COMPLEX COORDINATED TERRORIST ATTACKS 2

Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks

Terrorism attacks are simple defined as the unlawful and excessive use of violence that is against a certain group of people or property that are mostly meant to coerce the government, the civilian population, any segment thereof, and in extensive the political, and social objectives. Therefore, most of the successful terrorist attacks there must be a very hypothetical complex coordinated plan that is meant to see the successful arrangement of events in the terrorist attack. This greatly helps in making sure that there are lesser mistakes in this event and as well as the overall success of this event. Additionally, some terrorist attacks use chemical, biological and radiological, nuclear explosives that are very harmful to the lives of human beings and may have long-term effects on human beings. This greatly helps them in achieving their mission (Elliot, 2017). This paper aims at developing a plan for a hypothetical complex coordinated terrorist attack with the use of CBRNE in a certain target in your commodity.

In this case, we have a community that participates in various social functions, and based on the different intentions of the terrorist the target areas might differ. Some of the target areas include bars and restaurants, where terrorists develop a well-calculated plan to attack and get hostages who they will use to perceive a government to accomplish a certain want. Another target area is on different fields and stadiums where the terrorists can set up explosives whose aim is to kill the people who will be in that field as a way of sending signals to the government, or terms of revenge over a certain n failed event that they needed to be accomplished. Another target area is a place of worship such as a church, schools, and other social gatherings. Terrorists mostly target areas with a high population so that if they don’t succeed at least they kill a good number of hostages.

In this discussion, we will consider a church and places of worship set up as our base target area in developing this hypothetical plan (Smith, 2002). Therefore, in this target, it comprises of different age demographic factors describing the kind of population found in such a setup, the population found in this target comprises of people with different ages ranging from very young to medium-aged to very old people. This is because there are no major restrictions regarding age in this setup. Additionally, this population comprises people from different social statuses, from low class via middle class to high-class people, people living with disabilities might form part of this population, unmarried and married people can also be found in these target locations. Therefore, the demographic description of such a setting is a mixed population.

Based on the geographical description of this community, the target church is thereby located in the middle of the community. This means that this church will thereby hold people from different corners of the community. In case of a successful terrorist attack, the population from the entire community is likely to be touched by this attack. In addition to this, there is the planned inclusion of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear in this terrorism. This will ensure that the overall effectiveness of the terrorist plan (Smith, 2002). Chemical products will include, warfare objects, industrial chemicals, and harmful products, Biological which will be caused by harmful bacteria or created viruses, radiological, will be effected where radioactive elements are used and finally for nuclear explosions will cause very harmful radiation, alongside thermal effects that might arise out of the nuclear explosion.

After the review of different previous CCTAs, terrorist attackers may employ different tactics techniques, and procedures which thereby will be essential, in this hypothetical plan. First is ensuring we carry out pre-attack reconnaissance and surveillance to gather a lot of information and intelligence needed in tactical planning and execution. Use of well-armed teams in small numbers who will be well-trained individuals and who will employ military or law enforcement style tactics. Additionally, Selecting areas of soft targets or other weak environments will ensure that casualties are maximized. With multiple casualties, the attack will therefore be very efficient and successful. Striking several multiple targeted places simultaneously or in close succession. This brings more confusion and hence the efficiency of the terrorist attacks (Overgaard, 1994) Another tactic is Striking very quickly and being ready to move to another set and identified location before law enforcement officers can come in and disrupt. In the terrorists attack it’s very important to Employ the use of assault weapons, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), explosives, and fire as a weapon additionally may also incorporate other nontraditional unique methods, such as knifing attacks vehicle ramming, or biological agent and dispersing chemicals.

Therefore, in coming up with a Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attack, there is a need to Deploy diversions that show slow public safety response, consume responder resources, and through this, they will draw responders’ attention toward or away from specific directions that the plan demands. Additionally, the use of social media and news coverage helps maximize shock value to all people, spread misinformation to the concerned public, instill fear both to the hostages and government, and promote extreme views which will highly contribute to this (Smith, 2002). Effective communication across the assaulted teams, different targets, and with outside leadership contributes to the success of the attack as loss of communication increases the chances of arrest. Another important aspect is the ability to Coordinate attack timings and methods (e.g., firearms, IEDs, Hazardous Materials with other attackers and all other parties that are necessary for the attack mission. Conduct different secondary attacks on all the first responders, all the evacuation routes, and additional sites that might be needed such as medical facilities, that are part of the response. Being able to easily Adapt and thereby adjust tactics and location quickly based on law enforcement tactics and first responder actions, and finally being able to Learn from past law enforcement reactions and their variance with the first responder tactics and prior CCTA incidents. These efforts cumulatively will lead to the success of the attack.

The next step is to identify the community list of threats and hazards to be included. The assessment of each threat or hazard must meet the two-tail criteria. it must have a very real potential to affect the entire community as well as it must can challenge at least one of the Core Capabilities more than any other threat or hazard can bring on this community. Therefore, the number of threats and hazards that each community may face depends on how different individuals design their community risk profile. Giving these threats and different Hazards in a Context and Estimated Impacts In their different assessments. additionally, communities will add different descriptions for each of the threats and hazards they have selected (Pepper et al., 2019). Illustrating different scenarios shows how the threat or hazard may affect the community and create challenges in performing major Capabilities. Scenarios will include things as follows critical details such as the location of the church which is the target for this attack. The magnitude of the attack on this community and time to attack. Additionally, Communities also estimate the impacts the different scenarios would have on the community in case the plan occurs successfully. If a certain element of the scenario will therefore be essential in understanding the impact of the incident and exploring the different capabilities required to manage it, then it’s important to include such important elements in the context description.

In the review of the CCTA threat, jurisdictions may face different specific challenges when addressing CCTA which include Operational Coordination. Understanding how complex an attack requires the differently situated responders to counter with a full-time integrated, understandable, and well-coordinated response. The ability to respond to, and which might lead to a subsequent recovery from, a CCTA will thereby involve personnel and different resources from a range of subjects which will include fire, emergency management, healthcare, law enforcement emergency medical services, and transportation (Pepper et al., 2019). Some of these contributors may come from the private sector. A major challenge of a CCTA incident is integrating crisis management consequence management and investigatory functions must be performed simultaneously and together but involve entities that may not habitually operate together at all.

Another challenge is of Incident Command. A well-coordinated incident command system is very critical for an effective response and recovery to a CCTA. Attack locations and positions and in extending the potential for follow-on attacks that may cause confusion between responders to the incidents and thereby hamper and interfere with the attempts to gather and disseminate any possible accurate information in real-time (Pepper et al., 2019). A cohesive and comprehensive approach to such an incident command ensures that command officers from impacted entities can and can have very accurate information that can help in the accomplishment of unified incident objectives. Another challenge is on Operational Communication, whereby CCTAs mostly occur with very little or no warning signals. Therefore, being able to establish timely communications among all and between the affected communities, and all responding disciplines, is critical and thereby difficult to an effective response.

Another challenge is on Multiple Attack Locations whereby the occurrence of CCTAs is mostly done incident in multiple locations that follow a certain sequence or in quick succession. Therefore, identifying a second attack at an additional location shows that the incident has thereby expanded from a single-site incident, making it difficult for an effective response (Pepper et al., 2019). Additionally, Public Information and Warning that happen during a CCTA promptly gives accurate crisis information and guidance to the public is very important for easy stabilization of the situation and, potentially, for the extensive saving of lives. And finally, another challenge is on Rescue Task Force, whereby the dangers associated with CCTA incidents, like active shooter incidents, may limit the different abilities ability to access emergency medical service personnel to attend to victims promptly.

Using the six-step planning process the first step is forming a Collaborative Planning Team. The most realistic and complete plans must have come from a very diverse planning team that includes different representatives from the organizations that are tasked to different roles in the coordination, delivery, execution, and support of different capabilities necessary in addressing a CCTA (Elliot, 2017). The collaborative team may include, law enforcement agencies, fire service, and medical services teams, public safety, the private sector, education, non-governmental agencies, and government agencies. Therefore, to deal with a CCTA, a very collaborative team will very be necessary to ensure the overall success of such a mission.

The second step is being able to understand the situation, before the development of a CCTA incident annex; all planners should be able to understand their Emergency Operations Plan and any other form of existing supporting plans. This is very important as annexes easily supplement the Emergency Operations Plan. A CCTA incident annex therefore should be in line with the Emergency Operations Plan and not conflict with it by giving different views (Elliot, 2017). Emergency Operations Plan or any supporting plans should address the many responsibilities and actions taken during a CCTA, as they are frequently required regardless of the specific threat or hazard. A CCTA incident annex should therefore address the unique characteristics and requirements associated with a CCTA incident.

The third step is the determination of goals and objectives; the tasked planning team should identify different operational priorities and therefore develops a list of different goals and objectives that relate to a CCTA. The identified goals and objectives greatly help and inform the development of potential courses of action required to be taken in the next subsequent step. The fourth step is on a good Plan Development. Identifying and assessing the different priorities, goals, and objectives from Step 3, the planning team now begins to create and develop the plan (Elliot, 2017). This plan can be developed with multiple courses of action to answer and satisfy the identified goals and objectives in step three.

The fifth step is on plan preparation, its review, and approval. Once the team has developed a plan as per step four above, different representatives from the different organizations involved in the CCTA response should thereby review this plan to validate the existing content already and identify potential additional and coordination points, functions, or resources (Elliot, 2017). After this broad review, the appropriate senior officials should therefore receive the plan for final review, approval, and signature, publication, dissemination, and actualization.

The sixth step is now the plan implantation and maintenance. Jurisdictions, with the implementation authority, therefore implement the plan through training and exercises whereby different stakeholders throughout the whole community will know their roles and responsibilities before, during, and after a CCTA incident. This helps in ensuring cumulative efforts in dealing with a CCTA. It’s at this step all organizations mentioned in this plan and cumulatively all the supporting partners should therefore train to, exercise, and become familiar with the plan (Elliot, 2017). Consecutively, Successful implementation of such a plan includes training of all personnel and organizations at their different delivery capabilities, functions, and procedures that the plan requires of them. Through such exercises, incident managers can deeply understand the practical know-how of their partner organizations’ procedures and capabilities. Such exercises also help to address any known and possible gaps, identify potential resource shortfalls or weakness in the plan, and therefore serves as an opportunity to identify the different lessons learned.

In dealing with CCTA fusion centers might act as very resourceful and helpful centers. the government can encourage the different people affected by CCTA to engage din these centers whereby they will be able to share out their feelings and experiences regarding such an event and therefore this will help in relieving the emotional burden in such people (Lewandowski and Carter, 2017). Additionally, the government and local authorities can use these centers to create awareness on the different roles of everyone at a personal level especially in dealing with CCTA. Extensively can also help in inviting partners who have more knowledge and resources in dealing with CCTA to come in and help the government in dealing with such events. By bringing on board different partners, government officials, and knowledgeable people on dealing with CCTA, the government can create a strong team to deal with them.

Nonproliferation is the practice of controlling the excessive, use, and spread of nuclear weapons. By regulating the spread of different nuclear weapons and other weapons that might be used in terrorism, reduces by a great chance the possibility of a CCTA happening. This is because most of these people rely on these weapons to succeed, so once they are omitted, they will have a very difficult time due to insufficient weapons. Additionally, counter-proliferation also means the different efforts made to curb the rapid spread of the growth of weapons (Epstein, 1976). So cumulatively these efforts end up reducing the number of weapons that are at disposal. By this CCTA actions are thereby significantly reduced.in conclusion, dealing with a CCTA is not easy and hence calls for cumulative efforts by all individuals and government as well as good organized tactical plans by all the stakeholders.

References

Elliott, T. (2017). Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attack: Considerations for Practical Emergency Preparedness and Resiliency Exercises.

Epstein, W. (1976). Last change: nuclear proliferation and arms control.

Lewandowski, C., & Carter, J. G. (2017). End-user perceptions of intelligence dissemination from a state fusion center. Security Journal, 30(2), 467-486.

Overgaard, P. B. (1994). The scale of terrorist attacks as a signal of resources. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 38(3), 452-478.

Pepper, M., Archer, F., & Moloney, J. (2019). Triage in complex, coordinated terrorist attacks. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 34(4), 442-448.

Smith, A. J. (2002). Combating terrorism. Military Review, 82(1), 11.