Mass Surveillance and Terrorism

This assignment delves into the complex relationship between mass surveillance and counter-terrorism. It analyzes the arguments for and against using extensive surveillance measures to prevent terrorist attacks, considering both their potential effectiveness and the significant impact on individual privacy. The provided sources offer diverse perspectives on this contentious issue, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of its ethical, legal, and societal implications.

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Countering Terrorism
Abstract
Terrorism is one of the biggest reasons of unrest and mass killing all over the world. The term
terrorism refers to the use of violence in order to instill a sense of fear amongst the general
public. There is almost always either a religious, political or ideological aim behind a terrorist
act.
As terrorism results in the deaths of millions of people at a time, it is essential to control and
suppress the root cause of such violence. This leads to the generation of countering violent acts
that lead to killing of men, women and children and is called as counter terrorism. Governments,
private agencies and also the army sometimes comes together to form alliances which tackle
extremist groups which refuse to settle to agreements.
This paper aims to talk about risk associated with the return of foreign fighter. This paper also
discusses how counter terrorism emerged, the challenges faced by counter terrorism agencies and
how states can respond to the return of these foreign fighters.
Introduction
Terrorism means the destructive activities taken recourse to by a group of people to coerce a
government to yield to their demands (Roy 2013). The term “terrorism” is associated with
violent activities and mass killings. Even though, there is no fixed definition of the word
terrorism, almost every human being is aware of it and some have even experienced its horrific
consequences. Terrorism is not an ideology like communism or capitalism. Rather, terrorism is a
tactic – a strategy used to achieve a specific end (Lemieux 2016). Terrorism is usually the act of
instilling fear in people in order to show power, rage or is backed by the fulfillment of some sort
of political, religious or ideological agenda. Terrorism is responsible for the killing of people in
large numbers. The violence is aimed at creating fear in the targeted population and often
provokes prompt and violent response from the state (Lemieux 2017). Therefore it is necessary
to take strong precautionary measures to avoid as well as fight back extremist groups who try to
create hue and cry.

This leads to effective planning and making of strategies used to tackle terrorism. This is called
counter terrorism. The act of preparation, planning, constructing and implementing strategies to
control and combat the gruesome acts of terrorism is what is called as counter terrorism. Counter
terrorism holds extreme importance as it not only a precautionary measure but a well thought out
strategy that aims to prevent and combat terrorist groups when the situation gets out of hand.
History
The first ever counter terrorism group was formed by Sir William Harcourt who was Home
secretary at the time in British. This was back in 1880s when the Irish militant Fenians was
carrying out a terror campaign resulting in extreme violence and deaths of innumerable innocent
people. The idea was to infiltrate the Irish group and tackle the violent activities happening from
inside.
It was Harcourt who have the idea of undercover infiltration and the name of the unit form by
him was later changed to “Special branch” as the group expanded and became more permanent.
The general role of the unit was to tackle terrorist groups by foreign subversion. This helped
immensely in the governments knowing about the planning and strategies of the terrorist groups
without the latter realizing it. From here on, under cover infiltration of organized crime became
the norm and law enforcement agencies and government authoritative forming similar units in
order to nip the violent extremism in the bud.
Counter terrorism gained extreme importance in the late 20th century. This happened post the
9/11 attacks on world trade center in America. History tells us that nations fall or rise depending
on the efficacy of their intelligence machinery and the quality of their counter-terrorism strategy
(Raghavan 2012). The extreme loss of innocent lives and property, the unpreparedness of the
government and the army was extremely shocking to one and all. Law enforcement agencies,
post this event started investing a lot of their time, export and resources into the formation of
such squads and units that could submerge foreign groups causing violence and be a step ahead.
Such statistics increase the need for having counter terrorism systems.
Planning Counter Terrorism

Terrorists tend to employ shockingly violent acts, such as beheadings, downing of commercial
airlines, bombings in public markets, and armed attacks in public places, to intimidate an
audience (Sandler 2015). Effective and in-depth planning involving government authorities,
military forces as well as private agencies are required for tackling and combating terrorism.
There are a number of measures taken by the above mentioned organizations such as hiring
intelligence, mass surveillance and reconnaissance. These activities take a huge amount of time
and discretion and important to national security as well as the lives of millions of innocent
people. Traditional means of implementing counter terrorism activities include increasing
intelligence and domestic surveillance. This requires a large task force and recruiting a larger
number of police officials and other standard police personnel than usual. In addition to this
surveillance of communication is also done. This includes interception of communication lines
such as phone calls, emails, video calls etc. as well as tracing of important extremist head
members which run their organizations. Almost every major terrorist attack on Western soil in
the past fifteen years was committed by someone already on the government’s radar for one or
another reason (Granick 2017). Modern methods are slightly different and a little bit more
reliable and efficient. These include expanding military as well as increase law enforcement
operations. Counter terrorism is not an easy job. There are a number of challenges faces by law
enforcement authorities which can make their job difficult. They may also hamper the operations
the need to be carried and result in failed attempts upon discovery by the opposing groups.
Counter-terrorism, to be effective, has to have a strong preventive element—the aim being to
stop an attack long before it is launched, and thereby to reduce the fear, as well as effects, of
terrorism (White 2013). Below mentioned are a few of the major challenges that are faced by
counter terrorism groups.
1. Surveillance- This is the biggest issue faced by governors and law enforcement agencies.
It has a number of parameters which determine the success and ability of government
authorities on finding information on target groups. A major concern with the
development of mass surveillance tools is that they can be used by authoritarian regimes
to suppress freedom of information and expression and track down political opponents
(Kersley 2015). Mass surveillance means keeping an eye on a large group of people. This
is a difficult job as it surveilling such a large number of people is not only very
impractical but also requires an increase in the number of recruits that shall be surveilling

these people. In addition to this, surveillance measures of such a scale are very often
opposed by the general public as this obliterates their right to privacy. Therefore,
surveillance is a major issue and a challenge for the government trying to get gold of
individuals and groups who indulge themselves in terrorist activities. The lack of
transparency creates a fundamental distrust between the public and the national security
as to how the surveillance system actually functions (Chan 2015). A lot of the time
members of extremist groups have original identification credentials. Research has long
demonstrated that there is no terrorist profile, predictive pathway or discernible process
that leads one to commit violent acts (German 2016). This makes it even more difficult
for the authorities to identify them.
2. Preparation- Another challenge is intelligence. One never knows what information is true
and what is false. It is extremely difficult to obtain reliable information one that can be
acted upon immediately. Preparation is of utmost importance. There have been a number
of terrorist activities in almost every country on the planet till date and the law
enforcement authorities are more alert and prepared than ever. Even so, terrorists and
extremist groups are able to have their way, take the lives of innocent people in huge
numbers. It is extremely important to be alert and aware at all times. However, already
present challenges due to surveillance issues make it even more difficult than it already
is.
3. Infiltration- Many times, the extremist groups who cause violence are often small close
knit groups. Also, a lot of the times these group members are blood related and know
everyone in the group personally. Therefore infiltration of these groups is extremely
difficult. These groups do not tend to involve outsiders into their clan and are aware of
the infiltration tactics that the government agencies now use.
The United States continues to rely heavily on airstrikes and targeted killings, while terrorist
groups continue to cause mayhem and gain adherents (Brooks 2015). In times like these, when
the counter terrorism groups are faced with extreme challenges as the ones mentioned above, the
only options left are communications interception and financial tracking of individuals and even
these options remain limited and need to be handled with extreme discretion.
Frustrated Foreign Fighters

It has been seen in the past decades that there is an increase in the number of foreign fighters
who return to their country countries causing threats. Foreign fighters have years of experience
and hard core training in creating and tackling violence. Therefore, they have a very different
mindset from the average human being. This poses a great threat to the national security. Many
foreign fighters who go to war initially have very different intentions. However, therr have been
innumerable cases where some of these have been captured and indoctrinated. These war heroes
upon returning to their home countries can pose a great threat to the security of their own
country. The governments are well aware of this and the foreign fighters become more and more
frustrated dur to this. There are a number of things that can be done by the state in order to
ensure peace upon return of foreign fighters to the home country. This can begin by keeping an
eye on the foreign fighters, especially on social media. Such individuals have a tendency of
expressing their sympathies towards foreign countrie. How such surveillance needs to be done at
a large scale. This requires a lot of resources on the part of the state and the nation. Additionally,
such measures should be taken by ensuring proper discretion first.
The Downside of Counter Terrorism
Although counter terrorism groups were built keeping in mind the need to control, tackle, combat
and suppress any potential violent activities that may be impending, there have been a number of
cases where the abuse of power evident. Certain politicians and government officials waste no
time exploiting the tragedy for their own ends (Anonymous 2015). A number of cases where
individuals have been confined to imprisonment, captured and beaten and accused of being
involved in terrorist activities have also emerged. A lot if the times such imprisonment was
conducted on the basis of the individual's race or religion with no other effective information
about his or her factual involvement with the terrorism. A number of cases have emerged and
been recorded as abuse of power while they were meant for the sole purpose of effective
surveillance and collection of good intelligence. Capturing, imprisoning, beating and holding a
person in solitary confinement for long hours without genuine information of the involvement of
the individual in any sort of crime is illegal. The ideal response is one that balances greater
security on the one hand, while preserving civil liberties on the other (Wilkinson 2004).
In 2003, in Malaysia counter terrorism laws were passed. These faced extreme opposition and
protest by the human rights activists in the country. The laws were said to be very vague and

breaching an individual's privacy rights. These laws allowed the government to hold alleged
militants or accountable without fair trails.
In the same year, in Syria Meher Agar who happened to be a Canadian-Syrian national reported
publicly that he was captured and tortured illegally by the Syrian authorities.
Another incident that happened in Columbia towards the end of the same year, allowed the
military on Columbia to arrest civilians, tap cell phone communications and carry out house
searches without any warrants.
A large number of people who are allegedly having relations to or are involved in criminal
activities of Taliban, Al Qaeda and many other such extremist groups , are captured and detained
indefinitely without any warrants or official proceedings.
Many such incidents have taken place in a number of different countries. While you getting
terrorism is essential, and must be done, abusing ones power and taking away an individual's
basic human rights is not only discouraged but also illegal. Human rights activist all over the
world come together and put in a lot of effort to ensure such abuse of power is not done. They
work to rescue individuals falsely acquitted of being involved in crimes they did not commit and
people related to terrorists they are not related to. Europe’s human rights watchdog has issued a
strong warning on the dangers of new mass surveillance counter-terrorism measures being
adopted by governments in the aftermath of the Paris and Copenhagen terror attacks (Travis
2015). While counter terrorism is precautionary at best in its efforts to tackle terrorism, it does
have a few cons that prove to be extremely wrong and intolerable in nature.
Preparation
Being prepared for an attack is the most important thing in planting a terrorist attack.
Governments carry out regular drills to ensure military forces, civilians, police forces are all
prepared to handle situations of extreme violence and distress. In addition to this, there are a
number of other precautionary measures that can ensure the least possible damage to life and
property. Below are discussed such measures in detail.
1. Police forces and emergency response organizations including medical service providing
organizations, hospitals and fire-fighters have extremely important roles in times of a

violent terrorist attack. Civilians must be trained to not panic and call for immediate help.
Regular drills and practice sessions can prove to be of great importance. These can help
immensely at times of need. Every individual should be taught about the benefits of
having a prepared emergency first aid kit. In addition to this, one must always remember
contact numbers of police, hospitals and fire fighting agencies. Being prepared is the first
step in fighting any sort of violent activity.
2. Target hardening is another effective strategy use by the counter terrorism groups to
ensure safety of targets. Target hardening essentially means taking steps to ensure safety
of important buildings, people of whatever is it is that the opposing group aims to target.
This can be done by a number of ways. One method is to limit the access of vehicles to
close to a building. This removes the possibility of damage to an important building as
well as the people inside by an intended truck or car explosion.
1. Another method involves planning of building layouts in such a manner that they have
easily accessible fire exits, and can be evacuate by a large number of people easily in a
short period of time
2. In airplanes nowadays, especially after the 911 attack, the cockpits have reinforced doors
that can only be unlocked by the pilots. Railways stations in the United Kingdom and
Scotland got rid of their dustbins as they proved to be convenient locations for hiding
bombs. In Massachusetts, the Bay Transportation authority installed barriers that were
bomb resistant as a precautionary measure.
3. Authorities must also keep in mind that large factories and industries dealing with
chemicals can be easy targets. Also chemicals can be stolen are used to make bombs very
easily. Chemicals used in industries require greater amount of protection than they
currently do.
4. Command and control centers are required handling such incidents that may involve
violence at a large scale. National response teams and local response teams must be
formed and prepared at all times to ensure safety and protection of life and property.
5. Mitigating damage is also of great importance. Fire fighters, hospitals, police forces and
local response teams must be trained and regular drills should be conducted to keep all
trams ready in situation of an attack. Such bodies are also best suited for handling the

impact if a violent incident. In the event of an attack, it is the responsibility of the local
police to handle large crowds. They must isolate and evacuate the affected area
immediately reducing the damage. Hospitals have emergency rooms which must be
equipped with handling effected people and treating them accordingly. Fire fighters have
a very important role in controlling explosions and fires in an affect3d building. Helping
in evacuating the effected buildings is one of their major roles.
6. Many countries have invested a large amount of their money and resources into building
tactical forces and units which are specially trained in handling violent attacks by
terrorists. These task forces have intense trainings which involve preparation and
mitigation practices in times of attacks. These special task forces are highlight trained in
direct engagement with terrorists. They specialize in rescue operations and combating
further terrorist attacks. The majority acts of terrorism are handles by a Country's national
and state level forces. However, Special Forces are also required when the attack is lethal
and a great amount of risk is involved.
Designing counter terrorism systems
As technology has evolved manifolds over the years, terrorist attacks have become more and
more advanced and difficult to recognize. Therefore, building anti terrorism attacks is not only
essential but shall help in prevention of large scale violent crimes effectively. Developing such
systems needs a vast amount of knowledge, resources and time. It has been implemented despite
ongoing confusions about costs, what metadata actually is, and whether the telecommunications
sector is ready to retain and encrypt this data (Baldino 2015). Anti terrorism systems need to take
into account a number of very complicated factors such as controlling large crowds, managing
vast borders of a country, technological advances that can be used by terrorists, managing high
traffic and high population areas. Such systems need highly advance technological innovation
capable of storing analyzing and interpreting large amounts of data.
The biggest challenge for building of such a system is the level of uncertainty. Terrorists usually
target areas that have a large population so the impact can be maximized. However, building
such a system that can recognize imminent threats all over r the world can be an extremely

daunting task. Moreover shall also not be very cost effective. Meaning not every city may be
able to afford such a system. Also, a system can be hacked, and manipulated by anyone.
Therefore there are always such limitations when it comes to the use of technology.
Conclusion
Terrorism is a grave issue in today's world. It leads to the loss of lives of millions. It creates
havoc and instills a sense of fear amongst the general population. Numerous acts of terrorism
over the ages have forced governments and law enforcement systems to come up measures to
control and combat terrorism. This has led to the invention of counter terrorism. Counter
terrorism involves activities relating to combating, suppressing, tackling and handling any
violent activities that may harm innocent people and be a threat to national security or the pop7of
a country in general.
A number of steps have been taken by governments to keep the public and task forces such as
police, army etc prepared for times of attacks. These include mass surveillance of public places
especially those that have a high population. These also include forming Special Forces that are
trained to combat violent criminal attacks by terrorists. Counter attacking terrorists and
suppressing all such activities that prove to be harmful to the public are laid emphasis on.
Even so, there are a number of challenges that are faced by counter terrorism systems. Mass
surveillance is not only extremely expensive but also violates privacy rights of individuals. Thus,
protests against surveillance systems are ongoing and are a major limitation for such systems that
need to collect information that may prove to be essential in terrorist attacks. Apart from that,
there are a number of other challenges faces by counter terrorism systems.
Every country in today's world is investing a huge amount of resources and money in forming
Special Forces that are trained to deal with terrorism, its impacts and repercussions. With
advancements in technologies, terrorist are also becoming more and more aware and using
advanced methods of technology to create more havoc. Therefore, in today's world it is
imperative to have counter terrorism systems to prevent and mitigate the effects of terrorism.

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