Counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, and strategies that governments, militaries, and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism. Counter-terrorism is not specific to any one field or organization; rather, it involves entities from all levels of society. For instance, businesses have security plans and sometimes share commercial data with the government. Local police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel (often called "first responders") have plans for dealing with terrorist attack. Armies conduct combat operations against terrorists, often using special forces. Building a counter-terrorism plan involves all segments of a society or many government agencies.

Counter-terrorist tactical units
Today, many of the western countries have special units, designated to handle terrorist threats. Besides various security agencies, there are elite tactical units whose role is to directly engage terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks. Such units perform both in preventive actions, hostage rescue and responding to on-going attacks.

These units are specially trained and equipped for CQB with emphasis on stealth and performing the mission with minimal casualties. The units include take-over force, snipers, EOD experts, dog operators and intelligence officers.

Examples for such units are the Israeli Sayeret Matkal (military) and YAMAM (civilian), the U.S. SWAT teams, the British SAS, the Austrian Cobra unit, and the German GSG-9.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * bioterrorism
 * Clinton administration anti-terrorism law
 * Counterterrorism Fund
 * domestic terrorism
 * homeland defense
 * homeland security
 * Department of Homeland Security
 * Richard Clarke, government's first counterterrorism czar
 * Patriot Act I
 * Patriot Act II
 * psyops

Government Sources & Reports

 * U.S. State Department Counterterrorism Office.
 * Counterterrorism/Weapons of Mass Destruction Training Links, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) web site.
 * Testimony Before the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives: Combatting Terorism: Comments on Counterterrorism Leadership and National Strategy, GAO, March 27, 2001.
 * Paul K. Davis and Brian Michael Jenkins, Deterrence and influence in counterterrorism: a component in the war on al Qaeda, RAND Corporation, 2002. (99-page report).
 * Patterns of Global Terrorism Report, 2002 released April 2003.
 * Counterterrorism and Incident Response; Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and International Security.

General Sources

 * Google Directory on Terrorism and Counterterrorism.
 * United States Institute of Peace Terrorism-Counterterrorism Web Links.
 * The International Association of Counterterrorism & Security Professionals (IACSP).
 * The Terrorism Research Center.
 * The Centre for Counterterrorism Studies (CCS).
 * The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT).
 * Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Terrorism web page.
 * Counterterrorism Policy, Jurist.Law.Pitt.Edu web site.
 * EERI Counter-Terrorism Archive from 1989 to present. "A Summary of World-Wide Terrorism Events, Groups, and Terrorist Strategies and Tactics."
 * Counterterrorism Operations (U.S. Military Operations), GlobalSecurity.org.
 * Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Counter-Terrorism Proposals.

Articles & Commentary

 * 15 June 2003: "Former Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror" by Laura Blumenfeld, The Washington Post: "Eight weeks after leaving the Bush White House, (Rand Beers) volunteered as national security adviser for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), a Democratic candidate for president, in a campaign to oust his former boss. All of which points to a question: What does this intelligence insider know?" See article for counterterrorism info.
 * 17 June 2003: "Dereliction of Duty" by Paul Krugman: "Last Thursday a House subcommittee met to finalize next year's homeland security appropriation. The ranking Democrat announced that he would introduce an amendment adding roughly $1 billion for areas like port security and border security that, according to just about every expert, have been severely neglected since Sept. 11....The subcommittee's chairman promptly closed the meeting to the public, citing national security -- though no classified material was under discussion. And the bill that emerged from the closed meeting did not contain the extra funding."
 * 1 December 2003: "Supreme Court Intervenes in Kidnap Case" by Gina Holland, AP: "The Supreme Court said Monday it would decide if federal agents can sneak into foreign countries to arrest suspected criminals and bring them to America for trial, a case that tests the reach of the government's terrorism-fighting powers. .. The Bush administration said covert kidnappings of suspects overseas are rare, but the government needs that authority."