The Boston Marathon bombing
Moderator's Note
There is a thread 'Explosion at Boston Marathon', with 149 posts and 4,798 views to date; it remains separate at the moment:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=17930
Change of focus or just "spin"?
I always wonder about the contribution of WaPo's David Ignatius, who appears to be very close to parts of the US government and this RCP article is no exception.
It starts with a commentary on the DNI's testimony on Boston and he writes that:
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Given the limits on government surveillance of homegrown extremists, what's the strategy for preventing domestic terror? Basically, it focuses on outreach to Muslim and other communities to get their help in monitoring and disrupting mobilization for terrorist activities.
(He ends with) Analysts say talking to Muslim communities -- through Community Awareness Briefings at mosques, community centers and other meeting places -- is the most effective tool for preventing home-grown Islamist extremism. If Muslim families feel part of a larger American community, they have a greater stake in monitoring and preventing violence. That's not Dr. Phil talking, but some of the nation's hard-nosed counterterrorism specialists.
Clapper and his analysts have concluded that the right answer to home-grown plots isn't police-state surveillance but good community policing. This won't stop the occasional plot by people who get radicalized, like the Tsarnaevs, but as one analyst noted, "it's not likely to spike into a mass phenomenon."
Link:http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...ce_118241.html
I suspect a few interested parties, notably the IT providers and other contractors, will wonder if their hi-tech approach will be so generously funded.
It takes more than a beard
One of the better comments on the, assumed, radicalization of the two suspects by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross:http://thewasat.wordpress.com/2013/0...adicalization/
Why this was written:
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I wanted to introduce these radicalization models because they will help us to think about the points that follow. But my goal in this entry is not to discuss the merits or shortcomings of existing radicalization models. Rather, I want to outline some aspects of this case that strike me as significant.
This point is often lost in post-attack discussions:
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.. it is worth noting that there is a difference between someone holding extremist views and someone being likely to undertake violence.
The author's own website:http://www.daveedgr.com/ and on Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daveed_Gartenstein-Ross
Looking outwards when we should look inwards?
A somewhat different viewpoint, by a American anthropology academic:http://www.opendemocracy.net/david-w...rathon-bombing
A couple of passages:
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Lost in the move to connect Islam and the Tsarnaev’s Chechen heritage with terrorism is the role of schools and communities in the United States in addressing the alienation that led the brothers to committing such acts of violence.
All too easily forgotten:
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There were, after all, three days of the city functioning between the Monday bombing and the Friday lockdown.
Texas may stop funding its DPS fusion center?
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In a surprising move, Texas House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to wipe out funding for the Department of Public Safety’s fusion center (one of seven in Texas), part of a nationwide intelligence gathering initiative that has generated controversy in Washington.
If the House and Senate affirm the change, it could make Texas the first state to pull the rug from under one of the statewide fusion operations that began under a Department of Homeland Security offensive that has been criticized for wasting taxpayers’ money.
Link:http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news...atesman_launch
Responses via Twitter by an ex-FBI agent:
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Absent access to classified USIC intel, or dedicated intel collectors, Fusion Centers are just crime data and lead aggregators.....Lack of clearance to the intel data is a big issue with Fusion Centers. Without clearance, there is no real fusion
For reference there is a seperate, historical thread on fusion centers, which is closed now this thread covers more than fusion:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...read.php?t=277
The Terrorism Delusion - you decide
I thought this academic paper in International Security (Autumn 2012) had appeared on SWC before, but a search just suggests not. 'The Terrorism Delusion: America’s Overwrought Response to September 11 by John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart:http://politicalscience.osu.edu/facu...//absisfin.pdf
It is worth reading.
Whilst on duty: the good and the bad
A FP 'Argument' on the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, a retired agent; sub-titled:
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How Robert Mueller transformed -- for better and for worse -- the FBI into a counterterrorism agency.
Interesting to note the critique that the FBI (and others) looked away from 'white collar' crime, in particular mortgage fraud, which damaged the USA more than terrorism. A theme IIRC we have touched before, although maybe not so explicitly.
Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...rism?page=full
Effectiveness, expenses and tolerance
The work of NYPD has appeared here before, especially its intelligence gathering activities. Now the New Yorker Magazine adds a report, which ends with:
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Regardless of the outcome, the NYPD’s programs are likely to join waterboarding, secret prisons, and NSA wiretapping as emblems of post-9/11 America, when security justified many practices that would not have been tolerated before.
Link:http://nymag.com/news/features/nypd-...-9/index6.html
Curious that one insider began to wonder why the best restaurants featured all too often on expense forms, then the Zavi plot found the programme had nothing to offer.