There's comfort in knowledge, and fear in the unknown. But all too often we don't have enough information. So what can we do about it? How can we get better data to help stop these attacks?
The first thing to do is to get information. I'll bet you thought of the CIA and NSA first, right? I did too. But those organizations just collect data. And though you might think we have a lot of data already, we really don't. You can't find out where terrorists are going to strike next until it happens. We need data now.
One way to get the data we need is by making the threat go away: by stopping terrorists from attacking us. The good news is that I think we're pretty close to making that happen. So let's keep our fingers crossed and continue to look for terrorists. But if we don't stop them, we will have to stop them by finding them before they strike. This is the goal of every intelligence agency in the world today. Let's do our best to help them do it.
It seems that these days we have more enemies than ever, not fewer. It also seems like the pace of technology is going faster, not slower. In this book, we'll discuss what those two facts have in common, and we'll look at how things have changed for everyone, but especially for women. This will allow us to see the changes in modern technology through a whole new lens.
As technology progresses, everyone gets "connected" to something else, even if they're not connected to anything. This means that we have a vast network of information (and, increasingly, misinformation). We'll see how everyone in that network, including you and me, can help in the war on terror. After reading this book, you'll know how.
About the authors
Sandra is an assistant professor at Northeastern University. She has been researching and teaching in the areas of terrorism, extremism, and radicalization for many years. She is interested in identifying which factors make young people vulnerable to extremist recruiting and how to provide them with opportunities for positive self-identification.
In 2014, Sandra testified before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives on the threat of "DIY Terrorism." She has also presented at various conferences in the area of terrorism and has written several journal articles.
Rachael is a senior at a Jesuit liberal arts college in Virginia. After reading this book, she plans to attend graduate school to become a law enforcement officer or a clinical forensic psychologist. In her spare time she enjoys roller skating, camping, and painting.
If you ever wondered what made Al Capone so successful, then consider the following: he had a secret police force, paid to harass the people he wanted to see leave town. He also didn't pay his taxes.
Many people think it would be terrible to have a secret police force that harasses innocent citizens, but that wouldn't be so bad. The police department we know today already does that. Consider what happened after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Congress passed the Patriot Act, the most extensive spying law since World War II. It gave police access to millions of people's medical and financial records, and gave them the right to search the offices of countless citizens without a warrant. It's as if we all lived in Al Capone's gangland.
So we need to ask ourselves a very important question: are we really ready for an Orwellian world?
In fact, there's no way to stay safe. Just one terrorist group could destroy the entire free world. A group with about one hundred members, or even fewer. That's only 1 percent of all the people in the world today, but we're not talking about an army, we're talking about a terrorist organization. Just one.
We're safe if we stay within a network of our friends. But what if our friends are dangerous? Think about it—if someone knows one hundred things about you, it doesn't really matter if he's in the terrorist group or not. It doesn't matter if he's a good person or not. He's still connected to you and can ruin your life.
Just like that, your whole world can fall apart. You don't know if someone is a terrorist. But if he's a terrorist, then everything you do becomes public. If he's a bad guy, then he's going to leak your secrets to people he doesn't like. If he's a bad guy, you'll find out he tried to destroy your life. You'll find out that he put a camera in your bedroom at night and videotaped you having sex with someone. You'll find out that you're dead and that he put the gun in your mouth. You'll find out he made you sick, then lied to everyone about why. He did that to all of us, just so he could take us down one by one.
So if we're all connected, no one's really safe. We need to get smarter. We need to get safer. We need to attack terrorists before they attack us, or at least try to. And the best way to do that is to make the bad guys fear us.
A secret police force, with the power to enter your home anytime they please, is no protection against criminals. Why is it that the worst criminals today are the police? Maybe they're just doing a job, but sometimes they go beyond that—even in the name of our safety. When is it okay to torture people? Why isn't it better to get rid of the bad cops than put a label on them and lock them away? But we can't solve all our problems by getting rid of the police, because the whole point of having them is to find the terrorists before they can hurt us. What if the secret police force we've established only helps out the terrorists?
Today everyone talks about fighting terror. It's all around us, on the news, in the movies. But the terrorists are always around us. We just have to realize we're all looking in the same direction. Everyone knows what's going on; everyone knows who's being targeted. And when the secret police force is busy protecting the general public from the dangerous people within us, who are then left to track down the bad guys?
The terrorists are in the schools, at the grocery store, online, everywhere. And you're just sitting there, on your sofa at home, with a gun in your hand and a terrorist behind every tree. Why are you looking at me?
There are bad cops and good cops, just like there are good criminals and bad criminals. But if the FBI starts arresting people just for having a book like this in their house, then we're in for some serious trouble. What if they arrest you because you're gay? Or because your son wrote a short story? Or because you talk to a woman in a bar?
In the right situation, the word _terrorist_ can be very powerful. It's much better to call someone a terrorist than to call him gay, black, or disabled. It's much more threatening to say he's a terrorist than to say he's transgender. Once people start seeing us as terrorists, then the people we want to fight become much weaker and easier to find. The FBI will want to protect you from them, because they'll be terrified of you. They'll be willing to give up their power just for a chance at keeping their freedom. If they get their way, they'll have their way with us. This would all be fine, except the FBI is protecting the wrong people and giving them the wrong tools.
So the problem isn't the threat of terrorism. The problem is that we're trying to fight it by using the wrong tactics. What would you do if your best friend was really a terrorist? Who would you call? Who could you trust? These are the people you're looking for.
Now, I don't want to make things too complicated. I know, for example, that everyone thinks the FBI is terrible. But if it's true, then it's because of who's running it and the way they treat people. And, for some reason, most of the people who work for the FBI are good people. They're not terrorists. We need more of these good people, not fewer.
The FBI is an important part of the solution. The FBI needs to be everywhere. It needs to be following you around all the time. The way the FBI works is the most important part of this problem. We'll see how it works and why it works that way. Then we'll see how to create a new approach. But before we can get there, we need to talk about the basics of fighting terrorists. It won't be easy
