How does a group that operates terror cells and espouses violence become a ruling political party? How is the world to understand and respond to Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that Palestinian voters brought to power in the stunning election of January 2006? This important book provides the most fully researched assessment of Hamas ever written. Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert with extensive field experience in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, draws aside the veil of legitimacy behind which Hamas hides. He presents concrete, detailed evidence from an extensive array of international intelligence materials, including recently declassified CIA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security reports. Levitt demolishes the notion that Hamas’ military, political, and social wings are distinct from one another and catalogues the alarming extent to which the organization’s political and social welfare leaders support terror. He exposes Hamas as a unitary organization committed to a militant Islamist ideology, urges the international community to take heed, and offers well-considered ideas for countering the significant threat Hamas poses.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Examines terrorists¿ involvement in a variety of crimes ranging from motor vehicle violations, immigration fraud, and mfg. illegal firearms to counterfeiting, armed bank robbery, and smuggling weapons of mass destruction. There are 3 parts: (1) Compares the criminality of internat. jihad groups with domestic right-wing groups. (2) Six case studies of crimes includes trial transcripts, official reports, previous scholarship, and interviews with law enforce. officials and former terrorists are used to explore skills that made crimes possible; or events and lack of skill that the prevented crimes. Includes brief bio. of the terrorists along with descriptions of their org., strategies, and plots. (3) Analysis of the themes in closing arguments of the transcripts in Part 2. Illus.

Tracing the history of government intrusions on Constitutional rights in response to threats from abroad, Cole and Dempsey warn that a society in which civil liberties are sacrificed in the name of national security is in fact less secure than one in which they are upheld. A new chapter includes a discussion of domestic spying, preventive detention, the many court challenges to post-9/11 abuses, implementation of the PATRIOT ACT, and efforts to reestablish the checks and balances left behind in the rush to strengthen governmental powers.

There are 2 fed. material support statutes have been at the heart of the Justice Dept¿s. terrorist prosecution efforts. One provision outlaws providing material support for the commission of certain designated offenses that might be committed by terrorists. The other outlaws providing material support to certain terrorist org. They share a common definition of the term ¿material support,¿ some aspects of which have come under constitutional attack. Contents of this report: (1) Introduction; (2) Background; (3) Support of Designated Terrorist Org.: Attempt, Conspiracy, Aiding and Abetting; Material Support; Other Constitutional Challenges; Terrorist Org.; Consequences of Charge or Conviction; Extraterritorial Jurisdiction; Civil Actions; (4) Support of Terrorism.

This Understanding treatise provides a compact review of the major areas of law concerned with or affected by terrorism. Thoughtfully organized and clearly written, Understanding the Law of Terrorism examines various subject matters--such as criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, the law of evidence, national security law, and the law of armed conflict--as the underlying legal doctrines and polices are influenced and at times distorted by counter-terrorism efforts in law enforcement, intelligence gathering, and military action. The topics include: the difficulties in defining terrorism, the principal federal statutes and bases for jurisdiction, the role of conspiracy doctrine in terrorism investigations and prosecutions, and the resulting concerns related to political freedom; the crimes implicated by encouraging or assisting terrorism, especially the provision of material support for terrorist activity or foreign terrorist organizations, as well as the prospect of civil liability for terrorist activity; the doctrinal impact of terrorism-related searches, the issues of profiling in terrorism investigations, and the detention and deportation of terrorism suspects; the use of intelligence surveillance for counter-terrorism purposes, the history and development of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the problems of terrorism-related mass surveillance both before and after the Snowden revelations; the interrogation of terrorism suspects at home and abroad, and the background and legal issues raised by the use of torture and extraordinary rendition in the war on terror; the state secrets privilege and defense rights in terrorism cases, the application of the Classified Information Procedures Act and related processes, and the problems of public trials and courtroom security in terrorism prosecutions; the history and development of the law of armed conflict and U.S. war powers, the deployment of armed forces against terrorist organizations, and the use of military force against foreign nations in response to terrorist attacks or to preempt terrorism; the background of military detention and trial as an incident of war, the evolving law of military detention for terrorism suspects and its application to Guant++namo, and the use of military commissions to try alleged terrorists; and the use of targeted killings as a counter-terrorism policy and the legal implications in the war on terror. Understanding the Law of Terrorism thus offers jurists and practitioners a basic appreciation of an emerging sphere of law with increasing importance across disciplines, while also serving pedagogical purposes for teachers and students interested in exploring the impact of a highly provocative subject and the resulting interactions among seemingly distinct fields of law.

The U.S. government's power to categorize individuals as terrorist suspects and therefore ineligible for certain long-standing constitutional protections has expanded exponentially since 9/11, all the while remaining resistant to oversight. Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions provides a comprehensive and uniquely up-to-date dissection of the government's advantages over suspects in criminal prosecutions of terrorism, which are driven by a preventive mindset that purports to stop plots before they can come to fruition. It establishes the background for these controversial policies and practices and then demonstrates how they have impeded the normal goals of criminal prosecution, even in light of a competing military tribunal model. Proceeding in a linear manner from the investigatory stage of a prosecution on through to sentencing, the book documents the emergence of a "terrorist exceptionalism" to normal rules of criminal law and procedure and questions whether the government has overstated the threat posed by the individuals it charges with these crimes. Included is a discussion of the large-scale spying and use of informants rooted in the questionable "radicalization" theory; the material support statute--the government's chief legal tool in bringing criminal prosecutions; the new rules regarding generation of evidence and the broad construction of that evidence as relevant at trial; and a look at the special sentencing and confinement regimes for those convicted of terrorist crimes. In this critical examination of terrorism prosecutions in federal court, Professor Said reveals a phenomenon at odds with basic constitutional protections for criminal defendants.

In each generation, for different reasons, America witnesses a tug of war between the instinct to suppress and the instinct for openness. Today, with the perception of a mortal threat from terrorists, the instinct to suppress is in the ascendancy. Part of the reason for this is the trauma that our country experienced on September 11, 2001, and part of the reason is that the people who are in charge of our government are inclined to use the suppression of information as a management strategy. Rather than waiting ten or fifteen years to point out what's wrong with the current rush to limit civil liberties in the name of "national security," these essays by top thinkers, scholars, journalists, and historians lift the veil on what is happening and why the implications are dangerous and disturbing and ultimately destructive of American values and ideals. Without our even being aware, the judiciary is being undermined, the press is being intimidated, racial profiling is rampant, and our privacy is being invaded. The "war on our freedoms " is just as real as the "war on terror " -- and, in the end, just as dangerous.

How big is the threat posed by American ISIS supporters? How many Americans have joined ISIS and how many want to return to the United States? Compared to participation by Americans in other jihadist groups, the scale of American involvement in jihadist activity today is unprecedented. This book, from one of the leading counter-terror centres, draws on first-hand interviews with former American Islamic State members and law enforcement officials who tracked them, and includes detailed analysis of the court cases against them and their social media presence. Homegrown reveals how and why ISIS was able to radicalize and recruit a new generation of jihadist sympathizers in America.

All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data-such as phone records or Web sites visited-should be required to evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy. A framework is offered that agencies can use to evaluate such information-based programs, both classified and unclassified. The book urges Congress to re-examine existing privacy law to assess how privacy can be protected in current and future programs and recommends that any individuals harmed by violations of privacy be given a meaningful form of redress. Two specific technologies are examined: data mining and behavioral surveillance. Regarding data mining, the book concludes that although these methods have been useful in the private sector for spotting consumer fraud, they are less helpful for counterterrorism because so little is known about what patterns indicate terrorist activity. Regarding behavioral surveillance in a counterterrorist context, the book concludes that although research and development on certain aspects of this topic are warranted, there is no scientific consensus on whether these techniques are ready for operational use at all in counterterrorism.