“Leaderless terrorism”
I wrote earlier about the search for useful distinctions between someone “acting alone” and a terrorist. The Christian Science Monitor helps out:
In determining the true nature of the crime, the US must consider Al Qaeda’s “organized endeavor to radicalize individuals” and the extent to which Hasan had a political motive, says Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and author of “Inside Terrorism.” (Hasan, wounded during the rampage and recuperating in the hospital, has not yet been charged.)
Terrorism is “violence designed to register some protest and/or to change the outcome of some political issue,” says Professor Hoffman. “Certainly this type of leaderless terrorism is not an organic phenomenon. Terrorist organizations are actively encouraging people – through the Internet and other means – to engage in violence of their own.”
Senator Lieberman’s Homeland Security committee has “looked closely at the role of the Internet in radicalization,” Hoffman adds.
Hoffman introduces an interesting concept: “leaderless terrorism.” That allows the terrorist label to be applied to someone who isn’t being necessarily directed, financed, or trained by a terror organization, but inspired by their “cause.”
But what if the shooter is nuts — how do we tell the difference between a pure act of political or religous murder and a crazed attack?
Hoffman, however, notes that a person’s psychological state does not necessarily dismiss terrorism as a motive in the attack.
“There is very much this gray area, but at the same time, the decision will be determined with psychological evaluations and then with how Major Hasan is charged,” he says. “I don’t see a nervous breakdown as being mutually exclusive of terrorism.
“It becomes a medical and legal issue,” he says, “not one that you can neatly demarcate in a definitional sense.”
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 