Illicit Activities Beneath the Surface Web: Investigating Domestic Extremism on Anonymous Social Media Platforms

At the beginning of 2021, the Internet was used to spread words to incite insurrection and violence through social media, incited a pro-Trump mob riot into a U.S. Capitol building. Furthermore, due to recent acts of domestic terrorism in Texas, New Zealand, and California, police authorities have begun investigating social media presence that premeditated harmful acts. In all three instances, the shooters posted their manifesto online and had a presence on 8chan. The common thread among all shooters is their identification as a white nationalist and their social media site affiliation with Infinitechan, where they hid their radical ideas. Similarities in the shooters’ profiles include their perceived viewpoints of population groups regarding their political, ethnic, and social identities. This paper will provide insight into the forums where domestic terrorists spread their agendas. It will also set the foundation for further research towards a strategic algorithm that compiles and analyses relevant users’ profiles by using OSINT and data analytics techniques).

Part II Public Obligations and Regulatory Responsibilities, B Sanctions and Regulatory Responsibilities, 9 UK Sanctions Regimes

There are two principle sources of sanctions regimes applicable to the UK, this chapter shows: those of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). The chapter first looks at the EU regime. The EU operates thirty-eight different sanctions regimes as of May 2016. They are of two types: regimes designed to implement UN-mandated sanctions regimes; and the EU’s autonomous sanctions regimes. Current EU policy on sanctions has been continuously updated. As the EU Basic Principles make clear, the EU looks principally to the UN Security Council as the source of sanctions. The UK sanctions regimes, which give effect to UN sanctions regimes, are principally introduced for three purposes: to legislate in the absence of EU competence (for example to introduce financial sanctions against so-called ‘domestic’ terrorists); to give effect to EU regimes (for example to impose penalties for failure to comply with obligations introduced by means of an EU Regulation); and to introduce measures ahead of an EU regime (where by acting unilaterally, the UK can act more speedily) or even independently.

Rebel movements in the DRC as sub-national terrorists and the need for appropriate counter initiatives

The word “terrorism” has been used in various political and policy contexts, and studied in several scholarly disciplines. Most contemporary writing on terrorism focuses on the international dimensions or manifestations of terrorism. However, in Africa, sub- national terror (and even state terror) has been a feature of conflict on the African continent. This ranges from amorphous internationally connected groups in which people locally band together around a religious paradigm, to rebels who terrify civilians in civil wars, e.g. the armed movements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Specifically, the north-eastern and eastern parts of the DRC have been major conflict zones where sub-national or domestic terrorists employed and continue to employ terror as a strategy. This paper examines rebel movements in the DRC as a phenomenon of sub-national terrorism – a phenomenon that manifests in life-and-death struggles over access to mineral resources and where there is a clear correlation between conflict and the accumulation of resources.

Terrorist attack and target diversity

Terrorists choose from a wide variety of targets and attack methods. Unlike past literature, this article investigates how diversity in target choice and attack modes among domestic and transnational terrorists has evolved and changed over the past 40 years. Changes in the practice of homeland security, which affects the marginal costs of target–attack combinations, and changes in the dominant terrorist influence at the global level, which affects the marginal benefits of target–attack combinations, drive the changepoints. Our empirical analysis relies on count data drawn from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) for 1970–2010 that distinguishes between domestic and transnational terrorist incidents. Given the data-intensity requirements of our methods, the study is necessarily from a global perspective. A Bayesian Reversible Jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) changepoint analysis is applied to identify arrival rate changes in both domestic and transnational terrorism. The changepoints in these aggregate series are then matched with those of the subset time series for attack modes (e.g. assassinations and bombings) and target types (e.g. officials and private parties). The underlying drivers of these changepoints are then identified. The article also calculates a Herfindahl index of attack diversity for the aggregate and component domestic and transnational terrorism time series for the entire period and during four subperiods. The variation in both domestic and transnational terrorist attacks has generally fallen over the last four decades; nevertheless, this diversity still remains high. Bombings of private parties have become the preferred target–attack combination for both transnational and domestic terrorists. This combination is the hardest-to-defend target–attack combination and requires the most homeland security resources. Policymakers can use these and other results to focus their counter-terrorism measures.

Instrument Development and Evaluation of Domestic Preparedness Training for First Responders

Introduction:In the wake of domestic terrorists attacks on 11 September 2001 and subsequent bioterrorist events employing anthrax, there no longer can be any debate about the potential for attacks employing Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical (NBC)/Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). As one way of acknowledging this long-standing threat and, in a concerted effort to mitigate the effects of possible future domestic NBC/WMD terrorist attacks, the US Department of Defense (DOD) and other US governmental agencies already had mounted an effort to provide Domestic Preparedness Training for First Responders in urban centers throughout the USA.Methods:A paper and pencil questionnaire specifically designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Domestic Preparedness Training for Emergency First Responders has been developed. An earlier version of this instrument was piloted with a convenience sample of firefighters and paramedics (n = 78) in a northwest state. Based on replies to the pilot questionnaire, a pool of 27 items based on the objectives and content of the NBC/WMD Domestic Preparedness Awareness and Operations courses (plus additional background and appraised competency items) were selected for inclusion in a Domestic Preparedness Questionnaire (DPQ).Results:This paper first describes the essential psychometric properties of the DPQ based on replies from baseline and follow-up samples (n = 206 and n = 246 respectively) of urban firefighters and paramedics employed by a metropolitan city in a northwest state. The DPQ was employed to evaluate the outcomes of Domestic Preparedness training provided to a sample of urban fire-service personnel. The DPQ documented significant improvements in a group of “DP trained”-urban firefighters (n = 80) both in their awareness and operations content knowledge as well as in their perceived competencies to respond to acts of biological, chemical, or nuclear terrorism “in their own community” at four months post-training. A comparison group of “Not DP-trained” firefighters (n = 78) showed no statistically significant changes on these DPQ indices, suggesting that the documented improvements in the “DP-trained” firefighters on the DPQ were not due to “test reactivity” or to “historical” factors.Conclusion:The findings suggest that the DPQ has adequate inter-item and test-retest reliability, possesses concurrent validity, and appears to be a sensitive measure of the Domestic Preparedness Training provided for urban firefighter and paramedic First Responders.