Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management

This book examines the nature of domestic terrorism. It includes a review of the history of terrorism, an examination of contemporary domestic terrorism and an analysis of intelligence gathering, threat analysis and emergency responses to terrorism incident management. The book is divided into three parts. Part One, The Definitional and Historical Dimensions of Terrorism, focuses on terrorism in a broad context. The chapters in this section deal with problems associated with the handling of terrorism by policymakers and law enforcement, a historical overview of terrorism and terrorist incidents in the global community, and a historical examination of terrorism in the United States. In Part Two, Contemporary Domestic Terrorism, a review of the American Hate Movement and patriot-militia activities is undertaken. The chapters in this section also look at the emergence of special-interest extremist and terrorist groups that advocate violence based on ideology or belief.^ The review includes ecological resistance groups, anti-environmental movements, animal rights, and anti-abortion activists. Selected case studies designed to illustrate the range of political-extremist and terrorist events in the United States during the contemporary period are presented in this section. In addition, this section also includes a chapter that describes the changing character of groups involved in domestic terrorism and the use of specific tools and tactics by terrorists. Part Three, Intelligence Gathering and Emergency Response and Incident Management to Terrorism, examines effective criminal intelligence gathering techniques and the implementation of terrorist incident management strategies.^ One of the chapters in this section reviews the system of collecting criminal intelligence information of terrorist enterprises while reinforcing the concepts of due process and privacy rights; another chapter in this section examines terrorism incident management strategies for prevention, threat assessment, domestic preparedness, and tactics for a unified response to a conventional or weapon of mass destruction.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.