Terrorism Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only) Glossary

Terrorism Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only) Glossary

SLUDL/NAUDL 2015-16

Terrorism Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only)

Terrorism Disadvantage 1

Glossary 2

Terrorism Disadvantage (1NC) (1/3) 3

Uniqueness

Surveillance increasing now 6

Links/Internal Links

Surveillance prevents terrorist plots 7

Surveillance is necessary for timely response 10

Surveillance allows meta-data intelligence 11

Surveillance creates bulk intelligence 12

Surveillance uncovers terrorist financing 13

Financing is key to terrorist efforts 16

Surveillance solves Al Qaeda sleeper cells 17

Answer to: Surveillance fails at solving a terrorist attack 18

Extension: Surveillance is necessary for stopping a terrorist attack 20

Immigration Surveillance prevents terrorism 21

NSA Reform makes finding terrorists harder 24

Impacts

Impact Extensions - Terrorism 26

Answer to: Terrorist attack is unlikely 28

Answer to: Terrorists aren’t a threat 29

Answers to: ISIS is not a Threat 30

Al Qaeda is a threat 31

AQAP is a threat 32

Glossary

NSA – The National Security Agency – this is a government agency that is responsible for monitoring, collection, and processing of information for foreign intelligence. The NSA was one of the agencies exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013 as an agency conducting surveillance on domestic (and foreign) populations for counter-terror efforts

SIGINT – Signal intelligence – this is a type of intelligence that is largely collected by the NSA. SIGINT is the process of collecting telecommunication data for counter-intelligence purposes

Bulk Surveillance – this is the collection of massive amounts of telecommunication information that isn’t all individual monitored, but bits and pieces are collected and pieced together by computer systems to monitor certain activity

AUMF – The Authorization for Use of Military Force – this is a piece of legislation signed by congress after the attacks of 9/11 and authorizes the use ofUnited States Armed Forcesagainst those responsible for theattacks on September 11, 2001. The authorization granted thePresidentthe authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups.

Al Qaeda – Al Qaeda is one of the largest terrorist networks in the world that is a radical fundamentalist group often held responsible for the 9/11 attacks. They have networks operating all across the globe in various countries in Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

AQAP – Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – it is considered one of Al Qaeda’s most active branches and operates primarily in Yemen and Saudi Arabia

ISIS – The Islamic State of Iraq – this is an extremist terrorist organization that occupies territory in Syria and Iraq. While many folks that subscribe to Islam denounce the activities of ISIS, they are held responsible for war crimes, genocide, and massive ethnic cleansing in the region and are one of the most active terrorist groups attempting to retaliate against the United States

Terrorism Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only) Uniqueness

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Terrorism Disadvantage (1NC) (N/JV/V Only) (1/3)

1. Domestic surveillance activities are expanding with no expectation to decline

Dahl, Assistant Professor at Nataval Postgraduate School, 2011 (Erik. “Domestic Intelligence Today: More Security but Less Liberty?.” Homeland Security Affairs 7, 10 Years After: The 9/11 Essays (September 2011). https://www.hsaj.org/articles/67

Unless the threat situation changes dramatically, we are not likely to see a new American domestic intelligence agency anytime soon. In the place of an “American MI-5,” however, a huge and expensive domestic intelligence system has been constructed. This system has thus far succeeded in keeping America safer than most experts would have predicted ten years ago, but it has also reduced civil liberties in ways that many Americans fail to understand. Precisely because it was unplanned and is decentralized, this domestic intelligence system has not received the oversight it deserves. In the long run, American liberty as well as security will gain from a fuller discussion of the benefits and risks of homeland security intelligence.

Terrorism Disadvantage (1NC) (2/3)

2. Curtailing domestic surveillance prevents intelligence agencies from stopping a terrorist attack – this is empirically true

Inserra, Research Associate from the Heritage Foundation, 2015 ("68th Terrorist Plot Calls for Major Counterterrorism Reforms," www.heritage.org/research/reports/2015/05/68th-terrorist-plot-calls-for-major-counterterrorism-reforms

This 68th Islamist terrorist plot or attack is the 57th homegrown terrorist attack or plot and the 10th targeting a mass gathering, the third most common target. The attack also comes as part of a recent wave of attacks and plots, as this is the sixth Islamist terrorist plot or attack in 2015. All of the plots and attacks this year have been perpetrated by individuals who claim to support the Islamic State to varying degrees. The FBI has stated that Simpson wanted to commit jihad with ISIS, and press reports indicate that he may have been in secret communications with ISIS members.[6]

Regardless, with these attacks and the increasing numbers of individuals in the U.S. seeking to support or join ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates, the U.S. is currently facing what is arguably the most concentrated period of terrorist activity in the homeland since 9/11. Director James Comey of the FBI has recent warned that “hundreds, maybe thousands” of individuals across the U.S. are being directly solicited by ISIS and urged to attack. Other senior officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the director of the National Counterterrorism Center Nicholas Rasmussen have also noted the increasing threat of terrorism here at home.[7]

Strengthening the Counterterrorism Enterprise

In light of these warnings, the U.S. cannot be passive. Heritage has recommended numerous counterterrorism policies for Congress to address, including:

Streamlining U.S. fusion centers. Congress should limit fusion centers to the approximately 30 areas with the greatest level of risk as identified by the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI). Some exceptions might exist, such as certain fusion centers that are leading cybersecurity or other important topical efforts. The remaining centers should then be fully funded and resourced by UASI.

Pushing the FBI toward being more effectively driven by intelligence. While the FBI has made high-level changes to its mission and organizational structure, the bureau is still working to integrate intelligence and law enforcement activities. This will require overcoming cultural barriers and providing FBI intelligence personnel with resources, opportunities, and the stature they need to become a more effective and integral part of the FBI.

Ensuring that the FBI shares information more readily and regularly with state and local law enforcement and treats state and local partners as critical actors in the fight against terrorism. State, local, and private-sector partners must send and receive timely information from the FBI. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should play a role in supporting these partners’ efforts by acting as a source or conduit for information to partners and coordinating information sharing between the FBI and its partners.

Designating an office in DHS to coordinate countering violent extremism (CVE) efforts. CVE efforts are spread across all levels of government and society. DHS is uniquely situated to lead the federal government’s efforts to empower local partners. Currently, DHS’s CVE working group coordinates efforts across DHS components, but a more substantial office will be necessary to manage this broader task.

Supporting state, local, and civil society partners. Congress and the Administration should not lose sight of the fact that all of the federal government’s efforts must be focused on empowering local partners. The federal government is not the tip of the spear for CVE efforts; it exists to support local partners who are in the best position to recognize and counter radicalization in their own communities.

Maintaining essential counterterrorism tools. Support for important investigative tools is essential to maintaining the security of the U.S. and combating terrorist threats. Legitimate government surveillance programs are also a vital component of U.S. national security and should be allowed to continue. The need for effective counterterrorism operations, however, does not relieve the government of its obligation to follow the law and respect individual privacy and liberty. In the American system, the government must do both equally well.

Terrorism Disadvantage (1NC) (3/3)

3. Another terrorist attack could lead to a downward spiral of world destruction

LIFTON '05 (Robert Jay, visiting prof of psychiatry @ Harvard Med Schl, "In the Lord's Hands," Annual Editions: Violence & Terrorism 05/06, p. 151)

Woodward ends his book on Bush on a mystical note. He describes a scene in which twenty-five men from different Special Forces and CIA tams gather at a desolate site in Afghanistan, where they have arranged a pile of rocks as a tombstone over a buried piece of the demolished World Trade Center. One of the men leads a prayer as others kneel, consecrating the spot as a memorial to the dead of September 11, and then declares: "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation." Woodward presents the scene as depicting the determination of an aggrieved nation to strike back. But it also suggests a sequence leading from memorialization to self-defense to apocalyptic militarism.

Such fundamentalist and apocalyptic tendencies by no means determine all of American policy, which can alternate with inclinations toward pragmatic restraint. But impulses toward regeneration through apocalyptic violence are an ever-present danger.

The Bush administration should by no means be seen as a mirror image of bin Laden or Islamism. Rather it is part of an ongoing dynamic in which the American apocalyptic interacts, almost to the point of collusion, with the Islamist apocalyptic, each intensifying the other in an escalating process that has in it the potential seeds of world destruction.

We are capable of extricating ourselves from this dynamic, of more measured approaches and more humane applications of our considerable power and influence in the world.

Surveillance increasing now

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(__) FBI terrorism surveillance activities are increasing now and effective in the status quo

Dahl, Assistant Professor at Nataval Postgraduate School, 2011

Erik. “Domestic Intelligence Today: More Security but Less Liberty?.” Homeland Security Affairs 7, 10 Years After: The 9/11 Essays (September 2011). https://www.hsaj.org/articles/67

The FBI is expanding its domestic intelligence and surveillance operations in other ways, as well. It is changing its own internal rules to give its agents more leeway to conduct investigations and surveillance, such as by searching databases or sorting through a person’s trash.35 And it appears to be making greater use of undercover informants in intelligence investigations, leading in some cases to successful arrests and prosecutions, but in others to controversy.36

(__) Newest government reports show surveillance is increasing by the government and is effective

Gilens, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, 2012

(Naomi, ACLU, "New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance," https://www.aclu.org/blog/new-justice-department-documents-show-huge-increase-warrantless-electronic-surveillance

Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability. The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney general’s 2010 and 2011 reports on the use of “pen register” and “trap and trace” surveillance powers. The reports show a dramatic increase in the use of these surveillance tools, which are used to gather information about telephone, email, and other Internet communications. The revelations underscore the importance of regulating and overseeing the government’s surveillance power. (Our original Freedom of Information Act request and our legal complaint are online.)

(__) Data shows electronic surveillance is on the rise

Gilens, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, 2012

Electronic Surveillance Is Sharply on the Rise The reports that we received document an enormous increase in the Justice Department’s use of pen register and trap and trace surveillance. As the chart below shows, between 2009 and 2011 the combined number of original orders for pen registers and trap and trace devices used to spy on phones increased by 60%, from 23,535 in 2009 to 37,616 in 2011.

Terrorism Disadvantage (N, JV, & V Only) Links

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Surveillance prevents terrorist plots

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(__) Domestic surveillance solves terrorist plots – since 9/11, the NSA program has prevent 50 homeland threats

New York Times, 2013

(Charlie Savage, "N.S.A. Chief Says Surveillance Has Stopped Dozens of Plots," www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/us/politics/nsa-chief-says-surveillance-has-stopped-dozens-of-plots.html?_r=0)

WASHINGTON — Top national security officials on Tuesday promoted two newly declassified examples of what they portrayed as “potential terrorist events” disrupted by government surveillance. The cases were made public as Congress and the Obama administration stepped up a campaign to explain and defend programs unveiled by recent leaks from a former intelligence contractor.

One case involved a group of men in San Diego convicted of sending money to an extremist group in Somalia. The other was presented as a nascent plan to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, although its participants were not charged with any such plot. Both were described by Sean Joyce, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, at a rare public oversight hearing by the House Intelligence Committee.

At the same hearing, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency, said that American surveillance had helped prevent “potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11,” including at least 10 “homeland-based threats.” But he said that a vast majority of the others must remain secret.

Surveillance prevents terrorist plots

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(__) Limiting surveillance prevents the government from accessing critical information to prevent a terrorist attack on US soil

Bergen et al, Director of the National Security Program at the New America Foundation, 2014

(Peter, "DO NSA'S BULK SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS STOP TERRORISTS?," https://static.newamerica.org/attachments/1311-do-nsas-bulk-surveillance-programs-stop-terrorists/IS_NSA_surveillance.pdf

June 5, 2013, the Guardian broke the first story in what would become a flood of revelations regarding the extent and nature of the NSA’s surveillance programs. Facing an uproar over the threat such programs posed to privacy, the Obama administration scrambled to defend them as legal and essential to U.S. national security and counterterrorism. Two weeks after the first leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published, President Obama defended the NSA surveillance programs during a visit to Berlin, saying: “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved.” Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, testified before Congress that: “the information gathered from these programs provided the U.S. government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world.” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the House floor in July that “54 times [the NSA programs] stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe – saving real lives.”