We studied the national security concern of Islamic extremism and the importance of establishing the differentiation between faithful practising Muslims and those who use terrorist violence in the name of Islam. We have discussed the dysfunctionality of our present political system in their inability to balance the national budget and sequestration effects on our nation. However, the one recent area of agreement looked to be on the issue of immigration, both Republicans and Democrats seemed supportive. The recent Boston Bombing attack has added a twist and changed that common ground. The Tsarnaev brother's bombing of the Boston Marathon on April 15th has combined our national security concern of combating violent extremism (CVE) with the immigration issue. Both of the Chechen immigrant brothers were on student visas seeking naturalization. The younger brother become a US citizen, but the older brother's case was pending until his death at the hands of US Law Enforcement.
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| Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Naturalized US Citizen) |
Classroom Activity: A fictional Homeland Security scenario has been developed for this module that connects with previous instruction on global awareness issues of Islamic Extremism, Islam, and US efforts to counter global terrorism at home and abroad.
Background: A fictional character (Rashid Khan) is a 24 year old American citizen born in the US from Pakistani immigrant parents. A Princeton graduate he got a job as a financial manager on Wall Street in May 2001 and he was highly successful. He was on an international business trip on September 11th, 2001 and his world changed. Due to trips and phone calls to Pakistan in communicating with his family who returned to care for an ailing family member, he was placed on a DHS Watch List. He has volunteered to come in for questioning, he is not under arrest, but we have security concerns.
Class Task:
- Rashid Khan (role playing student with a script) is in the back room awaiting DHS questioning.
- DHS Investigation Teams will review the fictional DHS case file, and formulate a strategy among their team and adjacent teams to determine if Mr. Khan is a national security concern or not.
- DOJ IG Observer Group will monitor all DHS activity to include the voluntary questioning of Mr. Khan.
2. There will be two class periods (Monday & Tuesday) of questioning of Mr. Rashid Khan by the DHS Investigation Teams. On Wednesday, there will be a facilitated discussion to analyse the perspectives and perceptions of each group.
3. Homework: Provide a comment Tuesday night on this blog post highlighting what you learned from this experience and post it in short answer format.
3. Homework: Provide a comment Tuesday night on this blog post highlighting what you learned from this experience and post it in short answer format.
What I've learned about this experience was that it was hard coming up with a lot of personal questions and answering them honestly to get information out of Rashid Khan.
ReplyDeleteBrendan
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
From this simulation I learned it can be difficult to investigate a possible suspect. There are many things that may seem suspicious about a person but those things turn out to be completely normal. This makes it hard to distinguish between an innocent person or a person who is trying to terrorize Americans.
Crystal McLean
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
By doing this project, I've learned how extreme and highly judgmental society and people can truly be. In class the two groups interviewed the possible suspect and continued to bring up the two questions; "Would you disclose your knowledge and other US information to other Muslims?", and "What part of Pakistan are you from?" This questions continued to suggest tat the inspectors were implying that the suspect could be a terrorist and would willing betray the US. Also during this activity, I learned that during times of distress and discomfort, people tend to accuse others based on stereotypes without trying to gain or research real background information.
I've learned that the concept of asking someone if they were radicalized or have had contact with terrorist operatives while not having any real evidence is the same concept as if a student in college withdraws from all his relationships, buys an AR-15, 4 pistols, and 10,000 rounds of ammo. You can basically infer what it seems like he is planning on doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is going to do it.
ReplyDeleteBut there's always that chance that he could and that is the important thing for the interrogators to understand.
not real evidence, but concrete evidence is what i meant.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I only had one chance to put the activity into work. i learned that is much harder to interrogate a person who is either innocent or guilty. Since there is no real way to find out the truth without a conflicting fact. It's very easy to lie or find questions that reveal lies. Its more of a strategy to confuse the interrogated and make him mess up. The lawyer is also a pain, but there is nothing that i had enough time or knowledge to be able to do a good job on.
ReplyDeleteMyrtil
ReplyDeletePERIOD:4
what I've learned from this experience is that looks can be deceiving , just because someone is acting suspiciously doesn't mean they've done something wrong.
Actions speak much louder than words. Don't so much listen to what a person is telling you, instead concentrate on the "way" they are trying to convince you. Body language can be really, really useful. You can read people's minds almost when you read body language the right way.
Don't Accuse or judge Someone before you know all the facts. So Stop Assuming and Stop Guessing!
Although I was only doing this activity for one day I learned that it is very difficult for the interogator to get their point across without seeming somewhat stereotypical. I also imagined what it must be like being part of Rashid's culture knowing there is a thearetical taget on your back by the US Government just because of what you believe in or what background you come from
ReplyDeleteI learned that it is very hard to find a criminal guilty. When you are interrigating someone, you need to have a large amount of information and you need to be a 100 percent sure that the person you are interrogating is guilty. However, for the criminal it is very easy to get his way out. He could just stay calm and make up stories and he could be able to be find innocent if there is not enough evidence that make him guilty.
ReplyDeleteEnock St Juste
ReplyDeletePeriod 6
As the suspect, the most important thing about being interrogated is having a story and sticking to it no matter what; especially if you're a guilty suspect. Cooperation is key but eventually it's easy to turn it around on those interrogating you when they become apologetic (or sympathetic). The most difficult part is consistency, because every word of yours counts. Repeating words or leaving things out gets noticed the most.
Singh
ReplyDeletePeriod 7
I think that this simulation shows the kind of patience that the interrogators need to crack the possible suspects, for ex: Rashid Khan, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Also, there is no room for error because if you are incorrect in judging a suspect he/she could turn out harming this country via terror.
as we were the interviewers, it felt like i had lots of power and have the chance to change a life of someone who you don't even know. but anyways interviewing a suspect you think that could do damage to the country is difficult. you have to work with the suspect.
ReplyDeleteCruz peroid 7 while doing this activity i realized that i had too much power and rashid khan,was just a person who had to get interviewed and he probaly felt as if he had less rights than me or any Of the people intetviewing him. I also realized that how hard the people who do this work i only did it for two days they do it all day everyday
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