Running head: CAUSES OF DOMESTIC
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Causes of Domestic Terrorism
Alex Tamsen
HSM305, Survey of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Instructor's Name
Month Day, Year
CAUSES OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM
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Causes of Domestic Terrorism
Domestic terrorism has been on the rise in the recent years in the United States.
Even
though we have been dealing with domestic terrorism for decades, it seems that we have been
dealing with a lot more isolated incidence recently than ever before.
The FBI defines domestic
terrorism as the unlawful use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual
based and operating entirely within the United States or Puerto Rice without foreign direction
committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, a civilian
population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives (Terrorism).
Today’s domestic terror threats run the gamut, from hate-filled white supremacist, to highly
destructive eco-terrorist, to violence-prone anti-government extremist, and to radical separatist
groups (Domestic Terrorism, 2009).
This paper is going to go through the history of incidents in
the United States, while also analyzing these incidents, it will also evaluate effectiveness of
deterrents and existing antiterrorism measures, and lastly it will Propose recommendations based
on the analysis of historical incidents and the evaluation of deterrents and antiterrorism
measures.
The U.S. is not like any other country.
Sure, we have our problems, but at the end of the
day we have the best of the best agencies and people protecting our homeland so that we can live
somewhat of a worry-free life day to day.
From time to time this way of life gets interrupted by
an event that is meant to disrupt all things.
The types of domestic terror attacks can vary from
bombings to lone wolf shootings, but in the end these attacks are meant to get a point across or to
hurt and kill people.
The U.S. experienced a lot of domestic terrorism in the 60’s and 70’s due to
our involvement in the Vietnam War, these acts were not part of a sophisticated protracted
campaign of terror (Sloan, 2016).
This paper is going to start with analyzing the Bombing of the
CAUSES OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM
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federal building in Oklahoma City.
As we analyze certain domestic attacks you will see how a
lot of the attacks have evolved into “lone wolf” attacks in the recent years.
These “lone wolf”
attacks are people who are being inspired by extremist ideologies to radicalize to violence and
commit acts of terrorism against Americans and the Nation (Bullock, 2016).
The first attack that to analyze is the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
On April 19
th
, 1995 at 9:02a.m. was when the bomb went off outside the Murrah
Federal Building.
Timothy McVeigh, an ex-soldier and security guard, parked a rented Ryder
truck in front of the building.
This truck was loaded with agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and
other chemicals, which resulted in the mix for the deadly bomb.
