Introduction The USS Cole Bombing in October 2000 was a prelude to the intense focus on the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that the FBI took up in earnest one year later in the wake of and in response to 9/11. With the killing of several crewmen and the wounding of several more, the USS Cole Bombing was in reality just one more terrorist incident in an already growing line of attacks (both foreign and domestic) that revealed a pressing need for a counterproliferation strategy. When the USS Cole was hit in Aden harbor, the FBI began focusing on suspects who would later be tied to 9/11 and the spread of terror cells throughout the Middle East.[footnoteRef:2] It was not, of course, the only incident to spark that focus—but it was an important factor in the development of a new counterproliferation strategy that would inevitably become the plan to stop the spread and usage of WMDs by terrorists against America. As the primary research question of this study is “In what ways can the nonproliferation regime connect and collaborate with homeland security as a way to improve counterterrorism strategy?” this literature review will focus on identifying sources that can help to answer that question, including covert operations that the FBI has engaged in to help prevent the proliferation of WMDs throughout the world. [2: Joseph Chinyong Liow, "The Mahathir administration's war against Islamic militancy: operational and ideological challenges." Australian Journal of International Affairs 58, no. 2 (2004), 242.]

Literature Review

The Development of a Strategy

As Mauroni points out, the plan to stop the spread and usage of WMDs by terrorists against America and American interests was “based on a counterproliferation strategy developed in response to the threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons to military forces in the 1990s.”[footnoteRef:3] Yet, it was 9/11 that truly introduced the intensely broadened scope, especially with regards to homeland security.[footnoteRef:4] The origins of the strategy can ultimately be found in the Gulf War crisis of 1991, under the George H. Bush Administration—and its culmination was witnessed under his son, G. W. Bush’s Administration. Yet, as Mauroni notes, there is still room for the strategy of counterproliferation to be improved even more.[footnoteRef:5] [3: Albert J. Mauroni, "A counter-WMD strategy for the future." Parameters 40, no. 2 (2010), 58-59.] [4: Albert J. Mauroni, "A counter-WMD strategy for the future." Parameters 40, no. 2 (2010), 59.] [5: Albert J. Mauroni, "A counter-WMD strategy for the future." Parameters 40, no. 2 (2010), 59.]

The reason there is still more work to be done in developing a strategy to address counterproliferation needs is that because of globalization it is increasingly a dangerous world in which rogue nations can obtain WMDs and threaten or hold hostage the rest of the civilized world.[footnoteRef:6] The covert mission of rogue nations to possess WMDs is a threat to the international community, which means that there must be a high level of interaction, cooperation, collaboration, and communication among the allied nations of the international community. A counterproliferation strategy that does not have this level of collaboration will not be an effective one. The problem that the current strategy faces is a political one: with the rising tide of populism and nationalism all over the world, more and more nations that should be allied in the international community are becoming less open to working or collaborating with one another. Tensions are fueled by economic warfare (sanctions) and the walking away from treaties, such as recently took place between the U.S. and Russia with respect to the suspension of the Nuclear Arms Control Treaty.[footnoteRef:7] The destabilization of the relationship between the East and the West is evidence of the growing nature of this challenge. Furthermore, the fact that mistrust plays such a factor in international relations makes it difficult for true collaboration and cooperation to exist. Thus, there has been identified by the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction a plan for using covert operations in the overall strategy. [6: Rowena Rege Fischer, “Guide to the Study of Intelligence: Counterproliferation,” Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies 21, no. 1 (Winter 2014-15), 78-79.] [7: David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “US Suspends Nuclear Arms Control Treaty with Russia,” The New York Times, Feb 1., 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/us/politics/trump-inf-nuclear-treaty.html]

Covert Operations

Organizing to combat the proliferation of WMDs “requires a clear delineation of responsibilities,” according to the Commission to Assess the Organization of the...

The Commission observed that to stop proliferation, action must be taken both domestically and abroad, but that overall the strategy “requires specific mechanisms to plan and execute operational responses to the threat or use of weapons of mass destruction, whether diplomatic initiative, foreign assistance, security assurances, covert action, or military retaliation.”[footnoteRef:9] The emphasis on covert action is particularly of importance insofar as the FBI is concerned. The infiltration of organizations and enemy groups has always been a mainstay of U.S. intelligence. From COINTELPRO to today, covert action is an important process in preventing cells or groups from taking steps to undermine or attack the interests of America. [8: The Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. “Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Washington, D.C. (1999), 8. ] [9: The Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. “Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Washington, D.C. (1999), 9.]
Ash Carter noted that one covert operation that the FBI can use is the tactic of “tagging,” which involves covertly placing some kind of marker or identifying feature or tag on any and all objects that would be destined for a WMD lab.[footnoteRef:10] The tag can be a transmitter, a chemical marker or anything that allows the Bureau to trace the...…Yet how easily it is smuggled into the U.S.[footnoteRef:26] The FBI, DEA and Homeland Security should all be working together to prevent drugs like fentanyl and other synthetic poisons produced in countries abroad from coming into the U.S. These drugs are dangerous not just because they are unleashed on the streets and cripple the youth and of the country and thus rob the nation of a brighter future but also because they could easily be used in a terror attack or placed into a water supply and thus used to poison the country’s citizens. For that reason it is very important to have a plan and strategy in place to prevent this type of free movement of dangerous chemicals across the border.[footnoteRef:27] Thousands are killed each year by these chemicals, and if the FBI is also not focused on this issue and is not working with DHS to address it, it is another weakness in the counterproliferation strategy overall. [26: Manchikanti, Laxmaiah, Jaya Sanapati, Ramsin M. Benyamin, Sairam Atluri, Alan D. Kaye, and Joshua A. Hirsch. "Reframing the prevention strategies of the opioid crisis: focusing on prescription opioids, fentanyl, and heroin epidemic." Pain physician 21, no. 4 (2018): 309-326.] [27: Nevano, Gregory C. "Homeland Security Investigations, Border Search Authority, and Investigative Approaches to Fentanyl Smuggling." US Att'ys Bull. 66 (2018): 57.]

Counterproliferation has to be considered not just from the standpoint of bombs and missiles. It also has to be considered from the standpoint of consequences and outcomes. For example, the invasion into the Middle East by the U.S. following both the attacks on the USS Cole and the attacks on the World Trade Centers had a serious consequence in terms of the global drug trade. The poppy fields of Afghanistan were liberated and the heroin trade devastated countries around the world, with many hundreds of thousands of Americans negatively impacted by it as well. So while no WMDs were found in Iraq, a massive WMD in the form of the heroin trade escaped Afghanistan and ran riot through the streets of the U.S. The FBI has to be better about working with DHS to secure the borders of the nation and prevent drugs from getting in.[footnoteRef:28] [28: Nevano, Gregory C. "Homeland Security Investigations, Border Search Authority, and Investigative Approaches to Fentanyl Smuggling." US Att'ys Bull. 66 (2018): 57.]

Conclusion

The FBI’s counterproliferation strategy can be successful if it follows the recommendations of the scholars and researchers cited herein: their recommendations are to engage in greater collaboration with other nations in the international community; engage in covert operations to track goods and materials that might be used in the manufacturing of WMDs; engage in undercover operations to build cases against criminals both domestic and foreign; and to rethink what the term WMD actually means in the first place and what the real threat of a WMD is. If loss of life is the main threat, the drug trade should also be considered a WMD type.

Bibliography

Arnold, Aaron and Daniel Salisbury, “The Long Arm,” Belfer Center, 2019.…