Criminal Justice - Counterterrorism Counterterrorism

Criminal Justice - Counterterrorism COUNTERTERRORISM ISSUES What is counterterrorism? Why is it important to understand the motivations behind terrorism when engaged in counterterrorism efforts? What kind of general motives might you find among terrorists in this country and abroad? Counterterrorism is the full spectrum of governmental law enforcement and military responses to perceived terrorist threats. Effective intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination requires a comprehensive understanding of terrorist motivation because that knowledge enables investigators to identify terrorist organizations and sources of operational support, financing, and recruiting.

Understanding terrorist motivation also enables authorities to establish effective surveillance techniques as well as counterintelligence operations designed to infiltrate terrorist entities to apprehend individual terrorist leaders and financers and, most importantly, to prevent terrorist attacks. In the current era of anti-Western and anti-American global terrorism, the most significant threat involves militant Islamic radicalism whose proponents are dedicated to changing United States foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. Those who support this strategic use of terrorism against the U.S.

hope to intimidate this country to withdraw its military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, to remove all U.S. military bases from the Middle East, and most of all, to abandon political, military, and financial support of the nation of Israel. In their propaganda, they view Israel as the "Little Satan" and the U.S. As the "Big Satan" for what they perceive as anti-Islamic policies throughout the world. 2.

Is counterterrorism a tactic of warfare or crime-fighting? What role does due process play in either context? What are the implications when terrorists can be characterized as the "enemy" rather than mere criminals? Terrorism is just a description for acts that are intended to create fear within a community or nation. In most cases, it involves some form of physical violence but other forms of terrorism such as cyberterrorism do not. Whether terrorism is considered an act of war or a crime depends largely on its context.

Therefore, the same act of blowing up a building or ambushing a vehicle would constitute terrorism when perpetrated against civilians or when perpetrated against military assets in the absence of a declaration of war or hostile occupation. Where the same act is perpetrated against entities of a hostile military occupation, it would be considered "armed resistance" rather than terrorism.

Characterizing terrorists as criminals implies that governmental authorities expect to charge them formally with violations of criminal statutes and try them in appropriate courts of criminal jurisdiction in order to secure criminal sanctions authorized by civilian criminal law. Characterizing terrorists as the "enemy" implies that governmental authorities consider their actions to constitute undeclared warfare in the context of international law and that authorities expect to apply established international definitions and standards in responding to them.

Those laws have very different provisions with respect the rights of prisoners detained or captured during undeclared war and authorize much harsher punishment and fewer rights than corresponding provisions of U.S. criminal law codes applicable to criminals. 3.

How has surveillance changed from the "traditional" to "new surveillance"? Are these changes potentially problematic for civil liberties in any way in the United States? Should law enforcement be permitted to use all technological resources available to accomplish its mission, including in the fight against terror? Are there limits? Surveillance techniques and technologies have evolved as part of the growth of computer technology and the digital revolution of the last decade.

Whereas previous generations of criminal investigators generally required some form of physical access to data storage and transmission devices for surveillance purposes, modern computer and communication systems and technology provide the means for remote surveillance through wireless data transmission capture and other tactical methods. These present critical potential civil liberties issues, particularly in the area of Fourth Amendment principles pertaining to unconstitutional searches and seizure of private information by law enforcement authorities.

In principle, law enforcement authorities should be able to exploit every possible technology to accomplish their missions in both criminal and counterterrorism operations. However, applicable principles, standards, definitions, and doctrines of constitutional law must always restrict law enforcement tactics and matters of criminal procedure to those that are permissible under current U.S. law. Legislation such as many elements of the U.S.A.

PATRIOT ACT are problematic because they do not provide adequate controls to ensure that investigative methods and procedures appropriate under some circumstances cannot be used in circumstances where they are inappropriate under U.S. law. 4. What is the FISA Court? Explain how it works.

What authorities can it grant law enforcement? How is it different from traditional courts? What concerns exist about expanding the use of FISA? The Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) was established to regulate the use of surveillance by the executive branch of government in the wake of various unconstitutional investigations conducted by the Nixon administration in connection with monitoring political rivals and government opposition groups.

The FISA Act authorized the covert monitoring of information and communication exchanges of entities of foreign governments engaged in espionage and intelligence collection activities in the U.S. pursuant to review by the FISA Court. In 2001, the FISA Act was amended to allow for governmental surveillance of entities not specifically connected to any foreign nation provided those entities were involved in communications or activities posing a grave risk of harm to the U.S. including those associated with international terrorism.

The FISA court established a court to review government surveillance must certify applications for the covert interception of or access to information and communications authorized by the president through the attorney general. The primary concerns about FISA relate to the absence of any warrant application prior to surveillance and the adequacy of limitations and controls to ensure that surveillance mechanism it provides do not exceed their legal scope.

Those concerns were illustrated very recently by former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst Russell Tice who publicly revealed the extent to which the NSA misused authorization for covert surveillance by intercepting telephone records of ordinary Americans. Those misuses also included the deliberate targeting of journalists considered to be hostile to the Bush presidential administration. 5.

How has aviation security changed since 9/11? What were the provisions of the Aviation and Transportation Act? Did this act changed aviation security in a dramatic way? What role does racial or religious profiling play in securing the aviation industry and its consumers? What role should it play? After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act federalized airport security and established the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) within.