Terrorism – Page 2

Statt kausal-logischer Ermittlungsarbeit, computergestützte Wahrsagerei

Die Süddeutsche stellt sich die Frage “warum demokratische Regierungen so große Angst vor ihren Bevölkerungen haben” … und beantwortet sie eigentlich nicht. :(Dem Artikel kann man dennoch etwas Gutes abgewinnen, da die Begründungen für die Datensammelwut von Behörden und Geheimdiensten und ihr tatsächlicher Nutzen zur Sprache kommen, die im folgenden Zitat gut zusammengefasst sind:

Statt kausal-logischer Ermittlungsarbeit betreibt man eher computergestützte Wahrsagerei, der man umso mehr glaubt, je mehr Daten, Profile, Verhaltensmuster in der Datenbank lagern.

Lauer Verdacht

Muhaha … beim neusten Fall der substanzlosen Terrorpanikmache war der Terrorverdacht so lau begründet, dass es nicht mal zu einer Pro-Forma-Verhaftung kam. m(

Anti-Terror-Dünger

Das haben wir gebraucht: Anti-Terror-Dünger. 😉

What terrorists think (of themselves) … a comparison

I coincidentally stumbled across two instances where (alleged) terrorists are given the chance to explain themselves in court:

What the “islamist” terrorist said vs. what the “ultra nationalist” terrorist said.

Harms of Post-9/11 Airline Security

Bruce Schneier on the harms of post-9/11 airline security … and I think he is absolutely right.

Paper: Does Terrorism Really Work? Evolution in the Conventional Wisdom since 9/11

Bruce Schneier points to a new paper by Max Abrams titled “Does Terrorism Really Work? Evolution in the Conventional Wisdom since 9/11“. From the abstract:

The basic narrative of bargaining theory predicts that, all else equal, anarchy favors concessions to challengers who demonstrate the will and ability to escalate against defenders. For this reason, post-9/11 political science research explained terrorism as rational strategic behavior for non-state challengers to induce government compliance given their constraints. Over the past decade, however, empirical research has consistently found that neither escalating to terrorism nor with terrorism helps non-state actors to achieve their demands. In fact, escalating to terrorism or with terrorism increases the odds that target countries will dig in their political heels, depriving the non-state challengers of their given preferences. These empirical findings across disciplines, methodologies, as well as salient global events raise important research questions, with implications for counterterrorism strategy.

I hope my university has access to it …