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TERRORISM

The Wrath of Man

Terrorism: the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments.

—WORDNET 1.6, © 1997 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION

Terrorism has many definitions. In its simplest form, it is a violent action intended to inflict harm on some person or object with the intention of coercing someone in the future to act in a specific way. Terrorists function similarly to a publicity hungry cinema actor. They will create any spectacle or perform any action to gain attention for their organization or cause.

The other chapters of this book assumed you had some personal knowledge of the nature of the risks your company faced, such as a fire, a power outage, or severe weather. The issues surrounding terrorism are somewhat foreign to many businesspeople, so a brief history is provided. This may help you to better prepare a risk assessment and initiate mitigation actions to protect your employees and your company.

Some governments use terror as a coercive tool to manipulate their own populations. The French Revolution’s “Reign of Terror” and Stalin’s suppression of the Ukrainian farmers are classic examples. Other masters of this evil action include Germany’s Hitler and Cambodia’s Pol Pot. This is known as state terrorism. Recent exposure of mass graves near Mosul Iraq in 2017 vividly demonstrates that the practice continues in some parts of the world. This type of terrorism generally remains within its own borders. You must be aware of such activities when exporting goods or traveling internationally to such places.

Terrorism can be against property as well as people. Some animal lovers have splashed blood on people wearing fur coats. Although somewhat violent, this action is intended to dramatize the killing of animals for their fur and not to permanently harm the fur wearer.

Terrorists seek to magnify their power through the news and social media. They strive to obtain maximum publicity from the meager means at their disposal. An attack on a mom-and-pop grocery store doesn’t have the same impact as attacking the corporate headquarters of a multinational company. In fact, an attack on the store will swing public opinion against the attackers. Many people are apathetic if large companies are attacked, so terrorists focus efforts on them (and also this is where the money is).

Some terrorists look for visible targets where they can avoid detection before and after an attack, such as international airports, large cities, major international events, resorts, and high-profile landmarks. Some terrorists are suicidal and committed to dying during their attack, such as a suicide bomber. Others mix with the crowds before and after the attack.

The form of a terror attack depends on several factors: the means available, the political issues involved, and the weaknesses of the target. The means available refers to the weapons the terror organization has at its disposal. Not everyone is familiar with handling explosives or is an accurate marksman. The political issues refer to what is causing the person to consider terrorism as an option. If they personalize their issue by identifying it in a single individual, then the attack may be sharply focused on that person. Weakness in targets can range from how available they are to how easy it is to commit the crime. A clean getaway is not always a requirement, and an arrest may be one of the goals to further publicize the issue.

Terrorism can be broken down into two primary categories: “domestic” and “international.” This distinction refers to the origin of the individuals or groups responsible for it.

Domestic terrorism involves groups or individuals whose terrorist activities are directed at the people of a specific country or its government. Domestic terrorists are organized and exist within this country and do not receive any foreign direction or support.

International terrorism involves groups or individuals whose terrorist activities are foreign-based. These groups exist outside a country or are directed or supported by someone outside.

Counterterrorism actions are proactive steps to deter a terrorist attack and to respond quickly. Counterterrorism actions include increased police patrols and fighter aircraft patrolling key cities. Other counterterrorism actions involve police monitoring of suspected terror groups to prevent or protect against an attack.

Antiterrorism steps are defensive in nature and reduce the vulnerability of people and property to terrorist acts. Antiterrorism involves mitigation action to reduce the likelihood of an attack or its damage.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Most terrorist organizations espouse some sort of social or political agenda as a justification for their actions. Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The key elements to remember are violence, intimidation, and coercion.

Assassination had long been a method of terrorism. The Guy Fawkes bomb plot against the English Parliament would easily meet our current definition of terrorism. Terrorist groups as now known began to emerge in the late-nineteenth century in Europe. One of the reasons was changes in technology that created powerful explosives and weapons that were small and easy to handle. Modern communications and social media ensure new visibility for terrorist groups out of proportion to their actual size.

Some terrorist acts are just a cover for old-fashioned criminal activities, such as kidnapping and bank robberies. Jesse James, whose criminal career spanned 20 years, always tried to cast himself as the defender of the common man, all the while robbing and murdering.

The concept of terrorism is more acceptable in some cultures than it is in others. Depending on your point of view, one person’s terrorist is another person’s patriot. Western culture seems to favor the underdog. Hollywood movies love to show one person (the “common man”) overcoming all odds to defeat the undefeatable. Depending on your political point of view, Robin Hood was a protector of the people or a common thief. The same goes for terrorists. Are they heroes or murderers?

To magnify the effect of their attack, terrorists depend on widespread public notice of their actions. World leaders are as well protected as they want to be. A nation’s citizens see themselves as vulnerable to a terrorist action and could potentially apply pressure on their leaders to accommodate them. Playing to this public sentiment is the reason terrorists espouse some form of social or political platform.

One common goal of terrorism is to establish a fear in the population while showing the authorities as incapable of protecting everyone, everywhere, all of the time. The terrorists seek to goad law enforcement authorities into actions that may be viewed as repressive by the population to gain sympathizers or overt supporters for their cause. Their violent actions are combined with political announcements espousing selfless actions (food for the poor, freedom for jailed comrades, or any number of things). Terrorism always tries to cloak itself in some “just” cause, whether true or not. Terrorism sometimes attempts to excuse its indiscriminate violence as attacking those who benefit from whatever evil they are attacking. Fulfilling any demand leads to others, because the demand is only a cover for the violence.

Terrorist attacks can be carried out by a single impulsive person or a large group with carefully planned actions. A common element is that they are all calculated to gain the greatest impact with minimal resources. They are found throughout history. Some countries have used terrorist threats to extort “protection” money (Barbary pirates), to sell their services (Ninja assassins), or even to intimidate their own population.

Terrorism is different from guerilla warfare. Terrorists attack the opponent’s population because they lack the strength to attack their armed forces. Guerilla warfare includes some terrorist actions but is focused on military targets. The main difference between the two is the number of casualties among the general population. Terrorists work for maximum damage, and guerillas seek to establish a “moral” status by minimizing them.

Whether you feel that terrorists are patriots or murderers, in terms of business continuity planning, it does not matter. They represent a threat to the ongoing profitability of the business. The risk of a terrorist attack occurring must be assessed and a mitigation plan implemented.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Like any other part of your plan, you must make a risk assessment of the threat to your facilities and employees from terrorism. Based on this risk assessment, a mitigation plan can be assembled to protect your property and improve the safety of your employees. Unfortunately, the nature of terrorism is surprise and, in some instances, the attackers are more than a little mentally unbalanced, so even if you believe you have nothing to fear you should still perform a risk analysis.

The first thing to assess is the location of your facility. Begin your risk analysis with an examination of your location. Stand outside and look around. Are you near any of the following:

A government building? (Some people have a grudge against the IRS, for example.)

A landmark whose destruction might have symbolic significance? Examples are war memorials, a natural feature, a major bridge, or a famous building.

A defense supplier? An attack on their facilities may close the roads surrounding them and therefore you!

The definition of what is “too near” is up to you. If one of these nearby facilities was attacked, how disruptive would it be to your business? At a minimum, the streets around the target would be blocked for rescue teams and then, later, investigations. If you are several city blocks away and there are many avenues of approach, you should be all right. If the potential target is next door, then there is a risk.

Your mitigation plan for your location is to:

Identify ways to keep your business open if a nearby attack occurs. You may need to provide information on alternate access routes to suppliers or customers. In general, it would be difficult to move your location, but you can pay close attention to who your neighbors are and who may be considering relocating to your vicinity.

Provide some separation or barrier between your building and a close neighbor that may be a target. Concrete walls may slow down a fire or the blast of an explosion. Ensure vulnerable spaces within your facility (such as your computer room) are not located on the side of the building toward the potential target.

Relocate to another site if your building also houses potential targets. If you cannot relocate, can you move out your most sensitive operations?

What goods or services does your company provide? Sometimes seemingly innocent lines of business can attract violent protest. Sometimes peaceful protest can turn violent if demands go unfulfilled and the people involved feel threatened by something. What is the risk that the products or services provided by your company will make it a target?

Organizations or places that may be in danger include the following:

Police or Military Suppliers. Some people feel that suppliers of military goods are contributing to the violence between nations, while others are thankful for a strong defense industry. If you directly or indirectly supply goods to the military or even police departments, this may place you in the sights of a terrorist. As related in the “Plowshares Eight” story (see box), a supplier of components for nuclear weapons could attract antiwar as well as environmental issues protesters.

Controversial Businesses. Some businesses can raise the emotions of people by the mention of their name. One of these controversial businesses is women’s health clinics that perform abortions. Whatever your opinion of this service, these facilities have over the years been the target of violent attacks. Is such a facility near you?

Animal rights groups have targeted fur coats as unethical and have publicly attacked people wearing them by splashing blood on the coat and the person wearing it. Other animal rights groups include those people who believe that dolphins are killed and discarded during tuna fishing, those in opposition to some livestock farming practices, and on and on. Unless you are the first target, you can gain some insight into how controversial your business is to some groups by regularly monitoring news broadcasts and your industry-specific media.

Government Buildings. The infamous attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 was a violent protest against U.S. government policies. Whatever the reason, government offices will remain a target of violent protest in the future. Sometimes these buildings rent excess space to other companies. If you are in such a building, consider what the risks may be and how they might be mitigated.

Another potential source of terrorism is your employees. Some things to consider when evaluating the potential for terrorism include:

Who Are Your Employees? Even with a proper screening, employees can be a source of risk of domestic terrorism. Sometimes, crime can be an act of opportunity. It is important that all employees are screened before hiring and monitored for unusual behavior.

Security for Your Employees. An important counterterrorism function is your facility’s security. But all life (for most of us) is not within your company’s four walls. People drive to and from work and around their community. Train your employees, and specifically your executives, to watch for suspicious behavior. Kidnapping is a high-profile crime that terrorists can use to generate publicity for their cause.

When traveling away from your facility, there are some simple steps to take that will lessen the likelihood that you will be caught up in a terrorist attack.

Avoid Crowds. Crowds are easy to find; just look at an airport’s luggage carousel. People crowd around waiting for their bags. Instead of joining the crowd, select a point off to the side or where the crowd is the thinnest to watch for your bags. Crowds are easy to find at public venues, such as sports events and other gatherings. In 2015 90 people were killed in a terrorist attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris, France. Keep on the lookout for people acting suspiciously. Other crowded places that have previously attracted terrorists include airports and theaters.

Dress to Blend in. Do you look as if you belong there or are you obviously a traveler? Try to look unimportant and focused on where you are going.

Avoid Unattended Parcels or Baggage. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombs were in backpacks. Although people sometimes carelessly discard parcels or even forget things, if you see a package and no one is around, alert the police. Never accept packages from strangers.

Hire a Driver. If you are driving in a strange city, consider hiring a local driver or security company to move you around.

Always Be Alert and Aware of Your Surroundings. The nature of terrorism suggests there will be little or no warning. Take a few moments to see where the emergency exits and staircases are and consider how you might exit a congested area quickly.

A terrorist attack can take several forms, depending on the technology available to the attacker, the nature of the political issue motivating the attack, and the points of weakness of the target. Therefore the goal is to identify and eliminate the points of weakness to protect your facility. Some items to consider include:

Enforce Your Security Plan. Most companies use security guards to ensure that only employees can enter. Sometimes this is as basic as a receptionist with a remote switch for opening the entrance door. Ensure that only properly identified personnel can enter the facility. Even if the front door is locked and well protected, often the receiving dock in the rear of the building is wide open! A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Ensure Everyone Understands the Evacuation Procedures. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to take shelter within the building (storm shelter) or evacuate outward. If there was a problem outside your building, it would not be a good idea for everyone to exit according to the normal evacuation plan. It might be better to move them away from the walls in question or to direct everyone out a specific side of the building.

Implement Bomb Threat Procedures. Your security plan should contain detailed instructions on what to do when a bomb threat is received. Try to get as much information from the caller as you can and write it all down as it is said. Notify the police and the facility management immediately.

Information on what to do when a bomb threat is received should be placed at all “public” inbound numbers such as switchboard, receptionist, help desk, or 800 numbers. Time should be set aside to train everyone how to fill out incident report forms and the best way to react to a threat.

In most cases, the building should be promptly evacuated using your evacuation procedures.

Ensure the people standing outside do not block access routes for emergency vehicles.

Avoid standing in front of windows in case the bomb blows glass shards out onto the people.

Avoid suspicious packages and keep everyone else away from them.

Sometimes, the use of bombs is a matter of how convenient your building is. Permitting parking immediately adjacent to your building could set the scene for a vehicle-transported bomb, as in the case of the 1995 Oklahoma City bomb. In the 1993 vehicle-transported bomb attack against the World Trade Center, the vehicle was parked in the lower-level parking garage.

To reduce the likelihood of an explosive-filled vehicle destroying your facility, do not allow anyone to park near the building. In the case of under-the-building parking garages, place strong steel bars across the door opening so that only passenger vehicles can enter (no trucks). Install large obstacles around the main entrance (often large cement planters holding trees) to reduce the likelihood that someone could drive straight into the building.

Install heavy curtains with weighted bottoms to cover windows. This will reduce the impact of inward flying glass from an explosion outside your building.

Some facilities and public buildings have removed trash cans from outside their structure. Trash cans are an easy place to dump a bomb disguised as a discarded box.

Your employees are an important line of defense in detecting terrorist activity. Educate your employees by doing the following:

Explain the Importance of Your Facility’s Security Program and Ask for Their Help. You can’t be everywhere but your employees are. Teach them what to look for. How would you describe a person acting suspiciously? What should employees do if they see an unattended parcel? Do they keep their packages with them or properly stowed away? How much of this training your employees should have is based on your risk assessment of an attack. If you are a high-risk target, then employees should be very involved. If they understand how the security process benefits them, they will be more inclined to actively support it.

Report Suspicious Activity to Police. Explain how to file a police report of suspicious activity. The police need the traditional facts of who, what, where, when, why, and how. Your security policies should provide guidelines on who should file police reports. The policy might require all observations to be confirmed by a second person before reporting. Your security policy might require that a security supervisor investigate before calling in law enforcement. Perhaps an incident report form would be helpful to gather all of the pertinent details.

Report All Threats to Police. The old saying is that barking dogs don’t bite. However, a threat is not a time to gamble whether it was real or not. All threats should be reported immediately to the police. The police will also want to know how the threat was transmitted to you and when you received it. You might add these fields to your incident report form.

The next step is to determine what the National Terrorism Advisory System means to you. Based on its intelligence sources, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues Bulletins and Alerts regarding threat levels (see the next section). Given your assessment of the risks to your facility, what will this mean to your company? You may establish contingency plans based on elevated threat levels if your situation is risky. These measures might be to increase security patrols, temporarily close some operations, or confine all freight pickups and deliveries to a few hours of the day.

You should also check your insurance coverage. Just exactly what sort of threats does your insurance cover? Are you covered against a terrorist attack? In the aftermath of the attack on September 11, 2001, some insurance companies invoked the war clause, which states that no losses are covered due to war. This statement was inadvertently supported by the government when it declared a “War on Terrorism.”

Check with your insurance company to determine what is and what is not covered. In general, domestic terrorism is covered as a criminal action. However, international terrorism may not be covered. Now is the time to find out.

NATIONAL TERRORISM ADVISORY SYSTEM

The Department of Homeland Security has replaced the color-coded advisory system that was implemented after the attacks on 9/11 with advisories in the form of Bulletins and Alerts. Bulletins are used to communicate critical terrorism information that, while not necessarily indicative of a specific threat against the United States, can reach homeland security partners or the public quickly. They are designed to give recipients time to implement protective measures when a general threat is present.

Alerts are issued when there is specific, credible information about a terrorist threat against the United States. The Alert may include specific information, if available, about the nature of the threat, including the geographic region, mode of transportation, or critical infrastructure potentially affected by the threat. It may also include steps that individuals and communities can take to protect themselves and help prevent, mitigate, or respond to the threat. Alerts may take one of two forms:

Elevated. This is when a credible threat has been identified, but no specifics are available on the timing of the attack or the intended target. In an Elevated Alert, DHS recommends implementation of protective measures to thwart or mitigate an attack.

Imminent. This is when a credible threat has been identified and specifics are available on the timing of the attack or the intended target.

DHS announces Bulletins and Alerts on its website (www.dhs.gov), via the news media, and across its social media channels, which includes Twitter and Facebook. Bulletins and Alerts may include a timeframe for when they are in effect and are updated when circumstances change.

Conclusion

While terrorism is not a new threat, until recently the threat of terrorism was miniscule in the United States. Recent political events have made this a threat that you need to consider when developing your disaster recovery plan. Even if you are unlikely to be a target, your neighbors might be. The world has become a scarier place, and you must be aware of your surroundings to keep safe.