Abstract
Terrorism has been escalating in various states in America. Research studies have identified that the use of terrorist cells has been the reason behind the escalation. A terrorist cell contains three to five members that work together to issue a threat or attack an area in a nation. Most of these terrorists use calculated moves to ensure that they hit their target to the latter. Their actions are always destructive. The paper will therefore focus on identifying some of the means used by terrorists to enhance their success. Additionally, the paper will focus on identifying measures that military officers and law enforcement can embrace to help curb terrorism.
Introduction
A terrorist cell is where three to five members are placed to ensure operational security in a nation. A terrorist cat, on the other hand, refers to a calculated move that uses violence to attain specific religious or political goals. In most cases, terrorist actions are done through intimidation or coercion. Most of these terrorists are radicle and usually advocate violence against civilians. These cells are planned to support less than ten members who are often residents or terrorists from various nations. The members hosted in such cells are tasked with providing execution cells with licenses used by their drivers, providing lodging facilities, and procuring all the materials used to bomb a building. However, the success of these members or cells depends on the organizations and plans accorded in each plan. Additionally, the success rate of each group depends on the security measures put across in each nation.
Experts in terrorist issues associate a cell with four to ten members whose role is to work together to carry or support violent acts against a target area or a populace. However, the art of attacking a nation or a target population does not depend on the number of cells located in the area (White, 2022). But the effectiveness of each group depends on the vital component associated with each organization. In most cases, the members of each terrorist group work together to attack a particular area. This may involve studying all the escape routes that can be used to attack a site and work on maximizing the safety of all the terrorists. However, there are cases where various members of a terrorist group sacrifice their own lives by using bombs that kill them and affect a considerable population in one way or another.
Current State
In America, terrorism has been rising at a very steady rate. One of the aspects that have been contributing to the rise in crime and, more, terrorism is the accumulation of terrorist cells in America. The crime has been escalating due to the fact that most political discussions have not been deliberating on measures that can be taken to destroy some of these cells (Cragin, 2021). Failure to eliminate most of these terrorist cells have been allowing various terrorist to plan and effectively achieve their goals with minimum or no struggle. Although there has been progress in the war against terrorism, more should be done in planning and effectively destroying most of these cells so that terrorists may lack grounds where they can plan or cause destruction in any state.
Over the years, terrorist cells have been chiefly referenced and less often defined. Additionally, the concept of terrorist cells is primarily adopted in the western world. However, it is worth noting that the idea was based on the Middle-Eastern model that dates back to the 1920s (Laub, 2019). During this period, the Muslim Brotherhood gained prominence in Egypt and fought against European colonialism. The organization divided itself into quads that fought against all the Europeans that targeted colonizing the nation. The idea was if one quad, the Arabic name of a cluster of grapes, was destroyed, the other grapes or quads would carry on with the mission. The aspect means that if one group of more than ten is decoyed, the remaining nine will carry on in the mission, and the objective will be achieved easily. This is the approach utilized by the Egyptian terrorist to fight against all the troops that wanted to colonize the nation. Unfortunately, this is the approach that most American terrorists have used to conduct various attacks on the government. This means that if all these cells or groups can be dismantled, the chances of having a nation free of terrorism are high.
Despite the efforts laid down by the American government to try and fight against terrorism, cells have been thriving and achieving their goals with ease. The aspect relates to the fact that most of these terrorist cells are mobile and very flexible in changing their target. The partition created four sub-cells that targeted hijacking a typical airliner. The individuals in each cell were flexible and could move from one place to the other to master all the necessary steps to ensure that all the missions were well-accomplished.
Types of Cells
In America, two main types of terrorist cells are operational. They include the operational and the support cells. Operational terrorist cells are critical in ensuring that the mission is well-accomplished. Most of them are tasked with the role of carrying out various attacks in America. They usually receive multiple forms of training that allow them to conduct specific attacks in targeted states. Most of these cells are made of nine or eleven well-trained members. The other group of support cells operating in America is the support terrorist cells. Most of these support cells are hard to quantify as they are distributed across the nation. These cells play a critical role in ensuring that all the members in the operational cells get all the resources they need to conduct various attacks.
Additionally, the support cells provide all the training services that operational cells. All the movements conducted by each cell, including planning for the next attack, are designed and funded by the support cells. Therefore, even after an attack, several cells will remain in operation even if all the members involved in the attack are killed. The aspect means that the support cells will remain viable and active even if an attack is sabotaged or even after the mission fails to be accomplished. The element indicates that even after an operation cell is discovered and destroyed, a support cell can organize another attack within hours, and the mission will be accomplished as planned.
Challenges
In America, the exact number of terrorist cells is unknown. Additionally, research studies have shown that it is difficult to know where specific terrorist cells are located. The aspect has been curtailing the war against terrorists in America, as the only way to go about this issue is to destroy all the cells in the nation. Unfortunately, locating some of these terrorist cells in America has been very difficult, with officers in the country preferring to act after an incident. Additionally, most security officers are less informed on the structure of each cell. Experts in terrorism claim that it is complicated for law enforcers in America to destroy all the terrorist cells as the formation of these groups is ultimately complex and unknown to many (White & Chermak, 2021)). Most of these cells conceal that information in decision-making, especially when it comes to the art of deciding who will actively participate in conducting an attack or the individuals who will work in the support cell to ensure that a mission is well-established and accomplished.
Although a lot of efforts have been deployed to counter the effect of these terrorist cells, it is the higher time for the security officers or law enforcers in America to embrace other strategies to curb this vice once and for a long time. Research studies have shown that the body has its mechanism of fighting against unwanted cells. For instance, all foreign organisms in the body are fought using other cells. The American government, led by the law enforcers, should use the same analogy to fight against these terrorist cells that have been deteriorating the security aspect of the nation. The element means that the security officers in the country can create smaller anti-terrorist cells that will work against all the terrorist cells. These anti-terrorist cells will likely have the upper hand over all the terrorists as they will receive more resources from the US government. Additionally, their flexibility and mobility will be enhanced by the enormous support they will receive from the government. The aspect means that it will be easier to deal with all the attacking and violence-based cells in the nation.
Effective Solutions
Constructing a centralized database between the FBI, ATF, NSC, CIA, and other local and state enforcement agencies will play a critical role in accessing all the information needed to deal with terrorists. The art of accessing the database by all the counter-terrorism cells will be essential in making decisions and moves that will sabotage all the plans of terrorists (White & Chermak, 2021)). Additionally, the database will help identify all the enemies the law enforcers should target to eliminate. However, all of these will depend on the intelligence of the security officers in charge, as the terrorist cells are also made up of individuals who are experts in various means of attacks. The aspect means that if the anti-terrorist cells do not outwit the terrorist cells, it would be a waste of time to structure them and channel resources in their way.
The law enforcer needs to do away with the traditional intelligence as terrorists have been advancing for years. For instance, if the conventional means of reacting to an attack follows the CIA procedure, the solution or the remedy of the attack may take days before it is initiated. Using modern and civilized intelligence actions will be critical in ensuring that the security agencies respond to any attack within hours and not days. Additionally, the anti-terrorist cells should divide their members into groups with different tasks. Some might be given the role of loitering around the ground where the agencies suspect an attack (Hegghammer, 2021). Such a plan is critical in sabotaging any terrorist goals. Additionally, such a move allows the anti-terrorist team to react immediately and prevent further destruction that would otherwise occur if they delay reaching the targeted area.
The other aspect that has been affecting how the law enforcers in America respond to terrorism is the weapons they use. Research studies have shown that the current military hardware was manufactured to destroy the enemies using other militant hardware. This may involve killing a large number of enemies using various weapons. However, terrorists have been advancing in terms of having sophisticated machines that aim to deny all the militants the opportunities to utilize their weapons. In such a situation, the militants cannot attack such facilities with massive explosives as this might cause more damage to the entire building and the loss of innocent lives. The US militants and law enforcement should focus on using other means, such as controlling everything in a state. Such a move will be critical in ensuring that all the people entering the state are well-known, and identifying suspects will be easy.
The world has been changing over time; nowadays, individuals in different terrorist cells have been using the internet to communicate. The aspect means that various militants in the nation can use multiple internet connections to track all the moves made by these terrorists. However, volumes of people have been using the internet for numerous reasons. (Newhouse, 2021). The aspect means that monitoring all the activities on the internet becomes impossible, more so for the military officers tasked with fighting against all the terrorist cells. For instance, the Zulu members once used to create chat rooms of at least four members irrespective of where they were.
Instead of using the same chat for upcoming events, the members would make a new chat room and delete any existing spaces. The aspect means that following a single plan becomes difficult for the law enforcers and the militants (Hegghammer, 2021). Vehemently, more terrorists have been using anonymous ways of signing up on various social media platforms. Some use ghost names that never exist. For these reasons, tracking them has become very difficult socially with the current internet traffic. However, the law enforcers and other security agencies, both at the state and the local level, should not relent on the war against this terrorist. More sophisticated means should be used to trace and analyze the database containing terrorist information. This will go far in identifying areas where these terrorist cells are and can be deployed to eliminate terrorism in the nation effectively.
Conclusion
Terrorist cells comprise three to four individuals tasked with conducting an attack in a targeted area. In most cases, the cells may contain up to ten individuals given different parts. In America, two types of terrorist cells are operational. They include the operational and the support cells. All the individuals work together to ensure that the target mission is well-accomplished. Terrorists in a support cell provide the necessary resources and coaching for an attack to be effective. Individuals in an operational cell work hard to ensure that the attack is conducted in the targeted destination. Since it has been difficult for the law enforcers in the US to deal with these terrorists, there is a need to create other anti-terrorist cells to help in curbing all the plans of these terrorists. Use of sophisticated means to compile data and access various database can be effective in identifying some of the terrorists that are likely to affect the nation. With the changes that have been observed in the entire globe, the military officers and other law enforcers need to embrace technology in their war against terrorists. The use of traditional and less sophisticated machines should be replaced with modern and more sophisticated machines to ease the war against terrorists in the nation.
References
Cragin, R. K. (2019). Preventing the Next Wave of Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Lessons Learned from the Experiences of Algeria and Tunisia. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 44(7), 543–564. Web.
Hegghammer, T. (2021). Resistance Is Futile: The War on Terror Supercharged State Power. Foreign Aff. 100, 44. Web.
Laub, Z. (2019). Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Council on Foreign Relations. Web.
Newhouse, A. (2021). The Threat Is the Network: The Multi-Node Structure of Neo-Fascist Accelerationism. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Web.
White, J. R., & Chermak, S. (2021). Terrorism and Homeland Security (010 Ed.). Cengage Learning.