Running Header: TERRORISM IN THE US

Writing Project 2: Investigative Essay

Annalycia Morales

Arizona State University

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Abstract:

The following is an annotated bibliography and investigative essay about Terrorism

relating to the United States of America.

Keywords: ​Terrorism, United States, Jihadists

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Annotated Bibliography:

1.
Bergen, P. (2018) ​What is the Threat to the United States Today?​ (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.newamerica.org/in-depth/terrorism-in-america/what-threat-united-states-today/

Evaluation and Summary:

This source aims to answer three main questions, “Who are the terrorists? Why do they engage
in terrorism? And what threat do they pose?”. The focus of this article is on terrorism in the
United States post 9/11 involving jihadists, people who follow bin Laden’s ideology. Part 1 is
about terrorism from 2001 to today. The data was broken into three categories, people that were
charged with engaging in jihadist behavior in the United States, Americans charged outside the
United States for jihadist behavior and those that died before they were able to be charged. In the
first category there are 425 people, in the second there were 8 and in the last there were 34. In
Part 2 of the article is about who the terrorists are. In this section they point out that many of the
terrorist incidents have been done by Americans, citizens or legal residents. Then the author goes
into detail about the Trump travel ban, non-lethal attackers, jihadist converts, ages of terrorists
and their genders. Lastly, are parts 3 and 4. In part three, there are details and inferences as to
why these terrorists do these acts. Some reasons stated include, social media and influences of
terror groups. Part 4 was about the threat that is being posed to America today. The main
takeaway is that while they are catastrophes they currently aren’t posing an existential threat.
This will be a great resource because it gives a good representation of how terrorism is currently
in the United States while giving some background and history.

Quotes:
“​ Far from being foreign infiltrators, the large majority of jihadist terrorists in the United States
have been American citizens or legal residents”

“Since 9/11, hundreds of Americans and people residing inside the United States have been
charged with jihadist terrorism or related crimes, or have died before being charged but were
widely reported to have engaged in jihadist criminal activity”
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2.
(2002-2005). ​Terrorism: 2002-2005.​ ​Terrorism​ 2002, iii-v. Retrived from
https://heinonline-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=usfed&handle=hein.usfed/terr
orism0014&id=4&men_tab=srchresults

Evaluation and Summary:

This source offers a definition and more of a history behind terrorism in the US. It begins with an
explanation of what the text is about. In short, the text is a detailed account of all the terrorist
attacks that have occurred in the US within specific time periods starting in 1988. Next, it moves
into the FBI guidelines and policies that deal with domestic terrorism. There are charts and
graphs that depict facts such as number of attacks, injuries and fatalities for each attack. The
author then moves on to talking about terrorist incidents, the attacks themselves, and terrorist
preventions. The author doesn’t mention having a specific opinion about terrorism, rather they
just speak about facts and research done on the topic. This source will be beneficial because it is
very in depth and offers supplemental things like graphs and tables that show data for almost
every country in the world. It also provides detailed accounts of each attack.

Quotes:
“​Since the mid-1980’s, the FBI has published Terrorism in the United States, an annual
unclassified report summarizing terrorist activities in this country.”

“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’​”

3.
Hoffman, B. (2017). ​Inside terrorism​. New York: Columbia University Press.

Evaluation and Summary:

This book comes written by Bruce Hoffman of Columbia University. It begins with defining
terrorism and expanding upon what it really means and what qualifies as a terrorist attack. Next,
the author goes into modern terrorism and where its orgins and foundational ideas came from.
Other sections of this book include suicide terrorism, the correlation between religion and
terrorism, media, global opinions and what the future holds. This book is a great resource
because it offers credible information about several different topics regarding terrorism. This is a
great resource for those that do not know much about this topic, it gives the reader a well
rounded basis of knowledge that starts at the very beginning with a simple definition but grows
from there. The author uses language that is easy to understand and takes time to explain things
in depth with examples.
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Quotes:
“Ironically perhaps, terrorism in its original contex was closely associated with the ideals of
virtue and democracy”

“Terrorism, in the most widely accepted contemporary usage of the term, is fundamentally and
inherently political. It is also ineluctably about power: the pursuit of power, the acquisition of
power, and the use of power to achieve political change”

4.
Martinez, P. (2018) ​Analysis: Single issue remains huge threat to U.S. homeland security.​ (n.d.).
Retrieved from
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/analysis-trump-presidency-homeland-security-national-defense-
michael-morell-fran-townsend/

Evaluation and Summary:

This source is a CBS News article about “lone wolf terrorists”. This is a rather new term but is
one that is greatly affecting the United States. These people are large threats because it is much
harder to track them down and prevent their attacks. With large groups of people it harder to
keep suspicious activities unnoticed. These people can cause massive damage by themselves.
Terrorist groups target these people and make it a point to seek them out and try to get them on
their side. This source will be good for this project because it offers information about a topic
that hasn’t been mentioned in and of the other sources. It also included embedded videos, clips
and quotes from powers such as the president relating to this issue.

Quotes:
“​A week ahead of President Trump's first ​State of the Union speech​, ​"lone wolf" terrorists​ are the
biggest threat to the homeland…”
“ ‘It's really twofold: One, the United States worries about the destructive attack -- it's the attack
that corrupts a hard drive and literally destroys it and destroys the data. We saw the Sony-type of
attack we believe out of North Korea where it's the theft of information and then the destruction,’
Townsend said. ‘These that pose a real sort of threat to the United States ... on the other hand, we
ought to worry about what I call 'influence operations.'’”
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5.
Dudley, D. (2018, December 05). ​The Deadliest Terrorist Groups In The World Today​.
Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2018/12/05/deadliest-terrorist-groups-in-the-world/
#259da1122b3e

Evaluation and Summary:

This Forbes News article is another popular source about what terror groups are deadliest today.
The Author lists four main groups, Islamic State, The Taliban, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. For
each group it lists background information, statistics and the number of fatalities they have
caused. For example the Islamic State, more commonly referred to as ISIS caused 4,350 deaths
in 2017 alone. Due to the deaths they have caused they are the deadliest terrorist group in the
world. They are based out of Iraq and Syria but have reached out to people of other countries to
follow their beliefs and carry out their attacks. This source gives a lot of information about
specific terror groups and their effects worldwide. It also offers great data and statistics that can
be used as “logos” in my project.

Quotes:
“​Of the 18,814 deaths ​caused by terrorists​ around the world last year, well over half were due to
the actions of just four groups: Islamic State, the Taliban, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram”

“ Islamic State has been the deadliest terrorist group in the world for the past three years. It has
been largely defeated in its home territory of Syria and Iraq but it remains capable of launching
attacks in those countries and has also inspired individuals and affiliated groups to stage attacks
in other parts of the Middle East as well as Europe and Asia”

“ISIS tends to prefer bombings or explosions – these accounted for 69% of its attacks last year.
However, it also carries out hostage takings and assassinations”

6.
American Terrorist​. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-american-terrorist/

Evaluation and Summary:

This source is a documentary about David Coleman Headly, a white American man turned
Terrorist. He was a part of the 2008 siege on Mumbai and planned an attack on a Danish
newspaper. This film goes in depth about Headly’s life. How he was influenced, what he planned
and how he evaded getting caught. Although this attack wasn’t in the United States it was done
by an American which is almost just as concerning. Other sources have touched on specific
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attacks that have occurred in the United States such as 9/11 the Orlando shooting and more but
none have spoken about Americans having parts in attacks elsewhere in the world or even in
America. This source will give me information I can use about this man and will also help me to
make connections with my other sources to connect to a bigger picture. It is also in video
formatted so it is something different from previous sources.

Quotes:
“His name was David Coleman Headley. He was an American terrorist”

“It’s very chilling, you know, because Headley gathers all this information — the videotape, the
notes — and then he meets with one of the most fearsome terrorists in the world, Ilyas Kashmiri.
And they have a detailed conversation about how this plot would go down, three or four
attackers with automatic weapons who go in and take hostages, but add a wrinkle, which is the
beheading of hostages. Kashmiri says, “You shoot the hostages first. It makes it easier to behead
them. You behead them, and you throw the heads out the window.”
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Investigative Essay:

The definition of terrorism varies among different resources and texts however, they are

all quite similar and say something along the line of the following, “​Attacks perpetrated by

individuals and/or groups inspired by or associated with primarily U.S.-based movements that

espouse extremist ideologies of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature”

(Terrorism, fbi.gov). Terrorism is not new, there have been versions of it dating back to ancient

times all over the world. In the United States, there have been instances of terrorism throughout

history, for example during the exploration of the New World and through times of war (Civil

and Revolutionary). Other than that, large scale terrorism was mainly associated with wars and

primarily stayed out of the United States. In the 1990’s a radical group called Al Qaeda surfaced

from Israel and began carrying out attacks on American soil targeted at American citizens. The

attacks only grew from there, in frequency and in damage. On September 11th 2001, the

deadliest terror attack in U.S. history occurred, resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths. This shook all of

America to the core and was the start of the war on terrorism. While this attack motivated the

United States to stop further catastrophes like this, it motivated others to start them and more

groups began to band together. As a country, the United States has made progress in fighting off

terrorism attacks, however it is still a very large concern for citizens and government officals

alike.

As of today there are several terrorist groups that are of a very large concern to our

country due to the amount of attacks they have been successful with and the number of fatalities

and injuries they have caused. The top two groups are, as stated by Dominic Dudley of Forbes,

the Islamic State and the Taliban. The Islamic State caused 4,350 deaths in 2017 while the
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Taliban caused 3,571 deaths (Dudley, 2018), this is not even counting all the injuries. Due to the

amount of harm these groups are causing to innocent civilians, national security has become a

focus of many government officials around the world. In the United States the current president,

Donald Trump, used national security as one of the bases for his campaign. He made a prominent

point that he would work to defeat ISIS and other terrorist groups that were targeting American

people. Micheal Morell, CBSN senior national security contributor, made the following

comment on Trump’s efforts on National Security in 2018, “​‘The threat is essentially what it was

a year ago,’ he told CBSN's Elaine Quijano. ‘I do think the defeat of the ISIS [​Islamic State of

Iraq and Syria​] caliphate has ​taken the wind out of the sails of ISIS​ and I think that the president

and Secretary of Defense [James] Mattis deserve a lot of credit for accelerating the fight against

ISIS.’ ” (Martinez, 2018). Although there have been many positive strides in the right direction

regarding the fight against terrorism, these groups continue to find ways to exist and carry out

their plans.

One way that these terrorist organizations have been carrying out their plans is through

“Lone Wolf Terrorists”. This term refers to a single individual that carries out or has a large part

in an attack motivated by Jihadist ideologies. These terrorist groups search for people that are

influenceable and take advantage of that. It is much easier to evade detection when there is one

person involved rather than a large group. David Coleman Headly is an example of a “Lone

Wolf Terrorist.” Born in America to Pakistani parents, Headly was a rather normal person. He

often took trips to Pakistan with his family due to their close ties to the country, but in his early

20’s, Headly became involved in drug use and trafficking in Pakistan. This got him involved

with a deviant and dangerous crowd of people. Eventually, Headly started to follow the radical
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ideologies of Hafiz Muhammed Saeed. Headly ended up being involved in the 2008 Mumbai

attacks and planning attacks against a Danish newspaper. The threat of having American citizens

being the ones to carry out these horrible attacks is frightening to the citizens and government

officials of the United States and continues to be one of the top priorities of their agenda.

In order to put a stop to terrorism its cause must be known. However, there is not a

straight answer to this, which could be one of the reasons why it has been, and continues to be,

such a hard battle. In an article from New America they attempt to answer the question of “Why

do they (the terrorists) engage in Terrorism?”, their answer was the following, “Complaints

regarding American foreign policy certainly play some role as does religious ideology, but so do

profoundly personal attributes. Some Jihadists appear to follow understandable paths of

radicalization while others don’t” (Bergen, 2018). Because there is no definitive answer to this

question, there is no definitive way to stop these attacks; Although, attempts can still be made to

disengage large terrorist groups and make it extremely hard for a harmful attack to be carried

out. As said previously, the fight against terrorism is a difficult task but there are strides in the

right direction being taken which makes for a promising future for the safety of the American

people.
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