06-1-teacnote-mod2ex-ctrter08R0002.pdf

Module 2

Seminar Exercise: Counterterrorism

Instructor Notes

This is a stand-alone seminar exercise. It is available in all three MC languages and does not require any prior preparation by students. Copies will be issued to seminar leaders prior to 3 February. The exercise is attached to these teaching notes and is available on the Intranet. The aims of the exercise are to give students the opportunity to discuss and define the nature of terrorism and analyze and select theoretical courses of action in response to acts that might be considered terrorism. The exercise is intended to provide insights into the difficulties of reaching an agreement on what constitutes “terrorism” and the complexities of dealing with incidents that require multi-faceted responses at both a national and international level. It should also highlight different national attitudes to personal freedoms and the rule of law, as well as the extent to which the war on terror can undermine civil liberties. Students work in language groups. Team members do not play specific roles or represent a particular government or country.

I suggest the following allocation of time:

10 min – Students issued with the exercise and briefed

10 min – Students read through the exercise individually

40 min – Working in discussion groups, students consider a definition of terrorism and selected case studies as directed by the seminar leader. Given time constraints, I suggest that each group considers no more than two scenarios.

10 min – Break, if applicable

50 min – Group presentations and discussion (10 min each).

For Reference: Some Definitions of Terrorism

The US State Department defines terrorism as premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience

The U.S. Department of Defense uses the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological

The UN defines terrorism as Any . . . act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act

The British Government defines terrorism as the use or threat of serious violence against persons or serious damage to property, designed to influence the government or intimidate the public or a section of the public…for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.

Ayatollah Tashkiri, an Iranian religious scholar, defines terrorism as an act carried out to achieve an inhuman and corrupt objective and involving a threat to security of any kind, and in violation of the rights acknowledged by religion and mankind

Seminar Exercise: Counterterrorism

1. The aims of this exercise are to give you the opportunity to discuss and define the nature of terrorism and to analyze and select courses of action in response to acts that might be considered terrorism. Working in small groups you will be asked to:

• Produce a working definition of terrorism

• Decide on the most appropriate measures to address the incidents described in some of the case studies

• Assess the advantages and disadvantages, both nationally and internationally, of your selected measures

• Make a short presentation on your findings

2. Neither you nor your team members are playing any specific roles or representing any particular government or country.

3. Your definition of terrorism should be agreed upon by all members of your group and should include examples of specific acts that illustrate and clarify the definition.

4. Case Studies. After you complete your definition of terrorism, consider the “acts of terror” described below. Consider both immediate and longer-term responses and domestic, multi-agency and international, bilateral or multilateral measures. Among the questions you may wish to address are the following: are the incidents examples of terrorism or conventional criminal activity; what further information might you wish to obtain before making your decisions; what role is there for the police, intelligence, armed and border security services; what about the influence of domestic political considerations and media coverage? Prepare to give reasons for your suggestions. There is no particular conflict or country context to consider. Instead you should examine the theoretical responses to the various acts of “terror” and be prepared to spell out the potential advantages and disadvantages of your selected countermeasures.

• An unknown assailant mailed a letter bomb to the elected mayor of a small town. The bomb explosion blinded her secretary. Your country currently has no significant ethnic or political unrest, but the number of international criminal cartels operating on your territory has grown in recent years. The mayor had no known connections with these groups. Initial forensic evidence suggests that the bomb was not sophisticated.

• A separatist militant, who is serving a life sentence for murdering two policemen in a car bombing, has gone on a hunger strike to gain “political status.” He says that he is a prisoner of war. His stance has some support both at home and abroad from members of the ethnic group that he claims to represent. . Amnesty International recently criticized your country’s treatment of prisoners held for so called political crimes. .

• A Wahhabi religious lawyer, who is a citizen of, and resident in, your country has issued a Fatwa ordering Muslims to participate in a Jihad against all governments, including your own, that are allies of the United States. However, the religious leader has not personally participated in any violent protests or attacks.

• A gang of skinheads from a run-down industrial town, who call themselves The Sons of

Horst Wessel, have been beating and robbing people with a Middle Eastern or African appearance. Often these attacks have coincided with football matches played locally by their hometown’s team. Recently the gang beat a Nigerian student to death and the incident received widespread national and international press coverage. A spokesman for the group interviewed by a freelance reporter said that they wanted to purify the country by driving out all foreigners.

• Islamic militants based in a remote part of a neighboring country recently attacked border police stations on your territory. A number of border guards were killed in the ensuing firefights before the militants withdrew. Although local Moslems are largely moderate, the militants say they will continue their attacks until all the secular governments in the region are overthrown and replaced by Islamic theocracies. The government of the neighboring country claims that its security forces are too weak to deal with the militants, but at the moment is not willing to sanction action by foreign security forces on its territory.

• Your department of homeland security, recently received intelligence from Interpol that a transnational criminal cartel was going to smuggle highly enriched uranium♦ across your territory by road or rail en route to an unknown destination in the Middle East.

Your border/customs police are highly professional and have good relations with those of bordering countries, but due to financial cutbacks they are severely overstretched. The government is anxious to avoid transit delays across your country as it might have a negative impact on the economy.

5. Presentations. Each team will be asked to brief its definition of terrorism and selected case studies’ findings and conclusions to the seminar leader and other seminar members.

♦ Uranium is a mixture of three isotopes U-234, U-235 and U-238. Most nuclear reactor fuel and weapon components are made with uranium in which the U-235 concentration has been increased by a process called enrichment. Fifteen pounds of enriched uranium are sufficient to construct a 1-kiloton nuclear device using the implosion technique. Such a device would be four times more powerful than the explosive energy of the two jets striking the World Trade Center. Fifteen pounds of enriched uranium could be placed in a lead shielded cylinder measuring roughly 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) by 1.2 inches (3 centimeters). With sufficient lead shielding the highly enriched uranium would not be detected by X–Ray machines or simple radiation detection devices.