James Ottavio Castagnera
James
Ottavio Castagnera, J.D., Ph.D., has been a labor lawyer and litigator
with a major Philadelphia firm and the general counsel/corporate
secretary for the then-largest convenience store chain in New Jersey
and for the nation's number one econometric forecasting organization.
He has published 17 books, as well as more than 50
professional/scholarly articles and book chapters. He is an associate
professor of legal studies at Rider University. His most recent book is
Al Qaeda Goes to College: Impact of the War on Terror on American
Higher Education (Praeger 2009).
America’s Homegrown Terrorists of the 21st Century: A Case for Profiling
Oct. 5, 2009
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma April 19, 1995
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma April 19, 1995
Advanced, sophisticated profiling could prevent the next Columbine or Virginia Tech
While
the “War on Terror” typically is taken to designate the actions,
foreign and domestic, directed at Al Qaeda and its allies (e.g., the
Taliban), and although the attacks of September 11, 2001, were and
remain unprecedented, America’s homegrown terrorists pose a far more
serious threat to public safety and the commonwealth. These native
sons and daughters fall into three principal categories:
--Disgruntled
individuals with an ax to grind. They are exemplified by the
government scientist who the FBI now believes perpetrated the Anthrax
attacks, which followed close on the heals of 9/11, in 2001;
--The obsessed, represented by the radical animal-rights activists.
--The mentally disturbed, characterized by those who have committed individual acts of murder and mayhem on college campuses, most notably the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007.
The
threat posed by these homegrown terrorists to plague our democracy,
challenging our ability to remain a free and open society, will remain
long after radical Islam has been eradicated or otherwise pacified. To
better understand these three varieties of domestic terrorists, they
may be viewed as comprising three breeds within a single species. If
that is a fair assumption, then preventative measures, found to be
effective in one arena, may be applicable in all. These may include
advanced profiling procedures.
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