Once again: 7 dead, 50 injured as I write this, though those numbers will change. Around the world, Islamic terrorists have conducted a series of terrorist attacks that have left at least 149 dead in the first week of Ramadan – the Islamic month of fasting.
As President Sisi of Egypt pointed out, the long-term solution begins with Islamic leadership recognizing the need to rethink how they understand Islam. His commentary has been endorsed and repeated by leadership in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, to include President Trump two weeks ago. Call it what you will, a reformation, rethinking, a new look; the long-term solution requires the Islamic states, and their leadership, to lead their people to a new understanding of their religion, one with no room for violence.
But that will be an effort of generations. In the meantime, what must we do?
Begin by recognizing that for any would-be terrorist, these attacks show that there’s no need for sophisticated weapons or training or support in order to produce real terror: driving a truck into a crowd and then hacking pedestrians with a machete is not something that can be functionally prevented. Long-bladed tools for clearing brush are available around the world. Everyone has a driver’s license. Seriously supposing that something can be done about access to trucks, or knives, is foolish. But, it does point out that it’s time to stop looking for some obscure legislation to provide additional security.
But what concrete actions can we take in the short term?
Begin by recognizing that what’s happened recently in England and elsewhere – simplistic, violent attacks on targets chosen more or less at random – can happen in the US. Bombs aren’t needed, guns aren’t needed, sophisticated ‘targeting’ isn’t needed. To point out the excruciatingly obvious, future attacks will be perpetrated by either American citizens who’ve adopted the violent behavior of fanatical Islam, or the attacks will be carried out by newcomers. Will more detailed vetting of would-be immigrants help? Of course. So, our immigration policies need to be tightened up. The Supreme Court needs to act on this issue now.
How do we identify those among us who decide violent, fanatical Islam is their path?
We need better information collection. This isn’t a task for the intelligence community (IC); it’s a task for states and cities and town, though the IC must help. The federal government must better manage that information, processing and integrating it with existing information, then sharing with other cities and states. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must lead this, both among other agencies and with our information exchange with other nations. Are there Constitutional issues about enhanced collecting, processing and sharing this information? Yes. But we all – Congress, the courts, the IC, the FBI, DHS, the states and cities, and the citizenry – need to work together to solve these problems. And there must be tight relationships with key elements of the IC and the DOD to allow for seamless – and Constitutional – pursuit of terrorists whether in the US or overseas.
We need better analysis. Improving analysis means investing in analysts, both in recruiting more analysts, and in providing more education to those already in the system. This is going to be a long fight; we need to take the time to train our people.
There are a host of new software tools that provide commercial entities increasingly detailed, complex “pictures” of consumer behavior and can model individual and group behavior; we must manipulate our information with the best software available.
We need an organization solely focused on counter-terror; a dedicated body of agents, investigators, assault teams and analysts. The FBI is a good organization, but it has many tasks, and many tasks always dilute any effort. We need a single focus organization. Split off parts of the FBI now involved in counter-terror – and any other federal agency currently engaged in counter-terrorism, and form a single-focus counter-terror agency, one with it’s own recruiting, training, etc. Engage in aggressive recruiting to ID and hire top people from across the country – in tactics and techniques, intelligence, investigation, cyber, information war, psychological war, etc., and establish a focused counter-terror agency.
Lastly, the time has come to look at this problem for what it is – without the blinders of political correctness and a willfully blind press: a struggle with fanatical Islam. Understanding that is an essential step in addressing this threat.
Copyright 2017 Arrias
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