Counter-Terrorism Strategies in the West

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Study with objective of an effective strategy for India

By Sivasathivel Kandasamy

India and Israel could be considered as the countries most affected by Jihad Terrorism, especially from across the border. While the actions of Israel might not be the best of favorites in the agenda of Indian Policy makers, a thorough study is required to formulate the policies and strategies to deal with terrorism that has come into existence both as an endogenous and exogenous entity. In this work, counter-terrorism strategies of some multi-cultural countries are studied in an attempt to identify the past mistakes in the Indian System as well as extract lessons for an effective counter-terrorism strategy suiting the Indian scenario.

CounterTerrorism Strategies in Netherlands [1]

Islamist terrorism is put on high alert after the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent wave of ‘powder letters’ both in the national and international agenda and Netherlands reacted accordingly with an attempt to prevent such attacks in the soils of Netherland.

Netherlands believes that terrorist threats are largely intertwined with the international threat i.e., for example, if terrorists are focusing on American or Israeli targets, these targets are also in danger in Netherlands. “Islamist Terrorism is to realize a society that is in accordance with the fundamentalist Islamic polity based on the extremist nterpretation of the sources of Islam by means of politically motivated violence and threats of violence”

“Experience has shown that Islamist Terrorists are operating thoroughly and patiently, and we can therefore expect the threat to remain highly in the near future.

The waning vigilance that is creeping into the society in Netherlands is therefore undesirable and even increases the risk of a terrorist attacks. A recent development is the fact that cells within the network that responsible for supporting, preparing and committing attacks are operating autonomously than in the past. Another new trend is the increasing focus on lowsecurity targets”

The article also states that the threat represented by the Islamist terrorist groups is not directly related to violence. The Islamist fighters (mujahedin) resident in Netherlands involved in the democratic legal order by purposefully influencing members of Muslim communities in Netherlands in order to create a polarization in the society and to alienate Muslims from the rest of the population.

These activities of the Mujahedin reinforce the purposeful efforts by radical Islamic persons and organizations within and outside Netherlands to prevent Integration of citizens with a Muslim background and to create a religiously based antagonism between Muslims and their non-Islamic environment. These radical groups increasingly succeed in convincing religious brothers that a society should established in accordance with the ‘pure’ Islam. “The strength of their recruitment does not lie in the fact that they can show that Islamic laws and regulations will solve all problems, but in their appealing idea that the rights and interests of ‘good’ Muslims are being violated again and again, also in the west”.

Young people particularly appear to be susceptible to indoctrination by charismatic spiritual leaders. General Intelligence and Security Service of Netherlands (AVID) conducts investigations into organizations that and persons who give cause of serious suspicions that they pose a threat to the continued existence of the democratic legal order to national security or to the vital interests of the state. The objective of these investigations is to make the threat visible and promote or take measures against these threats.

When dealing with terrorism, AVID embarks upon a ‘wide approach’, which implies that terrorism should not be dealt with as an isolated phenomenon but in combination with interfacing phenomena like radicalization and recruitment. It also believes that the relevant signals should be identified at an early stage in order to make effective intervention possible.

The article mandates a thorough intelligence work and active measures to frustrate terrorist activities and an adequate coordination with criminal investigation and prosecution should be essential elements of counter-terrorism.

Interventions aimed at disrupting and prosecuting terrorist activities would go beyond judicial proceedings with an objective to frustrate or stop plans for violent activities at an early stage. Such exposures apart from preventing terrorist attacks would also serve in increasing social awareness and thereby increase resistance against to radicalization and extremism.

The article states that the effective counter-terrorism mainly consists of preventive measures. Freezing of assets in combination with other measures not only help to disrupt and weaken infrastructure of the terrorist organization but also can reveal information on the activities of the terrorists groups and their supporters.

The article asserts that the problem of Islamic terrorism is largely rooted abroad, which makes it essential to be abreast with relevant developments abroad including the emergence of potential hot spots. Coordination with international and national agencies becomes a necessity and hence European Counter-Terrorism Group was set on the initiative of EU Council of Justice.

The article states that Police are the organization whose core business is to know the local society down to its capillaries. And youth detectives know youngsters whose behavior show relevant signs.

Conclusions of the article are as follows:

n Radical Islamic groups and individuals increasingly succeed in convincing moderate Muslims of the fact that the realization of a society that is in agreement with the pure Islam is the perfect solution to the injustice in the present society

n A number of Muslims underwent radicalization process and were successfully recruited for the jihad, with the ultimate prospect of the martyrdom.

n Terrorism is not approached as an isolated phenomenon, but in combination with interfacing phenomena of radicalization and recruitment and it is necessary to identify relevant signals at an early stage to enable effective interventions.

n Effective Counter-Strategies are anyway aimed at the following relevant categories: terrorists, supporters, sympathizers and the Muslim Community.

n Combating Islamist terrorism not only requires enormous effort from the intelligence and the law-enforcement authorities but also alertness in other policy fields such as immigration and alien policy and integration.

n Identification of terrorists networks and the prevention of attacks are core tasks of AVID

n Major elements of Counter-Terrorism are the identification and, if necessary, monitoring of the radical cells and networks, as well as the prevention of radicalization and issuing alert against this phenomenon. Intensive co-operation is essential in this respect.

n Regional Intelligence services are the link between the police and the AVID .

Lessons

n Terrorism should not be approached in isolation but in combination with radicalization and recruitment. Unfortunately, is Terrorism still approached in isolation in India, which makes it a breeding ground for radicalization and recruitment. It should also be noted that such radicalization apart from giving shelter and recruitment for terrorists’ activities would also give a cause for repercussions from other affected communities manifesting as religious extremism disrupting the political process, which should be thwarted at any cost especially given the fact that India is a secular and multi-religious society.

n Polarization could contribute much to the spawning of terrorism and disruption of activities in pursuit of national interests.

n Effective coordination is required between the different organizations within the country is required.

n Counter-Terrorism should be aimed not at post-mortem but to prevent incidents, which could be achieved by disrupting and frustrating the Islamic organizations involved in such activities.

n Investigation to curb finance and support for terrorist activities is mandatory.

South Asia Analysis Group

To be continued

CounterTerrorism in UK [2]

The Counter-Terrorism Strategy of United Kingdom, called the CONTEST, is divided into four principal strands:

PREVENT – Prevent Terrorism by tackling radicalization

n Identification of potential factors that is likely to catalyst any given individual to become a terrorist and address them through media reforms and other means

n A Commission on Integration and Cohesion was announced in June 2006, which considers how local areas themselves can play a role in forging cohesive and resilient communities.

n Support reforms and modernization to address the political and socio-economic environment that is exploited by the extremists.

n Deterring those who facilitate terrorism. The Terrorism Act of 2006 has made it a criminal offense directly or indirectly to encourage the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism or to disseminate terrorist publications.

n In February 2006, the first national training event for HM Prison Service Imams was delivered as a result of direct intervention and support from the HMPS Police Advisors Section.

n “This terrorism will not be defeated until its ideas, the poison that warps the minds of its adherents, are confronted, head-on, in their essence, at their core” – UK Prime Minister on 21 March 2006. Hence radicalization is tackled by challenging the motivations that extremists believe to justify the use of violence and work with communities to discourage susceptible individuals from turning towards extremist activity.

• Working with national and international communities

South Asia Analysis Group