A terrorist may be a member of different sex, race, political persuasion, or religion. However, every particular terrorist operation has a certain type of characteristics and the most means of identifying and preventing terrorist attacks is by analyzing the attacks on an intelligence-based approach. In the book The Terrorist Recognition Handbook, Malcolm Nance tries to uncover all the dynamics associated with terrorism and how terrorists achieve their heinous motives. The focus of the paper is on chapter 11 and 12 which are: Terrorist Tools: Conventional Weapons Identification and Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons: Effects and Associated Equipment Identification. The first important aspect that the paper addresses is how terrorists acquire their weapons. Much attention should be given to this subject because it is the precise indicator of their mission. There are two ways in which weapons can be acquired: open market and black market. Most terrorists today are purchasing their weapons in an open market through a trusted dealer. The open market way is whereby weapons are purchased legally at a gun store or showrooms (Nance, 2014). Other terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Al Shabaab are acquiring their weapons through the black market where they purchase their weapons through unscrupulous dealers. Terrorism also goes beyond the use of lethal weapons to the use of knives, blades, and garrotes, among other tools. For instance, in countries like Kenya and Uganda, there are still amateurish terrorist who use these tools to terrorize citizens. This is widespread in Africa where the terrorists do not have enough funds and network to purchase the lethal weapons of mass destruction from the overseas market. According to the recent profiling of the terrorists attacks, it has been established that these people have access to the most sophisticated and modern weaponry.
They outdo most countries in the most effective and reliable weapons such as the: heavy and light machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols, and home-made and improvised bombs, among other tools. According to Nance, for which I conquer, terrorists are in possession of the best weapons that exist in the market. This means that in order to curb terrorism the first step should be cutting their links with their source of weaponry.
There are other terrorists’ tools which do not necessarily comprise of guns and IEDs. These tools are nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction. The chemical and biological agents have to be processed so that they may become effective weapons. This process is referred to as the weaponization, which involves transforming agents into either dry or liquid states. According to the research by the CIA agents, it has been established that the liquid state is easy to prepare and also offer the best qualities of dispersal. Captured terrorists have stated that dry states are difficult and expensive to prepare but tend to have a better dispersive capability. There has been several ways in which biological and chemical agents have been distributed in the past. Some of the most common occurrences are: aerosol spray cans which open up and release the agents, envelopes or letters which contain the agents, hand-held bug spraying tank, among others. Although some of these have never been used in the United States and other European countries, they have been used in other parts or world such as the Middle East, Iraq, and Palestine (Nance, 2014). According to the research conducted on the offensive chemical weapons, there are common chemicals which can be manufactured and weaponized. Chemical agents are non-living chemicals unlike biological which are living. Biological warfare is another kind of terrorism because a certain virus or bacteria is created and introduced in the target audience.
The antidote to the virus or bacteria is only in possession of the person who introduced the disease. In most cases, this type of warfare involves highly experienced scientists. For instance, it is alleged that the HIV virus that causes AIDS is a biological agent, although the truth of this matter has not been established.
In the book Understanding the Law of Terrorism by Wayne McCormack, and more so on chapter four of the book: Terrorism and Intelligence Surveillance, Wayne tries to uncover how intelligence surveillance is used to counter terrorism. The chapter also describes the history and development of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and challenges faced by terrorism-related mass surveillance before and after the Snowden’s disclosure. The only means of countering terrorism today is through collection of intelligence reports on the terrorists. Most countries today are trying harder to strengthen the process of intelligence collection especially with the high rising waves of terrorists’ attacks across the world (McCormack, 2007). Most countries, especially in the third world, do not have the modern technology of spying on terrorists. Instead, they use human beings to collect information directly from the ground. Sometimes, this is risky in case the identity of the underground spy is blown. This may lead to the prosecution of the intelligence agent or the immediate change in the tact. Nevertheless, the only of collecting intelligence from the terrorists is by recruiting one of their own because it will not raise eyebrows. Countries like the United States, for instance, has sophisticated and modern technologies to collect information throughout the world without having to use a person as a spy. They do so through tapping mobile phones conversations through the NSA, they also collect vital information through satellites and drones and so on. Intelligence surveillance is the main key to combating terrorists’ attacks because the country will have the information prior to the occurrence of an incidence (McCormack, 2007).
References
McCormack, W. (2007). Understanding the Law of Terrorism. Matthew Bender and Company, Inc., LexisNexis Group.
Nance, M. W. (2014). The terrorist recognition handbook: a manual for predicting and identifying terrorist activities. Lyons Press.
