Preventing Terrorism in the United States
Preventing Terrorism in the United States
Following the Guidelines of the American Psychological Association of Style
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 2
Introduction
“At 8:46 on the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States became a nation
transformed,” (United States Government, 2004). Since this time everywhere in the United
States has become a need for security. Buildings that once could be entered into with ease now
require tight security measures in order to enter. Airspace has been carefully monitored ever
since to avoid from terrorist attacks in America to ever happen again. Here is what happened:
An airliner traveling at hundreds of miles per hour and carrying some 10,000
gallons of jet fuel plowed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in
Lower Manhattan. At 9:03, a second airliner hit the South Tower. Fire and smoke
billowed upward. Steel, glass, ash, and bodies fell below. The Twin Towers,
where up to 50,000 people worked each day, both collapsed less than 90 minutes
later. At 9:37 that same morning, a third airliner slammed into the western face of
the Pentagon. At 10:03, a fourth airliner crashed in a field in southern
Pennsylvania. It had been aimed at the United States Capitol or the White House,
and was forced down by heroic passengers armed with the knowledge that
America was under attack. More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade
Center; 125 died at the Pentagon; 256 died on the four planes. The death toll
surpassed that at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. This immeasurable pain was
inflicted by 19 young Arabs acting at the behest of Islamist extremists
headquartered in distant Afghanistan. Some had been in the United States for
more than a year, mixing with the rest of the population. Though four had training
as pilots, most were not well-educated. Most spoke English poorly, some hardly
at all. In groups of four or five, carrying with them only small knives, box cutters,
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 3
and cans of Mace or pepper spray, they had hijacked the four planes and turned
them into deadly guided missiles (United States Government, 2004).
The purpose of this paper is to answer one question which arises out of the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (United States Government, 2004).
“What can we do in the future to prevent similar acts of terrorism?” (United States Government,
2004). The latter part of the essay will discuss cyberterrorism and computer memory hacking as
well as the negative effects of policing in America.
Findings of the Commission
In general there were four main points that did not prepare the United States for 9-11
from 1998 to 2001: imagination, policy, capabilities and management. The specific findings of
the commission were that unsuccessful diplomacy, lack of military options, problems within the
intelligence community, problems in the FBI, permeable borders and immigration controls,
financing, an improvised homeland defense, emergency response and the congress all
contributed to the problems of why 9-11 was able to take place (United States Government,
2004). Here is how things have improved to make America safer:
Since 9/11, the United States and its allies have killed or captured a majority of al
Qaeda's leadership; toppled the Taliban, which gave al Qaeda sanctuary in
Afghanistan; and severely damaged the organization. Yet terrorist attacks
continue. Even as we have thwarted attacks, nearly everyone expects they will
come. How can this be? The problem is that al Qaeda represents an ideological
movement, not a finite group of people. It initiates and inspires, even if it no
longer directs. In this way it has transformed itself into a decentralized force. Bin
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 4
Ladin may be limited in his ability to organize major attacks from his hideouts.
Yet killing or capturing him, while extremely important, would not end terror. His
message of inspiration to a new generation of terrorists would continue. Because
of offensive actions against al Qaeda since 9/11, and defensive actions to improve
homeland security, we believe we are safer today. But we are not safe. We
therefore make the following recommendations that we believe can make
America safer and more secure (United States Government, 2004).
Cyberterrorism
The mission of the Department of Defense’s cyber strategy is to build and maintain ready
forces and capabilities to conduct cyberspace operations. As well to defend the DOD information
network, secure DOD data, and mitigate risks to DOD missions
Be prepared to defend the U.S. homeland and U.S. vital interests from disruptive or destructive
cyberattacks of significant consequence. Plus, build and maintain viable cyber options and plan
to use those options to control conflict escalation and to shape the conflict environment at all
stages. Build and maintain robust international alliances to deter shared threats and increase
international security and stability.TERNATIONAL ALLIANCES
All three of DoD’s cyber missions require close collaboration with foreign allies and
partners. Given the high demand and relative scarcity of cyber resources, the DoD must make
hard choices and focus its partnership capacity initiatives on areas where vital U.S. national
interests are at stake DoD will focus its international engagement on: the Middle East, the Asia-
Pacific, and key NATO allies.
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 5
Computer Memory Hacking
According to the North Carolina State University Study Guide, they give this definition
of hackers:
Hackers are people who try to gain unauthorised access to your computer. This is
normally done through the use of a 'backdoor' program installed on your machine.
You can protect yourself from these by using a firewall and a good up-to-date
anti-virus program. You would normally get such a backdoor program by opening
an E-mail attachment containing the backdoor program. It is normal for such a
backdoor program to send out more copies of itself to everyone in your address
book, so it is possible for someone you know to unintentionally send you a
malicious program. A few backdoor programs can work with any e-mail program
by sitting in memory and watching for a connection to a mail server, rather than
actually running from within a specific mail program. These programs
automatically attach themselves to any e-mail you send, causing you to
unintentionally send out malicious programs to your friends and associates (North
Carolina State University, 2016).
Computer hackers will sometimes hack computers out of revenge and they tend to target
two different sources: government departments and personal computers. Due to this there are
four types of hackers which emerge (North Carolina State University, 2016). The four different
types of hackers are pranksters, fame seekers, educational and criminals. Next I will discuss
three best practices that a computer user can use to guard against hackers.
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 6
The three best practices that a computer user can use to guard against hackers come from
the North Carolina State University (2016):
A skilled hacker will do whatever it takes to break into your computer. Just ask
Microsoft. Even a giant software company is not completely safe. The company
was hacked by a Trojan-horse program hidden inside an innocent-looking email
attachment. The Trojan horse replicated itself throughout Microsoft's internal
network and eventually emailed proprietary secrets back to the originator of the
Trojan horse. Follow these six steps to protect your computer from being hacked:
Don't let other people onto your computer unless you really trust them. A
great way to do this is to password-protect your computer.
Don't ever open attachments. Avoid Trojan horses and viruses by following
this rule. For more information, go here.
Turn off file sharing if you don't need it. If a port scan is done on your
computer, a hacker may find a back door to your machine and access your
files.
Use an antivirus program and keep it up to date. For more information,
go here.
If you have a constant Internet connection, use a firewall. For more
information, go here.
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 7
Routinely update Windows software. This is extremely important. Updates fix
many bugs and known security holes within the Windows operating system
(North Carolina State University, 2016).
With these best practices kept in mind, this will protect computer users from being hacked.
Policing in America
This section will discuss the forms of police misconduct and argue effectively that police
misconduct does occur on a frequent basis, as well as conclude with suggestions towards
resolving this dilemma. How police get hired for their jobs will be the first topic of discussion is
the fact of racial profiling, followed by the levels of force that police use when apprehending a
suspect, followed by the topic of police corruption and then concluding with how police
misconduct can be resolved.
A police officer who is truly good at his or her job has a commitment to the belief that
they want to serve and want to protect the public good. Not all police officers conduct
themselves this way. As stated by Stoddard (1968) racial profiling is a condition that has been
occurring for a long, long time amongst police officers. The difference is that the people who are
racially profiled have changed throughout history. There was a time when Italian people who are
recently immigrated to the United States during the turn of the 20th century were all considered to
be mobsters and involved in illegal crime activity. There was a time when the Irish people who
tended to immigrate to the United States prior to the Italian people were racially profiled by
police as all violating the prohibition regulations that were in place as well as other illegal
activity. Brown and Chipman (2000) discuss how African American people have been
notoriously racially profiled by police. Many African American people are seen as “guilty by
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 8
being African American,” (30) and a judicial system that punishes the African American person
to the extremities of the legal system such as with the death penalty. Recent news events in the
United States that always consistently seem to be occurring further demonstrate the clashes that
police often have minority communities in America. Peak (2014) argues that more diversity
training and contact with the communities that police serve is vitally needed in order to put an
end to racial profiling. When upstanding minorities of America who are driving in luxury
vehicles get stopped by the police simply because there are not a lot of police officers on the
force who look like that driver, diversity training as well as more employment of minorities to
become police officers could and would be a solution to these problems.
Besides racial profiling is also the issue of related issues to racial profiling such as
violence towards homosexual communities, violence towards people of different religions and
cultures, violence towards poor women who may be involved in acts such as prostitution or sex
work, violence towards poor people and impoverished communities in general, mistreatment of
young people and the automatic suspicions of police that a gang of young people potentially
innocently walking down the street are up to no good are additional forms of police misconduct
that are linked to racial profiling (Peak, 2014). The next issue that will be discussed are the levels
of police force that is used in apprehending suspects.
Stoddard (6) in his classic work regarding police misconduct states that police have been
known to use excessive force when apprehending suspects for crime. Excessive force is basically
defined as conduct that is used to apprehend a suspect that is conducted in an excessively violent
way or that which may cause undue harm to the potential suspect. Excessive force is a criminal
activity when conducted by police and is also an illegal activity. These actions by bad cops so-to-
speak result in millions of dollars lost by the government due to legal repercussions (Peak,
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 9
2014). In 1985, the United States Supreme Court in the case of Tennessee v. Garner, greatly
restricted the use of deadly force, which does happen and has also recently been in the news in
America, against police officers as they apprehend suspects (Brown and Chipman, 2000).
For an officer to use deadly force, the officer must truly believe that their lives or the
lives of anyone involved in the arrest are in danger to the point of death. In these circumstances,
then deadly force can be used. As has been stated by D.K. in The Economist.com, Grill in USA
Today.com, Holloway in CNN.com and Vick in Time.com, the job of a police officer is not easy
in a country as dangerous as the United States of America. In major cities such as New York,
Florida, Texas, California and even Washington as a few examples, the level of crime is so high
and the potential for a police officer’s life to be taken away by the targeted bullet of a suspect
could, can and does lead to many circumstances of deadly force being used to take down a
suspect. In these instances…would you do the same thing? If you thought your life was at risk,
would you shoot first and then asks questions later as the expression goes?
The answers to these questions may lie firmly in what it takes to become a police officer
and the motivations behind why a police officer is doing their job or doing their work. If a police
officer is motivated by the top dollar salaries that they earn and they are doing the job solely to
earn a paycheck every two weeks when they would rather be doing some other job that would
even pay less if they could afford to do so – yes, without a doubt with this attitude just about
anyone would shoot first and then ask the necessary questions later.
If a police officer is motivated by protecting people, understands the foundations of the
U.S. Constitution, knows that a proper arrest must follow protocol and certain standards and that
they are an exceptional human being regarding being calm under the most pressured
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 10
circumstances – I am not saying that for sure the deadly force would not occur depending on the
circumstances, however there would be less probabilities that the deadly force would occur. Also
linking the issue of racial profiling as mentioned earlier into the equation – a police officer who
is free from biased thought, opinion or any prejudice would also exercise a more reasoned
response regardless of the assailant they are facing in any pressurized situation. The next issue
that will be discussed is police corruption.
Picture this, because it happens:
Police raid a money laundering scheme in New York City. There is $50 million dollars in real
United States currency that is littered all over the room. There are five police officers present.
Four of the police officers due their due diligence and arrest the money launderers and collect
the $40 million dollars that they have found. The other one sole police officer out of the five that
is the bad apple in the bunch pockets $10 million of the cash and not ever says a word to anyone
as he quietly leaves the police force a year later to live in Mexico.
Police corruption – it does happen. It takes place in many different forms according to
Stoddard (1968), Brown and Chipman (2000) and Peat (2014). Not only could it involve a police
officer stealing money or drugs from a drug bust or a money laundering situation, police officers
could be violating the law in a variety of ways such as paying their way into promotions, bribing
judges to ensure that a suspect is convicted and going to brothels to sleep with sex workers.
Police do not always even abide by the very laws that they have been hired to serve and to
protect for.
As mentioned in the example above, those were five police officers that went into that
room where the money laundering was taking place and only one of the police officers took the
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 11
money. This tends to be the common circumstance of the approximate ratio of police officers
that are good, versus those police officers who have not been good. Sometimes the police
corruption that takes place could be bigoted comments towards their co-workers of women and
people of color who are on the police force and the exclusionary practices of out-casting these
other police officers who are taking the chance to try to improve things by being on the inside of
the systemically often corrupt system. Police officers who practice bigotry are racially profiling
on one of their own – this is simply a different kind of racial profiling.
Police are given so much power in any given township or county or country that often
many of them abuse it. What has not been discussed yet is the police corruption that also occurs
amongst the federal police bureau, otherwise known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation or
FBI. The FBI has been known historically to racially profile many African Americans and to
target some non-African Americans as being Communist during the McCarthy era when they
were not even Communist. Harassment and prosecution, even imprisonment was the result of
these ignorant acts by the FBI. Currently, many Muslim people are being attacked and
prosecuted in the United States due to the terrorist acts that have been occurring. Innocent
Muslim people who have nothing to do with any terrorist attacks whatsoever and some of them
even with long histories of being American citizens are being targeted, under surveillance and
even sometimes imprisoned by the FBI, as well as state and county police departments.
The Knapp Commission in 1972 identified two different types of forms of police
corruption. They are the following:
Grass Eaters
Meat Eaters
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The definitions of a grass eater are officers who practice more benign aspects of corruption. They
may accept small gifts, money and favors on behalf of someone who has committed a crime and
then they will use false discretion to choose not to arrest them. The definition of a meat eater
police officer in regards to police misconduct are officers that are focused on illegal means to
make money while they are on duty as police officers.
Stoddard (1968) points out a more complete list of police misconduct as listed below:
Bribery: accepting cash gifts in exchange for the a lack of law enforcement
Chiseling: demanding free food, demanding discounts and free admission
Extortion: threatening arrest if a bribe is not given to the police officer
Favoritism: giving family and friends breaks on law enforcement
Mooching: accepting free admission to entertainment, drinks and food
Perjury: lying on behalf of other officers that have done something illegal
Prejudice: unequal enforcement of the law in respect to racial and ethnic minorities
Premediated Theft: planned theft and burglaries (this would be shown in the example
above)
Shakedown: Taking items from a scene of a theft or a burglary (this would be shown in
the example above)
Shopping: taking small and inexpensive items from the scene of a crime
Stoddard covers many areas of police misconduct and the conclusion of this essay will discuss
how police misconduct can be resolved. The following is the conclusion.
Conclusion – Recommendations of Commission for Preventing Terrorist Attacks
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The recommendations include the following coming from the United States Government
(2004):
attack terrorists and their organizations
prevent the continued growth of Islamist terrorism
protect against and prepare for terrorist attacks
How will this be done? (United States Government, 2004):
unifying strategic intelligence and operational planning against Islamist terrorists across
the foreign-domestic divide with a National Counterterrorism Center;
unifying the intelligence community with a new National Intelligence Director;
unifying the many participants in the counterterrorism effort and their knowledge in a
network-based information sharing system that transcends traditional governmental
boundaries;
unifying and strengthening congressional oversight to improve quality and
accountability; and
Strengthening the FBI and homeland defenders.
Now there is also a National Anti-Terrorism Center in the United States that works towards
fighting terrorism (United States Government, 2004).
This essay has described what hacking of memory and/or RAM means. This essay has
examined the common tools that hackers use to hack memory of computer devices, also detailing
two real-life examples of such tools in action. This essay has identified three best practices that
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 14
one should use to protect their computers from being hacked. Finally, this essay has analyzed the
significance of hacking in organizations and modern society.
Police need to be vigilant to have high moral standards and to maintain them regardless
of the daily corruption that they witness and could be affected by through their line of work. This
takes the strength and the stamina of a mind of steel, and this essay would advise that when a
police officer is feeling weak – take a vacation, regroup, recharge and come back to your work
refreshed and ready.
There also need to be strong police policies and protocol for disciplinary action in place
that would greatly deter police misconduct. If police knew that they would be treated in the eyes
of the law equally to those of the suspects in which they apprehend, they may then be greatly
deterred from performing any form of police misconduct. As it stands currently, often police are
not properly punished for their misdeeds in the eyes of the courtroom.
There also needs to be a proactive and constructive internal investigations unit that will
properly police the police. If the police cannot police themselves, which has proven to be true
time and time again, then it is imperative that high moral standing organizations are formed in
order to police the police when there is police misconduct.
Preventing Terrorism in the United States 15
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