Browsing by Subject "terrorism"
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Item Al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood terrorist groups with a common enemy and similar justifications for terrorist tactics(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Davis, Danny WayneThe majority of studies on terrorist groups in the past have been conducted from the perspectives of political science, sociology, or psychology. This historical comparative study examines two terrorist organizations through a human resource development (HRD) lens. The study's goal is to provide a fresh perspective on terrorism to the current discussion of the subject within the public and private sectors. A comprehensive literature review is used to examine religiously based terrorist groups. The following HRD models and theories are used to frame this research: the Basic Systems Model of Swanson and Holton (2001), Daft's definition of an organization (2001), the work of Watkins and Marsick (1992 & 1993) on learning organizations, and group theory as discussed by Johnson and Johnson (2000). Crenshaw's (2001) work on terrorist group theory also helps provide a foundation to the discussion. The study begins with a short review of terrorism during the twentieth, and the first years of the twenty-first centuries. Next, the histories, cultures, and beliefs of the fundamentalist Islamic or Islamist movement and the Christian Identity movement are traced. The focus is then narrowed and an in-depth study of al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood, from the Islamist and Christian Identity movements, respectively, is conducted. The context of HRD organizational traits is used to portray the similarities and differences between these terrorist groups. There were eight major findings from this study. 1. Al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood possess structure and demonstrate input, output, process, and interaction with, and feedback from their external environment (Swanson & Holton, 2001) as do conventional organizations. 2. Both groups demonstrate structure and group dynamics similar to conventional organizations. 3. Members of both groups profess beliefs similar to those in mainstream Islam and Christianity, respectively. 4. The belief that God's law is superior to that of man in held in common by al-Qaeda and the Priesthood. This belief is based on the revealed word of God, the Koran and Bible, respectively. 5. Members of both groups believe they have been chosen by God to right the wrongs of society and/or the world. Violent acts in support of this mission are fully justified. 6. A common goal of these groups is to establish racially and culturally pure societies on some scale. 7. Al-Qaeda and the Phinehas Priesthood are both anti-Semitic. 8. Members of these groups are culturally isolated from mainstream society. The study makes four recommendations to HRD practitioners, government policy makers, and educators in pursuit of the goal of providing a fresh perspective on terrorism.Item Architecture in the era of terror: Design and perception of security in two societies(2010-07-14) Zilbershtein, GaliThis dissertation falls in the realm of environmental behavior and focuses on the role of the built environment in influencing responses to threats to personal security associated with terrorism. The research integrates pertinent knowledge from psychology, architecture and security/terrorism into a cohesive conceptual framework. Based on the conceptual framework, this work examined the effects of levels of terrorism threat (high vs. low) on people who face public buildings (city hall or shopping mall) that vary in their facade and entrance designs (solid exterior vs. glass facade with/without designed vs. temporary access control security measures). The research was conducted in two societies that are different in their experience with terrorism (Israel and Texas). The effects were measured along four dimensions: how much the issue of terrorism threat is on a person?s mind, how safe and how anxious the individual feels, and how likely he/she is to use the building. The investigation consisted of three quasi-experiments and a pretest survey and employed a computer-based web driven platform. A total of 1071 undergraduate students from College Station, Texas and Tel Aviv, Israel participated in these studies. The results illustrate the predominance of the levels of threat of terrorism in influencing all the examined security-related responses. The characteristics of buildings affected those responses to some extent. Differences between the two societies were found mainly in relation to the building-uses. Participants of the two societies responded similarly to the design elements of buildings. In conditions of low threat of terrorism participants from both societies had a higher sense of security when they were exposed to a glass facade compared to a solid concrete facade. In high terrorism threat, participants from both societies felt safer, and were more inclined to use a building with a solid facade. However, when access control security measures were visible to participants in the approach to the building (regardless of their design), both facade designs elicited a similar sense of security, while the propensity to enter the building was higher towards a glass facade. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for architectural design.Item Bayesian Network Analysis of Radiological Dispersal Device Acquisitions(2012-02-14) Hundley, Grant RichardIt remains unlikely that a terrorist organization could produce or procure an actual nuclear weapon. However, the construction of a radiological dispersal device (RDD) from commercially produced radioactive sources and conventional explosives could inflict moderate human casualties and significant economic damage. The vast availability of radioactive sources and the nearly limitless methods of dispersing them demand an inclusive study of the acquisition pathways for an RDD. A complete network depicting the possible acquisition pathways for an RDD could be subjected to predictive modeling in order to determine the most likely pathway an adversary might take. In this work, a comprehensive network of RDD acquisition pathways was developed and analyzed utilizing the Bayesian network analysis software, Netica. The network includes variable inputs and motivations that can be adjusted to model different adversaries. Also, the inclusion of evidence nodes facilitates the integration of real-time intelligence with RDD plot predictions. A sensitivity analysis was first performed to determine which nodes had the greatest impact on successful completion of RDD acquisition. These results detail which portions of the acquisition pathways are most vulnerable to law enforcement intervention. Next, a series of case studies was analyzed that modeled specific adversarial organizations. The analysis demonstrates various features of the constructed Bayesian RDD acquisition network and provides examples of how this tool can be utilized by intelligence analysts and law enforcement agencies. Finally, extreme cases were studied in which the adversary was given the maximum and minimum amount of resources in order to determine the limitations of this model. The aggregated results show that successful RDD acquisition is mostly dependent on the adversary?s resources. Furthermore, the network suggests that securing radiological materials has the greatest effect on interdicting possible RDD plots. Limitations of this work include a heavy dependence on conditional probabilities that were derived from intuition, as opposed to actual historical data which does not exist. However, the model can be updated as attempted or successful RDD plots emerge in the future. This work presents the first probabilistic model of RDD acquisition pathways that integrates adversary motivations and resources with evidence of specific RDD threats.Item Domestic Surveillance and Government's Loss of Legitimacy(2014-06-09) Inks, Christopher Scott; Inks, Christopher Scott; Phelps, James R; Phelps, James RThe terrorist attacks against the United States on the morning of September 11, 2001 created an environment ripe for the abuse of power. With a fearful nation clamoring for greater protection against future attacks, the National Security Administration (NSA) took the opportunity to create and implement a secret domestic spying and data mining program, the size of which had never before been imagined. Because information is the ultimate form of power in today’s world, unmitigated access to so much personal data has the potential to aggregate power into this one agency, leaving the rest of government and the populace unable to defend themselves against those who would use it to advance their own agendas. Once obtained, there is no way to check this power. Since government is only as legitimate as the populace believes it to be, such aggregations of power are likely to increase dissent among the citizenry and ultimately result in a belief that it has become illegitimate. Such a government is ineffective and puts the entirety of the populace in harm’s way, not only from terrorists outside its borders, but from potential domestic abuses of this power. In the rush to protect the country against terrorism, one must be careful the actions he or she takes do not inadvertently create a homeland security threat from within.Item Dose assessment for radioactive contamination of a child(2009-05-15) Kowalczik, Jeffrey AaronDose assessments produced using the computer code MCNP are important to simulate events that are difficult to recreate experimentally. An emergency scenario involving whole-body skin contamination is one example of such an event. For these scenarios, an anthropomorphic phantom of a 10-year-old male with uniform skin contamination was created and combined with MCNP for dose calculations. Activity on the skin was modeled with gamma-ray sources at energies of 50 keV, 100 keV, 250 keV, 500 keV, 750 keV, 1 MeV, 1.25 MeV, 1.5 MeV, and 2 MeV. The radionuclides 60Co, 137Cs, and 131I were also modeled. The effective dose to the body and major organs was calculated for each scenario. Exposure rate contour lines were also produced around the body. The activity required to result in a dose equal to the legal limit of 0.1 mSv for minors was calculated for each scenario. The highest activity required to produce this limit was from the 50 keV gamma-ray source. This activity was increased by an arbitrary value, approximately tenfold the current value, to represent an emergency scenario. This new activity concentration of 1 mCi per 100 cm2 was used to produce doses for each of the scenarios. The lowest effective dose for the body was 0.82 mSv, produced from the 50 keV source. The highest effective dose was 19.59 mSv, produced from the 2 MeV source. The exposure rates nearest the body were approximately 1.25 R/h, decreasing to100 mR/h approximately 60 cm from the body. The data points were found to be dependent on the energy of the gamma ray. These data can also be improved by deriving solutions previously assumed in this scenario. For example, the skin may be broken down into multiple regions to allow for independent calculations for regional contamination. The activity on the skin can also be derived from air concentration models, allowing for the use of other models to be used in conjunction with this research.Item Estimating the exposure to first receivers from a contaminated victim of a radiological dispersal device detonation(2009-05-15) Phillips, Holly AnneThe threat of a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) detonation arouses the concern of contaminated victims of all ages. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dose to a uniformly contaminated five-year old male. It also explores the exposure rates surrounding the victim to be used by first receivers to estimate their exposure from the victim. The victim was modeled as an anthropomorphic phantom using the BodyBuilder program. A thin layer of source material was added to the surface of the phantom?s skin to simulate whole-body contamination. The computer code MCNP5 was used to tally the doses to the individual organs of the phantom and create a mesh to generate contour exposure rate lines. Using an activity of 37 GBq m-2, the five-year-old victim received an effective dose 158.23 mSv in one hour. Contour lines were produced that showed the exposure rates around the victims ranging from 0.5 to 10 R/h. The contour exposure-rate contour lines were also generated after the removal of contaminated clothing. Removing the victim?s clothing reduced the exposure rates by eighty percent.Item Female Perpetrated Terrorism and Suicide BombingsWillows, Amanda Ann; Celso, Anthony N; Taylor, William A; Bechtol, Bruce E; Serrano, GabriellaHistorically, women have played important roles in terrorist organizations. The roles of women in terrorist organizations, however, have been more supportive than militant. The duties given to these women were to reproduce, providing more fighters and supporting and caring for the men as they fought and gathered intelligence. In recent decades, female roles in terrorist organizations have changed and they are being utilized in more instrumental ways. Females who have lost their husbands and loved ones to government forces appear to be ideal for recruitment. Their male counterparts have discovered their usefulness on the front lines as the ultimate smart bombs. In this study, we seek to gain a better understanding of female perpetrated terrorism and the etiology of female suicide bombers.Item First responders and terrorism(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2015) Aguilar, SylviaItem Law enforcement response to terrorist attacks and mass casualty incidents(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2005) Mannix, Sean M.Item Learning from tragedy: why American law enforcement should be prepared to counter a Mumbai-style attack within the United States(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2015) Costello, Iv, Edward J.Item Maritime domain awareness (MDA) and the Texas police peace officer: understanding the vulnerability and terrorist threat(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2009) Mylett, TomItem Necessary evil: rhetorical violence in 20th century American literature(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Baker, James AndrewWayne Booth and other rhetorical critics have developed methods for examining the rhetorical aspects of fiction. In this dissertation, I examine, specifically, the use of rhetorical violence in American fiction. It is my premise that authors use rhetorical violence and the irrationality of violence created mimetically to construct ironic metaphors that comment on the irrationality of the ideology behind the violence, pushing that ideology's maxims to its logical ends. The goal of rhetorical violence, therefore, is to create the conditions for a transfer of culpability so that the act becomes transitive-transferable-loosed from its moorings. Culpability, if indeed it reflects something intrinsically awry with an ideology, becomes the fault of the ideology-????????it becomes the perpetrator of illogic and the condemnatory force associated with the act of violence gets transferred to it. Hence, if the author has created an effective metaphor, when he or she flips the violent scene'????????s "????????value," the audience is willing to follow along. The violence remains a great evil, but the culpability for the act is shifted to a representative of the ideology in question-as-victimizer; nonetheless, that transfer can only occur inasmuch as the audience is willing to force-fit the incongruities of the metaphor.I examine this rhetorical phenomenon in the works of three modern American writers: Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, and Chuck Palahniuk. I seek to examine the ideologies questioned in these works, the contradictory beliefs expressed by the authors, and to explicate primary episodes in the works of fiction wherein rhetorical violence functions in a rhetorical fashion to promulgate the author's ideology by emotionally jarring the reader loose from commonly-held ideological assumptions in three specific appeals: first, to negate one socially-held ideology in order to promote a conflicting one (Wise Blood); second, to elicit compassion for victimized characters representing social ills (Beloved); third, to call into question the validity of social institutions and practices (Fight Club).Item Nuclear/Chemical/Biological Weapons of Mass Destruction and Police Readiness in Metropolitan vs. Urban Agencies(Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT), 2000) Waters, Emery