The Lone Wolf Terrorism

J. J. Baloch

A lone-wolf terrorist is one who commits violent acts in support of a group, a movement, or an ideology, but who does so alone, outside of any command structure and without material assistance from any group. The hearts of experts of counter-terrorism miss a beat as what to do with lone wolfs.

Many studies surrounding the reasons behind the concept unveil that too many checks, evenings of state-sponsored terrorism, strict policies of immigration, unavailability of any local command structure due to pro-active policing in western world and abroad have given birth to the emergence of internet based groups who were living in geographically isolated and far away regions but using cyber connectivity, which in its initial years was out of the monitoring of law enforcement agencies due to strict privacy policies, the extremist ideologues created their cyber clientele to preach their grievances, giving birth to a mega cause to pursue.

Things got much clearer and much dangerous after the emergence of social media sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other sites __leading to the age of explosive content which we are living now.

We found cases like the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Oklahoma City Bombing, or even 9/11 attacks carried out by “lone wolves.” We found that in 24 cases between 2013 and 2015, 22 were labelled “lone wolves” even though only a third actually involved a solitary attacker. This research coincides with evidence found from pre-2013 studies.”
In order to keep police away from the command structure or being able to disclose the network, ISIS and Da’aish promote the lone wolf terrorism by design so that in case one is arrested then he or she may not know anything more than himself or herself with the intention to pre-empt the arrest of the rest of group.

Why terrorists adopt lone wolf policy? To quote Tures who argues: “In order to carry out their asymmetric warfare, terrorist organisations would need attackers beyond the normal network. Terrorists would seek to recruit such disgruntled individuals to the cause, and let them figure out how an attack could be carried out on their own. These terror groups sacrificed command and control power over these new followers. But, in theory, such new recruits could be harder to track, and stop.”

One of the many leading trademarks of the lone-wolf terrorists is revealing their plans long before committing an act of violence. Researchers unwrap that lone wolfs seek public attention and recognition for their cause in so doing. Another landmark lone wolfs, according to researchers, is targeting of uniformed police and military personnel primarily. In such attacks, high-velocity firearms are now the weapons of choice. Prior to 9/11, lone-wolf terrorists didn’t attack a single member of the US or even Pakistan military by design, let alone by default incidents.

According to researchers at different international forums, more than 80% of lone wolf terrorists disclose publically in advance their plans to commit terrorism. Researchers Mark Hamm and Ramon Spaaj in a report, which analysed 98 cases of lone-wolf terrorism in America between 1940 and 2013 have identified a large number of signatures.
Such examples of lone-wolf terrorists abound: Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and injured many more in 2009 Fort Hood Shooting, Paul Ciancia killed one TSA officer in 2013, and in similar vein, the marathon bombings in Boston, Paris attack in 2015, Brussels attacks in 2016 and also failed French train attack and many more to refer. Besides this, in 2014 Canada witnessed a series of lone-wolf attacks inspired by radicalism.

Time Magazine October 23, 2014, Naina Bajekal mentions that Zehaf-Bibeau killed a Canadian soldier outside parliament in Ottawa and “Martin Rouleau-Couture drove his car into two military members, killing one before he was fatally shot by police, and a month after Alton Nolen beheaded a co-worker in Nebraska. All three appeared to be recent converts to Islam.”These all lone wolfs publically shared their designs through email, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Post casts and other social media ways.

Elaborating its complexities, Victoria Bekiempis quotes Barton’s briefing in Newsweek dated 13th September 2015 in these words: “ISIS has embraced a diffuse, ‘lone wolf’ model, which encourages unaffiliated independent operators to do whatever damage they can with whatever is at hand…This threat is decentralised and much harder to detect than threats orchestrated by Al-Qaeda. ISIL’s alarmingly effective messaging—as refined as anything found on Madison Avenue or in Hollywood—reaches marginalised, solitary actors. These are terrorists who largely operate outside the kind of command-and-control systems, or cells, that we have learned to penetrate and dismantle.”

She further adds: “Bratton and the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, John Miller, “have said many times that the ‘lone wolf’ type of potential attack seems to be a more likely scenario” than the large-scale attacks typically organized by Al-Qaeda, Stephen P. Davis, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of public information, tells Newsweek in an e-mail. This would include lone wolves inspired by the terrorist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL).”

Professor of Political science, LaGrange College in Georgia, John A. Tures is of the view that the lone wolf terrorism is a myth and a false flag terrorism; They maintain: “The myth of lone wolf terrorist is one that assumes terrorists are born that way. They are lifelong solitary individuals, akin to the Unabomber, striking at a completely random target, only to disappear into the shadows, without a hint to law enforcement. But that’s not always the case…Terrorists are actually more likely to be made, not born. We found that such lone attackers tend to be male, a little more likely to have more than a high school education, and have experienced a recent change, like a lost job, a broken relationship, a move to a new area, or something that altered one’s traditional life.”

Respecting the findings of the critic lone wolfs, I am of the view that lone wolfs are the reality not because who makes them or how are they born or not but because it is part of their strategy to keep terrorist activity preparations secret unless it matures into a violent act with a design to skip police preemption.

The more lonely one feels or become, it is more likely for him or her to resort to social media outlet for his or her emotional and intellectual outbursts. So there is a greater likelihood of future attacks in Pakistan so we must ensure strict social media surveillance through appropriate digital intelligence.

Writer is senior police officer from police service of Pakistan