Feb 2019 AST Magazine Feb 2019 AST Final Magazine | Page 37

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February 2019 - Edition 32
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were the two perpetrators of a terrorist attack at the Inland Regional
Center in San Bernardino, California, on December 2, 2015., which killed 14 people and injured 22 others.
Finding Terrorists in Our Midst, Author
of ‘Family Terror Networks’
By Dean C. Alexander, Director of the Homeland
Security Research Program at WIU and author
of the groundbreaking new book, ‘Family Terror
Networks’, which analyzes the emerging and
troubling aspects of family terror networks.
Terrorist operatives shop, use banks
and credit cards, rent storage units,
acquire components for explosives,
and buy weapons.
Terrorists, whether inside or exter- These contacts might be aware of the
nal to a family network, do not radicalization and extremist activi-
ties of others in their social network.
operate in a void.
Operatives may enroll at educational
institutions, take part in activities at
They have jobs, family, friends, neigh- recreation centers, attend religious
bors, coworkers, classmates, and oth- services, and contribute to civic insti-
er individuals in their lives.
tutions.
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Nor are terrorists invisible.