Beyond Guantnamo, a Web of Prisons for Terrorism Inmates
Hat tip to LWOT for this 'must read' in the NYT, which opens with:
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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:
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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?
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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...2&pagewanted=1
It's all in the perception of your enemies
In a wide ranging commentary on current US CT strategy a South African academic, Hussein Solomon, includes a reminder that I only vaguely remembered:
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..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:
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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-Di...nter-Terrorism
He wrote this before the most recent legislation was passed:
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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/...efinitely.html
Muslim home-grown terrorism: an assessment
A lengthy article reviewing home-grown terrorism in the USA:
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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
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..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/...ed_states.html
New York City: a success story
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/wil...g-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/po...t-new-11-08-09
c) Website article:http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/i...w-york-miracle
d) Professor's book:http://www.amazon.com/City-that-Beca.../dp/0199844429
In this discovery LAPD is mentioned in this article, which is more about police reform:http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/a...-from-the-cold
Undoubtedly the professor has his critics, as does NYPD, but this maybe of interest to SWC readers.
Judge directs verdicts of aquittal
From AP-Time, Mich. 'Hutaree' Militia Members Acquitted (by ED WHITE; Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2012):
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(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
The Hutaree Among Us: A Michigan Town in the Glare
Regards
Mike
The Black Liberation Army and Homegrown Terrorism in 1970s America
An ICSR article looking back at the BLA in the early 1970's; which ends with:
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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-Libe...-1970s-America
NYPD, Microsoft launch crime-tracking system
Announced in New York city:
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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...LOGY/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.
