Presentation of Critical Assignment - Essay Example

Introduction One of the recently criticized actions of United States is its attack on Abbottabad, Pakistan, which led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. On the one hand, detractors argued that the move broke the trust between two nations, U.S. and Pakistan, as well as the confidence of the Muslim people in nongovernmental aid (Rauhala, 2011, par.2). On the other hand, supporters asserted that the U.S. cannot be blamed for the weak health infrastructure of Pakistan, and that the mission promoted national interest (Nature, 2011, par.5). The significance of this event to Terrorism and Homeland Security will be explored further.

In addition, principles and theories will be applied to understand its process and consequences on different citizens and future U.S. plans. The fake vaccination drive portrays the hardships of collecting intelligence information, through responding to religion and community needs aspects of terrorism, but denial and deception embody critical concepts in ensuring homeland security. Summary of the Fake Vaccination Drive The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plotted to attack Bin Laden’s compound, and confirmed its whereabouts through launching a phony vaccination drive (Shah, 2011).

Shah (2011) reported in The Guardian on July 11, 2011 that the move allowed the U.S. to verify Bin Laden’s location by collecting his family’s DNA. The DNA from any of the Bin Laden children in the compound could be matched with a sample from Bin Laden’s sister, who died in Boston in 2010 (Shah, 2011, par.6). Shah (2011) revealed that the CIA recruited the help of Doctor Shakil Afridi, a high-level medical professional, to carry out a regional vaccination program, so that they could validate if Osama bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad (Shah, 2011, par.7). The ploy is successful because by April, nurses gained access to the compound by giving free hepatitis B vaccine (Shah, 2011, par.13). Soon, the U.S. deployed the Special Forces to attack the compound and eliminate Bin Laden.

Significance to Terrorism and Homeland Security Religion The event is significant to Terrorism and Homeland Security because it showed the tactics needed to infiltrate terrorists with religious interests. In the history of terrorism, religion has been the central or periphery causes of organized terrorists (Purpura, 2007, p.11). For Al Qaeda, they see themselves as fighting a Holy War and use religious language to provide legitimacy to their interests (Purpura, 2007, p.11). Religion is a critical concept in understanding and defeating Al Qaeda, although it is not the only aspect of its organizational interests (Purpura, 2007, p.11). They have a political agenda that consisted of forcing the U.S. to withdraw its presence in the Middle East, ousting regimes that support the U.S., and uniting Muslims toward these endeavors (Purpura, 2007, p.11). The vaccination ruse in Abbottabad, Pakistan depicted the urgency of employing non-religious schemes that are neutral enough to attain the trust of the terrorists and their families.

Community Needs Vaccination is an important need of Pakistani communities, and one which the CIA exploited to serve its purposes. The CIA required something “authentic” to not raise the security alarms of Bin Laden’s compound (Shah, 2011, par