LONE WOLF TERROR ATTACKS

  

It is very difficult to understand the mysteries of the human mind. Religion and education were meant to calm it down towards rational thinking, but on odd occasions they doing just the reverse. Some religious faiths have, since ages, abandoned the concept of universal love and peaceful coexistence and always divided humanity into us and others. Now 'the lone jihadi syndrome' is one step ahead of this and this wolf does not have a pack, he hunts alone. He is angry, he is bitter, he is indoctrinated, he is committed and his world is simply divided into me and others. The fact that he hates others is well known, but whether he loves even himself is very doubtful. He invariably chooses to call himself a believer, but is he? What does he believe in, mass murder, mayhem, chaos?

 

What is a Lone Wolf Attack / Terrorism

Attacks committed by individuals unaffiliated to a terrorist group and are often referred to as ‘Lone Wolf Terrorism’. These are terror attacks perpetrated without the operational involvement of terrorist organizations in initiating, planning, or executing the attack. This phenomenon lacks a clear center of gravity directing the actions of “lone wolf” terrorists; and as such, it is crucial to understand the system of motivations influencing independent assailants to perpetrate attacks. Internet has created this new generation of terrorists who carry out a “leaderless jihad”

 

The concept of ‘lone wolf’ was popularized in the late 1990s by white supremacists Tom Metzger and Alex Curtis, who called upon like-minded individuals to “act alone” to commit violent crimes. However, the term is highly contested, and scholars disagree on its exact meaning. Still, they broadly agree that lone-wolf attackers operate as individuals or small groups without any assistance or formal links to a terrorist organization. Many times, lone wolves do not have any criminal background, and their activities tend to escape the security agencies’ surveillance, unlike organized terrorist groups.

 

Lone Wolf or Loneish Wolf or Untraceable Trail

An unsuccessful lone wolf, who gets caught, can claim allegiance to any terror outfit of his choice and a successful lone wolf, who has died, can be later adopted by any terror outfit to boost its notoriety and appeal in the dark world. So how lonely the wolf was actually is anybody’s guess. Then again, it would often be wrong to label perpetrators as “lone wolves” in the aftermath of attacks because failure to find the chain of perpetrators may be the reason he appears lonely. Only a small number of attackers are truly “lone wolf” and correctly meet that definition. The “true” lone wolves are individuals who strike without ever communicating with jihadist networks, either online or in person. The “‘lone wolf’ terrorists are often not completely out of contact, as they communicate through the “Dark Web”. They have their “virtual pack”. Online platforms provide them with many opportunities, such as finding instructions on building homemade bombs or mapping potential targets. So he is loneish and not exactly lone. 

 

It is a worldwide problem

Starting with the oft repeated schoolyard shootings in America this lone wolf terror is now seen in every continent. What makes these guys angry is not very clear. Is it poverty, illiteracy, lack of opportunities, lack of public recognition? A decorated Army veteran or a software engineer, a chemical engineer, or a merchant banker does not fit this description. A disgruntled schoolyard shooter usually has nothing in common with the decorated Army veteran who blew a Tesla truck laden with explosives in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, or Shamsuddin Jabbar, the New Year car attacker of Bouborn Street in New Orleans. 

America is not the only land of insane wolves. Europe has its own share as we saw in Nice in France where Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a 20 ton truck into a crowded market place killing 86 people and injuring more than 300! Germany saw Anis Amri drive a truck laden with steel beams into a busy Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 49 innocent people! Just the other day a practicing doctor, Taleb al Abdulmohsen repeated this same feat, driving his car into a crowded Christmas market, killing 5 and injuring over 200 people!

Asia Oceania too is not spared. The cowardly attack and horrific beheading of Kanhaiya Lal Teli on 28 June 2020, in Udaipur, Rajasthan, by two Islamic extremists has demonstrated that India is no longer immune from the violence perpetrated by lone-wolf terrorists. Palestinian terrorists perpetrated more than 550 "lone wolf" attacks in Israel between 2015 and 2017. They had widely varied motives including revenge for national, religious and personal humiliation, desire to die or get to paradise, national struggle, defense of al Aqsa Mosque, to proove himself / herself, or to gain self esteem. White supremacists lone wolf terror attack was witnessed in March 2019, when a lone wolf targeted two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people, while live-streaming his violent act.

 

Motives

·        The ideological motives group may include, inter alia, devotion to radical ideologies such as nationalist-separatist, communist, anarchist, fascist, or other political motives.

·        The personal motivations group may include

o   Economic motives such as poverty, low socioeconomic status, and acute economic crises); inter-personal motives (such as crises in the "lone wolf's" relationship with his/her parents, partner or another central figure in their life. 

o   Familial motives including hardship within the family, problematic or complex relationship between family members or a particular figure like mother, father, older siblings as well as the level appreciation or disrespect the "lone wolf" gets from his/her family. 

o   Other personal motives such as the desire for adventure, self image, or status improvement

o   Psychological motive that the terrorist suffers from may be a psychological instability, desire to commit suicide which may be caused by harsh experience, despair or belief in an afterlife.  

 

Role of Radicalization

Radicalization plays a critical role in the making of a lone-wolf terrorist, which mostly happens online through social media platforms, encrypted chat rooms on the darknet and propaganda on instant messaging apps. These virtual spaces enable like-minded extremist individuals to consume the propaganda and disinformation which acts as an enabler of violence. In cyberspace, particularly on the dark web, they also get access to training manuals and videos on operating weapons and making explosives by maintaining their anonymity. For instance, on 20 July 2011, a right-wing terrorist Anders Brevik targeted a youth camp in Oslo, Norway unleashing a horrendous terror attack, and killing 77 people. This was one of the first prominent lone-wolf terrorist attacks in recent memory. Bervik justified his act in his quest to ‘save European culture’ from Islamisation. His act was later supported on the social media platform by far-right individuals. In America some lone-wolf terrorists were radicalized in the military; some were radicalized in the workplace, and others on the internet. 

The Islamic State conducts most of its recruitment online in chatrooms and over encrypted communication apps. They use the death of thousands on Palestinians in Gaza as their recruitment pitches and instigate the lone wolves to carry out mayhem in western countries.

 

The Islamic lone wolf interprets his holy scriptures in accordance with the digital world echo-chamber of which he is usually a silent member. The cacophony of victimhood being inflicted on them by the non-believers of their faith fills them with rage and a very small incident in their life or family breaks the camel’s back and tilts them towards this suicidal path of terror.

 

How to stop the Lone Wolf attacks?

Terror attacks are the product of two main variables:

(i)                motivation to perpetrate an attack and

(ii)              operational capability to execute it.

Foiling terrorism may therefore be the outcome of limiting the motivations that
drive the attackers or, alternatively, curbing their capability to execute these attacks. Terrorism capabilities are usually assembled in a long process of preparations (e.g., procuring weapons, assembling explosive devices, and more) but these preparations have in many cases a clear “radar signature” available for intelligence detection. Therefore, many intelligence agencies focus on locating and identifying the operational preparations for a terror attack, then attempting to foil it. This “signature” is absent in many “lone wolf” attacks which are often perpetrated with a cold weapon. This kind of weapons can be found in every household (e.g., sharp object, knives, screwdrivers, axes, vehicles). Therefore, the importance of understanding the motivation of the “lone wolves” is essential for the prevention of this type of attacks. However, the motivations of “lone wolves” are difficult to locate and to neutralize.

One attack in Germany and one in France were perpetrated by a Tunisian immigrants and the last one in Germany by a Saudi doctor who had resided in Germany since 2006! The New Orleans attacker was a Texas born U.S citizen, but not a white American. This only furthers the MAGA mad nativist agenda that non-whites cannot be loyal to America and so racial abuse against them is OK. This insider outsider divide has now gone to the absurd end of targeting Indian over-achievers!

 

Modern terrorism is a dynamic and evolving phenomenon that keeps morphing. Over the years, terrorists around the world have been using a wide range of attacks, sometimes mimicking  successful attacks perpetrated by other terrorists in different arenas. In this way, waves of terror attacks (such as suicide bombings, hijackings, and ‘cold’ weapons attacks) have been carried out.  The “lone wolf’s” decision to perpetrate the attack is the product of balancing the sum of the various motives and inhibitions. His motives are ideological, psychological, personal and the sum of the various triggers he is exposed to (role model, traumatic event, incitement). His inhibitions are the product of his mental stability and his ability to contain crises, plus his value and belief system constrains as well as his cost/benefit analysis. When the sum of the triggers and motivations is greater than the inhibitions, then an attack is perpetrated.