Eric Lunan posted Jan

Adjust automatic marking as read settingDo you agree that domestic terrorism is a threat, or is international terrorism the larger issue? Are we doing enough to counter the domestic terrorism issue?

Domestic terrorism continues to be a huge threat to the United States; however, I believe since the advent of the “Global War on Terror,” the general public’s focus and definition of terrorism has been tied to defeating international terrorism organizations such as Al-Qaida or ISIS. For many US citizens, domestic terrorism rarely receives time on the news, or is sometimes meshed with homegrown violent extremism (HVE). The FBI defines HVEs as “global-jihad-inspired individuals who are based in the U.S., have been radicalized primarily in the U.S., and are not directly collaborating with a foreign terrorist organization (https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism).” Prior to learning the definitions and doing some research to answer this question, I would have stated international terrorism is the larger issue as that’s what I’m familiar with. I have since changed my mind and would say domestic terrorism presents more of a concern to the security of the US.

The 2012 report published by The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) tracked and analyzed 2,608 terrorist attacks which occurred in the US between 1970 and 2011. Of these attacks, the top 20 most active groups were all domestic terrorist organizations (Lafree, p.25.). Since the turn of the millennium, the top five most active groups include four domestic terrorist organizations, with the fifth group being Al-Qaida. Eco-terrorist groups such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) have consistently ranked as the top two most active terrorist organizations since the 1990s. ALF has been responsible for 97 attacks while ELF has conducted 53 between 1990 and 2009. It should be noted that in keeping with their policy of deliberately not targeting humans, there was no reported loss of life from either ALF’s or ELF’s attacks. The largest loss of life (2,996 fatalities) from a terrorist attack on the homeland was from the 9/11 Al-Qaida attacks (Lafree, p.26-p.27.). It is because of these stark differences in fatalities that I believe the public puts more emphasis of combating international terrorism rather than recognizing the threat of domestic terrorist organizations.

Finally, are we doing enough to counter domestic terrorism? I find this question to be very hard to answer and in short, I honestly don’t know. The lone wolf attack nature of some of these domestic attacks as well as the protection of a US citizen’s rights as guaranteed by our Constitution hinders our ability to preemptively target, conduct surveillance, and stop domestic terrorist acts before they occur. I believe public awareness is one of the best methods as part of a holistic approach to thwarting these attacks. The addition of a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin back in 2015 was an improvement as it informs the general public of current developments or general trends regarding threats of terrorism in the US (DHS, 2018). An informed public is an incredibly useful tool when it comes to identifying potential threats and combating them. Additionally, during her 2015 address to the House Committee on Homeland Security, Farah Pandith, an Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations at Harvard University, outlined several methods in which to counter violent extremism (CVE) in the US. Specifically, Ms. Pandith argues for a “…cohesive, integrated and comprehensive approach to the threat we face…that mobilizes both hard and soft power.” Some examples included getting credible voices online to counter extremist messages, creating public awareness campaigns similar to what we did for AIDS, and establishing government positions that focus entirely on CVE and are accountable to Congress. In summary, when it comes to countering terrorism, we should avoid becoming stagnant and always continue to ask ourselves, “Is there something more we can do?”