AST September 2018 'ASTORS' Showcase Edition Sep 2018 Final (9.18.18) | Page 6

walks
and
Volume
27 streets;
schools and office
buildings; music
arenas, nightclubs
and concert halls;
trains, buses and
subways; and of
course, commercial
airplanes.
Likewise, the goals
are the same.
September 2018 Edition
(On Oct 31, 2017, Islamist terrorist  Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov, 29, drove a rented pickup
truck into cyclists and runners along the Hudson River Park’s bike path in Lower Manhattan, New
York City. The vehicle-ramming attack killed eight people, and injured eleven others.)
While there was
once a period when terrorism was seen
as violent political theater, in that the
goal was to attract attention to a cause
in order to effect change (the PLO at-
tack at the Munich Olympics in 1972
is a clear example), today it has revert-
ed back to form and needs to be seen
in the light of incursions with the final
aim of destroying the enemy.
and disrupted.
Meetings could be raided or be subject to
drone attacks. Communications could be
tapped, intercepted or cut off.
The lone wolf threat has changed all of
that.
Now, there is no command structure,
no cells, just single actors who become
The one key difference between then and “radicalized online”, as the saying goes.
now is that the asymmetric opponent has,
Meetings have been replaced with blog
for lack of a better term, diffused.
posts or videos consumed by hundreds or
Before, guerrilla fighters or terrorist oper- more.
atives belonged to an organization.
There is rarely any communication, just
Even if it was hidden within a city or anoth- the declaration during the attack.
er country, there was a command structure
which could be targeted.
And the weapons may be as innocu-
Cells could be discovered, infiltrated ous as a kitchen knife or rental van. 4