Strategies For Dealing With Terrorism

Prior to September 11, 2001, Australia lacked national anti-terrorism laws, with all but one of the states and territories handling politically motivated violent actions under various statutes of criminal law (Williams, 2011). The Northern Territory was the only jurisdiction who held their own specific legislation making terrorism a criminal offence (Parliament of Australia [PA], n.d.-a). On September 11, 2001, in an incident commonly referred to as 9/11, four commercial planes in the United States of America were hijacked by members of a terrorist organisation called al-Qaeda (National September 11 Memorial & Museum, 2014). Three of the planes were intentionally

Terrorism can be defined by Involvement of violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law. Australia is

Australia’s first anti-terror laws were enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 (Prof Andrew Lynch 2010). In recent years, increasing Australian involvement in international conflict has seen these laws shift to accommodate alarming trends in home grown terrorism (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 2014). Sydney’s 2014 terror raids prompted the most significant changes to Australia’s counter terrorism legislation in the last decade (Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defence 2015). Amendments granted law enforcement and intelligence agencies new and somewhat controversial powers, in the name of national security.

3) “It was not until after 9/11 that democratic countries introduced legislation that criminalised an ‘act of terrorism’” (O’Hare, 2011) To aid police in their fight against terrorism, the Australian Government has made a significant number of changes to current legislation, as well as introducing a number of new counter-terrorism laws to assist law enforcement in responding to terrorist threats. “The states and territories have referred legislative powers to the Commonwealth to allow the creation of a single set of terrorism offences under the Criminal Code Act 1995 (the Criminal Code).” (Counter-Terrorism White Paper, 2010, p. 55) These amendments, and additional legislation, have been instrumental in allowing law enforcement to respond to terrorist threats. In addition to new criminal offences, new powers include; more effective detention and questioning powers; the ability to declare terrorist organisations illegal; and the ability to exercise more control over people’s movements. The new counter-terrorism “offences are aimed at individuals who engage in, train for, prepare, plan, finance or provide support for terrorist acts.” (Counter-Terrorism White Paper, 2010, p. 55) Other tools within the Criminal Code available are ‘control orders’ and ‘preventative detention’. “Control orders are protective measures that can restrict a person’s movements and activities.” (Counter-Terrorism White Paper, 2010, p. 57) Whereas

It is nearly impossible to go an entire day in the United States without hearing of some act of terrorism. Whether it be a shooting in a public place or threats against a group of people, this violent form of conflict is prevalent in every American’s life. These ruthless acts of cold-blooded murder demonstrate evil in its purest form, and leave death and mourning in their wake. The article “Homegrown Terrorism: Is There an Islamic Wave?” gives an overview of the rise of domestic terrorism since the tragedy of 9/11. Though it was written in 2011, the core message is the same today: terrorism in the United States still continues to grow at a sickening pace, with each new attack seeming more barbaric than the last.

Terrorist attacks are man-made attacks directed to harm or end the lives of civilians for the terrorist's specific reasons. In the past, these attacks were seen as uncommon and were shocking to the public whenever they did occur; however, after the Trade Center incident of September 11th, the public and the government finally realized that terrorist attacks were no longer simply a rare occurrence, but something to be anticipated and prepared for properly (Pilat, 2005). While shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing and foreign nuclear scares of the Clinton administration, the emphasis of WMD attacks rested on nuclear weapons, it became readily apparent that biological weapons were equally if not more dangerous to the public (Chittaranjan, 1998). Along this line of thought, the federal government enacted the CONPLAN, a plan that outlines the status and treatment of certain terrorist attacks and how these attacks are to be dealt with on a local, state, and national level. This paper will discuss the methods recommended for local responders at the scene of a WMD terrorist attack.

In this article “How Safer Streets Can Thwart Terrorists” written by Yonah Freemark, educates us about multiple terrorist attacks that have occurred specifically in the New York area and how the state is working to develop a safer approach. In May of 2017 at Times Square a motorist drove through a large crowd killing one person and injuring many others. Had it not been for a three foot guarding rail, the motorist could have killed many more. Another attack like this happened previously where an average of sixteen pedestrians were killed and since then have doubled. New York is not only the victim of these kind of attacks; famous places like France, Netherlands, and London constantly have attacks like these happen.

The word ‘terrorism’ can be traced back to the French Revolution and the reign of terror committed against the population of France in the 1790s. During this time, thousands of people were killed and the general population was severely oppressed. Also, some of the first instances of terrorist tactics, such as assassination and intimidation, were witnessed in the killing of prominent officials and other opponents of the Revolution. In general, terrorists aim to incite fear in the population through pre-meditated violent acts and gain publicity as a medium in achieving their goals. Such acts include taking hostages, bombings and assassinations, all of which create fear and compliance in a victim or audience. Terrorism can be distinguished from other types of political violence through its disregard for and intentional harming of innocent civilians. Also, terrorists usually adopt a state of mind where one side is always good and any opposition is bad and deserves to be punished. As a result, terrorists will always have some supporters who share the same radical thoughts as them and thus terrorism, as a whole, will always be accepted as a legitimate use of violence. This is the reasoning behind the famous phrase by Gerald Seymour, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”(QUOTE

What is United States counter terrorism strategy? Counter terrorism strategies can be is done in many different ways and on many different locations around the world. The United States and many other countries have issues with home grown terrorism. How does homegrown terrorism change our countries counter terrorism strategy. Why is Hybrid terrorism important to the efforts of removing terrorism and deterring terrorism in the future? Major events have affected our counter terrorism strategies over the years; September 11, 2001 was a major terrorist attack in our countries history transformed our counter terrorism strategy to what it is today. What was Khobar Towers and what exactly happened, and why is it important in our counter terrorism

and intelligence agencies use to combat or prevent terrorism. Counter-terrorism strategies include attempts to counter financing of terrorism. In response to the escalating terror campaign in Britain carried out by the militant Irish Fenians in the 1880s, the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, established the first counter-terrorism unit ever. The Special Irish Branch was initially formed as a section of the Criminal Investigation Department of the London Metropolitan Police in 1883, to combat Irish republican terrorism through infiltration and subversion.one counter terrorism unit is the GIGN. the GIGN was established in 1974 following the Munich massacre. Created initially as a relatively small SWAT unit specialized in sensitive hostage

In light of this, it should be mentioned that “the US strategy for winning the Global War on Terrorism is predicated on creating an international environment inhospitable to terrorists and all those who support them” (Fogarty 2001). Meaning, that the fight against terrorism heavily relies on international cooperation. In order to achieve such a feat, nevertheless, America must be amiable by fellow governments and their citizens. Unfortunately, the reports and findings on GTMO makes it increasingly difficult for the American administration to do so, for the inhumane treatment makes citizens of other countries upset. Quoting General Colin Powell, people from other nation states are "beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism" (Duberstein as cited in Washington Monthly 2008). This proves to be an immense hindrance to the war, as America cannot hope to face all of the world’s terrorists alone. To put this in perspective, one can take a look at the situation with Turkey and Russia. Earlier this year, a Russian jet was shot down by Turkey, having flown into the latter 's airspace without permission (BBC 2015). Granted, there lies in factors such as the decades long animosity between the two countries. Albeit, who’s to say that America’s relations with countries will never reach such lows? Rather, previous Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel says that “one of the greatest long-term dangers America faces is that we are now mistrusted by many nations, even our

Another important counter-terrorism strategy was the creation of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC). What this center does is analyze, terrorist-related financial transaction data, and provide intelligence to domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world (Sinai, 2015, Par. 25). CSIS and other intelligence agencies, would agree, in order to combat terrorism, this is a worldwide problem, not just one located at home. This has led to the success of combating the financial aspects of these terrorist organizations. Also the Canadian authorities have achieved some success in combating money laundering, when conducting law enforcement efforts with the support of FINTRAC’s (FATF, 2016).

Terrorism in the twenty-first century has some similarities and differences from terrorism in the twentieth century. Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use or threatened use of violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. Also useful to remember that because the two entities involved, the terrorists and the terrorized, are on the opposite end of the political, religious or ideological continuum, the same act is viewed by them differently. There is much sense in the phrase one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Terrorism, which has been around for as long as people can remember, has been on the rise for the past ten years. Terrorists usually use murdering, kidnapping, hi-jacking and bombings to achieve their political purpose. For instance, according to Wikipedia.com (2006), in 1985 816 deaths, then in 2003, more than 1,000 people died by terorist acts around the world. In recent years, terrorism seems to be at a new height and attacks are much more violent than in the past. Unfortunately, in spite of many anti-terror campaigns, projects and organizations are being created for prevention (to prevent) terrorism, the number of terrorists only is increasing. These days terrorism is all over the world.

The cultural phenomenon of Terrorism in contemporary society has taken over the lives of individuals and/or groups all around the world. Particularly in the early twenty first century, there has been a strong link between what is known as new terrorism to countries and people associated with the Middle East and Islamic religion. Significant events such as the bombings in New York City in September 2001 have led to racist and islamophobic ideas, attitudes and thought processes with the turn of the twenty first century that still linger in modern day. A main contributor as to why terrorism is seemly so prevalent in contemporary society is the media as an institution across multiple platforms and its heavy influence over the lives over individuals particularly in Western cultures. Hence including the stereotyping of Middle Eastern individuals and/or individuals associated with being a Muslim. Furthermore particular political parties and politicians have enforced their xenophobic opinions of terrorism in the Australian Parliament which demonstrate a presence of intolerance of Islamic religion within Australia. Multiple platforms within the media have led to the notion of associating terrorism with the Middle East and creating an unsafe social environment for any individual and/or group associated with it. This paper will be exploring how all these ideas have gradually directed onto the Western world, thus Australia, to have a fear of Middle Eastern countries, associates,