Counterterrorism versus Antiterrorism Law Enforcement Discussion

Counterterrorism versus Antiterrorism Law Enforcement Discussion

Complete the **** ( DIscussion + 2 Responses)

*****Many people use the terms counterterrorism and antiterrorism interchangeably without realizing that there is a difference. However, a professional in the field needs to understand the difference. Discuss the common misconceptions surrounding these terms and explain the difference between counterterrorism and antiterrorism as though you are presenting to a room full of non-security or law enforcement personnel. Provide analogies or examples to help explain.

Counterterrorism is a specific and unique form of law enforcement and security. With increased occurrences of domestic and international terrorism related cases, the need to explore all the elements that influence counterterrorism measures is paramount. Counterterrorism approaches are constantly evolving with terroristic techniques, as are the laws and policies that govern the global response to terrorism.

In order to understand this specialty, one must explore terrorism as a whole. Terrorism can come in many forms, including international, domestic, and cyber. Regardless of the type, terrorism poses a major threat to human life, property, and prosperity. Where a violent act attempts to harm the direct targets, violent acts of terrorism have larger political or societal implications. There are many factors to be considered when trying to combat terrorism, such as the means and techniques being utilized, the motives, the target, and the ultimate goal. What is the venue and demographic of the terrorist? Does the terrorist have health-related issues or motivations that go beyond their immediate surroundings? Lastly, what support structure does the terrorist have to assist in carrying out their mission? These are only a few of the many questions that counterterrorism professionals seek to answer in order to determine terrorists’ motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. Understanding the complexity of these considerations is the first step in understanding counterterrorism.

Field operators and surveillance professionals must be aware of the steps a terrorist takes to prepare for an attack. These steps can often begin with pre-operational research, which can include taking notes and pictures of a target location, probing a site to see what security reaction time is, and using social media to obtain additional information. A current trend that terrorists use to conduct pre-operational research is the use of individuals who would not cause alarm to scope out a target. For example, an elderly individual or mother with a child in a stroller can easily obtain information without drawing attention to themselves. Security personnel who are not trained in counterterrorism may not detect these people as suspicious, but counterterrorism professionals know that anyone can be part of a terrorism plot. They seek the indicators of terrorist planning in addition to the individuals behind the plan.

The last part of the planning phase consists of obtaining the materials for a terrorist’s mode of attack. Counterterrorism professionals observe the plan unfold and track the terrorists’ activities until there is enough evidence collected to apprehend and charge the terrorist. In addition to surveillance, professionals use various approaches to obtain actionable information to charge a criminal. For example, an outreach approach can be implemented where agents visit local beauty salons and hardware stores to inform employees of suspicious purchases they should be aware of and provide them with a direct channel for reporting the activity. This increases the likelihood of obtaining current and actionable information and provides intelligence to follow up in relation to case development. Intelligence techniques and methodology will be explored further in Module Two.

****In response to your peers, act as a member of the audience and ask innovative and challenging questions that would likely come up after the presentation

Peer post 1

Good Morning Class,

Counter-Terrorism and Anti-terrorism are construed by others to mean the same thing, which is to fight terrorism. Digging deeper into the definitions of both reveal that they are different from one another. Counter-terrorism incorporates measures designed to combat, ameliorate the threat and consequences of terrorism (Sandler, 2014). These actions are taken by governments, militaries, international organizations, private corporations and even private citizens. Anti-terrorism is measures that are set in place to reduce the risk of a terrorist attack.

For example, the easiest way to explain the difference can be on the football field. Counter-terrorism can be compared to the offense and anti-terrorism can be compared to the defense. The offense(counter-terrorism units) studies the terrorist groups by conducting surveillance to find weak areas to break through and eliminate them. The defense (Anti-terrorism) creates barriers, firewalls, and incorporates many other types of defenses to prevent attacks from happening. Putting an extra man (barrier) on the defensive line (target of the terrorists) will help prevent the running back(terrorists) from breaking through the line of scrimmage, failing to gain ground and destroying the target.

Thank you,

Tim

Reference

Sandler, T. (January 2015). Terrorism and counterterrorism: an overview, Oxford Economic Papers, Volume 67, Issue 1, Pages 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpu039

Peer Post 2

Terrorism, the use of violence and intimidation against citizens, especially for political gain. This is something many of us are familiar with, we hear about it, we see it on the news, some of us have even experienced events that meet this definition. This poses the question of what are we doing about it? Two terms you may have heard before, counterterrorism and antiterrorism, that is what we’re doing, but what does that mean? Context clues lead us to the idea that it is something against terrorism. The problem is, these words are often used incorrectly, or even interchangeably, when they are not. They sound the same, and they are against terrorism, so thats good, right? Well yes, but we should understand the difference, so that we can be even more of supportive of the functions behind those words. The easiest way to describe the major difference is, one is reactive, one is proactive. Counterterrorism is reactive, it indicates the we are attempting to counter an attack, or defend ourselves against an active or expected attack. Whereas, antiterrorism is proactive. This indicates that we are actively seeking potential threats in advance and attempting to prevent attacks and/or eliminate organizations that could become a threat to us. Think of this like the flu. We all get flu vaccines every year, this is the result of extensive research and we use the information to help prevent the flu, much like anti-terrorism, the flu vaccine could be considered anti-flu. Those of us who are unlucky enough to get the flu, often take over-the-counter flu medicine to fight the flu and minimize the effects. This could be considered counter-flu, much like defending against an active terrorist attack would be counterterrorism.

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