Terrorist Groups Thesaurus / Open Source Guide

Added to the Threat Section of the SWJ Reference Library - Terrorist Groups Thesaurus / Open Source Guide. Communications Security Establishment, Target Analysis Centre (TAC) - OSINT Support guide, February 2006.

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All entities in this thesaurus/open source resource guide have been designated as terrorist organizations by one or more of the following organizations: The US State Department, US Terrorist Exclusion List, UK Prescribed Group, Canada Specified Group, and the EU Specified Group. Certain groups may not be government designated but are deemed insurgent groups. Not all groups are currently active.

The purpose of this document is to provide the analyst with a research tool that amalgamates all the different lists of terrorist groups’ official names, un-official names, and aliases into one document. The thesaurus component contains listings of preferred groups and non-preferred groups cross-referenced to the preferred groups. If there is a “mother-tongue” name equivalent to the group, it will be included in parenthesis. The terrorist group’s national area of operation and concentration is also indicated.

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From the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, Nov 06:

Militant Ideology Atlas - Executive Report

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The Militant Ideology Atlas identifies the most influential thinkers in the Jihadi Movement (see appendices) and delineates the movement’s key ideological vulnerabilities. It situates the Jihadi Movement within the various Muslim constituencies that Jihadi leaders seek to influence and persuade. These constituencies can be envisioned as a series of nesting circles. Each constituency is responsive to leaders in the broader constituencies of which it is a part, but each also has its own set of thinkers that are best positioned to influence their base...

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Militant Ideology Atlas - Research Compendium

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...Heeding the advice of those who waged such ideological struggles before us, the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point has dedicated much of its resources this year to understanding the Jihadi ideology through the words of its adherents. In its Harmony and Disharmony report, the CTC exposed the organizational weaknesses of al-Qa`ida using its own internal documents. CTC’s Jihadi Imagery Report catalogued frequently-used images in Jihadi propaganda. The translation of Abu Bakr Naji’s Management of Savagery released by the CTC focused new attention on the Jihadi Movement’s grand strategy in the Middle East. And Stealing al-Qa`ida’s Playbook exposed the ideology’s soft underbelly by using the writings of Jihadi scholars and ideologues.

The Militant Ideology Atlas is the CTC’s most recent and comprehensive attempt to better understand the ideology driving the Jihadi Movement. The empirically supported findings from this effort are generated by a systematic research methodology and critical analyses of hundreds of al-Qa`ida’s most widely-read and influential texts. The wealth of information contained in the Atlas’ Research Compendium provides a new generation of scholars and analysts with the data and evidence they need to understand our adversaries and to devise strategies for combating them...

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