Cracking the ‘lone wolf’ code

Abstract

SURUCHI MAZUMDAR provides an overview of a phenomenon that has captured world attention: individual terrorists, cultivated through the Internet.

An Indonesian recruitment video for ISIS.

In November last year, Areeb Majeed, a 23-year-old male Indian national, was intercepted by authorities in Turkey because of alleged links with the radical Islamic State (also referred to as ISIS) in Iraq. Majeed, who was on his way back to India from Iraq, reportedly confessed under interrogations that he visited “more than 20,000” militant websites before he ended up fighting for the ISIS.

The case of Majeed, who would be described as a “lone wolf” by intelligence agencies, is not unique. From the seemingly ordinary young brothers of an immigrant family in the United States who were accused in the Boston bombings in 2013 to the more recent attack of a soldier outside of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, there have been several well-known instances of such militant acts in recent years.

What is said to be exceptional about this phenomenon is that in most cases individuals with no obvious links to militant groups or past criminal records were moved to radical causes by the messages of extremist websites. Kumar Ramakrishna, associate professor and head of the Centre of Excellence for National Security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), wrote in a commentary that “technological trends such as easy Internet access expedite direct action by lone wolves.”

But how far can extremist websites that propagate radical causes be held responsible for the rise of the lone wolf fighter? A 2013 report published by RAND Europe, a research and policy-making outfit, said that the Internet may act as “an ‘echo chamber’ for extremist beliefs.” The RAND study interviewed 15 individuals who were accused of terrorism or extremism in the United Kingdom, seeking to understand how the Internet impacts the process of self-radicalization. The report said that the Internet, being a key source of information, communication, and propaganda, provides opportunities to confirm existing radical beliefs.

The defining role of new technology is often uttered in the same breath with militancy of the post-Cold War era. Experts say that the expansion of global Islamic militant networks like the Al Qaeda or the prolonged separatist struggle of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in Sri Lanka would have been difficult without the Internet. More recently, there have been raging discussions on how the ISIS relied on the persuasive messages of online sites and forums, in particular, to recruit lone fighters from far and wide. A Time magazine article in October 2014 quoted Peter Neumann, Director of London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, as saying. “It’s obvious that lone wolf terrorism has increased in the past few years, but that was already the case before ISIS came into existence.”

Aidan Kirby, PhD candidate in the War Studies Department at King’s College, London noted in a 2007 journal article that the “Internet’s provision of operational instruction has broadened the existing spectrum of security threats and jihadist opportunities.” “Kirby traced the self-starter” phenomenon back to the London bombings of 2005. When it comes to training lone wolf fighters, the Internet – as scholars argue – works pretty much the same way as sites that facilitate online education, business and commerce, and hobbies and interests. The digital magazine, Inspire, affiliated to Al-Qaeda, is said to have proved useful in recruiting “individual jihadis” in western countries. Magazines like Inspire along with chat forums and virtual training camps have doled out “do-it-yourself” messages to prospective lone fighters. “The tactical and operational tradecraft that can be gleaned from the thousands of existing sites is comparable to that once only available in physical training camps,” observed Kirby in the same article.

In the past, English language magazines such as Inspire aimed to reach out to young Muslims only in western countries – the loner, seemingly marginalized Muslim youth who could be easily persuaded to fight. But the focus seems to be currently on Asia, especially the southeast Asian countries – a region known for its large Muslim population. Recently, radicals in Indonesia had an Inspire article, “Make a Bomb in Your Mom’s Kitchen,” translated in Bahasa for prospective lone wolf fighters in the region.

Singapore detained six individuals since 2007 who were suspected to be self-radicalized lone militants. In a 2013 address, deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean pointed out how lone wolves posed a challenge to authorities in particular, thanks to the widespread use of the Internet. Lone wolves are “radicalised by what they see and read on the Internet in the privacy of their homes or through their smart phones,” said Teo. They “do not leave physical traces for the security services to follow,” he added.

Joseph Chinyong Liow, the Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asian Studies at the Brookings Institution, said in an article in the Foreign Affairs magazine last September that authorities in Indonesia seemed indifferent toward radical websites that do propaganda for ISIS. The authorities’ refusal to take down these dangerous websites only helped the visibility of ISIS in the region, observed Liow.

But does the rapid outreach of radical online messages justify large-scale ban on so-called terror websites? It is “futile to attempt to monitor or censor the Internet by technical means to prevent extremist ideologies from proliferating,” said Ramakrishna in a commentary. There are more than 6000 websites at present, he observed, with the number increasing every day.

The stress, as some scholars argue, ought rather to be on counter-messages for which the Internet can be employed back to target vulnerable individuals. Digital literacy, a term coined by the UK-based think tank DEMOS, has been seen as a solution to radical online messages by some scholars. “The vulnerable individuals in front of computer screens are usually young males … they tend to think in relatively unsophisticated black-and-white terms and seek the certainty and clear answers usually provided by skillful extremist ideologues. This is why critical thinking skills … must be inculcated in young people,” added Ramakrishna.

But do Internet-savvy youth magically transform into gun-carrying radicals in the absence of physical contact with like-minded individuals? It may not be entirely pragmatic to overestimate the role of the Internet in the lone wolf crisis, some experts warn. The RAND study said that “the internet is not a substitute for in-person meetings but, rather, complements in-person communication.” Some scholars, like Farish Ahmad Noor of RSIS, are even more skeptical of what’s been claimed about lone wolves and self-radicalization, arguing that these perspectives arise from a security mindset that has little basis in rigorous social science (see Interview in this issue).

Those interviewed in the RAND study were not self-radicalized directly by the Internet per se as they remained in contact with other individuals, physically or virtually. “Lone wolf may be a misnomer as this type of killer is not always alone,” wrote Matthew H. Logan of HALO Forensic Behavioural Specialists in Canada in a 2014 journal article. In the absence of resources, know-how and accessibility to links, joining the war on ground may remain merely a far-fetched dream to self-radicalized individuals. “Although this genre of subject (killer convicts affiliated to extremist causes) sees themselves as rebels for a cause or warriors, their actions are more a result of their psychopathology and motivating mindset,” noted Logan in the same article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suruchi Mazumdar

Suruchi Mazumdar is a recent graduate of Nanyang Technological University’s doctoral program in communication.