Terrorism Assignment - Essay Example

? Terrorism Assignment April 25, The terrorist threat to the United s and the rest of the world is as real as it was before the September 11th attacks and this is because of the constantly evolving nature of the al Qaeda organization. Al Qaeda has, despite its being weakened through the efforts of the United States and its allies, still has the ability to target a diverse number of locations all over the world, and these mainly tend to be American interests. One of the reasons why al Qaeda has continued to survive and remain a threat to America is because of the sectarian divisions in the Middle East (Poole, 2010), which has made it easier for it to gain some political support from some prominent members of government who sympathize with them. This has ensured that members of the organization have safe places where they can operate without any interference from their respective government. It can be suggested that the presence of external forces in the Middle East, such as NATO’s military presence, have helped strengthen the organization because the former is seen as an invading force targeting Muslims instead of terrorists. Furthermore, the power vacuum left from the ousting of Saddam Hussein in Iraq ensured that the presence of Al Qaeda was expanded to this country. The fact that al Qaeda is still a threat to the United States has called to question its ability to protect its civilians from any potential attacks from this organization especially after the catastrophe in 2001. The security posture of the United States before the September 11 attacks is very different from the one which came after these attacks. Before these attacks, the federal government played an extremely restricted role in the internal security of the nation and most of the security matters were left in the hands of the state and local governments. Since the responsibility for internal security was left to the latter, one would surmise that they concentrated more on the domestic threat than on any potential one from outside the United States (Borch, 2003). In addition to this, most of the security agencies at the federal level were not on a high alert for any foreign attacks on the United States because such threats were considered to be non-existent. All these changed after the attacks as the United States moved to swiftly secure itself from the new external threat, al Qaeda (Chau, 2008). The activation of the American security apparatus has worked well towards ensuring that no further attacks on the United States on the same scale as September 2001 have yet to occur again. The intelligence services, which once jealously guarded their jurisdictions from each other have seen an unprecedented level of cooperation between them, and these has been facilitated by the development of fusion centers as points through which they have come to share intelligence. The fact that these agencies are now sharing information, has ensured that they have become more effective in their fight against al Qaeda both at a local and international level and many potential strikes by this organization have been pre-empted (Sales, 2010). The American military has bases all over the world in allied countries and these have been put in place to protect American interests in these respective regions. Among the most prominent military bases can be found in the Middle East where they have been continuously used to fight terrorism in this region (Crook, 2006). The military has been an effective tool in dealing with the threat to the United States from al Qaeda. One of the most notable acts of the military was when Navy Seals attacked and killed the former al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, dealing a massive blow to the terrorist organization (Soherwordi et al, 2011). Furthermore, the military has used drones to strike at specific targets within al Qaeda who have been found to be a threat to the national security of the United States. Because of this drone strikes (Hudson, et al, 2012), many prominent al Qaeda leaders have been killed, ensuring that the organization remains unstable since finding and appointing new leaders within it takes a lot of time, hence weakening it (Jones, 2012). The military had not seen much active service since the 1991 Gulf war, but the fact that it was called upon to fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as its presence in allied countries has continued as a deterrent to those who would wish to harm American interests. The military has therefore become one of the most successful means of battling against the al Qaeda threat to the United States. The war on terror has brought a large number of suspected al Qaeda members into the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba and the matter of how to have them prosecuted raised a lot of debate (Forsythe, 2006). The openness of the American judicial system as well as its adherence to the principle of human rights might end up compromising any trials that are conducted in the federal system. This is because of the fact that the suspected al Qaeda members might end up being not found guilty as a result of having a good defense. Their release would be a huge moral blow to the integrity of the intelligence and military services which have been empowered with the task of capturing these people (Pahl, 2007). In order to counter this threat, it is advisable that any detainees at Guantanamo be prosecuted outside of the United States because this will ensure that there are no direct threats to the homeland. The fact that the prosecution of these suspects by federal law might increase the security risk to the nation should not be ignored. This is because sympathizers or other members of al Qaeda might take this as an opportunity to stage attacks which are either meant to help the suspects escape federal custody, or revenge attacks to avenge the sentencing of these suspects. In addition, security agencies should conduct surveillance on any individual who is suspected of being a member of al Qaeda (Stever, 2011); because America, being an open society, can help these malicious individuals remain inconspicuous until such a time as they stage an attack. References Borch, F.L. (2003). "Comparing Pearl Harbor and "9/11": Intelligence Failure? American Unpreparedness? Military Responsibility?" The Journal of Military History 67.3: 845-. Chau, A. (2008). "Security Community and Southeast Asia: Australia, the U.S., and ASEAN's Counter-Terror Strategy." Asian Survey 48.4: 626-49. Crook, J.R. (2006). "New Agreements Authorizing Overseas Activities by U.S. Forces." The American Journal of International Law 100.2: 485-6. Forsythe, D.P. (2006). "United States Policy Toward Enemy Detainees in the "War on Terrorism"." Human Rights Quarterly 28.2: 465,491,554. Hudson, L., et al. (2012)"Drone Warfare in Yemen: Fostering Emirates through Counterterrorism?" Middle East Policy 19.3: 142-56. Jones, S.G. (2012). "Think again: Al Qaeda." Foreign Policy.193: 47-51. Pahl, R.H. (2007). "GITMO! Reviews of Four Recent Books about Guantanamo Bay and the Conduct of the United States in its War on Terrorism." The Social Studies 98.2: 78-9. Poole, P.S. (2010). "Terrorism within the United States: The Middle East Connection." Middle East Review of International Affairs (Online) 14.1: 1-11. Sales, N.A. (2010). "Mending Walls: Information Sharing After the USA PATRIOT Act." Texas Law Review 88.7: 1795-854. Soherwordi, et al. (2011). "Operation Geronimo: Assassination of Osama Bin Ladin and its Implications on the US-Pakistan Relations, War on Terror, Pakistan and Al-Qaeda." South Asian Studies 26.2: 349-65. Stever, J. A. (2011). "Spying in America in the Post 9/11 World: Domestic Threat and the Need for Change." Choice 48.11: 2191-2. Read More