Understanding, Assessing, and Responding to Terrorism

Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Personnel

Brian T. Bennett

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119237815
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Terrorismo

A comprehensive guide to understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism in this modern age

This book provides readers with a thorough understanding of the types of attacks that may be perpetrated, and how to identify potential targets, conduct a meaningful vulnerability analysis, and apply protective measures to secure personnel and facilities. The new edition of Understanding, Assessing, and Responding to Terrorism updates existing material and includes several new topics that have emerged, including information on new international terrorist groups as well as a new chapter on Regulations and Standards.

A vulnerability analysis methodology, consisting of several steps—which include the techniques necessary to conduct a vulnerability analysis—is introduced and applied through several sample scenarios. By using easily customized templates for the screening process, valuation of a critical asset as a target, vulnerability analysis, security procedures, emergency response procedures, and training programs, the book offers a practical step-by-step process to help reduce risk. Each different type of terrorism is briefly discussed—however, the book focuses on those potential attacks that may involve weapons of mass destruction. There is a discussion of what physical and administrative enhancements can be implemented to improve a facility's ability to devalue, detect, deter, deny, delay, defend, respond, and recover to a real or threatened terrorist attack—whether it be at a facility, or in the community. Techniques on how personnel safety and security can be improved through the implementation of counter-terrorism programs are also outlined.

An overview of the major counter-terrorism regulations and standards are presented, along with the significant governmental efforts that have been implemented to help prevent terrorist attacks and foster preparedness at both private and public sector facilities and for personnel.

Understanding, Assessing, and Responding to Terrorism, Second Edition:

• Updates existing material, plus includes several new topics that have emerged including information on new international terrorist groups, new terrorist tactics, cyber terrorism, and Regulations and Standards
• Outlines techniques for improving facility and personnel safety and security through the implementation of counter-terrorism programs
• Unites the emergency response/public sector community with the private sector over infrastructure protection, thus allowing for easier communication between them
• Includes questions/exercises at the end of each chapter and a solutions manual to facilitate its use as a textbook

Understanding, Assessing, and Responding to Terrorism, Second Edition is a must-have reference for private and public sector risk managers, safety engineers, security professionals, facility managers, emergency responders, and others charged with protecting facilities and personnel from all types of hazards (accidental, intentional, and natural).

1
The Terrorist Threat

1.1 What Is Terrorism?

For many Americans, September 11, 2001 represented our first exposure to the devastating effects of international terrorism, and the day the war on terrorism began. Others believe America's first exposure to terrorism began with the seizing of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 4, 1979. In reality, although not widely associated with the United States, terrorism has existed for centuries. Terrorism is not something new.

Terrorism is understood as a type of violence, with fear the goal of that violence. The word terrorism comes from the French word terrorisme, and originally referred specifically to state terrorism as practiced by the French government during the 1793–1794 Jacobin's Reign of Terror.

The French word terrorisme in turn derives from the Latin terrere meaning to frighten, scare, startle, or terrify [1]. The modern definition of terrorism has proven elusive. Various regulatory agencies and governments use different definitions, primarily because of the legal, emotional, and political influences. The current meaning of terrorism as defined by the US Department of State in the United States Code, Title 22, Section 2656f (d), is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” Terrorism is often random by design: the attacks intentionally and indiscriminately impact non-combatants. Terrorism is premeditated, criminal in nature, politically motivated, potentially includes religious, philosophical, ideological, or culturally symbolic motivations, violent, and perpetrated against a non-combatant target.

1.2 The History of Terrorism

Depending on how broadly the term is defined, the roots and practice of terrorism can be traced at least to the first century A.D. Sicarii Zealots, a radical offshoot of the Zealots. The Sicarii were a Jewish group who murdered enemies and collaborators, including temple priests, Sadducees, Herodians, and other wealthy elite in their campaign to eliminate Roman rule in Judea.

The Hashshashin, whose name gave us the English word “assassins,” were a secretive Islamic sect active in Iran and Syria from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. Hashshashin forces were too small to challenge enemies militarily, so they assassinated city governors and military commanders in order to create alliances. Their dramatically executed assassinations of political figures terrorized their contemporaries.

The term “terrorism” itself was originally used to describe the actions of the Jacobin Club during the “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution in 1793. The Jacobin's employed violence, including mass executions by guillotine, to compel obedience to the state. Maximilien Robespierre, one of the 12 heads of the new state, had enemies of the revolution killed, and installed a dictatorship to stabilize the country. Approximately 40,000 were killed, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Robespierre's sentiment laid the foundations for modern terrorists, who believe violence will usher in a better system.

In January 1858, Italian patriot Felice Orsini threw three bombs in an attempt to assassinate French Emperor Napoleon III. Eight bystanders were killed and 142 injured. The incident played a crucial role as an inspiration for the development of the early terrorist groups.

Arguably, the first organization to utilize modern terrorist techniques was the Fenian Brotherhood and its offshoot the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in 1858 as a revolutionary Irish nationalist group that carried out attacks in England. The group initiated the Fenian dynamite campaign in 1881, one of the first modern terror campaigns.Instead of earlier forms of terrorism based on political assassination, this campaign used modern, timed explosives with the express aim of sowing fear in the very heart of metropolitan Britain, in order to achieve political gains.

Another early terrorist group was Norodnaya Volya, founded in Russia in 1878 as a revolutionary anarchist group inspired by Sergey Nechayev and “propaganda by the deed” theorist Pisacane. The group developed ideas, such as targeted killing of the “leaders of oppression,” that were to become the hallmark of subsequent violence by small non-state groups, and they were convinced that the developing technologies of the age, such as the invention of dynamite, which they were the first anarchist group to make widespread use of, enabled them to strike directly and with discrimination.

In the United States, prior to the Civil War, abolitionist John Brown advocated and practiced armed opposition to slavery, leading several attacks between 1856 and 1859, the most famous in 1859 against the armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

After the Civil War, on December 24, 1865, six Confederate Army veterans created the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a fraternal social club. Beginning in April 1867, there was a gradual transformation to an insurgent movement to restore white supremacy. The KKK used violence, lynching, murder, and acts of intimidation such as cross burning to oppress, in particular, African Americans.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 as a nationalist social welfare and political movement in Egypt, which at the time was controlled by Great Britain. During the 1940s, the Muslim Brotherhood attacked British soldiers and police stations and assassinated politicians that collaborated with Britain. The group continues to exist in Egypt today.

Fatah was organized as a Palestinian nationalist group in 1954. In 1967, it joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO is made up of many organizations, the largest of which are Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). Factions of the PLO have advocated and carried out acts of terrorism. Fatah leader and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat publically renounced terrorism in December 1988 on behalf of the PLO, but Israel has stated it has proof that Arafat continued to sponsor terrorism until his death in November 2004.

The Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK) was established in Turkey in 1978 as a Kurdish nationalist party. The group seeks to create an independent Kurdish state consisting of Southeastern Turkey, Northeastern Iraq, Northeastern Syria, and Northwestern Iran. The PKK has launched bombings against Turkish government facilities.

The Japanese Red Army was founded in Japan in 1971, and attempted to overthrow the Japanese government and start a world revolution. Allied with the PFLP, the group committed assassinations, hijacked a commercial Japanese airliner, and sabotaged a Shell Oil refinery in Singapore. The group also launched a machine gun and grenade attack against Israel's Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, killing 26 people and injuring 80 ...