Security
Threats to the United States in the Twenty Years Before September 11
Any
society will face both internal and external threats in a normal
political environment. The United States faced external threats in
the form of Soviet empire building, Islamic extremism, the Iran/Iraq
War, and illegal immigration. Americans also faced internal threats
from terror, organized crime, gangs, and crime in general.
External
threats were less of an issue due to the capability
of the United States to project force and punish those that would
harm Americans. Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Speak
softly and carry a big stick”. Fourteen aircraft carrier
groups contained enough power for a very big stick indeed. We waged
what is known as the “Cold War” across the world with the
Soviets, spanning many fronts from Nicaragua
to Afghanistan. The nuclear armed retaliatory capability of the
United States prevented the Soviets from
acting to directly harm Americans. Americans
faced much less of a threat from Islamo-terror than did the
Europeans, but Americans were still targeted in such incidents as the
Achille Lauro and TWA. However, punitive strikes such as the bombing
of Libya in 1985 kept such attacks directed
primarily at Europeans who were more compliant in accepting such
attacks. In contrast to today's policy, President Reagan did not
trade five known terrorists for one known deserter as an
“anti-terror” strategy, The war between Iran and Iraq presented
an economic threat to America in the energy sector.
The United States then projected it's naval power into the Gulf to
protect oil supplies.
Internal
threats were more of a danger to Americans. Terror groups from the
Left to the Right carried out attacks, organized crime, gangs, and
crime in general. Leftist terror groups were basically carry overs
from the leftist terror of the 1960's. Such groups include the May
19 Communist Organization, The United Freedom Front, The Red
Guerrilla Resistance, the Symbionese Liberation
Army carried out bombings and other attacks. Rightist terror groups
included yet another incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, Christian
identity groups such as the Army of God, and anti-government
militias, such as those the FBI took action
against in 1996; the Freemen Organization, The Mountaineer Militia,
and the Washington State Militia (Federal Bureau of Investigation,
1996, pp.7-8). The first idenity based terror
group were the Puerto Rican FALN and the The Organization of
Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution and the Macheteros.
These groups did espouse a leftist view.
Between 1980 and 1984, these groups committed the most acts of
domestic terrorism within the United States
(Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1984, p.14). The second identity
based terror groups were Jewish groups such
as the JDL and the JDA. Islamic terror within the United States
became a matter for public worry after the failed attempt in 1993 to
bomb the World Trade Center. Bridging the gap between organized
crime and terror are the narco cartels, which began as criminal
enterprises that gradually started using terror tactics in Soth
America against governments that sought to prevent their illegal
trade ( See Pablo Escobar). Organized crime
has posed a threat to America since the Black Hand in the first part
of the 20th century. Gangs have been a criminal
phenomenon since the classical Roman era,
however, the gangs become a threat to our
security as a whole when gangs began turf wars, not to protect their
neighborhoods, but to control local drug markets.
The
passage of time will create new situations. External threats have
changed. The Soviet Union collapsed, and we went through a period of
conciliation. The military has been gutted
by combat troop reductions and purges of officers. The historically
ignorant policies of this administration and it's “reset button”
have allowed the Russians to perceive us as
weak; the result was invasions of Crimea and then Ukraine. Islamist
attacks on America have increased both in America and abroad as the
result of an administration that refuses to
publicly acknowledge acts of Islamic
terrorism as such, and won't even use the term “Islamic terror”.
With a lesser capability for using retributive force, and without
the will to use it, external threats to the United States have
increased. Appeasement is a historically proven method of failure.
Internal
threats have evolved as well. Domestic leftist terror groups slowed
down the rate of committing acts of terror as their members either
went into jail or into positions of academic responsibility (Angela
Davis, William Ayers, for example). The traditional leftist terror
groups have been “replaced” by leftist groups operating under
the aegis of environmental or animal protection
“concerns”. Such groups include the Animal Liberation Front
(ALF), the Earth liberation Front (ELF), and Revenge of the Tress
(ROTT); these groups committed all terror attacks within the United
States in the year 2000 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2001, p.2)
Defining right wing terror attacks is difficult because of the
divergent goals that right wing groups have. Anti-abortion
terrorists have committed assassination and
arson attacks against abortion providers. Militia groups have grown
since Mount Carmel and Ruby Ridge.
Although Patriot movements have been characterized as terrorists
(like some of the the anti-government militias have been), groups
such as Oath Keepers and various III% have neither committed terror
attacks nor have threatened to overturn the Constitution.
Identity based groups such as the Puerto
Rican or Jewish groups have become inactive. The New Black Panther
Party, both racist and leftist, took over from the Black Panthers
despite vocal opposition from the most prominent members of the
latter (Mulloy, 2010, p. 218) . Narcotic trafficking cartels began
to intensify terrorist actions, and an open war started in Mexico
between the various cartels and the Mexican government, as
well as between cartels. A cartel specialty group, los Zetas, was
created from Mexican security specialists that defected
to the cartels, eventually to acts as a cartel on it's own. There
was not much change in the agenda of organized crime. Gangs have
become more and have allied with cartels.
The
Patriot Act has made some things easier for law enforcement
agencies within the United States to perform their
duty by increasing intelligence sharing; although there are some such
as Seaman and Gardner that argue the “Patriot Act restricts,
rather than expands, the government's power to fight terrorism”
(Seamon & Gardner, 2005, p. 322). Another area of improvement is
that terror within the United States was not highly publicized until
the 9/11 attacks. Fears contends that “
smaller incidents were
not generally made known or publicized outside a small circle of
policy, intelligence and law-enforcement officials so the general
American public was able to
ignore the problem “(1995, p.11).
A public that is aware of the threat against them is more likley to
support the measures that are effective agansit those threats..
References
Fears,
K. P. (1995, December). The FBI and domestic counterterrorism: a
comparative analysis (Thesis). Monterey, California. Naval
Postgraduate School. Retrieved October 17, 2014 from
https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/31309
Federal
Bureau of Investigation. (1984). FBI analysis of terrorist
incidents and terrorist related activities in the United States 1984.
Retrieved October 10, 2014 from
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/120257NCJRS.pdf
Federal
Bureau of Investigation. (1996). Terrorism in the United States
1996. Retrieved August 20, 2014 from
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terror_96.pdf
Federal
Bureau of Investigation. (2001). Terrorism 2000 / 2001.
Retrieved September 19, 2014 from
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terror/terror00_01.pdf
Mulloy,
D. J. (2010). New Panthers, old Panthers and the politics of black
nationalism in the United States. Patterns of Prejudice,
44(3), 217–238. http://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2010.489732
Seamon,
R. H., & Gardner, W. D. (2005). The Patriot Act and the wall
between foreign intelligence and law enforcement. Harvard Journal
of Law & Public Policy, 28(2), 319–463
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The
creation of DHS was a huge development as well; however, I don't
think we have been as successful as we should have been. There
are too many agencies and too many areas where intel can be
stovepiped. There are still political considerations that
hinder effective security operations. I remember, but can't
source at the moment, TSA announcing that women in hijabs or of
Muslim appearance would not be searched as that was "profiling",
while at the same time TSA had a public backlash in regards to the
"groping" method they used to search everyone else.
The
intersection of growth complex and interorganizational conflict comes
into play here, and even translates into the local level. I was
at a seminar at the Orlando ACJS meeting,
Broadening Focus on Terrorism: The Role of Finance, Economics, and
Organized Crime,
and I asked the presenter Gen. Wilson (who had also been Chief of
Police for Detroit) about the efficiency of local fusion centers.
He responded that the effectiveness of these centers was less than
desired; I won't state that the term "pissing contest"
came into use ;)
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Yes,
tribalism in humans is a pretty basic impulse. I think the
problem will get worse as we move away from a central culture in this
country.
Difference markers like race are obvious, but groups
balkanize on all types of social differences from politics to music.
(i.e. "greasers vs soc's" in the book we had to read in
HS...outlander? outsider? not outrigger)
A certain
percentage of people will be extremist in their tribal
identification; the DOJ and FBI has slapped the Klan around 4
times (1870's, 1920's, 1960's, 1980's) bu they keep on popping
up.
It's like terror or crime, not a problem you solve, but
that a problem you manage by playing whack-a-mole once they have
moved to a subversive or violent mode.
…...............................................................................
you
make a great point when you link oil use/energy consumption with
national security. The economic security of the nation is often
overlooked as a matter of national security.
Nando argues that
"National security depends also on soft power, the ability of a
country to generate and use its economic power and to project its
national values" (2011, summary). Allowing other countries
to influence the energy sector of our economy weakens our ability to
protect ourselves.
Nando, D. (2011). Economics and national
security: Issues and implications for U.S. policy. Congressional
Research Service. Retrieved April 23, 2015 from
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41589.pdf
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Another
threat was in 1975 at the LaGuardia Airport that killed 11 and
injured 75, this threat is still unsolved to this day. A TWA airliner
was hijacked by Croatian demanding that a manifesto to be printed out
and given to them
rajneeshee
movement placed salmonella in an estimated 5-10 different restaurants
that served salad bars. This was a form of bio terrorism; this was
one of the first that transpired on US soil.
(in italics not mine - need further research)
