The World's Worst Counterterrorism Ideas

DIAL "M" FOR MILITANT

Country: Germany

Scheme: Germany estimates that it now contains as many 29 radical Islamist organizations with some 36,000 members. These figures include the so-called "German Taliban," which is said to have recruited fighters for militant groups in Pakistan. To combat this growing radicalization, the country's domestic intelligence agency recently announced that it is setting up a new "exit program," including a telephone hotline for militants who are looking for a way to get out.

The program, called "HATIF" -- or "phone" in Arabic -- aims to help radicals transition out of militant organizations by finding them jobs or relocating them. The hotline staff will be fluent in German, Arabic, and Turkish.

In announcing the hotline, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière warned the public to keep its expectations low -- and his caution is probably justified. HATIF is based on a German program from the early 2000s aimed at deradicalizing neo-Nazi youth. Despite the call center's best efforts, however, only a few dozen low-level skinheads out of the country's estimated 33,000 took advantage.

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COUNTCHOCULA1011

8:49 PM ET

July 20, 2010

Yemeni Strategy

I am sorry, but if Americans actually think that Islamic leaders can seriously claim that the people of Iraq and Muslims from around the world don't have a right to defend their lands from foreign aggressors with a straight face, you're going to be sadly dissapointed. Spreading democracy isn't a justifiable excuse for invading a country and killing thousands of its inhabitants. The most one could expect is that such religious figures could explain how killing non-combatants and engaging in other such terrorist actions is haram. Expecting anything more is mere fantasy and everyone knows it.

MIKEHAWK

9:18 PM ET

July 27, 2010

Counterterrorism FAIL

This really is the worst counterterrorism idea ever. Counterterrorism doesnt mean you have the right to harass harmless civilians, and vigilance is not an excuse anymore.

Mike Hawk

NORBOOSE

10:59 AM ET

July 21, 2010

Look at Pakistan on page 3

Look at the guy holding a gun in the upper left corner of the picture. That has to be the most ludicrously pimped-out AK I have seen in all my years.

SNAKEDOCTOR

11:06 AM ET

Bad Counterterrorism...

What about drone strikes that possibly radicalize people in the Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, and Northern Pakistan?

TOOLBAG

8:38 PM ET

Absolutely

You are right. They aren't having enough of an effect. We probably should use a lot more.

LITTLEMANTATE

11:20 AM ET

Maintain a new form of prohibition

instead of alcohol, just make it for substances like marijuana and heroin. Make sure you lock up plenty of non-violent users in a failed attempt to get your citizens to stop abusing or using said substances. In the meanwhile the price for manufacturing, transporting, and merchandising said prohibited substances skyrockets creating an economic bonanza for criminals.

Besides funding terrorists and gangsters this policy has the added benefit of destabilizing your neighbors and contributing to your own government's corruption as an extensive Prison-Industrial-Complex comes into being, and finally, on a local level municipalities get to spend extra on law-enforcement. For terrorists and their "enemies" in law enforcement and the security industry it's a win-win situation.

GANYMED

4:34 PM ET

Oh right

the very successful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan show us the perfect COIN strategy of the USA. And what about Vietnam? The last time the US successfully fought against insurgents was during the wars against the Native Americans and that was, well, a genocide.

8:45 PM ET

Tried and true

It worked once....

MINDALAY

11:43 AM ET

July 23, 2010

Excellent to have this thread

Excellent to have this thread and analyse the things from a saner perspective. I think the attacks were a major gambit of Paki army to steady the sinking ship by creating a villain against which the qaum could unite. I believe through this entire attention will now be on India and Paikstan rather than the Taliban which will soon establish a caliphate and may get access to a Jdam/ WMD to be used against us. The things are moving rather quickly for my taste. We will have to fight a war soon and the question is how best to prepare for it. Gurus please provide a cold dissection of this opening salvo of Pakistan in the end game of Pakistan.

HUGH

4:33 PM ET

July 22, 2010

World's worst...

Hi Joshua,

How can you miss these two counterterrorism ideas:

1. Douglas Feith's proposal that the US retaliate for 9/11 by bombing Paraguay as "a surprise to the terrorists" (and everyone else).
2. Invasion of Iraq in 2003.

5:56 PM ET

Censorship

Looks like FP is now deleting any comments that they don't agree with.

AURANGZEB KHAN III

6:27 PM ET

Americans, specially the two penny kind, love censorship

Apparently, this is what fuels the American Military-Industrial-Jew-Neocon-Christian-Zionist-Mercenary-Complex.

And what a great job they are doing around the world. Palestinians enslaved, Iraq Devastated, Afghanistan brimming with rebellion, Pakistan boiling over, world economies destroyed for the next 20 years. What a lovely job the Americans have done.

I think we need more empty American freedom of speech claims and more American censorship. It is in America's interest.

lalqila.wordpress.com

6:31 PM ET

Just write anything about Jew Israel's abominations in Palestine

and watch that comment deleted.

So American.
:)

Now deleting comments critical of Israel is an American interest or an Israeli interest or are they exactly one and the same.

Two brothers from the same family nevery have exactly the same interests but amazingly American and Israel are joined at the hips.

Miracles of miracles.

AGRIYA

4:51 AM ET

Band Aid For Cancer

Just shows how detached from reality so many politicians and decision makers are - the help line from Germany is just a classic case in point - probably designed to spend the budget so they can get funding next year or something. The policy in Yemen is scary and shows just how naive some politicians really are. Agriya

N.MOHAMMED

6:48 PM ET

July 26, 2010

Islam and extremism

please check out http://www.islamicsolutions.com/if-it-is-extreme-it-is-not-islam/

XTIANGODLOKI

7:48 PM ET

Russians are destroying suspected militants' homes?!

That tactic sounds familiar, I think a close ally of the US in the mideast does the same thing. I wonder if any type of collective punishment tactics work against terrorism on a large scale.

I am surprised US' Terror Alert scheme didn't make this list.

ABBY100

2:00 AM ET

July 30, 2010

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2:30 PM ET

August 19, 2010

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SUPERMADA

2:49 PM ET

To combat this growing radicalization,

To combat this growing radicalization, the country's domestic intelligence agency recently announced that it is setting up a new "exit program," including a telephone hotline for militants who are looking for a way to get out."

Foreign Policy Magazine

As the Washington Post explores the unwieldy and unaccountable intelligence sector developed in the United States since the 9/11 attacks, here's a look at some even less efficient ways of combating militants around the world.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | JULY 20, 2010

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