Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

[AdamG]

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/...d-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/231...lot-disturbing

[AdamG]

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]

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

[davidbfpo]

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/article...olves?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]

The activity of NYPD has appeared here before and there is a SWJ article that should be read:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=15307

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

[davidbfpo]

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-Libe...-1970s-America

[jmm99]

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), we have four of the USAian groups mentioned in the article:

Perpetrators: (Black Liberation Army) - SEARCH RESULTS: 37 INCIDENTS

Perpetrators: (Black Panthers) - SEARCH RESULTS: 25 INCIDENTS

Perpetrators: (Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)) - SEARCH RESULTS: 7 INCIDENTS

Perpetrators: (Weather Underground, Weathermen) - SEARCH RESULTS: 45 INCIDENTS

and, for comparison, the IRA (not including splinter IRA groups):

Perpetrators: (Irish Republican Army (IRA)) - SEARCH RESULTS: 2673 INCIDENTS

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

Country: (United States) - SEARCH RESULTS: 2347 INCIDENTS

Note that (in #s per year) the early 70s in the US far exceeded what has occured since.

Regards

Mike