How Can We Detect and Stop Terrorist Acts from Happening?
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”
Thomas Jefferson
Knowledge about the terrorist planning cycle is necessary in order to identify the key areas to implement effective counter terrorism measures. It is difficult enough just to summarize this cycle, let alone do something about it. Be that as it may, here are the steps typically involved with this cycle (investigations into terrorist attacks have shown that these steps are typical regardless of the cause).
First there is an original grievance. Grievances are usually localized (food shortage, ethnic tensions, politics, environment, religion and so forth).
The charged emotions associated with this grievance become focused and joined with a more universal common objective that helps vent the charged emotions (e.g. radical Islam’s hatred of the western world). The best defense against this step is limiting the ability of terrorists to traverse the globe. Keep the grievances and the emotions that are inflamed by them at the local level. The Privilege of Passage Plan, proposed by author John Errett is one such...