¶ … International Terrorism on Domestic Terrorism-
Domestic terrorism has existed within the United State for a long time. It has influenced the United States' political and social structure to varying degrees. Before, the word "terrorist" and "terrorism" it was being used by the French Revolution in a positive way referring to the Jacobins' actions. As time has gone by, these words have turned to be used to refer to array of negative and violent actions which are against the societies as well as governments. According to the definition of the United States Department of Justice, domestic terrorism is unlawful use of force or violence by a group against people or property with intentions of intimidating or coercing a government or civilians to the interest of political or social objectives,( James F. Jarboe, 2012).
Sometimes it become difficult to come up with the difference between terrorist group from extremism when studying domestic terrorism into details to understand the motivations and intricacies that characterize these groups, however, their main intention is pegged on the use of violence. To some extent they can be differentiated through looking at their activities, like extremism does not involve political environment and usually it is controlled by societal pressure, education, the law and discourse, while terrorism because of its violence nature is far beyond control through societal, education or civil elements which should be pursued and punished by law enforcement agencies.
As much as terrorism has been associated with public, private and government institutions in various ways for a long time, its application as well as its associated strategies has evolve from the societies upon which it is imposed, (Cornell University Law School, 2012). Advances of technology especially in the weapon, communication and transportation are some of the factors that have facilitated the activities of the modern domestic terrorist groups since through these they are able to receive and send information to the international terrorists and these improve their capacity to be involved in terrorist activities.
Activities of domestic terrorism become more possible through ethno-national diaspora. Ethno-diaspora is always a social-political formation of people who tend to be united through same ethno-national-religious origin and they usually reside as minorities within the hostland or hostlands. Even though they decide to remain within the new hostland, since they are core members of the diasporas, they do not leave their common origin culture and national identity. Their coping strategies within the complex environment such as in United States are; Acculturation ( blending into the American new culture), integration (learning to operate in this new system, however they maintain cultural distance from it), corporatism (being involved with representative organizations that are recognized by the hostland government as well as political system), communalism (maintaining themselves as a separate community), autonomism (acting as per their social, cultural, and economic background as well as interests, finally, isolation (going it alone as the way they always do, one man terrorism).
Since these members of ethno-national diasporas have chosen a combined communalist and autonomist strategy, they maintain regular or occasional contacts with their homelands as well as with groups and individuals who they are with in the same ethno-national origin but in other countries. As the core members continue with their activities in U.S., their main aim is to establish a local and transnational networks that reflects and deals with their Diasporas. Throughout their terrorism connection activities in the country with the locals, they make sure that they avoid creating conflicts that can make them be identified and they follow the applicable rules of U.S., (Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 2008).
Due to the increased ease of communication and transportation as well as porous borders in United State, the number of legal and illegal immigrants has increased, some of whom are members of the diasporas. As the number of these members grows, they start taking great enhanced roles in terrorism activities within United State, for example, Osama had some of his activities in United State. The al-Qaeda's influence and involvement in United State Attack can be traced to Muslim American citizens being the links.
The activities of the terrorist are also made easier through drug trade, for example, narcotics. Drug trade is conducted by international terrorist groups and the domestic terrorist as well as with other areas as a main source of funding. This trade also provides an embedded infrastructure for terrorists' activities in the State. Therefore, fighting...
Some of them include: a) terrorist use drug trade as a means of obtaining confidential security-related information, for collecting intelligence as well as achieving operational and peripheral assistance. b) The routes which are used for smuggling tend to be used by the terrorist organization in transporting ammunition, weapons, specialists and activists. c) Trafficking drug act as a source of funding for both the international terrorists or the domestic, d) They use some drugs as terror itself, for example the narcotics. The use of drugs increases criminal activities in the country and causes significant detriment to the economy. According to statistics, environment of drug trade is the area where the total number of offenders tends to be considerably larger as compared to number of criminal who are being caught by the authority.
International terrorist make use of illicit commercial support networks in the United States and other part of the world. They find drug trade infrastructure to be easily accessible and do not need long-term planning or allocation of special resources. They also tend to respond very fast to the challenges posed to them by the law enforcement authorities.
Because of the non-paradigm nature of the terrorist organizations, they always mange to exhibit greater operational flexibility than the authorities countering terrorism. These terrorist are always devising their operational tactics with considerable knowledge as well as organizational limitations.
The attack that happened on the World Trade Center was a blow to the sanctuary which was enjoyed by the United State through its geographical isolation. Moreover, it changed the way American see Islamist terrorism, (E. Scioline and S. Grey, 2006). This resulted in global war on terror and on the other hand it led to the rise of several terror-related attacks that take place in America.
Between 2001 and 2009, U.S. government reported at least 46 cases of domestic radicalization and recruitment apart from other incidents that could have happened without the government knowing. Homeland security of U.S. And its efficiency has been questioned many times through various bombing attempts as well as shootouts, (Risa A. Brooks, 2011). According to the Congress report, the number and sophisticated nature of the attacks have risen up as time goes by. The report indicates that on average of six attacks occur in a year, and in the year 2009 there were 13 attacks. The only plots that were able to be traced from their links were 25% linking with major organizations such as Qaeda. On the other hand, Bipartisan Policy Center analysis paper indicates a rise in the number of radicals who are playing high-level operational roles within al Qaeda groups and their allies.
The attacks that were more popular and were publicized took place at the Fort Hood shooting that left the moderate Muslims living in United State in worry; the Time square bomb and the failed attack of the Christmas-day bomber.
The way War on Terror that focus on dealing with terror from international terrorist tend to be heavily funded, this campaign can be applied by the American in wiping out domestic terrorism, which does not only depend on financial support from the international terrorist but also ideology. Among the higher rank of al Qaeda are the educated Members of U.S. And through internet the al Qaeda has been able to recruit many American radical Muslims.
An example of educated American who gets involve in terrorism is Anwar Al Awlaki who was euphemized to be the bin Laden of the Internet. He has been rallying support among disillusioned Muslim who are in the United State via his blog You Tube videos and facebook page. According to the reliable sources, his target is on educated American Muslims because he has command of English and ability to empathize with causes like that of Palestine.
On his sermon it is alleged that three of the 9/11 hijackers attended. Another person who attended the sermon was the accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. Through U.S. intelligence, in the months prior to the Fort Hood shooting, 18 mails between Hasan and al-Awlaki were intercepted, in which one had the writing " I can't wait to join you (in the afterlife)." Al Awlaki was heard saying in a video tape in the year 2010 March that jihad war against the American was binding upon each and every Muslim who is able. Due to the fact that he is fluent in speaking English, he has been considered as a more threat as compared to bin Laden because he does not require subtitles for…
