To kill a terrorist A forthcoming paper from Northeastern University’s Max Abrahms and the University of Michigan’s Philip Potter reports that leadership decapitation may increase civilian casualties. Militant groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, Abrahms and Potter discovered, became “significantly less discriminate in their targeting choices”—in other words, more likely to target civilians—after high-level militants were killed in drone strikes. […]
Imagine if London terrorists had guns and Orlando shooter had only knives Curiously, the president’s Twitter feed offers nothing at all about Monday’s mass murder at an Orlando factory at the hands of a disgruntled ex-employee who had been fired from his job back in April, in part because of an altercation with a co-worker. That co-worker was one of the five employees of the Fiamma Inc. […]
A hate crime and a terrorist act We have witnessed other recent mass killings based on hate, including Dylann Roof’s slaying of nine black churchgoers in Charleston and Wade Michael Page’s shooting of six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisc. In such killings, the killer seeks to send a message to an international audience. His purpose is to rid […]
How to eliminate mass killers — it’s common sense My tongue is firmly planted in my cheek, yet this is no joke. On April 15, 2013, two Muslim brothers killed three spectators (and later, a police officer) near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon. On December 2, 2015, two Muslim terrorists murdered 14 fellow employees as they were enjoying a company party […]
International Business Times Al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated terrorist attacks signal shift in strategy, with new focus on broad-based jihad Before 9/11, terrorists had a safe haven to plan, recruit and train, Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said in an interview. Following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government and its western allies implemented robust measures to prevent a similar attack. They installed machines in airports that scanned for materials that could be […]
Three top Islamic State leaders killed in airstrikes, U.S. officials say Max Abrahms, a professor at Northeastern University who has done research on so-called decapitation strikes targeting the leadership of terrorist groups, said the U.S. success in killing Islamic State leaders may have important consequences for how the group is run. It may empower lower-level militants who are less strategic in their thinking, Abrahms said, and […]
International Business Times Why do people join ISIS? The psychology of a terrorist For many, the only way to learn about ISIS is through the news, or through social media. It is not often we hear honest accounts of why people join terrorist organizations, Max Abrahms, an expert on terrorism from Northeastern University, said. “If you ask terrorists why they joined an organization after they have been in […]
Politico The KKK is a terrorist organization This weekend, three people were killed in violent incidents outside Kansas City. From the earliest reports, the killings bore all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. There is still no consensus over the definition, but terrorism usually denotes a nonstate actor attacking civilian targets to spread fear for some putative political goal. And here we […]
ABC News Whitey Bulger Case Hit Man Was Not a Classic Serial Killer “A serial killer typically uses sex as a vehicle for tempting to gain a sense of power and dominance and control,” said Jack Levin, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston and a co-author of the 2008 book, “Extreme Killing.” “In most cases, it includes torture,” he said. “Martorano was right in court when he […]
NECN Trump faces allegations of media bias after releasing terror attack list Northeastern University Professor Max Abrahms believes the Trump’s criticism is all for political gain and that it’s the latest chapter in the his crusade against “fake news”. “There was an attack in Baga, Nigeria, which killed many hundreds of people. an entire village was basically decimated and that got almost no media attention,” Abrahms said. […]
Newsweek Does the death of Abu Mohammad al-Adnani spell the end for ISIS? “When the leaders of terrorist groups are killed, the group tends to become more radical. A group in the immediate aftermath of leadership loss is more likely to direct its violence against civilian targets,” says Max Abrahms, professor of political science at Northeastern University and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. “When you remove […]
PolitiFact Debbie Wasserman Schultz right about far-reaching effects of gun violence In the wake of the Orlando shootings and lacking congressional action regarding gun reform legislation, many are calling attention to the the devastating truths about gun violence in the United States. One of the vocal supporters advocating for tighter gun restrictions is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. Wasserman Schultz took to her Medium page to […]