Reading Assignment #4 (International Terrorism)

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Terrorism and Homeland Security, 9e

CHAPTER 12 Jonathan R. White

Learning Objectives, Part 1

Summarize the debate over the meaning of domestic terrorism.

Explain the legal difference between extremism and domestic terrorism.

Categorize the forms of domestic terrorism.

Describe the relationship between racial violence and terrorism.

Outline the evolution and activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

Learning Objectives, Part 2

Describe current status of right-wing domestic terrorism.

Explain the fluctuations in left-wing criminal extremism.

Define single-issue terrorism.

List single issues motivating domestic terrorism.

Define the nebulous connection between domestic and international terrorism.

Describe threats from homegrown radicalization.

Understanding Domestic Terrorism

Local law enforcement agencies approach terrorism with their own interpretations.

Some American police agencies have gone to great lengths to prepare for terrorism; others have not.

Law enforcement is a local affair in the U.S., complicated by layers of competing state and federal bureaucracies.

Classifying Domestic Terrorism

FBI Categories:

Domestic terrorism involves violent political extremism, single-issue terrorism, and lone-wolf activities.

International terrorism is defined as threats that originate outside the United States.

Brent Smith Classifications:

Right-wing extremist

Left-wing and single-issue terrorists

International terrorists

Racism and Terrorism, Part 1

Christian Identity blend of Jewish and Christian biblical passages; premise that God was white.

Jews have gained control of the United States by conspiring to create the Federal Reserve System.

Christian Identity provided a theological base for stating that white people originated with God, and Jews came from the devil.

Small groups dominated by Christian Identify theology and Christian patriotism engage in localized violence.

Racism and Terrorism, Part 2

Extremists began preaching Nordic Christianity in northern Germany.

Another religious derivation, Creativity rejects Judaism and Christianity altogether.

The majority of right-wing extremists retreated to more conservative churches, and relied on individual interpretations of scripture to justify antigovernment actions. This group can loosely be described as free-wheeling fundamentalists.

Violent Right-Wing Extremism

The KKK has operated in three distinct phases through history.

Shortly after the Civil War, hooded Knight Riders, as they were called, terrorized African Americans to frighten them into political and social submission.

The second phase of the Klan came in the 1920s as it sought political legitimacy.

The modern KKK grew after World War II. It is now fragmented, decentralized, and dominated by hate-filled rhetoric.

Sovereign Citizens, Part 1

Sovereign citizens common beliefs:

They can declare themselves free of American citizenship.

There are two governments.

Paper terrorism

They file false liens, write bogus checks, and sight drafts against non-existent accounts.

More than 30 police officers have been killed in confrontations with sovereign citizens.

Sovereign Citizens, Part 2

Can declare themselves free of American citizenship as well as laws and taxes

Sovereign citizens also tend to believe that there are two governments. One is legitimate and devoid of governmental regulation except for English common law.

The illegitimate government includes all federal and state governments.

No single sovereign citizen ideology

The Turner Diaries and Hunter

The Turner Diaries

Diatribe against minorities and Jews

How-to manual for low-level terrorism

Psychological inspiration for violence

Hunter

Tells the story of a lone wolf named Hunter who decides to launch a one-person revolution

He stalks the streets to kill African Americans, interracial couples, and Jews.

Change on the Left

Left-wing terrorist groups dominated terrorism in the U.S. from 1967 to 1985.

They engaged in symbolic violence.

The intellectual elites who controlled the movement contributed to the U.S. demise.

In Europe, people who may have been sympathetic to the ideology of left-wing terrorists could not tolerate their violent activities as terrorism increased.

Single-Issue Criminal Extremists

Earth Liberation Front (ELF)

Responsible for more than 600 criminal acts since 1996 using tactics such as, sabotage, tree spiking, property damage, and arson.

Ecoterrorism crimes included raids of farms, destruction of animal research laboratories and sabotage of industrial equipment, and arson.

Ecoterrorists are uncompromising, illogical extremists just like their right-wing counterparts.

Anti-Abortion Violence

Violent antiabortionists began with bombing and arson attacks more than twenty years ago, and they have enhanced their tactics since then.

Doctors and nurses have been assaulted when entering clinics.

To these people, accepting the status quo is more evil than using violence to change behavior.

David Nice’s Explanations for Violent Political Behavior

Social controls break down under stress and urbanization.

Violence increases when people are not satisfied with political outcomes.

Violence can also be reinforced by social and cultural values.

Violence can stem from a group’s strength or weakness, its lack of faith in the political system, or its frustration with economic conditions.

Nice and Antiabortion Violence

Nice concludes that antiabortion violence appears in areas of rapid population growth where the abortion rate is high.

As social controls decrease, and the desire to substitute political controls increases, bombings develop into a form of political action.

Deana Rohlinger argues that current media coverage of abortion issues differs from the 1980s and early 1990s.

Homegrown Violent Extremists

These homegrown extremists are Americans or American residents who adopt the jihadist philosophy.

Two styles of homegrown attacks:

Radicalized from personal experiences

Radicalized with foreign connection

Homegrown Jihadists

One of the incubators for homegrown jihadists is the American prison system.

Homegrown terrorism is not an American problem alone, nor is it limited to radical Islam.

It is a “bottom up event.”

Some homegrown jihadists are self-recruited, self-motivated, and self-trained.

Creation of Homegrown Jihadists

Some are born in the United States, and prepare to wage the jihad, even though they have little contact with jihadists.

Others immigrate, and they find themselves alone.

Others, like John Walker Lindh and Adam Gadahn, leave the United States to join the jihad overseas.

A third type threatens to become a hybrid form.

The potential hybrid jihadist comes in several varieties.

The Future

What type of approach toward domestic terrorism could limit political controversy?

What is the difference between an actual crime and a potential crime?

If law enforcement agencies are deeply embedded in communities, how might they use information about potential terrorism to divert behavior?

Chapter Take Aways, Part 1

By definition, domestic terrorists must act outside of the law.

Therefore, it is better to think about the whole realm of politically motivated criminal extremism than to look for cases of domestic terrorism.

Criminal extremism can be described by a typology focusing of political orientation.

When domestic terrorism is approached in this manner, the results show extremist activities are currently dominated by anti-government and racist movements.

Chapter Take Aways, Part 2

Other forms of extremism reveal differing criminal patterns.

Homegrown extremists may make individual attacks or receive training and support from abroad.

Single-issue extremists are motivated by one all-encompassing passion.

Eco-terrorists tend to favor property damage. Nationalists and anti-abortion extremists are more prone to violence.