Lone Wolf Terrorism Case Study

On April 19, 1995, a detrimental explosion targeting the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma took place. This incident of domestic terrorism and the mastermind behind the explosion was credited to Timothy McVeigh who used a truck-bomb to kill 168 people and injure countless others (History.com Staff, 2009).

We must define lone wolf terrorism to explore who fits this definition. Hamm and Spaaj (2015) define lone wolf terrorism as “political violence perpetrated by individuals who act alone; do not belong to an organized terrorist group; act without the direct influence of a leader or hierarchy; and whose tactics and methods are conceived and directed by the individual” (p. 3). Eric Rudolph was the man that was convicted of the Olympic games bombing in 1996. The original person that was suspected of this crime was Richard Jewell. When it was realized that Richard Jewell was not the bomber the FBI started looking for another suspect. Eric Rudolph was not the focus of the investigation until after four bombings in Georgia between 1996 and 1998 (FBI, 2005). Eric Rudolph is a perfect fit for a “lone wolf terrorist” first he was a loner and did not trust anybody. Moreover, this translated into him hiding in western North Carolina from 1998 until 2003 (FBI, 2005). Second, he admitted to going after the agents who were pursuing him by toying with the idea to booby-trap the National Guard post (FBI, 2005). Lastly, he was anti-government, abortion, gay along with being against many other ideologies and had no direct influence on any other leader or organization. Apparently, Eric Rudolph is a lone wolf terrorist this paper is going to briefly identify Omar Mateen, Theodore Kaczynski, Paul Ciancia as lone wolf terrorist and their crimes.

The D.C. Sniper attacks began on October 2nd, 2002. The attacks were categorizes by the fact that the killings occurred in the metropolitan D.C. area. The victims were randomly selected and were of different genders, ages, and race. These serial murders were highly publicised with constant news coverage of the hunt for the killers. Events were cancelled out of fear, and people even hid as they pumped gas. ”Ordinary people doing ordinary things were transformed into

is alive and well. International, national, and domestic terrorism runs rampant amongst political policy fallouts, religious superiority, and scorned U.S. Citizens. Kaczynski, also known as The Unabomber was a lone wolf terrorist. He never spoke of his actions to anyone, nor did he garner help from others (FBI, n.d., para. 4). The search for Kaczynski proved difficult. There was speculation about gender, places lived, and even what he did for a living. This was all in the effort to identify the suspect. The investigation was accurate in most areas, however, it brought them no closer to identifying the terrorist. His demise came when his brother, David Kaczynski, identify a 35,000 word essay that The Unabomber sent to authorities, claiming to explain his motives and views of the ills of modern society (FBI, n.d., para.

“Every lethal terrorist attack in the United States in the past decade and a half has been carried out by American citizens or legal permanent residents, operating either as lone wolves or in pairs, who have no formal connections or training from terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda or ISIS.” (Bergen P. , The Real Terror Threat in America is Homegrown, 2016). This Quote was from CNN after the Orlando, Florida shooting June 13, 2016. Homegrown terrorism could also relate to the Tsarnaev brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013, or even the U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan who killed 13 people and injured 32 others four years

In recent news, there has been a string of attacks all over the world; each attack has been related to terrorism. A passenger boarded a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, armed with a box cutter, a pistol and an AK-47 with intent to harm innocent people. Four passengers on the train quickly subdued the terrorist before anyone could be harmed. In November, Paris, France was struck with terror when three armed men set off a string of attacks throughout the city, to include a bomb and active shootings. This attack left nearly 127 people killed and wounded. Most recently, in San Bernadino, California a man and woman left from a holiday party and returned with assault rifles. The officials attributed their act to terrorism, where the

Yes it difficult to detect thsee individuals who carry out these lone wolf attacks but I believe that if law enforcement agencies get the involvement of citizen just like how dhs have passenger as a layer of security this model use be replicated in the society as a whole.Let citizenso know the importance they place for preventing such lone wolf attacks from happenings.Remember a terrorists never open his plans on targeted places when they want to cause disaster.The police are not every but citizens are.If it raised a concerns don't relax say something to law

Whenever they occur, active shooter situations grip media headlines and create new discussions into the ways in which we as a nation can prevent them in the future. The U.S. Department of Justice (n.d.) defines an active shooter as, “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” (para.1). The reason we see more active threat incidents in the news is not due to the media, but because there has been an increasing trend of such events. A study of 160 active shooter incidents from 2000 to 2013 has shown an upward trend in the instances of active shooters; from a mean of 6.4 incidents in the first seven years of the study to a mean of 16.4 in the last

There are times we often wonder about the thought process of many people that commit terrorist acts. The psychological reasoning that pushes a person to take lives in such a drastic way. For example, what made Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the Columbine High School massacre or Dylann Roof the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. On the day of April, 20 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School and killed 15 people.

Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in

October 1, 2017: the date of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history; 58 murdered, hundreds more injured. Unfortunately, this is just one example of an awful mass shooting; breaking families apart, and scarring others for life. Although it is beyond tragic that there have been so many tragedies like this, with the help of forensics and investigators they have been able to find similarities in mass murderers, and with more public awareness comes the hope that in the future, these disasters can be prevented.

Domestic terrorism has been a major threat in the US since the catastrophic event that took place during attack on 9/11. Following the aftermath of the terrorist attack, the US intelligence services and law enforcement agencies emphasized heavily on combating terrorism on global scale as international terrorism was views as the major threat to the public security of the US which caused the issue of domestic terrorism to be overlooked. We have seen many terrorist attacks since the attack on 9/11 that were planned and executed by individuals and groups born and raised in America. Some of those attacks include the Oklahoma City bombing, the Boston marathon bombing. There has also been increasing number of mass shooting by individuals that were identified as to be radicalized by terrorist groups abroad, the most recent mass shooting that was identified as a terrorist act was in Orlando where more than 50 people were killed (Alveraz, p.1). The cases mentioned above will be discussed in detail later in the essay. Although, American law enforcement agencies are actively conducting intelligence and operational missions to prevent international terrorism, however, the US needs to develop efficient tactics to prevent the rise of domestic terrorism. Otherwise, the United States may face a danger of the unfailing growth of domestic terrorism similar to some of the European countries; such as the United Kingdom. Consequently, law enforcement agencies should concentrate on the preclusion

Since the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States have become a serious target of terrorist extremist and have carried out attacks in the past 15 years. In recent years, mass shootings in America have occurred from people who believed in the propaganda that is sent via social media by terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Groups such as ISIL or Al Qaida have reached out to sympathizers in the United States manipulating them into believing they should either join them overseas or to carry out attacks in America. Occurrences such the shooting in San Bernardino, California of a couple of

When the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred the United States responded in a manner which was seen as a traditional reaction to such an attack; it used its overwhelming superior military to invade the nation of Afghanistan. As Afghanistan was the operating base of the terrorist group responsible for the attacks, Al Qaeda, the invasion all but destroyed the group's operating capacity. But in response to the United States' apparent victory the terrorists have re-organized themselves into a looser confederation and turned to alternative methods of finance and operation. One could say that the success of the American military's answer to the September 11th attacks have created a new environment in which terrorists currently operate. This includes the use of the internet, unconventional alliances with international criminal organizations, as well the inception of the "lone wolf" terrorist. Faced with these new type of threats, the United States and its allies must find a way to identify and deal with them.

Political terrorism, or right-wing militants, tend to follow an extreme authoritarian ideology and conduct anti-government activities. "Political terrorists in the United States tend to be heavily armed groups organized around such themes as white supremacy, Nazism, militant tax resistance, and religious revisionism."(5) Two of the more famous incidents in the United States are the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Branch Davidian cult standoff in Waco, Texas.