Monday, January 30, 2017

Terrorism in America After 9/11

The New America Foundation has a report on Terrorism in America After 9/11 "A comprehensive, up-to-date source of online information about terrorist activity in the United States and by Americans overseas since 9/11". So far there are five parts, all short, with nice graphics.

Terrorism cases

Citizenship

Jihadist vs right wing

2 comments:

Richard said...

I have to tell you that given all of the things I can worry about in one day, and it is a lot, if I put on my statistician hat and use the information in this report I think I can cross terrorism attacks in the United States off of the list.

Does this mean that all the tools we have in place are working? Was it never that big a problem to begin with?

Howard said...

My sense is, as an individual, there's nothing you can do that you wouldn't do to avoid any crime, so it's not worth worrying about. It's very hard to tell whether there aren't that many attacks or they're being defeated due to our efforts. The Intercept and a documentary or two I've seen suggest strongly that several of the thwarted attacks wouldn't have happened at all if not for FBI encouragement (aka entrapment).

My sense too is that veterans who've been to Iraq/Afghanistan are more concerned and other experts (head of Customs and Border Patrol, Police, many counter-terrorism people) put more of an emphasis on the difference between the police and the military. People who listen to just vets (perhaps via right leaning media) tend to want a more militaristic approach. Others want a more police driven approach.

It's worth noting that home grown terrorism (whether ISIS inspired or white supremacist) is a bigger deal than imported terrorism. That doesn't change the likelihood of being a victim, but it changes the kinds of policies that would be effective to reduce it that you might want to support.