Tag: Terrorism

UNESCO confirms ISIL is partially funded by the sale of ancient Artifacts. These items, culturally significant, will enter the Black Market, robbing cultures of their own history. The funding of terrorism and its complexities is an important topic. Moreover, it’s the root of the evil – and maybe the most important aspect of terrorism. It’s […]

A prominent Pakistani journalist claims the government prohibited him from exiting the county after he wrote an article illuminating a potential schism between military and government leaders. The article claiming that Pakistan’s top spy agency is protecting militants comes as India has accused Islamabad of backing terrorists, stroking global fears of a potential conflict between the two nuclear armed […]

Suleiman Anwar Bengharsa once told a court during a custody dispute that he worried his ex-wife’s new husband was too close to Islamic radicals under FBI investigation and she might raise their child in an “extremist environment.” A little over a decade later, the Maryland man became the thing he once feared. The onetime Commerce […]

Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb outside a military checkpoint in southeastern Turkey on Sunday, killing 10 soldiers and eight civilians, the prime minister said. Turkey immediately launched a military operation against the rebels in response. At a news conference in Istanbul, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the attack. “For the stability of our country, we will […]

The wounding patterns of blast injuries are well known to any military medic who has served recently on operations, with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) constituting a significant proportion of the casualties on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly the IED threat is no longer confined to war zones, with a series of high profile, […]

Tunisia housed the spark that began the Arab Spring. It created a cascade effect that eventually influenced a myriad of events – to include Syria. Today, the Middle East has crashed so badly that a terrorist commander of Al-Nusra is telling a German reporter the United States is arming the jihadis. The Middle East is so […]

Al-Qaeda has been a household name since 9/11. But after years of war against them, the basics of their fight is still not known. Al-Qaeda and it’s Salafi-Jihadi associates have a plan, and they’ve been fighting their war by whatever means possible for many years. Despite the conspiracy theories, Al-Qaeda was, in part, banking on […]

Many of us, including myself, were unhappy with the tumultuous relationship between the Obama administration and the Saudi elites. Except Saudi Arabia, behind closed doors, has never liked us. I’m looking back and thinking now – I’m not as upset. I’m not convinced a Saudi Arabia with broad powers in the Middle East is what we […]

Former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly—sometimes mentioned as a potential opponent to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s reelection campaign next year—praised law enforcement authorities who caught the New York and New Jersey bombing suspect Monday, but offered a sharp critique of the mayor. Shortly after New Jersey cops arrested Afghan-born 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami after a morning shootout […]

A 50-year-old Houston man has been arrested on charges that he attempted to transport explosives for the purpose of injury or destruction of property, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson along with Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI. Cary Lee Ogborn is charged with attempting to transport explosives with the intent that […]

Looking largely “over there.” Both nominees are focused on transnational terrorism, especially the threat from the Islamic State group. Clinton proposes ongoing air strikes, working with local forces in Iraq and Syria, and collaborating with allies to dismantle “the global network of terror that supplies money, arms, propaganda, and fighters.”

Trump wants to “bomb the shit out of them,” and as he said in his terrorism speech, “aggressively pursue joint and coalition military operations to crush and destroy [the Islamic State group], international cooperation to cut off their funding, expanded intelligence sharing and cyberwarfare to disrupt and disable their propaganda and recruiting.”

Even their plans for the Islamic State group are nearly identical. When it comes to counterterrorism, the Democratic and Republican nominees are presenting the same ideas, couched in language tailored to different parts of the electorate. And therein lies a much more troubling fact – it’s not just what they’re saying; it’s what they’re not saying.

Dealing with a terrorist threat that is more atomized and pervasive will require a new approach — one that relies much more on communities, families, peers, and those closest to would-be terrorists. Law enforcement agencies can arrest suspected terrorists, but they cannot extinguish the underlying ideologies and grievances that motivate scores of recruits to join extremist groups and that elicit the sympathies of many more. Preventing future attacks, then, will mean empowering communities to detect threats to public safety and intervene quickly to deflect someone from the path of radicalization.