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Organizational
Structure
Photo taken from
a video believed to be showing the training of Al-Qaida fighters (source: BBC)
 ost
terrorist groups in the past had a clearly defined leadership and a
rigid organizational structure, making them vulnerable to penetration
by law enforcement agents, defections by key members, and the arrest
or killing of group leaders. In recent years, however, terrorists have
modified their organizational structures in several ways to make them
more resistant to penetration and defection.
Decentralized
"Cellular" Structures
A growing number of terrorist groups have adopted a decentralized
structure in which small "cells" independently plan and carry out attacks.
Such cells are more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect
and penetrate. Moreover, the dynamics of small groups may make them
more prone to violence.
For example, the
right-wing "Patriot" movement was heavily penetrated by the
FBI during
the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in the arrest and prosecution of many
of its leaders. In response, the movement developed a new organizational
strategy known as "leaderless resistance," in which local chapters receive
their marching orders from websites and other anonymous means and carry
out terrorist attacks on their own initiative.
Ad Hoc Groups
Unaffiliated terrorists have sometimes come together on a temporary
basis to form an ad hoc group for the purpose of carrying out one
or two attacks. The terrorists who attempted to blow up the World Trade
Center in New York in 1993 had not worked together until Ramzi Yousef
recruited them for that particular mission. Because ad hoc terrorist
groups lack a long-term history, it is more difficult for law enforcement
authorities to identify them in advance and prevent them from acting.
Internal
Control Mechanisms
Terrorist groups have increasingly sought to prevent internal defections
by means of indoctrination, intimidation, and other means of social
control. Aum Shinrikyo, for example, used a number of behavioral control tactics (e.g., sleep and food deprivation, drugs) and meted out severe punishment—including
death—to dissidents and would-be defectors.
Transnational
Networks
Terrorism is no longer confined to particular countries or regions.
A growing number of terrorist organizations today have bases, operatives,
and targets in several countries. Aum Shinrikyo had operations in Russia
and Australia as well as Japan, whereas
Al Qa'ida consists of a loosely
coordinated network of cells that are based in some 40 countries of
the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
- Al Qa'ida operatives
have a "virtual" headquarters and make use of advanced communications
technologies, such as encrypted email messages and websites, to coordinate
their activities.
- Individual Al
Qa'ida cells have a high degree of operational autonomy. Because of
its decentralized network structure, Al Qa'ida has no real "center
of gravity" whose destruction would cause the organization to collapse.
- Procedures exist
to reconstitute the leadership in the event key individuals, such
as Osama bin Laden, are killed or captured.
- Thus, although
the organization has been disrupted by the U.S.-led "war on terrorism,"
it has managed to survive and carry out a series of damaging attacks,
including
conventional bombings in Bali, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and
Iraq.
These loose transnational networks can pose challenges for law enforcement, since investigations into activities by transnational terrorist groups require seamless collaboration and coordination between nations, law enforcement administrative districts, and legal systems.
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