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| 1 |
ID:
132371
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In recent years, much of the literature on terrorist pursuits and use of unconventional weapons has focused on al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups. Some scholars posit lone actors may differ from organizations when it comes to the observation that larger organizations are more likely to engage in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) activity, but leave this as an open question because of a prior lack of data on lone actors. Furthermore, new technologies and expanding networks may also spawn more deleterious lone actors, including what have been referred to as "super-empowered individuals." This article utilizes the Profiles of Incidents Involving CBRN by Non-State Actors Dataset and the Radiological and Nuclear Non-State Actors Database to illustrate the characteristics of CBRN pursuit by lone wolves and autonomous cells over time. Initial findings confirm the general perceptions that, historically, lone actors have engaged in cruder, smaller scale, and less frequent CBRN plots and attacks than their formal terrorist organization counterparts, but suggest that such actors do present a genuine threat, at least in terms of the potential for mass disruption. Additionally, while they share several similarities with more formal organizations, lone actors and autonomous cells tend to be motivated less by collective religious or ethno-nationalist concerns than larger organizations, focusing more on narrow or solipsistic drivers. Lone actors and autonomous cells also appear to largely calibrate their CBRN ambitions to their capabilities and their CBRN actions tend to receive better media coverage than formal terrorist organizations.
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| 2 |
ID:
132361
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This essay examines strategies to counter the threat of lone wolf terrorism. Lone wolves implement a tactical approach dubbed "leaderless resistance," which has become popular in several extremist subcultures. Although most episodes of lone wolf terrorism have not been highly destructive, there are notable exceptions that have claimed a substantial number of victims. The lone wolf trend should be contextualized in the evolution of conflict and strategy in which smaller and smaller entities figure prominently. Elements of the counterinsurgency doctrine can be applied to lone wolf terrorism. A comprehensive counterterrorism strategy must prepare for the prospect of lone wolf terrorism because of the increasing number of small-scale attacks, the large number of soft targets in contemporary society, and the potential damage that individuals can cause with the use of weapons of mass destruction.
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| 3 |
ID:
132367
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The synchronized terror attacks on July 22, 2011 was the worst politically motivated assault in post-WW2 Norway. To the perpetrator, Anders Behring Breivik, 22/7 was a "marketing operation," designed to draw attention to his compendium, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. While Breivik acted alone, his political philosophy is far from unique. Through a detailed analysis of the compendium's content, identifying the original authors whose texts Breivik used but did not always acknowledge, this essay discusses the political traditions that informed the assailant's worldview: Islamophobia (anti-Muslim racism), cultural conservative nationalism, antifeminism, and selected elements of White Power thought, far Right evangelical theology, and the Knights Templar tradition, all permeated by romantic male warrior ideals. The stunning violence of July 22 was a hyper-masculine performative act aimed at producing a heroic avant-garde of nationalist warriors who will rise to purge Europe from the corrupting influence of its internal enemies and defeat its external enemies. Through the cleansing fire of the civil war, he believes that a reborn Europe will arise to reclaim its ordained position of glory as the world's leading civilization. In the final analysis, Breivik's political philosophy may thus be recognized as a 21st-century articulation of the fascist legacy.
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| 4 |
ID:
132372
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Lone-wolf terrorism is a threat to the security of modern society, as was tragically shown in Norway on July 22, 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik carried out two terrorist attacks that resulted in a total of 77 deaths. Since lone wolves are acting on their own, information about them cannot be collected using traditional police methods such as infiltration or wiretapping. One way to attempt to discover them before it is too late is to search for various "weak signals" on the Internet, such as digital traces left in extremist web forums. With the right tools and techniques, such traces can be collected and analyzed. In this work, we focus on tools and techniques that can be used to detect weak signals in the form of linguistic markers for potential lone wolf terrorism.
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| 5 |
ID:
132368
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this article, the violent threat emerging from "menacing loners" and autonomous cells in The Netherlands is being historicized and contextualized by providing quantitative and qualitative insight into this threat and illuminating some of the most dramatic incidents. Although beyond the core purpose of this mainly empirical article, some tentative remarks will be presented as possible explanation for both continuity and change. We argue that the shift from political violence originating from groups and networks to political violence perpetrated by individuals, and the shift from ideologically motivated violence to performative violence, are both shifts within a continuum, not radical breaks with the past. It is a difference in degree. Further, we argue that these gradual shifts in types of violence can only be understood as dependent on parallel manifestations of counter-policies, technological developments, and broader trends within society, rather than as attributable to indigenous terrorist developments as such. We postulate a shift from ideologically motivated to performative violence, resulting to a large extent from the possibilities offered by the Internet and social media, and from a broader cultural trend defined as the emergence of the "casting society."
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| 6 |
ID:
132359
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Lone wolf and autonomous cell violence is as old as time itself. Phineas, the biblical figure who might well be considered the archetypical Lone Wolf (Numbers 25:1-9) is credited with averting the wrath of God from the Hebrews by taking it upon himself to murder an Israelite man and a Midianite woman whose miscegenatistic coupling threatened the survival of the Hebrew people. Phineas' act was cited by the Sicarii, a radical offshoot of the 1st-century Zealots, as the inspiration for the doomed uprising against Roman rule, which ultimately led to the expulsion of the Jewish people from the Holy Land. In recent years, Phineas inspired eponymous organizations or networks in the American Racist Right and the Israeli Radical Right. 2 The "Lone Avenger" motif has appeared in every era and in virtually every culture in the world.
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| 7 |
ID:
132362
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The article examines law-enforcement activities in 20 cases of terrorism and 38 cases of terrorism prevention, using published records. It proposes a seven-fold classification of police actions and examines which tactics were successful in identifying and apprehending perpetrators. Overall, in capturing those responsible for terrorist attacks, the most successful tactics were routine policing, the use of informers, and information provided by the public. Organized terrorism campaigns were most vulnerable to informers and surveillance, while the most effective tactics against lone wolves were witness identification and information from the public. The most successful terrorist preventions involved informers and surveillance.
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| 8 |
ID:
132366
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2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article is a detailed case study examining Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (born Carlos Bledsoe), a lone wolf jihadist who carried out a fatal shooting at a joint Army-Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas, on June 1, 2009. The article explores his early life, including involvement in violent and criminal activities that caused Muhammad to get into trouble with authorities, after which he decided to explore religion as an alternative that could keep him out of trouble. Muhammad found that he was attracted to the Islamic faith, and converted at the age of nineteen. The article explores Muhammad's subsequent turn toward Salafism, and chronicles his increasing extremism with reference to academic debates about the concept of radicalization and the role of religious ideas. Finally, the article explains Muhammad's attack on the recruiting center, and the manner in which he was able to continue his jihad even while imprisoned.
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| 9 |
ID:
132370
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Today, the specters of lone wolves and autonomous cells acquiring and using chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons of mass destruction, whether in their traditional military forms or the more non-traditional industrial forms, seems less far-fetched. Fortunately, military CBRN agents and weapons are not normally accessible to lone wolves or autonomous cells and are often located in highly secured areas. Therefore, lone wolves and autonomous cells may be drawn to materials similar to CBRN located in less secure areas. These commonplace industrial chemicals, biological contaminants, and radioactive materials could be used to cause disruptions or mass casualties. The dual use nature of these materials and technologies enables them to be turned into weapons and delivered by nonmilitary means. Future "over-the-horizon" threats, such as the proliferation of new biotechnologies and amateur do-it-yourself capabilities, pose a risk that lone wolves could develop weapons at a time when travel, access to knowledge, and dual-use technologies, in the globalizing environment, make lone wolf terrorists more dangerous. Thus, the author explores existing countermeasures, such as laws, strategies, passive and active measures designed to stop these dangerous threats. In particular, capabilities to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from CBRN terrorist acts are examined.
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| 10 |
ID:
132365
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Since the turn of the millennium in particular, protest movements have often been characterized by Black Bloc tactics of confrontation and street fighting between anarchist militants and police forces. This article analyses the Black Bloc's philosophy, dynamics, organization, praxis, and goals. After discussing the relationship between the Black Bloc and violence, the article analyses dynamics within militant anarchism that open the way for the formation of autonomous terrorist cells, as well as the potential for lone wolf terrorism in the movement.
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| 11 |
ID:
132360
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this article, we endeavor to shed new light on the consequences of tribalism in the present day, one of the most important of which is the threat posed by lone wolf actors and the emergence of autonomous cells that operate with no central direction. To better acquaint the reader with the theoretical models used in this article-in particular the Trinitarian model of Carl von Clausewitz-we begin with historic models dating back to Alexander the Great. The central focus of our article posits a reconceptualization of tribalism as a driving force behind the global jihadist phenomenon. We will go into the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan in some depth, believing that it is necessary to provide a close examination of these case studies to better understand the emergence of jihadist lone wolves who operate both in the ungoverned spaces of the Middle East and South Asia and in their Western homelands. We conclude with an examination of cases of jihadist lone wolf terrorism involving recent converts to radical Islam in the U.S. Finally, our article focuses on the emerging security threats posed by lone wolves, autonomous cells, and the challenges ahead for the military, security, and intelligence services.
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| 12 |
ID:
132369
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
School shootings have traditionally been interpreted as non-political acts. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that not all shootings are necessarily so different from political violence, at least in the shooter's own opinion. The article analyses 28 school rampage shootings in Europe, the U.S., and Canada from 1999-2011 to determine common and prevalent political elements in the shootings. The shootings are divided into three categories: shootings with overtly political communication (four cases), shootings with references to previous school rampage shootings (13 cases), and isolated incidents (11 cases). While it is possible to question whether the shootings were genuinely politically motivated, it is clear that the majority of school shooters link their deed to the agenda and beliefs presented by the Columbine shooters, which has created a sense of tradition, continuity, and imagined community among the shooters and their admirers, not unlike in cases of terrorism and political violence that are referred to as leaderless resistance.
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| 13 |
ID:
132364
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
After discussing the extent to which the period from 1878-1934, with its frequent incidents of anarchist assassinations and bombings, can be considered the classic age of "lone wolf" or leaderless terrorism, this article focuses on four acts of anarchist violence and police and government responses to this violence. The four cases are the 1896 bombing of a Corpus Christi procession in Barcelona, the 1901 assassination of President McKinley, a 1902 bombing in Livorno (Leghorn) Italy, and the 1912 attempted assassination of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. Confronted by these violent acts, the authorities resorted to two basic policies that might be referred to as "micro" and "macro" approaches. The macro approach was to launch massive crackdowns, arrest hundreds if not thousands of suspects (in some cases torturing them), and pass repressive legislation limiting freedom of the press, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly in order to discover the guilty terrorists and to squelch anarchist propaganda and organized activity. The micro approach was to focus on improving the intelligence capacity of the police by modernizing and expanding it, and creating or professionalizing the protective service for government ministers and heads of state.
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| 14 |
ID:
132363
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Research has shown that there is no profile of individual characteristics of group-based terrorists, but profiling the characteristics of lone wolf terrorists may yet be possible. In this article, we bring together suggestions about what a lone wolf profile might look like. We describe a two-pyramids model that distinguishes radicalization of opinion from radicalization of action, then use this model to review three case histories of lone wolf terrorists. We also review results comparing two kinds of mostly lone actor violent offenders: assassins and school attackers. Results highlight the gap between radical opinion and radical action, and suggest two profiles of lone wolf terrorists: disconnected-disordered are individuals with a grievance and weapons experience who are social loners and often show signs of psychological disorder; caring-compelled are individuals who strongly feel the suffering of others and feel a personal responsibility to reduce or avenge this suffering.
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