Lone wolf

The war against terror just entered a new, more dreadful phase, involving “self-radicalized” individuals attacking uniformed personnel.

A couple of attacks on uniformed personnel happened last week, shortly after the extremist Islamic State (IS) issued a call for its sympathizers to undertake such actions. In New York City, a man with a hatchet suddenly attacked a group of police officers, critically wounding one.

In the quiet town of Ottawa, a man with a rifle shot dead a soldier guarding the monument to Canada’s war dead. He then rushed into the Canadian parliament building with his rifle, shooting it out with responding police. The parliament’s sergeant-at-arms finally took down the gunman.

The attackers, in both incidents, had histories of mental disorder, drug use and antisocial behavior. Both appeared to have found a sense of purpose in radical Islam, encountered by way of the Internet.

Neither was directly communicating with, much less taking orders from, organized extremist groups. They acted independently. They were loners, alienated from their own communities.

The security authorities have taken to calling them “lone wolves.” They are difficult to identify before they actually mount an attack. They did not need to fashion improvised explosive devices, which could be detected. They attacked with whatever they had on hand, such as the axe used by the New York attacker.

“Lone wolves” are a security nightmare. They likely have no police records that might mark them out as potential terrorists. They do not even have to be Muslim, being simply drawn to the cult of violence propagated by the jihadists. 

The IS has proven surprisingly savvy in using the Internet, initially as a device to spread its propaganda and then as an instrument for raising a virtual army of terrorists without political boundaries. They captured the world’s attention by sending out video of brutal executions of western hostages.

The brutality of the executions might outrage most people. It turns out, the violent videos also served to inspire young people looking for a cause to adhere to. Hundreds of young people from otherwise comfortable communities in Europe and North America have flocked to join the ranks of the IS.

Perhaps as many as 10,000 such volunteers are now fighting, and dying, with the ISIS columns in Syria and Iraq. They come from all over the world, including the Philippines.

After the US and its allies began bombing IS forces in Syria and Iraq, the jihadists issued a call for attacks on western governments. The calls were issued to no one in particular. The IS does not have too many cells of trained fighters to rely on to carry out their threats. The IS is, in effect, crowd sourcing terrorists.

Terrorist movements have metamorphosed in the borderless world of digital communications. Traditional boundaries of race, nationality and, yes, even religious affiliation have melted away. It was only the cult of violence that mattered.

Even the traditional meaning of “movement” is quickly melting away. The “self-radicalized” and independently operating terrorists are not in any way subject to any organizational control. There is no hierarchy of command, no physical base of operations.

Crowd-sourced terrorists do not even have to swear allegiance to any particular dogma. They do not rely on any form of organizational support. They simply step out onto the streets and perform acts of terror.

I used to offer a seminar on political movements at graduate school. Political movements are defined by their ideology, organization, hierarchy and strategy/tactics. None of these things characterize the sort of terrorist “movement” IS has launched against the rest of the world. The traditional meaning of “political movement” just became obsolete.

Jihad is now nothing more than a viral notion. It requires no doctrinal base, no organizational integrity and no defined strategy. It is formless but lethal nevertheless.

How are organized societies, with their boundaries and hierarchies, to deal with a morphed “movement” of lone wolves animated only by anonymously accessed websites?

This greatly challenges the imagination of security managers everywhere. We rely on them to outthink the terrorists, protect innocent citizens and secure their own uniformed personnel.

Bizarre

Few agreed with the outrageous behavior of Jeffrey Laude’s sister and Marc Sueselbeck when they climbed the gate of a secure area in Camp Aguinaldo and assaulted a soldier guarding facility. Sueselbeck has since recognized his mistake and apologized. The AFP accepted his apology and honored the assaulted soldier for his restraint and professionalism.

That is not the end of the story, however.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima stepped into the fray, ordering the Bureau of Immigration to declare both the soldier accused of murdering a Filipino transgender in Olongapo and Sueselbeck to face proceedings for being undesirable aliens.

The US Marine, detained under the joint custody of the US and the Philippines, very likely to be charged for murder, should be least concerned about being declared an undesirable alien. He has already won notoriety for being an undesirable human being.

Besides, he is not about to depart the country, much less return, for a very long while.

Sueselbeck, for his part, was scheduled to leave last Sunday evening. He was trying the check in for his scheduled flight when stopped at the airport. He was prevented from leaving to undergo proceedings for being an undesirable alien.

After being declared undesirable, what will the DOJ do? They will deport him at government expense. Wasn’t he on his way out at his own expense to begin with?

With such regularity, de Lima drags her department into getting involved in media-genic things it might very well ignore, such as getting the NBI involved in investigating the Vice President.