AdamG
06-10-2012, 02:12 PM
"Most Likely" a lone nutter / Ted Kaczynski fan, but worth noting -


PHOENIX — Flick the switch on these flashlights and they don't light up. They blow up.

Three of these bombs have exploded within the last month in the Phoenix area, causing minor injuries to five people and raising fears of more serious ones.

Police still have no idea who is behind them and have taken the unusual step of putting up 22 billboards across the sprawling metro area to warn residents about discarded flashlights.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47747069/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.T9QxHcWd6So

AdamG
07-26-2012, 12:45 PM
WASHINGTON — The militant organization that was once the scourge of the U.S. militarycampaign in Iraq and probably is responsible for more than 100 deaths in the country over the last few days has set its sights on launching attacks in the United States, intelligence officials said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq released a message this week that threatened to strike at the "heart" of the United States, and several associates of the group have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada in the last two years, said American officials, a sign that the organization has tried to establish a network in North America.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-qaeda-us-20120726,0,6632983.story

davidbfpo
08-10-2012, 05:58 PM
Announced in New York city:
a system which aggregates and analyzes information from cameras, license-plate readers, sensors and law enforcement databases...

The Domain Awareness System, unveiled by the city on Wednesday, will be able to map suspects' movements and provide NYPD investigators and analysts with real-time crime alerts. While the new system does not add to the city's surveillance infrastructure, it aims to make the existing data easier to use.

Link:http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120808/TECHNOLOGY/120809887

I hope expectations are not too high, the experience of the UK has not been impressive - except in CT and focussed priority investigations. Plus the opposition rapidly adjust their M.O.

AdamG
08-17-2012, 04:48 PM
How do we define 'success'?

Building an Orwellian urban prison isn't exactly a textbook definition of "winning".

AdamG
10-31-2012, 04:04 PM
The "O" in OPSEC doesn't stand for "Oops"


The New York Post is quivering in fear and outrage over a graduate level course for intelligence analysts that requires students to write a fake terrorism plot, complete with methods of execution, sources of funding, number of operatives needed and the target government’s reaction.

Students, who are training for intelligence and counterterrorism careers, must take into account the “goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operational area,” the syllabus states — according to the Post‘s harrowing story Monday.

The Post‘s crack investigative team uncovered the covert training of terrorists by obtaining the syllabus of the class offered by NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/terrorism-homework/

AdamG
01-22-2013, 05:53 PM
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) -- A dead science teacher, weapons of mass destruction, first responders in hazmat suits and the Ohio Army National Guard all near the Municipal Stadium in Portsmouth, Thursday. There's no cause for alarm -- this is just a drill!

The mock disaster training exercise is being done with Scioto County first responders and the Ohio Army National Guard 52nd Civil Support Unit.

"It's the reality of the world we live in," says Portsmouth Police Chief Bill Raisin. "Don't forget there is such a thing as domestic terrorism. This helps us all be prepared."

The make-believe scenario is timely. Two school employees who are disgruntled over the government's interpretation of the Second Amendment, plot to use chemical, biological and radiological agents against members of the local community.

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/Mock-Disaster-Training-Exercise-in-Scioto-County-187322931.html

bourbon
01-23-2013, 02:12 PM
FBI agent testifies that Oregon terrorism suspect had trouble with adult tasks. (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/16/fbi-agent-testifies-that-oregon-terrorism-suspect-had-trouble-with-adult-tasks/) Associated Press, 16 January 2013.

The attorney also played recordings in which the agents asked Mohamud to rent a large storage shed in which to build the bomb.

Youssef testified the FBI assigned such tasks to test the Mohamud's resolve. In this test, however, Mohamud initially didn't understand what type of storage unit the agents wanted, and then took a month to follow through. The agent acknowledged that he and another agent had to prod Mohamud, eventually giving him the name of a storage company and driving by.

"Not much of a test if you're pointing out the right one," Hay said.

I cant help but think that one of these days there is going to be a serious terrorist cell inside our country, and the FBI is going to be judicially hamstrung because they have wasted whatever wiggle room they had - when it comes to entrapment and provocation - on feeble-minded suspects.

jmm99
01-23-2013, 02:33 PM
from Bourbon
I cant help but think that one of these days there is going to be a serious terrorist cell inside our country, and the FBI is going to be judicially hamstrung because they have wasted whatever wiggle room they had - when it comes to entrapment and provocation - on feeble-minded suspects.

Good point.

I'm not a fan of the entrapment defense: subjectively (Another successful sting (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?p=111090&highlight=entrapment#post111090)); analytically in considering individual cases (Augustin Sting Operation Affirmed by 11th Circuit (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?p=127764&highlight=entrapment#post127764)); and objectively in considering its overall failure rate (It usually does fail (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?p=118213&highlight=entrapment#post118213)):


2005 Michigan Law Review, Psychology, factfinding, and entrapment (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-132002055.html)

Although accurate statistical evidence of the frequency with which the entrapment defense succeeds is difficult to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is seldom successful. One survey of practicing criminal defense attorneys described it as "judicially unpopular," (17) best used only "in desperate circumstances," (18) or "in a few cases with ideal facts," where "plea bargaining has proved unsuccessful," (19) and "no other defense is possible." (20) Another survey of State's Attorneys in Chicago reveals a perception that in narcotics sales cases where the defendant pleads entrapment, "the jury will convict almost every time." (21) The author of one police manual on the execution of sting operations states that he has "never, in hundreds of cases, ever lost one to entrapment," and that in all the sting operations he has studied, he has "not heard of a single case being lost to a defense of entrapment." (22)

But, going to the well too often (when the well is already fouled) is potentially not healthy for living prosecutions.

Regards

Mike

davidbfpo
01-26-2013, 12:19 AM
The issues around the Somalia community in Minneapolis are familiar here, although other communities exist in other cities and Canada, Minneapolis appears to be the focal point.

This Somali newspaper report indicates that removing young Somali men, long resident, but not born in the USA, are being detained pending removal to Somalia:http://horseedmedia.net/2013/01/24/minneapolis-men-face-deportation-to-somalia-they-had-escaped-as-children/

I expect this is an executive decision and quite legal, if fraught with problems.


Now, the Twin Cities Somali community circulates rumors of scores of their members who have been deported to Somalia and hundreds who wait their fate at detention centers. ICE officials have not confirmed the total number of Somalis who have been deported so far or kept in detention.

Many community members have expressed disappointment in the government’s decision to send people back to the dangerous country they’ve escaped.

davidbfpo
02-03-2013, 12:18 AM
A different slant, a research study based on indictments, not convictions:
...there were nine terrorist plots involving American Muslims in 2012. Only one of them, the attempted bombing of a Social Security office in Arizona, actually led to any violence. There were no casualties in that or any other incident.

Link to report:http://tcths.sanford.duke.edu/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_final2013.pdf and to short press report:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/american-muslim-terrorism/

davidbfpo
03-11-2013, 10:53 PM
Caught via Twitter is a new report on the extensively reported NYPD domestic information gathering operation, co-written by CUNY School of Law and an advocacy group. It is 50 pgs:http://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/clinics/immigration/clear/Mapping-Muslims.pdf

There is a wide-ranging article in Salon, with multiple links, which is very critical:http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/new_yorks_finest_islamophobes/

davidbfpo
03-12-2013, 10:26 PM
An abridged edition of a 700+ page research report by the UK branch of the Henry Jackson Society, with a very comprehensive set of figures:
.. shows how the terrorist threat within the U.S. has developed, by profiling all AQ or AQinspired terrorists who were convicted in U.s. courts (federal and military) or who participated in suicide attacks against the US homeland between 1997 and 2011.

Link:http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Al-Qaeda-in-the-USAbridged-version-LOWRES-Final.pdf

davidbfpo
04-06-2013, 08:07 PM
I suspect the recent shootings of Colorado's prisons and two prosecutors in Texas have prompted the CNN piece by Peter Bergen 'Growing threat of extreme right-wing violence':http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/04/opinion/bergen-right-wing-violence/index.html

At the start:
While American politicians and the U.S. public continue to focus on the threat from jihadist extremists, there seems to be too little awareness that this domestic form of political violence is a growing problem at home.

From 2002 to 2007, only nine right-wing extremists were indicted for their roles in politically motivated murders and other types of ideologically motivated violent assaults. But between 2008 and 2012, the number mushroomed to 53, according to data collected by the New America Foundation.

The NAF data:http://homegrown.newamerica.net/

CNN and NAF have some interesting facts / statistics and Peter draws attention to important facts:
Fifteen right-wing extremists were indicted in 2012 ...only six people who subscribed to al Qaeda's ideology were indicted on terrorism-related charges in the United States....it's striking that the jihadists charged with crimes were much less likely to have actually carried out a violent attack before they were arrested.

Bill Moore
04-07-2013, 02:45 AM
The focus on right wing violence is nothing new, and I suspect the recent announcements (past 5 or so years) calling for a focus on right wing violence is at least partly a recognization we dedicated too much focus on Al-Qaeda within our borders, which gave other groups and individuals in the criminal arena more room to maneuver.

I'm not comfortable with the term "right wing" violence, because too many occassociate it with the far right fringe of our political parties. They have their criminals that attack abortion clinics (though it can and is debated about who the actual criminals are), but for the most I would argue that Aryan Nation, Neo-Nazis, and others along those lines are to the far left much like the Marxists. Hitler was a socialist, and like in many in our far left who embrace burning books, telling others what they can say and think, and even telling families how they "will" raise their kids, the far left terrorists want to impose their way of life upon others. Neither the Aryan Nation or Neo-Nazis represent the conservative branch (even at its extreme) on the far right side of our political parties.

The media focuses on the far right because it has headline appeal, but the reports also mention the traditional whackos from the the far left and the environmentalists. It should also be noted the Aryan Nation despite claims to the contrary is largely a criminal organization, and lot of their violence resembles the violence from Biker gangs. Problematic, but hardly on the scale of risk that a large scale terrorist attack intended to kill as many people as possible.

One of the few things I agree with the President on regarding domestic policy is we need to focus more on mental health. The potential to move that field forward with the advances in science is significant and could potentially reduce a wide range of criminal behavior to include dumb kids that will grabbing a gun and killing as many kids as possible at a local school or movie theater.

More surveillance and arrests may reduce some the violence, but it will continue to come at us unless we address more fundamental issues. Our Law Enforcement focus on the war on drugs keeps the police busy, but it doesn't seem to reduce the demand for drugs. We should all take a step back and reconsider where we need to focus to make our society safer.