Current mood:	curious
Current music:	Guns and Roses - You Could Be Mine

Reading the Senate report on "homegrown terrorism"

Last month, the Senate Committee on Pantswetting Nationalism and Other Stuff released a report on "homegrown" right-wing Islamist terrorism in the United States [PDF]. The lead authors are Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine, or their uncredited staffs. Lieberman is a pro-war nutter who essentially switched parties over Iraq but isn't quite as crazy as Zell Miller. Imagine Zell Miller on Prozac. On the other hand, Collins is one of the last of the type of moderate Republicans who used to be what we called conservatives in the '70s (it's down to her and Olympia Snowe since Lincoln Chafee retired). The report says Collins initiated it, but Lieberman gets lead billing.

The report opens with blood-red cover text on a blue graded background to emphasize the notion of a dangerous threat to peace. Of course terrorists are a dangerous threat to peace, but it's worth pointing out how the government is fucking with our heads. The report goes on to discuss a few Americans who joined or started right-wing Islamist terrorist groups. One man joined a group in prison, another watched propaganda videos, another was "inspired by Islamist ideology", and there was another incident where we don't even know who was involved but we are including it anyway.

The main thesis of the report is that "these incidents and others form part of a growing trend". This is where a scientific report would include a point chart but we don't have a data set larger than the four examples they give us over a three-year period. Me personally, I was under the impression that the threat had been decreasing over the past two years given the combination of seeing fewer items in the news and having less time on my part to read about them if they were in the news. So we have four examples in three years? Good job catching them, keep at it, no reason to panic.

Next comes a quote from FBI Director Robert Mueller:

However, the growing use of the Internet to identify and connect with networks throughout the world offers opportunities to build relationships and gain expertise that previously were available only in overseas training camps. It is likely that such independent groups will use information on destructive tactics available on the Internet to boost their own capabilities.

So terrorists can use the Internet to spread information as well as anybody else can use the Internet to spread information. That's a funny thing about how technology works. It expands the ability of people to do things even if those things are not what you like them to do. It's a fact of life that can't be fixed, so we have to deal with it.

Section 3, "A Path to Radicalization", does some psychological analysis on how people turn into terrorists.

The spark for the radicalization process is the core enlistment message that the leaders of the global violent Islamist terrorist movement use to attract followers. That terrorist message conveys the following three incendiary points:

1. The West, led by the United States, is engaged in a war against Islam;
2. Muslims are obligated to defend their religion and there are theological justifications for doing so; and
3. Violence is the necessary means to defend the religion.

Human nature being what it is, you can go Mad Libs on this list and replace "The West", "Islam", "Muslims", "religion", and "theological" with other nouns and get another society's path to radicalization. Or as an earlier philosopher put it:

All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

- Nazi Commander Hermann Goering, explaining the Nazi rise to power

Sometimes people do need to defend their community against an external threat, which is why that reaction is a part of human nature. The key question is whether the three statements are true. Needless to say, they are not, so if you see someone making those three points, tell them to STFU.

The paper also repeats the New York Police Department's 4-stage model of how normal people become terrorists. One starts out as a normal person in the first stage, then in the second stage one starts identifying with the terrorists in some way. Although they don't say it, we can assume the common case is as simple as "I am Muslim and they say they speak for Muslims" (or replace the noun). The third stage of indoctrination is where one comes to believe terrorist propaganda, and the fourth stage of jihadization is where one considers it their duty to support the terrorist movement. Each advancement through the stages makes it easier to go on to the next stage of radicalism.

Interestingly, the report uses the term "Salafi" to describe extreme Muslim ideology tending toward terrorism. This is the first time I've run into this use of the term. You may have also seen the word "Wahhabist" used to describe the same thing, but since Wahhabism is the official sect of Saudi Arabia and not every Saudi supports terrorism, the Senators know that that is not the correct term to use, politically or factually. So what about "Salafi"? The word Salafi has been used to refer to a specific terrorist organization, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat which now calls itself a branch of al-Qaeda. Google says the word Salafi essentially translates as fundamentalist, so why not just say fundamentalist?

Part 4 of the report is on "the terrorist Internet campaign". This is fascinating material that has been under-reported. Essentially, the terrorists have a network of spiffy professional-grade websites. It goes into more detail than that; this is the best section of the report for plain information. A few other types of media used to promote terrorism are also listed, including terrorist rap music and terrorist video games.

The section ends with a hilarious image of "the Role of the Women in Fighting the Enemies", with elegant text and flowery pink background while stuck in the bottom corner is what is either a burqa or a rock with a rifle beside it. I wonder if they pulled the image off a Fark photoshop contest because it seems to mock the terrorists rather than promote them.

Section six is where the report gets panicy about how the Internet can be used to inspire support for terrorism in the US. In response, it calls for a "coordinated outreach and communications strategy to address the homegrown terrorist threat, especially as that threat is amplified by the use of the Internet." In short, more government propaganda. It wouldn't be the first time the government has propagandized the public and it would be for a good cause, but that still leaves me leery. An outreach program could also backfire since the government influence would ruin the reputation of the community leaders participating in it in the eyes of those most likely to turn to terrorism.

You may have heard of "Joe Lieberman's plan to censor the Internet." That was it.