Identification And Risk Response : Terrorism And Emergency Responder Preparedness

In the past 15 years, the threat of terrorism has grown immensely, the frequency of attacks is the highest it has ever been. With these terrorist attacks becoming so frequent, there is great risk to the citizens of western countries. In the article “The Road to Orlando: Jihadist-Inspired Violence in the West, 2012-2016,” Sam Mullins states that while the number of attacks has increased, the number of deaths has decreased because most attacks are carried out by individuals, not terrorist groups. Sam Mullins is a professor with a Ph.D. in Counterterrorism, and has also been a very strong contributor to some of the most influential terrorism research journals. The main focus of the article was on the perpetrators of these attacks and how most

Domestic terrorism consists of violations against federal and state law that put humans into danger. The purpose of domestic terrorism is to influence or to instill fear into the population and government. Terrorism comes in forms of gun violence, assassinations, and destruction (1). Since 1970, there have been 2,608 attacks and 226 fatal attacks up until 2011 (3). In 1867, the development of dynamite contributed to increasing terrorism, and radicals have used explosives to bring attention to political issues within the country. This invention led to the Haymarket Affair, Los Angeles Times, and the Preparedness Day bombings (2). What has further caused domestic terrorism has been the argument over who is an American. This explains the emergence of the Boston Tea Party and the “white supremacy” of the Ku Klux Klan which both occurred to claim what being an authentic American means (3). After the Cold war, domestic intelligence and law enforcement suppressed terrorist plots, but since the leader of al-Qaeda increased website usage in 2003, more internet terrorist sites have grown. In 2009, the FBI stated that there were approximately 15,000 websites that advocated terrorism with 10,000 sites still active on 80% of U.S based servers. (4) An example of an attack was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 which resulted in 168 people dead and 600 people injured; the motivation for this was to show the opposition against the U.S government by bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal

In particular, the statistics focused on the number or terrorist attacks witnessed in the United States between years 1970 and 2011. However, as will be discussed in the paper, the statistics focus on presenting the numbers and common trends (such as increase or decrease) without explaining other important aspects that aid the understanding of the presented numbers. For instance, the numbers would have made more sense if they were backed up by information such as the magnitude of the attacks, as well as the individuals responsible among other considerations (Plumer, 2013). One of the most prevalent statistical fallacy evident in the statistics is the assumption that the reader understands different dimensions of terrorism. The lack of a precise definition of terrorism challenges the understanding and scope of different events that can qualify for inclusion in the

“Sociology had little to tell the world about the nature and causes of organized attacks by civilians against other civilians” (Roche, 2004), attacks such as the event that took place September 11th, 2001 caught the interest of sociologist and implored them to turn their attention to the subject of terrorism. “Terrorism is a form of collective violence”, against civilians, critical infrastructures, or natural resources, in an attempt to pursue a political agenda (Roche, 2004). The word terrorism Extremist and extremist groups are those that commit acts of violent extremism and have very different ideologies than those they have targeted. The definition of terrorism is broad and changes from agency to agency and even government. All terrorists

Since September 11, 2001, impressive consideration has been dedicated to the investigation of terrorism, yet academic examination of the subject has really been dynamic for quite a few years. With this expanded center, perplexity has emerged with regard to the extremely significance of terrorism. Also, there are contending hypotheses as to the circumstances and end results of terrorism, with commitments originating from financial analysts, sociologists, clinicians, and political researchers.The study of terrorism is truly a multidisciplinary endeavor.

Between 1960 and 2010 there are 38345 terror attacks happened around the world and out of which nearly 8% of the attacks were against the USA. This figure is quite alarming sometimes but the impact of the attacks is little when compared to the mass fatalities or deaths happened in the other countries. So, the time has come to understand the terror trends of the past and safeguard the civilians from the forthcoming attacks.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks many have sought to argue that a ‘New’ paradigm of terrorism exists and therefore that the nature of modern terrorist threats has changed. However, terrorism itself has never been clearly outlined, and as such both Copeland and Duyvesteyn argue current threats to be a continuation of older trends of traditional terrorism. More so terrorism is subjective and therefore current threats depends upon who the target is and who is reporting the attack. On the other hand, Hoffman focuses on deconstructing specifically the 9/11 attacks and in assessing potential future threats and as such is of greater use to governments seeking to deploy stringent countermeasures. The evolution of terrorist groups motivations and

The subjective and varied nature of the definition of terrorism can also be placed into several categories and as follows,

Terrorism is defined as a threatened use of force by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction committed against persons or property (Terrorism 2002- 2005: FBI). Terrorism has opened to numerous interpretations, most of them being from conflicting point of views. Understanding the term terrorism is often difficult from a semantic point of view. Understanding it require a holistic and sensibility and is more realistically achieve through a relative cultural, political, and historical understanding of this phenomenon. This associate itself with the complexity of understanding terrorism in the terms of its distinction of criminal activities. Townshend (2002)

A “terrorism” expert Walter Loqueur also has calculated over 100 definations and achieves that the only general characteristic generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence “yet terrorism is hardly the only creativity involving violence and the threat of violence. So does war coercive diplomacy and bar room

Terrorism is the use of physical violence whether it be a threat or an actual act of aggression. They create a common surrounding of fear in a selected target of the population. This is done so that they may provoke some kind of political and/or social change. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, there has been a lot of controversy on why terrorist attacks are so frequent in the United States. By doing some research I have found that there are several possible answers to this question. This paper will explore the possibilities and hopefully help America prevent future attacks.

Section one will provide a survey covering a span of a decade since the September 9/11 attacks. It provides an overview of Terror Trends, 40 Years’ Data on International and Domestic Terrorism and how the data provide critical information that could be utilized by agencies engaged in counterterrorism formulation of policy and possibly help enhance homeland security policies for future preventions.

There may be several reasons why the threat of terrorism is of greater concern than that of a natural hazard, the first of which being its unpredictability (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2014). Part of terrorism’s greatest demoralizing factor is that it may strike anywhere at anytime, and this

Among the security issues facing the United Stated in this age of change and turmoil, terrorism is the most challenging. This is not only due to the nature of terrorism itself, but also to the deliberately narrow focus of the US government and the ways it chose to address this threat. Three major aspects support this thesis. First, Terrorism is an old protean threat with which mankind has always had trouble coping. This often results in people emotionally overreacting. Also, ways taken by the American administration, driven by the wounds of 9/11, focus too much on Al Qaida, even when it is clear that many more terrorist groups are threatening the United States. These ways of dealing with terrorism are not fully relevant and could be easily

While terrorism in not necessarily a new method for achieving political or ideological goals – the first known use of the word terrorism was in 1795 – the extent and severity of the attacks has become very high in last few decades. (Terrorism, 2014) The Oklahoma City bombing, the subway attacks in Madrid, the September 11th attacks are all examples of high profile, high impact attacks that caused mass panic and casualties. What is unprecedented however, was the need for local law enforcement assistance in all aspects of the anti-terrorism mission for the United States.