Thursday, June 8, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Scoring Counterterrorism: Stockholm vs. Chicago, Washington, Portland, and Baltimore

December 22, 2010
in Foreign Policy Program, Latest News, Security studies / counterterrorism
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

In gauging the efficacy of our counterterrorism efforts, it is imperative that we focus not only on the occasional failure but on our many numerous successes, too. No strategy, tactic, or policy can be methodically measured on the basis of either failures or successes alone. Both need to be taken into a balanced account. If one consistently overshadows the other, the cumulative result is a flawed assessment of our security efforts.

The problem, of course, is that bad news sells; counterterrorism failures make for far better reporting than do the successes. When bombs go off or gunmen attack, there is raw footage to watch, crime scenes to investigate, victims to bury, witnesses to interview, inquiries to hold, monuments to build, and anniversaries to mourn.

Our counterterrorism successes, on the other hand, don’t resonate nearly as much. When security officials uncover and disrupt terrorist plots, carry out sting operations, and arrest and imprison would-be terrorists, we take the good news in stride. There’s no drama in these successes. Photos of police officers carting away evidence from a suspect’s home don’t reverberate nearly as much as the obligatory picture of the charred carcass of a commuter train or city bus. Counterterrorism failures stick in our collective minds; our successes go down as near non-events.

This is partly why it’s easier to list the Western cities against which jihadis have (nearly) successfully carried out attacks – Madrid (2004), London (2005 – twice), Glasgow (2007), Exeter, England (2008), Detroit (2009), Fort Hood, Texas (2009), New York (2010), Stockholm (2010) – than it is to recall the far more numerous cases in which plots were uncovered and attacks foiled – Strasbourg (2000), Paris (2002, 2005, 2006), Buffalo (2002), Milan (2004), Amsterdam (2004), London (2004), Brussels (2004), Melbourne/Sydney (2005, 2009), Los Angeles (2005), Rockford, Illinois (2006), Washington (2006), Chicago (2006), Toronto (2006), Frankfurt (2007), Bristol, England (2008), Copenhagen (2007, 2009), New Jersey (2007), Barcelona (2008), New York (2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 – twice), Dallas (2009), Springfield, Illinois (2009), Oslo (2010), to list but a few. [For details, see here, here, and here]

The recent bombing in Stockholm, Sweden is a case in point. Two weeks ago, a Swedish national blew himself up in a (mildly) successful suicide attack. The bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, lit the fuse of his car bomb – which became engulfed in flames but didn’t explode particularly well – and was prepared to then detonate a suicide vest when he suffered a wardrobe malfunction. According to CCTV footage, it appears that Abdaly, after having mixed in with a crowd of shoppers, couldn’t get his device to explode. Police theorize that he may have ducked into a deserted alley to set about fixing it when one of the dozen or so bombs he was wearing prematurely detonated. Abdaly died alone. Like American Faisal Shahzad’s attempted car bombing in Times Square (May 2010), security officials weren’t watching Abdaly, didn’t realize he was a threat, and weren’t able to pre-empt or disrupt his planned attack. The Swedes just got lucky.

But keeping the Stockholm attack in proper, global perspective requires that we balance this one event with the various other counterterrorism successes that have taken place over the past few months. In the US alone, for instance, in every month since September 2010, officials have conducted dramatic operations against homegrown and foreign terrorists plotting attacks against Americans.

In September, Sami Hassoun, a US permanent resident, was arrested after he placed what he thought was a backpack bomb in a curbside garbage receptacle on a crowded street in Chicago. In October, American Farooque Ahmed, was arrested after he provided material support, finances, and scouting reports to individuals he believed were al Qaeda operatives planning attacks on metro stations in Washington, D.C. In November, a Somali-born American teenager, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, was arrested in Portland, Oregon after he tried to detonate what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony being attended by thousands of people. And in December, Muslim convert Antonio Martinez (aka, Muhammad Hussain) was arrested near Baltimore, Maryland after he dialed a cell phone that he believed would trigger a car bomb he had primed and parked outside an Armed Forces recruiting station.

Each arrest was the result of a lengthy, diligent, and complex FBI investigation that included the use of hidden surveillance and undercover agents posing as would-be terrorists. The official criminal complaints (see Hassoun, Ahmed, Mohamud, and Martinez) read like movie scripts. In all of the cases, security officials, using both human intelligence and signals surveillance, became aware of potential threats early on and were able to preempt potential acts of violence long before the public was at risk. As in the 2009 cases of Michael Finton and Hosam Smadi, three of the four suspects actively and willingly participated in the construction, placement, and detonation of inert explosive devices provided to them by FBI agents.

Though some controversy remains, these US cases represent the epitome of successful counterterrorism. In reading about the Stockholm bomber who very nearly managed to conduct a mass-casualty attack, let’s be sure to keep in mind the many counterterrorism successes that help balance the general score sheet.

Posted by Alex Wilner

Tags: al Qaedacounterterrorismhomegrown terrorism
Previous Post

A keep-safe strategy: MLI in Windsor Star

Next Post

MLI comment on pension plan reform

Related Posts

A new national news media policy could save Canadian journalism
Releases

A new national news media policy could save Canadian journalism

June 7, 2023
Foreign Influence, A Perilous Tradition Unlike Any Other: Benjamin L. Schmitt for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Foreign Influence, A Perilous Tradition Unlike Any Other: Benjamin L. Schmitt for Inside Policy

June 7, 2023
Liberal climate policies are fine on their own but contradict each other when together: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe and Mail
Columns

Liberal climate policies are fine on their own but contradict each other when together: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe and Mail

June 6, 2023
Next Post

MLI comment on pension plan reform

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Online
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
    • Podcasts

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.