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New Terror Tactics;
Chicago, IL., August 3, 1995 -- According to some of the world's leading counter-terrorist experts, the way that terrorist acts are being committed may have changed in recent years. In discussions held at the University of Illinois', Office of International Criminal Justice, 10th Annual "Terrorism; Past Present & Future" conference, experts from both Israel, Argentina, and the United States are reporting on a perceived change in the organization and operations of a number of terrorist groups.
During the conference, which ends today, Mr. Yonah Alexander of George Washington University and Mr. Julio Cirino of the Embassy of Argentina presented a panel discussion regarding the changing face of terrorism. In the session, entitled "Patterns of Organization and Target Selection", Mr. Alexander and Mr. Cirino presented a hypothesis that challenged traditional thinking in regard to how the perpetrators of major bombings and other atrocities are organized, or, in the words of Mr. Curino, "disorganized". In their hypothesis, they pointed out that there are actually at least two models in the organization of terrorist groups.
In the more traditional model, well known in military and police counter-terrorist circles, terrorists are organized into "cells", or small groups and report through "cut-outs" to higher levels of decision makers. Each larger group seemingly had it's own identity, goals, and ideology. This model was used by European and South American insurgents for many years. In many ways it is similar to a military "table of organization and equipment" which clearly delineated lines of command and control.
The new model, hypothesized, but not totally verified, involves a much more decentralized approach to terrorist management and operations. In it, "specialist" guerrillas are only brought together to commit a specific act and then quickly disbanded and returned to their current country of refuge. This model is one that allegedly is being practiced by Moslem extremist groups and those connected to much of the Mid-East violence. Interesting enough these small "ad hoc" terror organizations also, frequently, do not claim responsibility for their acts, or they claim responsibility for another group. This new model, if proven viable, reportedly further complicates the process of identifying and locating terrorists after the act.
Also interesting to counter-insurgency analysts is the fact that the members of these "ad hoc" groups may be under the control of several different "parent" organizations or even countries, who would acquire their services as needed for specific acts. In other words, specific terrorists are "hired" by one group or another to commit an act and then they become "free agents" again. According to counter-terrorist specialists, it is unclear if this is being done purely on a mercenary basis, or if the individual terrorists are acting in furtherance of religious or ideological goals. Most analysts say that it is probably a combination of both of these motivating factors. In general, the new model appears to be practiced by religious fanatics associated with radical fundamentalism.
According to FBI and other American analysts, it is "extremely possible" that the aforementioned model was used in the 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing, and that the WTC incident was one of the first examples of this new pattern. At least one analyst said that this model could help to explain the differing countries of origin of the defendants in the Sheik Abdul Rahman case in New York City. Since then, the authorities say, the operational design has probably been seen in Argentina, the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Algeria, and Israel.
Academics and police counter-terrorist specialists say that having identified this new pattern may help them in future investigations of terrorism, but, they caution that this changing and more widely distributed method of operations may also prove to be more difficult to combat than "traditional" patterns of extremist violence. The "brightest prospects" for the future, according to several in attendance at the conference, was the opportunity for them to discuss and gain a better understanding of the complex and challenging problem of both domestic and international terrorism.
(c) Emergencynet NEWS Service, 1995
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