new dimensions of terrorism

NEW DIMENSIONS OF TERRORISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR LAW ENFORCING AGENCIES


“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again – and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.”- Mark Twain

Introduction
Terrorism is as old as mankind. It has been part of mankind’s evolution. But cultural perceptions of different periods gave it different labels. Terrorism is probably the most defined word –there are over 109 definitions for it. That should indicate what a misunderstood word it is. The religious persecutions of 15th and 16th centuries, the Jewish holocaust during Hitler’s regime, the mindless violence of 9/11 and its aftermath may be called by different names. But all of them have one common feature that defines terrorism – most of the victims are innocent, unarmed civilians well away from the battlefields. Those who revel in precisely defining the word may dispute this point of view, but terrorism is no more a semantic exercise. It has become a life threatening feature of ordinary peoples lives in more nations than ever before in human history.

The Western world had traditionally considered terrorism as a distant happening confined to the troubled parts of world. And it had exploited it fully as a part of its silent war in the cold war period. But when the Twin Towers in New York came down when airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists crashed into them on 11 September 2001, the world woke up to the emerging dimensions of terrorism. Because it proved that a small number of terrorists could hit the U.S., the most powerful nation in a uni-polar world and cause enormous casualties. Suddenly terrorism was transformed from a local phenomenon to a global one. We may call this contemporary terrorism. Contemporary terrorism is not a lineal descendant of the low-intensity conflicts, insurgencies or militancy as they are called, that many countries including India had been facing in the past. It cannot be classified as ethnic or secessionist either. Many of the terrorist groups of post 9/11 scene, have a clear belief that political power should have religious zeal as its underpinning. They cleverly use the advances in technology and increasing global connectivity among nations to wage war against the state. In the words of Mr MK Narayanan, Special Advisor on Security to the Prime Minister, “The most distinctive aspect of modern terrorism, however, lies in the skilful manipulation of armed ‘non-State’ actors to challenge an established Government’s physical and moral right to govern” ¹

Undoubtedly no other insurgent movement had a global impact like the insurgency against Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, promoted by the U.S., Pakistan and their Arab allies for their own parochial interests. Waged as a holy war it spawned a whole new breed of fighters, from more than a dozen Muslim countries, who fought side by side. When it succeeded ending the Soviet occupation, and capturing power it fired the imagination of vulnerable sections of Muslim populations in many countries, extending from Russia to Indonesia. This Jihadi resurgence touched the hearts of even second generation Muslims living in the West like the U.K. or the U.S. They have provided the foot soldiers for Islamist terrorist movements in a number of countries, exploiting the local grievances of Muslims to their ends.

The Jihadi terrorist now is no more the illiterate, religion-spouting stereotype, but modern, technology-savvy, worldly-wise person. He could be from any country operating as part of loose global network, in a country of his organization’s choosing. In spite of the global war against terrorism waged in the aftermath of 9/11, Islamist terrorists had successfully carried out terrorist operations in countries as widespread as Spain, Indonesia and Philippines apart from nations suffering from endemic terrorist violence like India, or Pakistan.

Three Questions
As an old MI hand, assisting law-enforcing agencies, a study of contemporary terrorism evoked three questions in my mind.

What are the new dimensions of terrorism the world is facing?
How do they affect the scene in India?
What are the implications for law enforcing agencies in our country?
I have tried to answer these questions in the light of my experience as an intelligence analyst, who had spent the best years of his life in counter insurgency environments in India and some of the other South Asian countries.

New Dimensions of Terrorism
Global networking: India had been at the receiving end of transnational terrorism for many decades now. However, the world had marginalized it as part of India’s disputes with its neighbours. But Al Qaeda terrorists have demonstrated their global networking by launching of terrorist operations against the U.S. and its allies in a score of countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, Turkey, Spain, U.K. etc spread over almost all continents of the world. In each of these countries dedicated and indoctrinated locals had provided them intelligence support, and access to finance, arms and recruits.

Multiple dimensions: The modern religious terrorist operates on many dimensions. He uses legitimate business as a cover for financial transactions for terrorist operations. Sophisticated hawala methods have been devised to shift large amounts as cover as demonstrated by Dawood Ibrahim. Local criminal networks, narcotic gangs, network of arms traffickers have been brought into the fold of support for terrorist operations at various levels.

Technology orientation: The modern terrorist is tech-savvy. Mobile phone is the new age tool of the terrorist. He uses it not only to communicate, but trigger explosions. The Internet is his fast communication mode. He uses modern high power explosives and does not hesitate to improvise when the need arises. He trains for his mission with all the seriousness that an aspiring technologist would do. His international networking provides him access to technology solutions to problems of planning and execution. It will be foolhardy to under estimate his technology capabilities.

Global propaganda war: World’s hunger for instant news on the global TV networks has provided a wide field for the terrorist to propagate his cause and make exaggerated claims of his successes. At the same time, terrorist organizations also have the ability to wage psychological warfare against security forces by denigrating them through well-planted news stories planted in media. Thus killing of a terrorist in an encounter is often branded as murder. Often, the local politicians for their own selfish interest play into their hands by supporting such ‘causes.’

Out of the box thinking: The modern terrorist, despite his religious zeal, is fairly well educated and fully aware of the implications of his action unlike his counterparts two decades ago. They have exhibited out of the box thinking in selection of targets, choice of countries and method of operations. So it will be wrong to group them with the traditional stereotype of crude, backward thinking, semiliterate religious zealots. They had used the access to public information available in free societies to their ends. Religious freedom and freedom of expression prevalent in democracies had been fully exploited to propagate their ideology through religious schools and places of worship. Local grievances are also coming under international leverage of Islamist terrorist as demonstrated by the recent kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq, to force the French government to change its law banning of wearing of headscarves by Muslims in French schools.

The Indian Scene
Globalization and increasing international commerce supported by communication networks spanning national boundaries have created new paradigms in the very concept of national security. India is no exception to this sea change taking place the world over. So the traditional concept of national security as exercising military option only has given way to multilateral operations as exhibited by the global war on terrorism culminating in the attack on Afghanistan based on a UN resolution. Gen. V.P. Malik, former COAS, has described the diverse and multi-dimensional security challenge faced by countries as under: ²

Different forms of terrorism.
Economic under-development.
Trade imbalances and disputes.
Illegal migration of people.
Uncontrolled population growth.
Human rights abuses.
Drug trafficking.
Environmental degradation.
All these challenges are by and large interconnected and provide a fertile ground for terrorist operations. According to Gen Malik, some of the issues faced in India are -

Problems of national assimilation and integration, particularly of Border States in the North and North Eastern part of India.
Porous borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka which enable illegal trans border movements and smuggling of weapons and drugs. These days AK rifles, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, land mines, RDX, even shoulder fired surface to air missiles are easily available from such sources.
Exploitation of ethnic and religious minority status by unscrupulous political leaders.
Nexus between crime, insurgency and politics.
Weak governance including large-scale corruption, law and order machinery in many states.
It is in this scenario that law-enforcing agencies are required to operate. Policy makers in these agencies will have to suitably tailor their method of operations to be responsive enough to succeed in this environment.

Implications for Law Enforcing Agencies
While the traditional training and law enforcement processes have their own merits because they are time tested, we need to explore how to make Law Enforcing Agencies (LEA) more effective in the modern counter-terrorism context. Here are some ideas, not necessarily in the order of priority, which may vary from agency to agency.

Changing the mindset: LEA have to work assiduously to change the medieval mindset of rank and file. They have to be educated to keep abreast of the developments in the crime and terrorist scene they are operating. There is no short cut to periodic orientation courses specifically designed for forces at various levels, to educate them on terrorist operations and techniques adopted by them.

Technology orientation to training: LEA need to train their rank and file on the use of modern communication means including the Internet. Unless this is done at the recruit level the forces will fight shy of using modern communication tools. LEA need to take a re-look at the entire training syllabus and support systems so that the training establishments are geared for such needs.

Creating database: Databases on terrorists and their criminal allies and fellow travelers need to be created on a real time basis and used for drawing useful assessments. These databases should be networked both locally and globally; more than that the LEA officers even at junior levels need to taught how to use them for their operations.

Networking among agencies: The U.S. report on 9/11 investigations has amply demonstrated the failure of networking among various intelligence and LEA as a major reason for the success of Al Qaeda. In our country the situation is no better. We have apart from bureaucratic structuring of command and control systems, and inter-ministerial jealousies at the state and central level, ego conflicts between agencies. Many commissions have recommended the need for formalized and timely exchange of information. Unfortunately, from my own experience I can say that no official dictum can bring about close interaction unless the different players know each other informally. Such interactions need to be encouraged through informal networking by social interaction among LEA; this is conspicuous by its absence. LEA on their own can take such initiatives without waiting for a green signal from the government.

War-gaming: Military forces the world over successfully adopt the war-gaming technique to try and test their operational plans. Such war-gaming for LEA of different kinds to work on a common platform can be evolved and practiced particularly for senior officers to hone their skills of leadership, logical reasoning and decision-making in simulated terrorism situations. Modern online tools are available to plan and execute such simulated war-gaming exercises. These should be fully utilized to evaluate performance, increase real-time response as well as educate all to the desired level of operation. This will also enable introduction of standard operation procedures at various levels and agencies to cut down performance failures.

Some pre-requisites for success
It is imperative that a suitable climate to optimize success is provided by the government and the legal system for LEA to successfully wage war against terrorists. There are a number of issues outside their control that affect their performance. Many of these have political overtones and we need to stop viewing issues only through the coloured glasses of politics. Some of the vexing issues faced by LEA are –

Criminalisation of politics: This is a major issue in our country. If we do not enforce rule of law, no LEA can successfully fight any crime, let alone terrorism. A criminal ambience becomes a hothouse for terrorism.
Special laws to fight terrorism: Terrorist is adept at exploiting the loopholes of democratic functioning of governments to his own end. We need to have special laws for terrorism affected situations or areas with sufficient safeguards for individual human rights and prevent their misuse.
Updating of our criminal procedure code and penal code: There is an urgent need to update them to be responsive to the 21st century needs to make safeguarding and administration of justice effective and humane.
National citizenship identity card: There is a crying need to register every citizen and issue valid identity document of his citizenship. Modern computerized systems have made such operations possible and cost effective; only the nation has to make up his mind.
Conclusion
9/11 has given rise to a new breed of terrorists who believe in using religious faith as a vehicle to usurp the political process through violent means. This breed of terrorists, typified by the Jihadi variety are tech-savvy, modern and ruthless; they are well networked globally and can muster support of not only arms, but finance, information and manpower from most of the countries of the world. They fully exploit the modern means of communication for their operations as well as propaganda.

In a vast country like ours, with its diversities of ethnicity, culture, religion and language, small number of terrorists can trigger operations that could result in enormous damage to people, infrastructure facilities, and national resources. Though we had been dealing with insurgent groups for the last 50 years, LEA need to relearn their techniques and methodologies and tune it to the current requirements. They need to understand the changed dimensions that transcend the simple exercise of armed might. They have to reorient their training methods to make the rank and file to make them effective in the modern ambience. To improve their performance, LEA need to not only cooperate among themselves and coordinate their operations, but take advantage of modern technology resources in the country.

However much the LEA improve their performance levels, unless the social conditions in which they operate encourage their performance, success will continue to elude them. To create such conditions the people, the government and the polity will have to come together to establish a society where rule of law prevails and nation’s interests are considered above individual licence.