I have been helping a dear friend with a course he is teaching on national security and he knows of my work on terrorism so he asked if I would drop by and teach his class when the terrorism block was up….of course I told him I would be honored to help out.

In my pursuit of adequate information for the students to grasp…..I thought a good place to start would be with the most prolific attackers.

Internationally most terrorists attacks have been from a small cadre of extremists or a “lone wolf” attacker.

First, what is a “lone wolf” attacker?
A lone-wolf terrorist plans and carries out an attack without assistance or organisational support.  Most analyses of terrorism emphasize the power of group dynamics that can move normal individuals to commit horrific violence [6], but the distinctive aspect of lone-wolf terrorists is that they are moved to violent action without group or organisational support.[7]  In this section we consider two possibilities for understanding the actions of lone-wolf terrorists without invoking group dynamics: that they suffer from some form of psychopathology, and that they are moved by the same mechanisms of radicalisation that have been identified for individuals joining a terrorist group.

Source: Characteristics of Lone-Wolf Violent Offenders: a Comparison of Assassins and School Attackers | McCauley | Perspectives on Terrorism

After every attack of a lone wolf the media trots out a wealth of so-called experts to explain what type of person would do such a thing and immediately start assign blame for the attack….this group or that…..the problem is that the “lone wolf” cannot be detected from afar.

Until a genius geek invents such a sensor, detecting a lone wolf will remain almost impossible. Yet, there is a way: Change the ideas that beget terrorism. In other words, Muslim scholars should be encouraged to reveal the fallacy of the whole structure of teachings, interpretations, fatwas, and old, truly un-Islamic books that forge a whole theory justifying the murder of innocent civilians.

Source: The Terrorist Attack on Nice: Can a Radicalized Lone Wolf be detected? | Middle East Briefing

There is NO way to protect ourselves from the “lone wolf”……even if the “mother” organization is destroyed there will still be attacks in its name.

As long as I brought up the “lone wolf” attacker……and the creation of a Terrorist Diaspora….

This is an op-ed that I wrote for the site Ace News Room……..

Source: A Terrorist Diaspora | Ace News Room

The most important thing that we must realize is…..Terror is a tactic….Not an entity.