Effective Ways to Confront Terrorism - Research Paper Example

 Abstract With the widespread cases of terrorism throughout the world and the recent evident cases like the September 11 bomb attack; there is a need for efficient countermeasures for the preparedness of future attacks in the United States. The United States and its citizens are mostly targets for the terrorists as evidenced by attacks in and out of the United States. Some related terrorist attacks are not just from Islamic fundamentalist groups but also from unscrupulous people inside the United States (Shea, 2004). The terrorists in carrying out their activities have often sought conflict significant damage to the existing structures in countries that do not conform to their religious or affiliation (Perrow, 2011). As such, terrorism inflicts fear even though there may not be any attack being carried out. Moreover, it is important to come up with various solutions that will help in quelling any fears that may arise due to terrorist activities and the eventual fear that is spread due to such threats. Counter measures will involve disaster management and early detection systems that will help the authorities to prevent any acts of terrorism from being carried out. The paper is going to focus on counter measures that can be used in removing threats that are spread by terrorists and ensuring that the subsequent fears are not blown out of proportion. Fear is an enemy that can bring a nation down to its toes. As such terror should be dealt with the seriousness, it deserves. The various methods will be the prevention of the spread of fear by the terrorist using short message service (SMS) thus blocking any communication that can inflict fear on the citizens through mobile phones. Introduction Terrorism is a wicked act that needs to be nipped in the bud. Persons who engage in such activities are usually out to inflict as much damage and fear as possible. Such terror messages affect the economic functioning of a state or a community and therefore interventions measures should be engaged to prevent any adverse effects it has on the economy of a state or country. Many steps have been taken throughout the world to deal with terrorism, and the devastating results after such acts are carried out. People are left with fear and trauma, which significantly affects their confidence in the security of the nation, and as such leave hopelessness (Olson & Science, 2011). Terror does involve not only bombing but also poisoning from foods and other terrible activities. As such people may send the text message that are not true about the poisoning of certain foods and in such cases the people who get that message forward to their family members and friends. People, therefore, tend to avoid the foods said to be poisoned though they are not. Such devastating effects have led to numerous incidents like buildings being blown to the ground. An example of terror-related activities is the bombing of various locations in Syria by a terrorist group known as the Islamic states. ISIS has caused untold damage and the resultant spread of fear and terror in Syria. Many lives have been lost in such acts, and it is, therefore, important to come up with solutions that are going to be of help in dealing with the debacle facing many countries. The destruction of property and the deliberate infliction of damage should thus be placed in the category of national disasters throughout the world. The terrorist only intent is to destroy which sometimes is done in the name or religion. Security agencies like the CIA, Homeland Security and the FBI, therefore, need to beef up their scrutinizing mechanisms and come up with methods that will help in dealing with the prevalent menace (Lewis, 2006). Not one or two days go by before one hears of terrorist acts of terrorism happening throughout the world. Citizens are vulnerable to the acts of terrorism. Citizens usually put their trust in the police and other related authorities for their protection. Terrorism results where the security agencies have failed to deal with the inhumane acts or detect such actions before they happen (Bobrowsky, P. (2013). As such, the people are left at the mercy of terrorist though the authorities in place may try as much as possible to get intelligence on the terrorist. The people usually put all their hope in the security agencies and in case any terrorists act as if bombings take place, the people become disillusioned. The various security agencies and other stakeholders like those in the communications sector will merge to the formidable team that will ensure that every communication is filtered to prevent any terrorist ventures or plans by the terrorists. Largely many people use short message services, and some of the terrorists can take advantage by sending messages of terrors to various people to inflict fear on them. Furthermore, the messages can be sent to millions of people throughout the United States. The results may be detrimental to the smooth flow of activities, as some people will tend to avoid going to work due to such messages from terrorists. The terrorist’s actions thus affect countries economy due to the fear of such attacks especially where there are constants threats to avoid certain places. The livelihoods of the people are affected and, as a result, the nation suffers from such fearful communications. The study will, therefore, focus communication done by the tourists specifically the use of text message. The blocking and filtering of such information will be dealt with by the relevant security agencies. The country is highly networked with various communication options that help people interact with each other. The short message service is the popular platform used by different cell phone networks. People send text messages regularly and, as a result, networks receive countless text messages per day. Because of terrorism, the communication is being used to spread terror messages to the populace. Various technologies are prone to abuse especially where the users send messages of fear across multiple social platforms. The official platforms reach many people and, as a result, may cause widespread fear among many of the people especially if the terror-related messages are targeted towards a people in a particular location. It is, therefore, important to track the origin of the messages to ensure that they do not reach the public and spread untold damage. Literature review Various studies have been carried out which examine the use of different security strategies in blocking and filtering out messages that tend to spread terror. Some of the people who engage in sending terror texts may not be terrorists themselves. Oh (2011) analyzed the information about terrorist activities that took place after the terrorist attack in Mumbai (Oh, 2011). The terrorists in the attack used the situational information to target the civilians in their attacks. The communication of the media about the situation played a big role on how the terrorists carried out their attacks. As such, the study uses the theory of situational awareness to explore the postings on Twitter, and any finds out any participation that Twitter had in reporting the activities on the scene of the Mumbai bombing. The study suggested a framework that analyses the information to come up with conclusions that make the help the situations in terror cases. The study looks at the means of communication and not at what is in the communication (Drozdova & Samoilov, 2010). The strategy shows how the technologies can be used in detecting terrorist activities. The high and low-tech communication is analyzed depending on the differential of their usage in an organization, which can be used to identify terrorist connections. The methods analyse the different activity levels of the communication systems to enable the security agencies to come up with various ways to deal with imminent terror attacks. Implications for your community, state, or the United States in general Terrorism related activities have a dire effect on the economy of a nation. For example, the September 11 attacks in the United States caused a scare among the citizens of the United States especially due to the hijackings of the two planes that were flown into the World Trade Centre at the time. The World Trade Centre was the center of international trade and therefore it was a great blow to various economic activities in the building. The destruction of infrastructure and the loss of lives and the resulting spread of fear were evident among the people (Radvanovsky & McDougall, 2013). Therefore, the concerns bring a lot of fear to the people involved and the people affected which, as a result, affects the economic activities as such activities to the loss of many people and destruction of infrastructure (Bobrowsky, 2013). To replace the workforce and replace the various structures cost state governments a lot of money that the states may not have at that moment. The various shootings in universities by students has caused terror in many communities as some may develop of phobia of living in the school or even studying in such institutions. Dealing with the fear the communities have developed over time is, therefore, vital since fear can be more detrimental than the actual attack itself. Fear affects people largely due to the mindset it builds in them. The people an individual community will, therefore, shudder at any message of terrorism and if the message are sent to a certain location especially when people are in a building some may opt to jump out of the building leading to many casualties though there was no attack taking place. Finding out ways of dealing with the imminent terrorist activities is crucial, as it will help communities be ready at any time and deal with the situation in a knowledgeable way. Some of the communities affected by terrorism-related messages are affected negatively since growth is inhibited for some time unless the relevant authorities step in to save the situation. The strategy of filtering the messages and blocking them before they reach the intended audience is thus necessary. Such authorities can prevent various accounts on social sites and even cell phones used to spread such malicious messages. The scrutiny of different social sites is thus important since many people are hooked to the social at the present than before, and any terror-related message can thus spread faster than before. Social site managers should, therefore, liaise with the relevant authorities to track users or hackers who spread messages in the social sites that are terror related. As such, the monitoring of the various networks to filter terrorist related messages will depend on the level of danger that the community or the country is prone to terror attacks. The terrorists may target public place or buildings that are important to the country’s economy. First, they send messages through fear and, as a result cause fear in many people. Some of the messages may not necessarily be from terrorists but unscrupulous people. Community policing may result in extreme cases where terrorism-related activities increase. People may be encouraged to interact with others and know who their neighbors are. Besides, the policing will help the community to know each other and make sure that suspicious activities are detected easily. To counter such message that causes fears, it is important to look at the countless technologies in use today. Monitoring such communication technologies and tracking them to the user is important in getting the culprits involved. The different communication systems will be monitored, and users encouraged over texts to report any suspicious activities. Since many people write, short messages areas will be mapped according to any terror-related activities in the regions. The filtering o short message services will be tracked by the respective individuals and the people later apprehended. Communities will have to undergo searches where necessary especially, where communication-related to terror, is noted. Therefore, areas will have to be ready for anything including searches with or without warrants especially in cases where the target have been known to be in particular areas. The police and the community will provide an avenue where the people venturing into those places will have to undertake thorough checks before they move to other areas in the neighborhood. Terrorism is identical to natural disasters since it happens without the knowledge of the people and the authorities. The terrorists may only give hints of impending attacks to spread fear and eventually carry out their heinous activities. Natural disasters happen instantly or without warning, and people may just notice some signs (Watts, 2006). For example, tornadoes and hurricanes are some of the storms that cause considerable damage since they come with floods. Other natural disasters are earthquakes, which cause many killings if there is not evacuation and the detection of such earthquakes (Veen, 2004). Other implications for the community are that fear causes a standstill as people fear even to go to work. Some messages may not be that harmful. If the state governments do not act promptly, the people may stay in their homes or go to safer places to avoid areas that the terrorists have targeted in their communication (Jha & Duyne, 2010). Use of chemicals like the spread of diseases through envelopes filled with powder or poisoning of foods is another serious issue. The use of short messages may be used to warn people or cause them to shun certain foods or places. As such, people may get various messages from unscrupulous people and forward them to their friends and families without knowing that it is a fraud. As a result, the messages are sent to many people who are innocently falling into the lies propagated by the culprits. Educating the population on the use of text message is thus important. The citizens should report any terror-related messages they get to the relevant authorities and not help spread terror through sending them to their families or friends. The mechanisms of tracking the messages before they reach the user are an important step that will help the communities significantly. People will not have to fear about visiting the public places since terrorist inhibits people’s movement only to certain areas due to fear. It affects the normal lives of individuals as they are forced to live on the defensive and act as defensively as possible to protect their families and friends. Many people visit social sites, and any message on terror can spread very quickly. Therefore, it is important for the security agencies to ensure that they track such communications to prevent them reaching the public. In the event they reach the public, the agencies should promptly follow the person or people involved and ensure that they communicate to the public that it was just a scare or a joke by someone. As such, the agencies will be helping the people in such a manner as to win their confidence. The police and other security organs will, therefore, have to come up with technologies that will assist them in filtering the various messages and tracking them to the particular persons sending them. The police will liaise with the telecommunication sector to come up with different methods that they can use in filtering out terror-related activities. The telecommunication sectors can then help the authorities with vital information that helps them fish out the culprits who send such texts. Such texts can be blocked before they reach the intended people and, therefore, prevent any imminent fears. The government in so doing will enable people to trust the relevant security authorities and follow any communication that may be given to them. The state governments should conduct educational seminars on the issue of terrorism and encourage the citizens not to send messages of terror to their friends when they get but to submit such messages to the authorities who will then trace them to the persons involved. There have been many terror attacks in the United States and, as a result, if people hear about any terror anywhere they become fearful. The people picture the various terrorist activities that have happened in the past. Communities will, therefore, have to bear with the authorities, especially in terror-related cases. The different activities like isolating different areas and conducting searches in such cases will be the order of the day. The gravity of terrorism should not be downplayed by the authorities and should be treated with extreme seriousness. It is thus important for the people in the United States to be knowledgeable about the various terrorism-related activities and communications. The relevant authorities in dealing with the problem should ensure that the messages spread by the terrorists does not reach them through the various screening and tracking methods to get the culprit and bring them to book. Further research should be done on a demographic basis where communication is monitored over time, and the offenders dealt with according to the law. REFERENCES Bobrowsky, P. (2013). Encyclopedia of natural hazards. Dordrecht: Springer. Costello, L., & Jones, K. (2003). Reducing infrastructure damage by tree roots: A compendium of strategies. Porterville, CA: Western Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (WCISA). Damage assessment and reconstruction after war or natural disaster. (2009). Dordrecht: Springer. Drozdova, K., & Samoilov, M. (2010). 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