Physical Surveillance
The ‘identity’ of what a terrorist looks like has over the years changed from a typical Middle Eastern look to an ordinary American look. Also, the typical terrorist is no longer uneducated; instead, they are ‘Americanized’ and educated enough to pass as ordinary and upper-class American citizens. This has meant that physical surveillance must change to accommodate this normalcy by incorporating those aspects of physical surveillance that ensure security agents blend in well enough to be able to collect information. In an effort to improve physical surveillance, the security agents needed to blend in and become part of the middle east society, while at the same time retaining their American identity to create sophisticated middle eastern ‘contact’ with the terrorist.
Technical Surveillance
Modern technological advances have meant that the use of technology to surveil a group is today becoming more difficult. However, the advancement has meant that sophisticated technologies are coming about that can be used to surveil. In this case, however, there needed to be a mix of old-school and modern electronic surveillance countermeasures. For instance, when intersecting online communication, modern electronic and software surveillance tools needed to be used. However, for the undercover security agents, eavesdropping conversations, photocopying sensitive materials, and reading text messages, among others, is enough. The balanced use of these two countermeasures reduces the risk of being discovered and also covering all the bases.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Infiltrating Through Turning Members
The desire to live and work in America is perhaps the greatest appeal to most people who seek entry into the United States. This appeal is an essential factor in helping security agents infiltrate a terrorist cell by turning members into confidential informants (CI). In a group that is continuously improving and blending into American society, double agentry becomes the safest and most efficient way of surveilling such a terrorist group. The security agencies involved needed to ‘turn’ at least a few members of the group individually in an effort to gain as much information as possible and also verify the information received from one CI as compared to another.
Interrogation
The old-school method of using cruelty during an investigation, while it is effective, it fails in helping the security agents make a step towards eradicating terrorism. Terrorist groups are becoming more sophisticated than was before by operating in cells which ensure that members of one cell can only have specific information and thus cannot report about another cell. Therefore, the main goal of interrogation should be to turn these terrorists and make them work for the security agents, in an effort to identify the leaders that run the whole operation. Cruelty should only be used when there is an immediate danger of an attack happening.
Inter-Agency Interaction
The biggest threat to the United States security has been the failure of sharing information between security agents. This has worked against the security agents as this division has allowed some terrorists to continue operating with ease. Sharing of surveillance information between security agencies both in and outside the United States plays a vital role in having the full scope of the terrorists’ activities, both in and outside the United States. Previous lapses in security have been due to gaps due to lack of information sharing, which has allowed some information to ‘leak’ through security surveillance system and hence allow for the perpetuation of terrorist activities.
Intergovernmental Interaction
The United States cannot work alone in surveilling international terrorist groups, who operate in-between different countries across continents. This demands that the surveillance must not be limited only to the United States, but also between individual governments where these groups are believed to be in operation. This helps the government compare notes as to the group’s activities and intervene at the proper stage and time before the group can do any harm.
