Transcript 2007 Public Health Preparedness Conference Current Issues in Public Health Preparedness Michael W. Proctor, M.D. Regional Director of Extra-mural Training University of Texas Health Sciences Center-Houston Center.

2007 Public Health
Preparedness Conference
Current Issues in Public Health
Preparedness
Michael W. Proctor, M.D.
Regional Director of Extra-mural Training
University of Texas Health Sciences Center-Houston
Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness
Columbia, Missouri
September 26, 2007
TERRORISM
The New Epidemic!
Terrorism
Definition…what is it?
No single, universally accepted
definition of terrorism
 "one man's terrorist is another's
freedom fighter"

Terrorism
Definition common elements…
 The systematic use of physical violenceactual or threatened
 Typically against non-combatants but with
an audience broader than the immediate
victims in mind
 Efforts to create a general climate of fear in
a target population, in order to effect some
kind of political and/or social change
Terrorism
…Terrorism is the unlawful use of
force or violence against persons
or property to intimidate or coerce
a government, the civilian
population, or any segment
thereof, in furtherance of political
or social objectives.
-FBI Definition
United States Bombings

May 4, 1886
• Haymarket Square; Chicago, Illinois

December 30, 1905
• Governor of Idaho, Frank Steunenberg

October 1, 1910
• Bombing of the Los Angeles Times

September 16, 1920
• Bombing of Wall Street

1951-56
• New York landmarks:


Grand Central Station
Radio City Music Hall
United States Bombings

September 15, 1963
• 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
Alabama

March 6, 1970
• Weather Underground Greenwich Village

August 24, 1970
• University of Wisconsin's Madison campus

January 24, 1975
• New York's historic Fraunces Tavern
United States Bombings

December 29, 1975
• TWA Terminal at New York's LaGuardia Airport

May 16, 1981
• Pan Am Terminal at New York's Kennedy Airport

November 7, 1983
• U.S. Congress Senate chamber

February 26, 1993
• World Trade Center

April 19, 1995
• Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City
United States Bombings

June 25, 1996
• Khobar Towers Bombing, Dharan, Saudi Arabia

August 7, 1998
• US Embassy Bombings, Nairobi, Kenya and
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

October 12, 2000
• U.S.S. Cole, Port of Aden, Yemen

September 11, 2001
• World Trade Center
• Pentagon
• Somerset County, PA
THREAT HISTORY
International terrorist acts
4
1
2
1. New York
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Kenya
4. Seattle
5. Yemen
5
3
THREAT HISTORY
State sponsors of international terrorism
2
1.Libya
2.Cuba
3.Iran
4.Iraq
1
6 74 3
5. North Korea
6. Sudan
7. Syria
5
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Al-Qaeda
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
Asbat al-Ansar
Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya
HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement)
Harakat ul-Mujahidin (Movement of Holy Warriors)
Hizballah (Party of God)
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) (Army of Mohammed)
The Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
National Liberation Army (ELN)—Colombia
Al Qaeda ("The Base")
 Reconcile the risks with the cause:
 violence requires a purpose in harmony
with the action to be understood as
rational
 Serve to recruit followers:
 both true believers in the cause and
opportunists (who like action and the
feeling of belonging)
Al Qaeda
Develop a sense of camaraderie



Ensures group loyalty
Solidarity
Self-protection
Al Qaeda
Theme:


Injustice from a repressive political
authority
Terrorists not getting their due
(independent system organized by their
ideology)
The Shade of Swords:
Jihad & the Conflict Between Islam & Christianity
M.J. Akbar
“Inside the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist”

Death is inevitable
• pursue martyrdom
• ultimate submission to God

Promise to Muslims from a hadith that..
• “the gates of Paradise are under the shade
of the swords”
The Shade of Swords:
Inside the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist
A martyr must:
 Love God more than life
 Be willing to sacrifice himself against
power of the devil and infidel forces
 Must overcome the physical fear of death
“The purest joy in Islam is to kill and be
killed for Allah” – Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
Central cause for Muslims:
 Palestinians’ plight and their fight for
“liberation”
 Fight against anti-Islamic campaigns




Bosnia,
Chechnya,
Afghanistan
Kashmir
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
Osama Bin Ladin
 Is the leader of A.Q.
 The imam for all Muslims
 …thus the Islamic “nation” should
rally around him
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
■
■
■
Muslims should wake up to their
“depressed condition,”
Should not stand passively
Should actively participate in the
(armed) jihad
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
Targets:
■ Arab/Muslim “agent regimes”
■ The “far enemy”
 must be targeted first,
 beware of the continuing threat from the
“near enemy”
■ The United Nations
 A lackey of the US
 A U.S. tool for oppression
 Is itself against Islam
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
Two forms of terrorism:
■ “Commendable”:
 the fight to stop America’s oppression of /
injustice toward Muslims
 The U.S. support for the Zionists (Israel)
■ “Abhorred”:
 what Israel is practicing in Palestine
 what America is doing in Iraq, Afghanistan,
and all over the world
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
 America’s “crusade” against the Islamic
world will fail:
 Muslims adhere to their principles/faith
 they are more cohesive domestically and
internationally
 AQ and Taliban are now a major presence on
the world political and psychological map
 Crusader “enemy front” is in conflict /
disintegrating
 Fall of Baghdad marks the return of
“direct colonialism” in the Arab world
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
■ U.S. is really out to:
 control region’s oil wealth
 dominate Muslim territories (“veiled
colonization”)
■ The 9/11 ghazwah (“raids”) were legitimate
and justified
 Due to US mistreatment of Muslims
 Continuing “occupation” of Saudi Arabia
 Support to Israeli aggression
■ US is mistreating, illegally holding the
mujahedin at Guantanamo
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Key Political Themes
 Bin Laden is still alive
 A.Q. will “stay the course”
 Women mujahedin are being mobilized
to join the jihad
 A.Q. took credit for the Aug 03 power
outages in the Eastern US
 highlighted America’s structural
weakness
 ineffectiveness of response to the situation
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
 A.Q. is familiar with the art of war
 U.S. military has ignored past lessons in favor
of technology
 U.S. military is ignorant of its current foe
 A.Q. is familiar with US posture on 4th
generation/asymmetric warfare
 U.S. (which still has a Cold War mentality)
 Guerilla warfare is the best weapon
– best way to prolong the conflict with the
“Crusader enemy”
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
Examined US “nightmares”
 threats from WMD
 “naval jihad” attacks
 attacks against oil supplies
 attacks against US economy
 “Internet jihad”
 forging of interests / links between
jihad groups and organized criminal
groups
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
 U.S. doesn’t understand Arab / Middle
East / Muslim culture
…thus losing the “information war”
 Iraq is now the key battlefield for the
global jihad
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
Use of historical comparisons/lessons:
 1972 Munich Olympics attack
 9/11 New York and Washington attacks
“great propaganda victories”
 Surprise achieved in 9/11 “conquest”
exceeded that of the Japanese attack
against Pearl Harbor
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
Use of historical comparisons/lessons:

US military has a history of:
• Barbarity
• War crimes against civilians
• Targets civilians deliberately
as “political pressure card”
 for psychological warfare

 Iraq fell to America in the second Gulf
War
 Due to the “treachery of Ba’athist regime”
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
 Al-Qaeda has the right to use WMD
 US Intelligence will continue to fail due
to:
 “bureaucratic obesity”
 interagency competition
 lack of understanding of a “determined
and creative enemy”
 Sniper tactics are a neglected but
effective tactic against infidel forces
Al-Qaeda:
Key Military Themes
 U.S. is trying to apply center of gravity
theory (COG) to A.Q. but has missed it
 A.Q. knows our C.O.G (our economy)
 targeting it all over the world
 Al-Qaida has been recruiting “blue eyed
foreign fighters”
 they can move freely
 disappear in target societies
Al-Qaeda:
Key Religious Themes
 Qur’anic basis for perpetual hostility
 Armed jihad is obligatory (and an individual
duty) for all against the infidels
 The West is conducting a “New Crusade”
against all of Islam
 not a “war against terrorism” as it claims
 Not all Ulama (Islamic scholars) truly
represent Islam
 “…beware of those under the control of the “agent
regimes”
Al-Qaeda:
Key Religious Themes
 All who cooperate with the “Crusaders” are
infidels
 Ulama not under apostate government
control need to actively support the jihad
 The importance of jihad as a means of
destroying the infidel countries:
 “annihilation of the infidels is a divine decree”
 The “Islamic Awakening” is frightening the
enemies of Islam
Al-Qaida:
Key Religious Themes
 Islamic law permits
 the killing of infidels (7 grounds)
 the killing of fellow Muslims (6 grounds)
 The West is using “radical Christian
doctrine” and the Crusader Church to
“Christianize” the Muslim world
 Two-stage process:
 Separate the people from Islam
 Missionary organizations can then influence
and control Muslims
Al-Qaida:
Key Religious Themes
 “Christianization” can only take place after
the campaign to spread vice and corruption
succeeds;
 main methods are:




sex
corruption of women
alcohol and drugs
imposition of deviant curricula in schools
 US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq
illustrate this process
 NGOs have helped to corrupt Muslim societies
Al-Qaeda:
Key Religious Themes
 The Jews intend to make Iraq part of
“Greater Israel”
 Shi’a “renegades” in Iran and Iraq are as
much of a threat as the Christians and Jews
 Western intellectuals are helping to mobilize
public opinion against Muslims
 justify waging a long-term crusade against Islam:
“Islamic threat to Western civilization” (Friedman,
Huntington, Lewis, Pipes)
 Client governments are aiding the “ZionistCrusader alliance” by supporting its
Westernization/anti-Islamist campaign
Al-Qaeda:
Key Religious Themes
 US is imposing secularism on the region by
force
 Separation of religion and state transforms
the human being from a servant of God into a
base animal driven by self-interest
 Democracy: one of “fruits of secularism”
 takes ultimate authority away from God, places
people’s will above God’s
Al-Qaeda:
Strategy
 Primary mission before 9/11:
 arm, train, and finance as many mujahedin as
possible
 assist Islamist groups worldwide
 Objectives of 9/11 attacks:
 provoke massive Western response to show it is
really at war with Islam
 force Westerners and Muslims to take sides (since
their fundamental values are incompatible)
 Another consequence of 9/11:
 Successfully “globalized” Islamist war against the
West
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Strategy
 Convince both Muslims and Westerners that
they are in a “fight to the death”
 make violent “clash of civilizations” (Huntington)
a reality
 Attacks help to show “high treason” of Arab
governments against their publics
 emphasize Western ineffectiveness
 Increased investment in propaganda to
compensate for physical losses
 Current focus: “expand the battlefield and
exhaust the enemy”
 targeting US interests everywhere stretches
resources, spreads fear
Al-Qaeda:
“Counterpropaganda Strategy”
“Scientific foundations & principles” to counter
US media use and psychological warfare:
 Determine strongest parts of enemy
propaganda to identify degree of importance,
then refute them
 Remove enemy’s ideas from symbolic and
emotional framework so they can be attacked
and contradictions identified
 Attack weak points and avoid confrontation
when enemy propaganda is at its strongest
Al-Qaeda:
“Counterpropaganda Strategy”
 Respond with events
 Affect public opinion
 U.S. “Info Dominance” strategy must
be understood, opposed
 Muslim technical experts need to break
U.S. computer monopolies so infidels
won’t know mujahedin’s secrets
Al-Qaeda:
Strategy
Four Strategic Stages to Conflict
1. Current guerilla and information war against
the “external enemy”, since the West can’t
be defeated in a traditional confrontation
2. Defeat Arab “agent regimes” by influencing /
removing their patron:


limit U.S. power and direction of their actions
removes their legitimacy
undermining US support makes them more
vulnerable
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Strategy
Four Strategic Stages to Conflict
3. “Stage of Isolation”:


Remove the U.S. Administration from its own
citizens
Remove the U.S. Administration from its allies
(exploit Afghan and Iraqi campaigns)
4. Direct confrontation with the US: defeat of
“Great Crusader” on its own soil will:


lead to loss by the West
shift international COG back to the Islamic world
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Shifts in Targets and Audiences
Main targets (physical attacks):
 Initial focus on US and Israel, and Arab /
Muslim “agent regimes”
 Shift to non-Arab / non-Muslim allies:
 France, UK, Australia, Russia, Japan
 “Hard” vs “soft” targets; expand to third
world regions
 Fellow Muslims anywhere, if they are aiding
the infidels
UNCLASSIFIED
Al-Qaeda:
Shifts in Targets and Audiences
Primary audiences (virtual influence):
 Focus on Muslims in Arabian Peninsula, Middle
East, South Asia, Central and Southeast Asia,
Europe (especially Balkans)
 Muslim diaspora (ummah) worldwide,
particularly “brethren” in Palestine and Iraq,
and Muslim youth everywhere
Al-Qaeda:
Shifts in Targets and Audiences
Primary audiences (virtual influence):
 Mujahedin networks (both affiliated and not
with A.Q.)
 U.S. public: accept Islam or prepare for more
attacks…policies in Afghanistan and Iraq
doomed to fail
 Publics of U.S. allies and even non-aligned
nations
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hamas
(Islamic Resistance Movement)




Founded in 1987
Outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of
the Muslim Brotherhood
Both political and violent
Strength is concentrated in the Gaza
Strip
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hamas
(Islamic Resistance Movement)

Conducted many attacks.
• large-scale suicide bombings
• Israeli civilian and military targets
• Has NOT targeted U.S. interests
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hizballah (Party of God)

Also known as:
•
•
•
•

The Islamic Jihad
Revolutionary Justice Organization
Organization of the Oppressed on Earth
Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine
Formed in 1982 in response to the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hizballah (Party of God)



Lebanon-based radical Shi’a group.
Ideological inspiration from the Ayatollah
Khomeini.
Formally advocates ultimate
establishment of Islamic rule in Lebanon
and liberating all occupied Arab lands,
including Jerusalem.
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hizballah (Party of God)
Activities:
 U.S. Embassy in Beirut April, 1983
 U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in
October,1983
 U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut in
September, 1984
INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST
GROUPS
Hizballah (Party of God)
Activities:
 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking
 1994 Bombing of the Israeli cultural
center in Buenos Aires.
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
The FBI views domestic terrorism as the
unlawful use, or threatened use, of
violence by a group or individual that is
based and operating entirely within the
United States or its territories without
foreign direction and which is committed
against persons or property with the
intent of intimidating or coercing a
government or its population in
furtherance of political or social
objectives.
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Hate groups
Patriot groups
Cult groups
Single issue groups
Lone individuals
Special interest
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
LOCATIONS
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Hate Groups
708 active U.S. hate groups, up from
457 in 2000. (2002 report).
 Ku Klux Klan
 Neo-Nazi
 Skinhead
 Christian Identity
 Black Separatist, and others
Black
Separatist
Ku Klux Klan
Christian
Identity
NeoConfederate
NeoNazi
Other
Racist
Skinhead
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Patriot Groups
SPLC Intelligence Project identified
158“Patriot” groups active in 2001.
 73 were militias
 2 were “common-law courts,”
 Remainder into a variety of
categories; (publishers, ministries, and
citizens’ groups).
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Patriot Groups




Patriot groups increasingly overlap with the
race or ethnicity-based hate groups.
Movement is growing more violent.
Largely driven by “Identity” ideology.
Terrorist conspiracies and crimes have
skyrocketed since the Oklahoma City
bombing.
• Plans to bomb at least three IRS buildings, two
federal buildings, several banks, a natural gas
refinery, family planning clinics, and other
targets have been made.
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Patriot Groups
Militia Groups: general criteria
 A militia is a domestic organization with
two or more members.
 The organization must possess and use
firearms.
 The organization must conduct or
encourage paramilitary training.
Militia groups are also called Patriots
or Minutemen
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Cult Groups

Composed of people who demonstrate great
devotion to:
 a person
 Idea
 Object
 or movement

Cult members, on occasion, move in and out of
fringe Christian groups or radical political,
technological, and militia movements.
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Cult Groups


Some are tied to a strong belief in an
apocalyptic “end time.”
From the time members enter a cult, they
believe in achieving a special status in the
spiritual family
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Cult Groups
 1997: Heaven’s Gate religious cult.
 members to committed mass-suicide
 spaceship trailing behind the Hale-Bopp Comet.
 1978: The People’s Temple, led by
James (Jim) Jones.
 Not terrorist incidents.
 Demonstrates commitment
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups
 August, 1998 through December, 1999:
 significant increase in incidents involving
the mailing of letters informing clinic
workers they had been exposed to
anthrax.
 Hoax letters:
 Cost millions of dollars in emergency
public-safety response
 Caused fear and stress
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups
 Violent anti-abortion groups
 Arson attacks
 Bombings
 Shootings
 Millions of dollars in
damages
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups




PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals)
Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
Arson to vandalism
This type of crime is increasing in frequency!
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals)
• attacks against animal-research
laboratories and manufacturing sites that
use animal byproducts in their businesses.
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups
Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
• an extremist animal rights movement
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Single Issue Groups
Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
 1998; arson fires set at a Vail, Colorado
Ski Resort
 Destroyed eight separate structures
 $12 million in damage
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Lone Individuals


Individuals remain the most likely domestic
source of a credible threat of the use of
WMD.
May be affiliated on the fringes of any of the
groups mentioned above.

Operate independently in order to
demonstrate their positions
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Lone Individuals
Timothy McVeigh



Murrah Federal Building
in Oklahoma City.
Killed 168 men, women,
and children.
Executed June 11, 2001
DOMESTIC TERRORIST THREAT
Lone Individuals
Eric Robert Rudolph




Often aligned with the
Christian Identity hate
group
1996; Centennial Park
Bombing ATL
1997; Bombing of
Woman's Health Clinic in
Birmingham
1998; Sandy Springs
Professional Office
Building north of Atlanta
THREAT HISTORY
Terrorist acts in the United States
• 1995 – Murrah Building, OK
• 1996 – ATL Olympic Park
• 1997 – ATL Family Planning
Clinic
• 1997 – Atlanta Nightclub
• 1997 – Fort Worth, Texas
• 1998 – Las Vegas, Nevada
• 1998 – Birmingham, AL
• 1998 – Brownsville, TX
• 1998 – Palm Desert, CA
• 1999 – Sacramento, CA
• 2001 – New York City, NY
• 2001 – Washington, DC
WEAPONS OF MASS
DESTRUCTION
Reasons terrorists might use WMD
• Cheap
• Available
• Effective
• Difficult to detect
• Maximum benefit/minimum resources
THREAT TARGETS

Airports

Apartment buildings

Bridges/tunnels

Buses and stations

Chemical plants

Civilian airliners

Critical infrastructure

Cruise ships

Cultural icons

Dams
THREAT TARGETS











Financial institutions
Government offices
Government officials
High-profile corporations
High-profile individuals
Large events/gatherings
Military installations
Nuclear reactors/related facilities
Rail targets
Shopping malls/high density
locations
Water facilities
THREAT TACTICS

Biological

Bombing

Chemical

Cyber-based
strikes

Hijacking

Hostage taking

Kidnapping
THREAT TACTICS

Nuclear

Radiological

Sabotage

Shooting

Vehicular bombing

Suicide bombing
Wrap Up!
Contact information
Michael W. Proctor, MD
The University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston
Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness
1200 Herman Pressler Drive RASW334
Houston, Texas 77030
Office: 713-500-9421
Cell: 256-310-5212
Email: [email protected]
www.texasbiosecurity.org