Ebook: Countering Terrorist Recruitment in the Context of Armed Counter-Terrorism Operations

Terrorism is an old phenomenon. Regardless of ethnicity, religion, social status or geographic location, almost all communities are increasingly being challenged by this threat. Religiously, politically or otherwise motivated individuals fuel terror organizations. Despite such a fact, the human factor in counter terrorism has received low attention. In other words, it might be possible to reduce terrorism through understanding why individuals join terror groups. Therefore, policy makers, law enforcement agencies and especially counter terrorism professionals must try to understand the causes of individual memberships to terror organizations. Although their communities tender more options for self development and the enjoyment of life, they should be concerned about what makes the terrorist organizations appear so attractive to some? A question that needs to be answered as earliest possible. Once we manage to slow down or, if possible, stop the recruitment processes; then the armed forces that counter terrorism will not keep fighting an endless sequence of recruitment of new terrorists and terrorist organizations will be destined to liquefy naturally due to lack of staff. Hence, the traditional militaristic and offensive approaches must be supplemented by such means that will reduce the number of new recruits and not have States' armed forces be in constant combat situations with terrorists that result with more fatalities and losses of lives.

This book presents the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, “Countering Terrorist Recruitment in the Context of Armed Counter-Terrorism Operations” held in Antalya-Turkey, in May, 2015. The narrative of achieving the desired result is not an easy task, but is worth putting a great effort in it. The goal of the workshop was to enable sharing of existing ideas and to develop new ones for tackling the recruitment process of terror organizations in order to support ongoing and possible future armed counter terrorism operations. The workshop also served to seek the possibility to divulge how offensive and non-offensive counter narratives can be made function in synchronize to achieve long term reductions in terror incidents.

The book contains 18 articles on the topic.

In their article titled “The Role of NATO and Other International Entities in Counter-Terrorism,” Huseyin AKDOGAN, M. Alper SOZER and Ali CAN, with an actual focus on NATO, discuss the roles of international organizations such as the UN, EU and OSCE. They argue that the transnational terrorism needs international cooperation to struggle with it. Basically the article explains the roles of aforementioned international organizations' and NATO's role in countering terrorism.

Kamil YILMAZ and Sıddık EKICI in their article “Religion Abusing Terrorist Groups (RATs): How Do They Abuse Islamic Religious Scripture?” draw the attention to how terrorist groups can be made powerless through revealing their lies in using exploited religious textures to recruit people. The purpose of their article is to explore the role of Islamic narratives that such groups construct via twisting the true meanings of relevant verses in the Quran and the hadiths of the Prophet Mohammed while they also provide the actual format of the Islamic narratives and suggest to use the correct religious textures for theological counter narratives as part of counter terrorism.

Larry D. White in his article “Dual Citizenship based on Jus Soli: Dealing with the Pseudo-Homegrown Terrorist” presents how dual citizenship or citizenship through birth creates challenges in countering home grown terrorism and terrorist recruitment. He concludes his article with regulatory and legal suggestions on how to deal with the problem.

İlhan Kaya in his article titled “Marginality as A Site of Youth Kurdish Resistance” talks about policies enacted by Turkey to melt all differences in the nation for a united and intact State. However, he argues that the State disregarded several rights of Kurds which eventually ended with the alienation and marginalization of the Kurds. Kaya further contends that the Kurds commenced various forms of resistance which also includes armed struggle. He notes that there is the need to understand the margin and experiences of those who have been alienated in order to stop ethnic conflicts.

Abraham David BENAVIDES, Laura M. KEYES, and Brittany PULLEY, in their article “Understanding the Recruitment Methods and Socialization Techniques of Terror Networks by Comparing them to Youth Gangs: Similarities and Divergence” take us to a point where they indicate that there are similarities between gang membership and terrorist recruitment techniques and that such an understanding will enable us to thwart terroristic recruitment schemes through applying prevention techniques used in US gang memberships.

Abdel Rahman ALZOUBAIDI, Doina PRODAN-PALADE and Sıddık EKICI take the problem discussion to another level, the digital world in their article “Terrorist Recruitment and Counter Measures in the Cyber World.” They mention that the cyber world is integrated into the reality. Their article aims to underline the vital tools for terrorist recruitment in the cyber world and it introduces also some of the legal instruments and practices to counter terrorism.

Eddy LYNTON J., Greg GULLION, and James L. WILLIAMS in their article “Countering Terrorist Recruitment: Social Media, Cyber Terror, and Peaceful Platforms” reveal the social media as another powerful side of the cyber world. Hence, they argue that several States are willing to constrain social media while they draw more attention to how terrorist organizations use the internet as a platform for their purposes and that the internet has become the primary communication mean for many.

In another article about the digital world “Cyber Terrorism: Motivation and Method on Global Scale and the Situation in Turkey” Kamil YILMAZ, Murat GÜNEŞTAŞ and Oğuzhan BAŞIBÜYÜK seek to understand what ‘what motivates individuals and groups in using cyber space for terrorist purposes’ and ‘what kinds of methods they use to achieve those purposes.’ For this they also refer to a case study from Turkey and end their article with some policy recommendations.

Ruslan ZHOLDOSHBAEV, in his article titled “Assessing the Risks of Cyber Terrorism in Central Asian countries” is concerned about the uncontrollable nature of internet which he counts for the benefit of terrorist organizations. On the other hand he sees the same environment as a risky one for the youngsters who surf on the internet without protection against ideological violent groups attempting to affect their minds for change towards violence in Central Asian countries.

Velizar SHALAMANOV and Zlatogor MINCHEV introduce the increased importance of the CIMIC aspect of the C4ISR capability for the deployed NATO troops. In their article named “Terrorist Organizations Recruitment Success Reduction in Support to NATO's Operations: CIMIC IT tools.” They state that C4ISR is a tool to help in two directions (information sharing to prevent terrorist recruitment and receiving situational awareness from civilian authorities (local police and others)) and emphasize its increasing role in protecting NATO troops and collaborations with civilian authorities.

On the other hand, Hakan DEMIRBUKEN in his article “Drug Money Flows and its Links with Terrorism Financing: The Case of Afghanistan” touches on the financial income from illicit opium of terrorist organizations. He refers to the Afghanistan case study to exemplify how and through what kind of means illicit opium dealing became a massive income for terror organizations, while he also touches at money transfer systems to escape the official banking systems.

Diab M. AL-BADAYNEH and Khawla ALHASAN look into the case of radicalization and de-radicalization of the Arab youth in consideration of religious behavior in their article “Religious Behavior and Radicalization Among Arab Youth: Implications for Terrorism Recruitment and De-radicalization.” They provide several significant findings on radicalization and suggest de-radicalization means for the university students. Teun VAN DONGEN in his article “The Case for Tailored Interventions in the Preventive Approach: Lessons from Countering Jihadism in the Netherlands and the UK” suggests that socio-economic factors has been mentioned to play role in radicalization. He further notes that radicalization is actually caused by many factors and also recommends changes in preventive measures based on case studies from the Netherlands and UK. Mainly he advises that these measures should target individuals who are mainly targeted by terrorist groups instead of groups.

Ştefan STĂNCIUGELU et al. in their article named “Antiterrorist Public Discourse: Does it Really Matter for the Civil Population? seek answer to two main questions: 1. How much human factors matter when talking of the acceptance of the different groups to terrorist messages for recruitment? and 2. What to be done by the policy makers in order to develop effective counter-terrorist measures – other than the immediate and physical force based ones? and some sub-questions in relation to counter-terrorism. The article aims to provide definitions on the matter and end with a comparative analysis concerning the structure of the terrorist message and the structure of the counter-terrorist public discourse.

Sudha ARLIKATTI touches on a different but a very important topic that needs to be kept in mind in counter-terrorism in her article titled “Counter Terrorism and Human Rights: Missing Perspectives from Muslim Children and Youth in the USA.” Sudha is concerned that terrorism impacts human rights and thus counter terrorism means may do so as well. She emphasizes that States need to work in tandem and secure human rights in their counter efforts. Therefore, in her article, she focuses on Muslim children and their lost perspectives in counter terrorism strategies and prevention and intervention programs.

Matenia SIRSELOUDI in her article “Violent Jihadi Radicalisation in Europe and Conflicts in the Muslim World” discusses the impact of conflicts in the Muslim World in relation to violent Jihadi radicalization in Europe. She contends that political conflicts in diaspora community's countries of origin, are reflected on them in Europe. This reflection may appear in the form of contributing to radicalization processes in Europe. She bases her analysis upon empirical data from the TERAS-INDEX project and the experiences of Germany and concludes how the problem may develop in the future.

Mitchell F. RICE provides a counter narrative in his article “Policing Culturally-Linguistically Diverse Communities in an Era of Terrorism: Improving Community Policing as a Counter-Terrorism Strategy at the Grassroots Community Police Level.” He pushes for community policing as a useful counter terrorism approach which necessitates the police and citizens of the community to work together on addressing criminal issues. The togetherness of police, the community and their shared understanding of the problems enable joint undertakings to tackle problems. Briefly, his article addresses and explores means to improve community policing as an effective counter terrorism strategy.

In the final article of this book, Richard WARNES too emphasizes the importance of community engagement in their article “Beyond Procedural Justice: The Significance of Personal and Community Relationships in Countering Terrorist Recruitment.” Richard argues that the Procedural Justice Model has been useful in the fields of sociology and criminology to build trust, develop legitimacy and establish institutional authority. Hence, it could be utilized in counter-terrorism for the recruitment of sources for ‘Human Intelligence’ (HUMINT) and for the development of more effective counter operations both on the national and international levels.

Eventually, the book significantly upholds the fact that counter terrorism too needs sensitivity and that just a bold offensive narrative will NOT solve the problem but defer its effects. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that all States realize that policies developed for countering may actually be feeding the terrorism phenomenon. Hence, States must perform in detail policy analysis and understand whether their policies reduce or further increase terror incidents and recruitments to protect their communities and ease their armed counter terror operations.

Approaches that consider human rights, engage the community and avoid blaming a religion or its followers, an ethnicity, a geographical location have become a vital understanding in counter terrorism. Such sensitivity prevents the justification of acts of terrorist organizations.

The book will be of interest to anybody involved in planning, executing and developing prevention programs and policies in relation to both armed and non-armed counter terrorism operations.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks triggered a lot of milestones about terrorism. One of which is the first invocation of article 5 of the Washington treaty that is known as the NATO Alliance's collective defense clause. Since September 11, 2001, NATO has been engaged in counterterrorism efforts. The emerging and developing feature of international and borderless terrorism needs international cooperation to struggle with this threat. NATO has been working with partners around the world such as UN, EU and OSCE. This paper explains how these international entities expend their efforts in countering terrorism.

It is a common conviction that ideologies play an important role in individual pathways into terrorism and political violence. They are not only exploited by terrorist groups but also adopted by individuals, unwittingly or through their own volition. It is the imbrications of these processes, i.e., exploitation of ideologies by groups and adoption of them by individuals that manifest itself as every terrorist group's dream, which are in search of new recruits. Among myriad ideologies, those that are based on religion of Islam seem to have been the most effective in recent years, as demonstrated by the inundation of thousands of individuals to the ranks of Religion Abusing Terrorist Groups, which we call RATs (like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham – ISIS), in different parts of the world. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of Islamic narratives that such groups construct via twisting the true meanings of relevant verses in the Quran and the hadiths of the Prophet Mohammed in order to counter the RATs effectively!

The concept of jus soli - citizenship through birth in a country - is a method to obtain native citizenship of a second country by being born there. In the context of dealing with terrorist, the home-grown terrorist presents a number of issues that foreign terrorists do not. This concept came to light with the American targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen with dual citizenship in the US as a result of his birth there while his father was studying in the U.S. In addition to the general issues regarding the methods used, questions concerning the appropriateness of this method based on his U.S. citizenship have dominated the conversation after his death. This article explores the issues associated with dual citizenship based on jus soli and how this affects terrorist recruitment.

Turkey was founded in 1923 as a classical nation state ignoring ethnic and cultural differences. It fallowed an assimilationist policy to melt all differences so that the nation was united and intact. It denied cultural and political rights of ethnic groups such as the Kurds. The denial of such rights resulted in the alienation and marginalization of the Kurds. However, the Kurds did not remain silent and developed diverse forms of resistance including a violent arm struggle. This paper argues that without a careful understanding the margin and experiences of those who have been pushed to the aside, it is not possible to end an ethnic conflict and reach a long lasting peace. Informed by Bell Hooks' theory of marginality, the paper tries to get a sense of the Kurdish youth's views and experiences of a violent and painful ethnic conflict going for almost a half-century. It also tries to understand the forms of resistance the Kurdish youth has developed to cope with oppression and domination.

Since the modern use of technology and modern day social media networks, terrorist groups have reached well beyond any geographic boundary to recruit membership. However, understanding common points of intersection with gang recruitment techniques may shed some light on how to thwart terroristic recruitment schemes. This paper uses a comparative approach to examine U.S. gangs and terror group's recruitment. The analysis provided essential information on points of intersection as well as divergence. Using U.S. gangs as a baseline for terror group's recruitment sheds light on various factors that may require additional mechanisms to dismantle highly embedded and legitimized religious and cultural underpinnings.

The cyber world is integrated into the reality. There is a rapid technological change in weapons systems and the international security studies must focus on developing effective policies to avoid or diminish the economic and social harm of the cyber-attacks. With gradual encouragement, the users seek answers to their questions and become more and more entangled in terrorist related discussions. This is the way of personal indoctrination that occurs in the cyber space, often through the use of secure software. Through online platforms, terrorist organizations are also increasingly distributing propaganda aimed at encouraging extremism. The research paper aims to emphasize the most important tools for terrorist recruitment in the Cyber world and it provides some legal instruments and practices to fight against it. The study shows how cyber systems can be secured and thus become safe for the cyber world environment. The first section offers a short description of terrorism, its origins, the meaning and the general perspectives on cyber terrorism. The second section describes the most important terrorist groups and their recruitment activity in the cyber world. The next section provides a short perspective of the methods for counter-terrorism recruitment activity in the cyber world. The work ends with conclusions and gives suggestions for future research.

Social media can bring about revolution as seen in the last few years with the uprising and usurp of the Egyptian government. Totalitarian regimes recognize the strength of social media hence the information strain in places like China, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union. For North Americans, especially among the United States adolescent and young professionals, the internet has become the primary means of communication including obtaining information about the external world. The present research examines the internet, specifically social media and examines how it functions as a place for terror or a platform for peace.

This article aims to shed light on the concept of ‘cyber terrorism’ by examining various issues related to crimes committed in cyber space. To achieve this task, we first delve into the notions of ‘what motivates individuals and groups in using cyber space for terrorist purposes’ and ‘what kinds of methods they use to achieve those purposes.’ In all discussions, a spesific emphasis is placed on the ‘social media.’ Second, benefiting from a Turkish case (i.e., Redhack group), we explore the ways in which the conundrum of ‘hactivism or terrorism?’ could be made more intelligible or, hopefully, solvable. Third, we describe both Turkish and international efforts on cyber terrorism. Finally, based on the convergence of theory and practice, we present some reccommendations in terms of responding cyber terrorism.

The increase in communication networks and connectivity has become an attractive platform for people who use the Internet, especially for young people. The open unregulated nature of Internet makes cyber space a conducive breeding ground for cyber terrorism. One of the main motives leaning toward youth extremism - a passion for propaganda material distributed on the Internet. The World Wide Web allows you to communicate with a large audience in all parts of the world, while maintaining anonymity. Extremist and terrorist sites primarily aimed at potential supporters, those who share the views of religious and political groups that aim to change people's minds, undermine social stability in the country, to correct internal and external policies of the country. Hence, in today's interconnected world, no nation is immune from cyber-attack. If a nation is attacked, then an impact will not be confined to a particular country. The damage can spread throughout the region as well as globally. This study will examine the potential risks of cyber terrorism in Central Asian countries, and possible solution will be provided.

NATO operations are very often in the environment with terrorist activity or hybrid warfare at large that post serious threat to forces and civilian population, additionally increasing the risk of the operation and force protection. This is the reason to consider increased importance of the CIMIC aspect of the C4ISR capability for the deployed troops. This is a tool to help in two directions. First – information from the military common operating picture shared with civilian authorities could be very useful in prevention of terrorist activities, starting with recruitment of rebels. Second – receiving situational awareness from civilian authorities (local police and others) is improving capacity to provide force protection for NATO troops. NCIA as the main provider of capabilities and services in C4ISR domain is working both with NATO Command Structure and Troop contributing nations to NATO operations to develop effective solutions in this area, but because of dynamic and diversity of the environment challenges are enormous. So, collaborative environment based on DNBL (distributed network of battle labs) is propose as an adaptive tool to evolutionary develop and deploy CIMIC tools with strong involvement of civilian partners – from police and academic/NGO community to industry. These capabilities range from social network screening to cyber defence, C-IED information sharing and JISR, physical protection information, forensics and other areas.

Afghanistan is the leading producer of illicit opium at the global level. Afghan opium income was used by the war lords during the civil war and after the civil war ended, the Taliban has continued to enjoy the huge volume of income generated from Afghan opiates. Every year some US 2–3 billion afghan opiate money flows to the Afghan drug traders and a certain percentage of this amount goes to the Afghan Taliban. Terrorist groups in Pakistan, including the Pakistani Taliban, Haqqani Group and al-Qaedahave indirectly benefited from the opiate trade as well. The total market value of Afghan opiates in Pakistan is estimated around US$ 1–2 billion per year. A remarkable percentage of this amount is enjoyed by Terrorist groups in Pakistan. Afghan opiates have also started to move to East and West Africa where al-Shabaab and Boko Haram are well located, particularly since 2010. Africa has therefore started to become a new hub for Afghan opiate trafficking and it is estimated that the level of opiate trafficking, organized crime and terrorism will increase further in Africa in the near future. Finally, it is believed that ISIS is benefiting from Afghan opiates not as a trader but as a user as well. Large volumes of morphine flow from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Iran and the Persian Gulf towards ISIS, which needs morphine for its fighters. The Annual market value of the Afghan opiate trade is around US$ 65–70 billion per year. It is much higher than the GDP's of a lot of countries worldwide. Thus, the Afghan opiate trade is a threat to global security. However, the policies and strategies developed and implemented to counter Afghan opiate production are not working well. Therefore, it is essential to develop and/or modify the strategies in countering the Afghan opiates trade and stopping its links with terrorist organizations.

The aim of the study is to examine the effect of religious behavior on types of students radicalization (group, social, political, religious and violent radicalization). Findings showed a significant impact from religious commitment, religion impact on individual's life and pray on students ‘general radicalization and on each type of radicalization (general radicalization=−13.446 a=0.00; religious radicalization F=3.305, a=.02; social radicalization=F=5.3, a=.001; Political radicalization F=3.148, a=.024; Violent radicalization F=12.271 a=.000; and group radicalization F=13.032, a=.000). Implications for terrorism: Recruitment prevention and de-radicalization include but not limited to: Youth recruitment, preventing radicalism in the University environment, terrorism recruitment, and De-radicalization to the vulnerable and at risk university students.

When confronted with upswings in radicalisation, governments often try to tackle the problem at a very early stage, long before it degenerates into terrorism. One way to achieve this is to set up programs to improve the socio-economic conditions of at-risk groups. Using the examples of the Action Plan Polarisation and Radicalisation in the Netherlands and the UK's Prevent strategy, however, this chapter will show that preventive approaches along these lines are based on two flawed assumptions, namely that there are large numbers of potential terrorists and that socio-economic factors play a crucial role in radicalization processes. In closing, it will be argued that counter-radicalisation interventions should be specifically tailored to individuals who are truly at risk of becoming involved in terrorism.

This paper defines itself at the intersection of two different basic questions of this Workshop: 1. How much human factors matter when talking of the acceptance of the different groups to terrorist messages for recruitment? and 2. What it is to be done by the policy makers in order to develop effective counter-terrorist measures – other than the immediate and physical force based ones? The paper is founded on the idea that effective public policy within the domain of counter-terrorism is strongly related to the idea of partnership between public authorities and the civil population. This leads to a further question, How could a counter-terrorist discourse be designed in such a way that it may go towards generating a real partnership with the civil population? This question requires empirical research so as to configure a real answer to the question, Is the public counter-terrorist message neutralizing the terrorist appeal? Firstly, the paper aims to present the theoretical definition of the phenomenon, ending in a comparative analysis of two empirical facts: the structure of the terrorist message and the structure of the counter-terrorist public discourse. Do they neutralise each other? Our hypothesis is that, at the level of outputs, only the terrorist message neutralizes the counter-terrorist message and not the other way around. Does the young generation think that a certain kind of violence is justified? Secondly, the paper is a result of empirical research we conducted in Romania and which might be replicated in other countries as well – an online research, targeting the younger generation, on the idea of justification of collective violence. Some of the questions intentionally employ the logic of the terrorist message – the ‘cause’ and its importance in accepting the terrorist appeal by the younger generation. The structure of the questionnaire is designed to relate to the structure of the terrorist message (the term ‘terrorism’ was not used in the questionnaire).

Just as terrorism impacts human rights, so too can counter terrorism measures like surveillance, street policing and suspicion-less stop and search measures be detrimental to the functioning of society. It is imperative that when countries pursue counter-terrorism strategies, they work in tandem with efforts to ensure human rights protection. This chapter draws from scholarly work focused on children and youth in disasters, specifically Muslim minority children in the US to underscore the importance of taking into account their missing perspectives in counter-terrorism strategies. In light of social consequences of the socio-political transformations associated with terrorism, only trauma focused analysis of children and youth post event prove to be inadequate. There is an urgent need to examine the broader social context and the differences between majority and minority children to develop prevention and intervention programs. These could include education and cultural sensitivity training to multiple stakeholders including K-12 programs in making school environments safer and more inclusive.

This paper highlights the impact of conflicts in the Muslim World on violent Jihadi radicalisation in Europe. Though the radicalisation process in European diaspora Muslim communities has domestic causal factors, political conflicts in diaspora community's countries of origin, or in countries with Muslim majorities in general, are particularly relevant. These conflicts contribute to radicalisation processes in Europe through a number of trajectories. These trajectories, and the factors behind them, are examined, drawing upon empirical data in the TERAS-INDEX project and a number of examples with a particular reference to the experiences of Germany.

Community policing is frequently lauded as a useful counter terrorism strategy. Community policing is built upon the premise that the police and citizens of the community will work together to address issues of crime and social disorganization. Specifically, community policing is an effort designed to bring together the public and the police to form a joint “togetherness” and “a shared understanding of problems” (crime and terrorism) that require attention, as well as, some degree of joint responsibility in undertakings to deal with these problems. Community policing places emphasis on themes such as community partnership, collaboration, problem-solving, and organizational transformation within a police agency. Successful community policing as a counter terrorism strategy depends to a large extent on recognizing and dealing with a combination of helpful and harmful internal and external factors and the attributes of grassroots police representatives who interface with community individuals and groups. After briefly examining the community policing strategy, this paper addresses and explores ways to improve community policing as an effective counter terrorism strategy at the grassroots community police officer level. The conclusion suggests that special attributes and qualities including multicultural competency (awareness, knowledge, and skills) are needed by community police to make community policing an effective counter terrorism strategy.

The Procedural Justice Model has traditionally been associated with the fields of sociology and criminology as a means for those representing the criminal justice system, in particular the police, to interact and engage with local communities, build trust, develop legitimacy and establish institutional authority. However, in the context of domestic counter-terrorism, such concepts can provide the bedrock and basis for the awareness and input of ‘unlikely counter-terrorists’ from within the local community, the recruitment of sources for ‘Human Intelligence’ (HUMINT) and the development of a more permissive operational environment. Additionally, since such ‘human centric’ measures begin with the development of personal relationships with members of the local community, they are eminently transferable to overseas environments where armed counter-terrorism operations are being conducted. It is argued that such measures can prove critical in countering terrorist recruitment.