When innocent people are killed for someone else’s political aims it sparks outrage around the world. Over the past decade, worldwide terrorism has risen significantly. What is causing this rise and how is it changing the United States government’s strategies and surveillance measures to prevent it? Most of these strategies the governments are using are highly controversial. But they are necessary in order to protect citizens. 

Terrorism has many different definitions. The Oxford dictionary defines terrorism as “The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in pursuit of political aims” (Oxford University Press). This is a long definition but it includes all the different aspects of terrorism. It can also be simplified to “a strategy used to achieve a specific end.” 

Following the 9/11 attacks there has been a large outbreak of terrorism all around the world. So, what makes a terrorist? The American Psychological Association looked at certain characteristics and causes of terrorism. It says that some reasons are that they “feel angry, alienated, or disenfranchised, or they believe that their current involvement does not give them the power to effect real change, or that they have friends or family that are sympathetic to the cause” (American Psychological Association). These characteristics make them more inclined to join a terrorist group and become radicalized. They also show some common motives of terrorist and how terrorist groups form together through these shared interests.

Most of the terrorist attacks around the world are happening in the middle east specifically Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria. The U.S. has the lowest impact of terrorism behind China, Russia, and the United Kingdom (Global Terrorism Database). Although it is primarily seen that terrorism has risen over the past few years there is also evidence that it is in fact declining. According to an article on the New York Times, which got its information from the Global Terrorism Database, although terrorism is rising in the West, it is not rising around the world. The article also states that more westerners were killed in the 1970s and 1980s than in recent years (Sanger-Katz, “Is Terrorism Getting Worse?” New York Times). 

This rise in terrorism can be attributed to the fact that it is concentrated in just a handful of countries. These countries are experiencing civil unrest. This is why it is important for countries to have a strong stable government in order to properly prevent terrorism. Because these countries governments are not doing a good job in preventing terrorism some argue that it is up to the US and other big powers to put troops in the countries to prevent terrorism. While others say that the countries should be able to solve their own problems. But in reality, the only way to stop this unrest is for some of the big powers to work with these struggling country’s governments to help find a solution to this problem.

Following 9/11 there has been a large outbreak of surveillance measures in order to prevent terrorism. One of these measures is entrapment. Entrapment occurs when a potential terrorist is tricked into doing something that they otherwise would not have done. In an article titled "Estimating The Prevalence Of Entrapment In Post-9/11 Terrorism Cases," the authors Grol-Prokopczyk and Norris, explain how much terrorism prevention has changed following 9/11. Prior to 9/11 the government did not see terrorism as a major priority. But following 9/11 the government went on high alert. They started to use whatever means necessary in order to prevent terrorism. Even if it meant breaking the law. (Grol-Prokopczyk and Norris 617). One method that followed the 9/11 attacks was the formation of the Transportation Security Agency.

The Transportation Security Agency was formed in November 19, 2001 as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks. Their main purpose was to prevent any horrific terrorist attack like 9/11 from happening on public transportation. The TSA works on any mode of public transportation such as airplanes and trains. They use metal detectors as well as full body scans to make sure that people do not carry deadly weapons on board (tsa.gov).

There are some problems with the TSA. As it is a pretty boring job and when workers are bored they can end up missing small things such as a pocket knife or a small pair of scissors. Which in the grand scheme of things does not sound like a big deal but really there is no telling what somebody would be able to do with those. The full scans that they use now are effective for searching the bodies. But there is still a problem when the person watching the bag scan decides to daze off for a second and miss something vital.

Another government organization that plays a major role in preventing terrorism is the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Earlier this month some classified CIA documents were released that showed various hacking tools they use. These tools allow them to hack into computers, cellphones, and TVs. It is easy to see why some people are outraged over the thought of being spied on. Because if they have the ability to hack into are cell phone’s camera than they have the ability to see what people are doing almost 24/7. As well as hacking into the camera on your phone they are also able to easily find where a person is by using the GPS location on the phone. This is why these leaks are such a big deal as this surveillance is seen as invading the privacy of American Citizens. 

Although this is already controversial there is also another major problem concerning the leaks. Because they were released publicly on the internet there is a chance that they could end up getting into the wrong hands. Now that terrorists know about these methods of surveillance they have probably reverted to different methods of communication. They could be communicating through encrypted messages which would prevent somebody from being able to intercept and understand the message.

 If a terrorist or someone else with ill intentions got their hands on this information it could be dangerous. So, there are two different ways to look at this leak. Some people see that it is very bad for our national security while others see it as something that we as citizens have a right to know. Most of these surveillance measures are necessary tools to use in the prevention of terrorism. There is no way to keep 300 million people safe without being able to hack into their phones. Although some people are shocked by this the fact that this was released could be very detrimental to national security. 

To keep over 300 million people safe the US government has to sort through a lot of information. A majority of the information they get is non-pertinent. Meaning that it is just regular people going through their everyday task.  So usually only suspicious behavior is flagged. Like if someone buys a large stockpile of things such as ingredients to make a bomb. This is why it is so important to have surveillance everywhere because there are conversations taking place all over the world and it only takes just one to become a deadly attack. Since they cannot just put cameras all over the place, the best way that they can gather a lot of information is to be able to hack into people’s phones and computers.

There are two major acts that are important to understand when talking about terrorism, the Patriot Act and FISA. The Patriot Act allows the government to investigate terrorist by using warrants. Prior to its enactment in 2001, Law enforcement did not have the ability to use the same methods of investigation that they use with normal everyday crimes such as wiretapping. The Patriot Act is still present today although it is now called the Freedom Act.

FISA or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) which oversee warrant request to look at possible terrorist suspects. The court was made in 1978. Their main goal was to "authorize electronic surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence information." The FISC just recently came up in the news with the allegations that former president Obama wiretapped President Trump. Although a president can’t authorize it himself. It has to be authorized by a FISC judge. But as of this moment Trump has yet to provide specific evidence for these allegations (Holly, “What is the FISA court?” CNN). But just the thought of this can cause outrage. 

This is not the first time that the FISA court has come up in the news. In 2013 Edward Snowden leaked some information regarding a court order that allowed the government to collect data from the telephone company Verizon as well as several technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple. This meant that the government has access to phone call records, text messages, as well as computers (Holly, “What is the FISA court?” CNN). With these leaks, we did not know how they were obtaining it we just knew that they were. 

From a national security standpoint, it is better for us to not know about this. Although it may seem a little creepy, the point is that the more surveillance the government has the more tools they have in their efforts to prevent terrorism. Because with the rise of technology there is no other way to prevent terrorism.

This is a list of some major terrorist attacks that have occurred recently. Starting with The Boston Marathon bombing which happened on April 15, 2013 in which 2 homemade bombs were detonated near the finish line killing 3 people. In Nice, Paris on November 13, 2015 over 137 people were killed in coordinated attacks that took place all over the city. ISIS claimed the attacks. On March 22, 2016, 32 people were killed at an airport in Brussels, Belgium by suicide bombers. ISIS also claimed this attack. And finally, on June 12, 2016 49 people were killed in a night club in Orlando (“Timeline of Terror Attacks” The Wall Street Journal).

ISIS was responsible for most of the previously mentioned attacks. So it is important to understand who they are and what they want and how they differ from Al Qaeda who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Al Qaeda and ISIS generally want the same thing although they have different ways of obtaining it. They both want to establish the next caliphate (which is the word for the chief Muslim leader) and they want to spread Islam all around the world. The main difference is that Al Qaeda wanted to eliminate enemies of Islam which is what fueled the 9/11 attacks as they saw the US as a major threat. 

Al Qaeda started in the 1980s so they were slowly progressing with their political agenda which was severely halted after the death of their leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011. They are still present today although they do not have near as many members as ISIS has (Byman, “Comparing Al Qaeda and ISIS”).

In contrast to what was previously said about Al Qaeda, ISIS wants to form a Muslim state and they want to do it as quickly as possible. They have been responsible for 143 attacks in 29 countries and have killed over 2043 people (Lister and Sanchez, “ISIS Goes Global”) The reason ISIS has spread so quickly is because of their use of social media and using it for recruiting purposes. They are very spread out. There are ISIS members scattered all over the world. Because of this it makes ISIS hard to stop, because they are all over the world there is a chance that a terrorist attack can happen just about anywhere. Which is why it is important for a country to have proper forms of surveillance.

Terrorism has increased significantly around the world over the past couple of years. One main reason for this rise in terrorism is the rise of Technology. Terrorism is adapting and changing continuously. Social media is beginning to play a huge role in terrorism. It gives terrorist a platform where they can connect from just about anywhere. Therefore, it is hard to stop ISIS because they are spread out all over the world. On April 2, 2015 Twitter suspended over 10,000 accounts that were related to ISIS. That was just one day there is believed to be thousands more (Gladstone, "Twitter Says It Suspended 10,000 ISIS-Linked Accounts in One Day." New York Times).  The problem is that all they have to do is just make a new account. So it’s not clear how much these efforts are stopping the spread of ISIS but at least they see the problem and are making an effort. 

So perhaps another surveillance measure that the government should start looking at is social media. This is one thing that could be beneficial in preventing terrorism. The problem is that there are millions of tweets and Facebook posts in one day. So they would have to find a way to sort through all of these posts so they can find relevant information on certain terrorist suspects.

This leads to the very controversial argument of the government being able to hack into people’s phones and computers. Some people see this as a major invasion of privacy and go as far to say that it violates the fourth amendment which stats. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” The hacking of phones can be seen as an unreasonable search. So either the government needs to change the amendment for the changing times or they need to find different ways to figure out how to prevent terrorism. 

One peer reviewed article titled “Visual Surveillance and The Prevention Of Terrorism: What About The Checks And Balances?” looks at the universal problems associated with terrorism and surveillance. This article in particular looks at the Netherlands and Great Britain. It asks the question how much surveillance is necessary in order for the government to properly protect its citizens. The article states that there is a point where the government has too much surveillance and they are invading their citizen’s privacy. It is important for the government to find a balance between the two so that they can prevent terrorism and maintain the trust of their citizens (Eijkman and Weggemans).

It is important to note that terrorism is not new. In a book by Asafa Jalata, a professor at The University of Tennessee, he goes as far as to state that terrorism was still a major problem dating back to Christopher Columbus. Looking back at the definition previously mentioned, Columbus was killing people for his own political gains, he wanted to spread Christianity and get more gold. 

Terrorism has existed for a long time but with the rise of technology we must find different ways to prevent it. Although some people may not like it surveillance is necessary. There is no other way to truly prevent terrorism without it.
