Counterterrorism Activities Term Paper

Combatting Future Terrorism

Fighting future terrorism

Over the years, the U.S.A. government and the entire world has been battling with the issue of terrorism. This is because the act of terrorism has diverse faces, from the rebel terrorists, the insurgents, bioterrorism to the religious sect terrorism. The U.S.A. has in particular been busy figuring out the various ways to not only stop the terrorism act before it happens, but more significantly to hinder the development of the terror groups from developing into fully fledged organizations. The U.S. is not alone in this and many nations have invested heavily in the same and some of the internationally known counterterrorism forces are S.A.S. (Special Air Service), the GSG-9, The Navy SEAL Team 6, SFOD-D (Delta Force), and CIA Special Activities Division (SAD). The SAS belongs to the British Military and the GSG-9 Germany. The Navy SEAL, Delta Force, and SAD are United States specialized counterterrorism forces.There have also been a lot of investments in terms of time and money into finding the best ways to respond to the terrorism once it happens. This paper will look at the various acts of terrorism in their diverse forms and how a country like the U.S. can avoid falling victim to such acts in the future. It will also discuss the measures that have been taken in the past and the gaps that were realized and how these can be used as learning steps to form a stop strategy for the future. The paper will take, in most of the cases, effect and solution for the future approach in highlighting the measures that different players within the security docket and from outside can take in combating the threat of terrorism within the U.S.A. And even abroad.

Causes, effect and measures against terrorism

The illegal migration is and has been one of the biggest concern for the government since it has been attributed to numerous forms of crimes raging from prostitution, gun trade, identity theft, drug trafficking, gang violence and even terrorism. The September 11 terrorist attack was strongly attached to illegal immigrants like Mohammed Atta who even at the time of the attack had expired Visas. According to Krinkorian Mark, in his statement while testifying before the House of Representatives, he indicated that of all the 48 Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists that have taken part in the acts of terror within the U.S.A. between the years 1993 to 2001, 12 of them were found to be illegal immigrants, 7 were found to be those who have overstayed beyond the stipulated time on their visa (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013:Pp 39). This is a shocking statistics that calls for reforms and continue evaluation and vigilance at the borders and our immigration offices and systems. One way of combating this predisposition to terror through illegal immigrants is to strictly apply the immigration laws so that those who are legally allowed within the country stay, that way it would help weed out the terrorists. The other measure would be to fine the businesses that employ, hence sustain the illegal immigrants. This will ensure there is no source of sustenance for the terrorist hence they will not consider coming into the country. There should also be the use of latest technology at the porous borders like that between the U.S. And Mexico, the kind of technology to be deployed in such areas will help make identification of illegal immigrants and effectively potential terrorists and apprehend them to face the law and/or get deported to their countries of origin.

Terrorists have always targeted places that are vulnerable and have a large number of people. This has made office blocks and train stations as well as the sports areas some of their prime targets. Homeland security department through the OSHA -Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- have over the years ensured that they have developed and explained a matrix that gives the employers guide at the places of work. Adherence to the guidelines and matrixes to safety form terrorism will significantly reduce vulnerability of work places to terrorism in the future (Counter Terrorism, 2011).

Bioterrorism is yet another kind of terrorism that is both real and feared by many since it leaves the victims, intended and unintended, very vulnerable as the biological weapons act indiscriminately as long as one breathes the air. Biological weapon are any kind of organism that can potentially be used to kill the people exposed to the organism. These organisms include viruses, fungi or the bacteria that exist naturally or can be cultured in a laboratory.Lately, a large number of countries are obsessed with the possession of the biological weapons, making concerns to rise over the possibility of terrorists using these weapons for terror purposes (Daniel J. Dire, 2011). There is need to have a very controlled access to laboratories where these organisms could be cultured for research purposes. The government needs to let people know and run rigorous campaigns on the signs of biological weapon use and how citizens can detect when one is illegally culturing these organisms. One of the central surveillance measures that should be implemented fully is the proper funding for the automation and utilization of the high-throughput laboratory where Dr. Scott Layne has focused a lot of his efforts in ensuring that the capability of this facility for infectious disease is effective. This is a laboratory that can play a significant role in the surveillance of possible bioterrorism agents as it is possible to carry out more than 10,000 tests per day. With such a facility, we will be sure to be able to get results from the laboratory within the shortest possible time. There needs to be preemptive measures taken especially in line with prevention of bioterrorism and this can be well, done through effective surveillance of infections and diseases that could be used as bioweapons. One such preemptive surveillance measure is the early detection and rapid response to any threat that may be insinuated. Early surveillance or detection can be made possible by the use of syndromic surveillance, which is the monitoring of the patterns that nonspecific symptoms may portray so as to detect any possibility of an epidemic induced by the bioterrorism agents. This continuous surveillance is important as the initial symptoms are usually nonspecific. For instance, when one person displays symptoms of anthrax attack, that may not be considered as a case of bioterrorism, but when the surveillance detects a sudden increase in the cases, then this would attract their attention. Syndromic surveillance alert uses the nonspecific data throughout the population and is not only based on the positive identification of symptoms (Adam Szpiro et.al., 2007).

The other surveillance method that has the potential to do well and give a fast and accurate data is the surveillance using the cell phones. This is an improvement from the traditionally used syndromic surveillance that uses zip codes to indicate the areas under attack or that are affected. The cell phone will alleviate the dilemma of geographical location since it will indicated the exact location where the person reporting a possible attack is and the movements hence the data on the possible bioterrorism can be collected and an effective tracking be done. This method will need volunteers from various parts of the country who will be reporting on their daily health and a pattern change in their health can be monitored and incase there are symptoms that are similar and conform to a possible bioterrorism, then their history of convergence will be traced via the GPS system and a possible source identified (Debbie A. Tavers et.al., 2003). This is a much easier method in tracing the sources of the bioterrorism that syndromic surveillance that will only come up with and indication of n area under bioterrorism but not the source.

The issue of radicalization is a matter that worries the correction department since it has been a trend that the suspected terrorists who are put in confinement do actually propagate their activities into these cells. The correction department handles the terrorists awaiting trial as well as the sentenced terrorists. It is also within the correction facilities that potential terrorism activities can be planned. This makes the correction department not longer the traditional holding facility and correction duty and mandate but also the investigative duty has to be included within the ranks (Jess Maghan & Robert J. Kelly, 1989). This means hence that the correction facilities must be equipped with specialists in the field of interrogation, those who know how to read the behaviors of criminals so as to act as a facilitation to the FBI in the process of gathering information that is important in the fight against terror. It is important to remember that it is within the incarcerations that the hardcore criminal and terrorists are held hence the capability of the correction department to handle them different from the other criminals must be provided. As Peter R. Neumann (2010) notes, the terrorists are not ordinary offenders, but….....