A short while back The Record-Bee published my essay “ISIS and the Lone Wolf”. The purpose of that essay was to inform as to the operation of ISIS and terrorism in general. The main focus was on the Lone Wolf, terrorists acting alone.
In the first chapter of my book, “The Poppies of Mohammed,” I illustrated how easy it is for a lone wolf to strike. My intent is not to scare but to make us all vigilant. Be aware of our surroundings. In Israel, if someone sees a seemingly abandoned or forgotten bag or parcel, they loudly alert all the surrounding people. Everyone stands well clear until the bomb disposal team investigates.
We must be cognizant of the fact that an act of terrorism can occur anywhere. That is the whole point of terrorism, to strike terror where people least expect it. Additionally, if we observe someone acting suspiciously, as in a store robbery that may be about to happen, we must report it to law enforcement. We should not be reticent to alert authorities. Too often people are embarrassed to report. We tend to think we will look foolish or that we are wasting police time. Any law enforcement officer will tell you that they often hear, “this is probably nothing but “
How great is the threat of terrorist attacks on American soil? The answer is possible, but rare. Our security, intelligence and law enforcement officials are doing an excellent, but difficult, job. On Thursday, Nov. 18, CNN Online reporter Jim Sciutto did an excellent job of explaining how serious the threat is to America. He pointed out that two groups, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the al Qaeda offshoot, the Khorasan Group, do have designs on the U. S. and Western Europe. Their focus is toward bombs on airplanes. Sciutto said that ISIS, in and of itself, does not pose an immediate threat. They are focusing on their violent jihad in Iraq and Syria. However, because ISIS has been so successful in attracting foreign jihadists, the fear is that some of those people will return home and mount lone wolf attacks. There is also the reality of “home grown” lone wolf terrorists who report to no one.
Scuitto pointed out, in an attempt to “allow us to sleep at night,” some statistics including the number of terrorist deaths in America from 2009 through 2013. That number is 36. As Scuitto said, that is not to minimize the threat but to put it in perspective.
Nonetheless, while not being paranoid, we must stay alert.
Peter MacRae, Lakeport
