Counterterrorism

Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism and violent extremism.

The United States Armed Forces uses the term "foreign internal defense" for programs that support other countries' attempts to suppress insurgency, lawlessness, or subversion, or to reduce the conditions under which threats to national security may develop.

[11] Government responses to terrorism, in some cases, tend to lead to substantial unintended consequences,[12][vague] such as what occurred in the above-mentioned Munich massacre.

Domestic terrorists, especially lone wolves, are often harder to detect because of their citizenship or legal status and ability to stay under the radar.

[16] To select the effective action when terrorism appears to be more of an isolated event, the appropriate government organizations need to understand the source, motivation, methods of preparation, and tactics of terrorist groups.

[17] Counterintelligence is a great challenge with the security of cell-based systems, since the ideal, but the nearly impossible, goal is to obtain a clandestine source within the cell.

[citation needed] Such methods may lead captives to offer false information in an attempt to stop the treatment, or due to the confusion caused by it.

[citation needed] The human security paradigm outlines a non-military approach that aims to address the enduring underlying inequalities which fuel terrorist activity.

Successful human security campaigns have been characterized by the participation of a diverse group of actors, including governments, NGOs, and citizens.

[33] Repression by the military in itself usually leads to short term victories, but tend to be unsuccessful in the long run (e.g., the French doctrine used in colonial Indochina and Algeria[34]), particularly if it is not accompanied by other measures.

One method is to place hostile vehicle mitigation to enforce protective standoff distance outside tall or politically sensitive buildings to prevent car bombings.

UK railway stations removed their garbage bins in response to the Provisional IRA threat, as convenient locations for depositing bombs.

For a threatened or completed terrorist attack, an Incident Command System (ICS) may be invoked to control the various services that may need to be involved in the response.

Fire departments, perhaps supplemented by public works agencies, utility providers, and heavy construction contractors, are most apt to deal with the physical consequences of an attack.

From the local to the national level, public health agencies may be designated to deal with identification or mitigation of possible biological attacks, including chemical or radiological contamination.

These units are specially trained in military tactics and are equipped for close-quarters combat, with emphasis on stealth and performing the mission with minimal casualties.

[42] The majority of counterterrorism operations at the tactical level are conducted by state, federal, and national law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

[citation needed] The scope for counterterrorism systems is very large in physical terms and in other dimensions, such as type and degree of terrorist threats, political and diplomatic ramifications, and legal concerns.

[51] Pursuant to passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies began to systemically reorganize.

Following suit from federal changes pursuant to 9/11, however, most state and local law enforcement agencies began to include a commitment to "fighting terrorism" in their mission statements.

Some scholars have doubted the ability of local police to help in the war on terror and suggest their limited manpower is still best utilized by engaging community and targeting street crimes.

[57] Thus, while sweeping changes in counterterrorist rhetoric redefined most American post 9/11 law enforcement agencies in theory, it is hard to assess how well such hyperbole has translated into practice.

Since terrorism is such a rare event phenomena,[58] measuring arrests or clearance rates would be a non-generalizable and ineffective way to test enforcement policy effectiveness.

Another methodological problem in assessing counterterrorism efforts in law enforcement hinges on finding operational measures for key concepts in the study of homeland security.

Both terrorism and homeland security are relatively new concepts for criminologists, and academicians have yet to agree on the matter of how to properly define these ideas in a way that is accessible.

In cases where military organisations do operate in the domestic context, some form of formal handover from the law enforcement community is regularly required, to ensure adherence to the legislative framework and limitations.