From Stratfor.com: "The Lone Wolf Disconnect"
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart for Stratfor
The idea that a lone individual will appear seemingly out of nowhere to launch a horrific terrorist attack sends shivers down the spines of public security planners and law enforcement officers — not to mention average citizens. Because of their unique traits, “lone wolves” present very real challenges to the law enforcement and security professionals charged with guarding against such threats.
However, with the road from desire to actual destruction fraught with obstacles, the lone-wolf terrorist — one capable of causing mass casualties — is a rare individual indeed.
The flames of fear regarding lone wolves are fanned by the near-constant bantering about such operatives in radical circles, in movies and books and even in analyses pertaining to domestic and international terrorism. For many years now, domestic radicals such as neo-Nazi Tom Metzger and former Klansman Louis Beam have championed the “leaderless resistance” model of operation. Beam’s 1992 essay, “Leaderless Resistance,” has been widely embraced by many on the radical right as the definitive work on the subject and has been translated into many languages.
MOGSY says:
I think this essay serves to illustrate a very important point: as much as we rightfully dread and attempt to prepare ourselves defensively against the "lone wolf"-style operative/wackjob, we are looking at a rare threat - not a non-existent threat, but a rare one.
Mass casualty terrorism is actually a pretty difficult undertaking - as much as we can point to the web and other modern technology, particularly communications technology, as enablers, the fact remains that most of the activity you see by a far margin is conducted by organizations, or individuals who can connect to and draw extensive support from an organization. The person who can read a book, be "inspired" if you will, gather the resources, the money, motivation, maintain the operations security (OPSEC), the means and the information needed to plan for an act, execute the act, and execute it to the level he intends...ie actually pull it off...that's a small group. Whether we're talking about the Virginia clown (who, like many of his ilk was basically greatky enabled by the security and cultural environment of his chosen target set) or the old "right wing neo-Nazi wannabe" story trope, the number of people who would seriously entertain commiting such acts is fairly small to start with - the group that would actually research, plan, perhaps train, and accumulate the resources needed is smaller still. The number who have the mental gall (or are disturbed enough) to go through with it is smaller. Out of that number, the ones who could actually pull it off, by circumventing basic defenses like local law enforcement for example, that's even tinier. This is why these events, when they occur, are so damn shocking. We SHOULD be shocked.
Now, I'm not saying it's time to put our heads in the sand, or go around blissfully ignorant, or to sit smugly and pretend everything is alright (indeed I think most people would be surprised of the level of violence the average human being has it within him to commit, given the proper motivation, stimulus and other factors - the so-called "highly evolved" both morally and mentally are merely arrogant and deluded I think) , but I think we need to accurately assess the threats. Anyone can read the Turner Diaries, or be inspired by Bin Laden's words, but the one's who'll take it upon themselves to "put up or shut up" - they're gonna have buddies, they're going to be someone else's tool, they're gonna be someone else's patsy.
Leave the LAMOEs to fiction.
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