GovCentral

02/24/09

Decentralized Terrorism and the Home Grown Threat
Edward A. Chesky JR., Major, MI, USAR (RET)

Recent events indicate a new and troubling development has occurred in the current terrorism environment. As spoken to by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the former head of the Egyptian Security Services, the threat posed by, “Home Grown”, terrorists has increased significantly. What both of these gentlemen have identified, as the result of current terrorist activity, is that individuals not previously associated with any known terrorist movements, and residing in their home or host country, are now engaging in terrorist behavior.

This development is particularly troubling for the intelligence and security services because traditional counter terrorism and intelligence techniques are relatively ineffective in dealing with this threat. In looking at this problem, I argue that this increase in Home Grown terrorist activity can be attributed to a number of quantifiable factors. These factors include social, economic, and political conditions as well as the effectiveness of an active decentralized recruitment and inducement effort by trans-national terrorist movements such as Al Qaeda.

These decentralized recruitment and inducement efforts seek to take advantage of perceived, or real, social, economic or political injustices to sway individuals into accepting the movement’s worldview. This effort makes adroit use of tailored multi-media propaganda, information releases and the Internet to play to the base emotions of the Home Grown Terrorist. This effort when coupled to a religious component and strong cultural tradition is very effective in inducing a receptive frame of mind in the Home Grown Terrorist. With the advent of the Internet, this process has become even more effective than in the past when such efforts were largely limited to print and broadcast media.

With the advent of the Internet, trans-national terrorist movements now have the ability to provide near real-time guidance and advice to a host of decentralized sites/nodes on the Internet that share their worldview. Linked via the Internet, and working in a decentralized fashion, these sites/nodes tailor their activities to take advantage of local conditions. While seeming on the outside to be working independently, these sites are actually working in concert towards a common goal. Information on tactics, techniques and procedures are shared between sites, and as a result the sophistication and effectiveness of actions and efforts are increased over time.
As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, I expect that the threat posed by Home Grown Terrorist will increase. This in, my opinion, will be due largely to economic de-franchisement and the resulting frustration that comes with it. This, coupled to the ongoing military efforts to combat trans-national terrorist movements, will in all probability continue to provide fodder for the propagandists in these movements to use in order to attract converts much like honey attracts bears to a beehive.