Tuesday, November 17, 2015

In the context of Citizens going to Syria to join IS and return to their homelands


The world is now wondering what to do with people using the freedom of movement, who go to countries and are either radicalized or are trained in terror, and then return to their Country of birth.

We in Sri Lanka dealt with this issue, not very satisfactorily either, when some of our citizens went to other Countries to be trained in guerrilla warfare or terrorism. In most cases we did not know who they were, what kind of training they received, and how they re entered society, and why, remaining as sleeper cells to be woken up when needed for a suicide bombing, or other atrocity.

Europe, and United States is grappling with this problem, as they are now not sure who has gone, and where they are. Once your citizen leaves his Country, where they go is not always easy to follow or keep tabs on. So when I see the numbers published, I ask myself is this the totality or merely an estimate, and wouldn’t a hardened terrorist returning to a sleeper cell, make sure his tracks are covered, and show little evidence upon returning of his past in the foreign country.

In 2015 world this is a severe problem. The only practical way to track this is to use new technology now in existence to be able to track human beings based on a distinguishable footprint, from as far as a satellite, to know where they have gone, or where they are at any one time, and it is only computers that can do this tracking and only inform by way of data reporting answers to questions put to these super computers.

For example, you ask the computer to let you know all US Citizens currently in Syria, and then you weed out those who are there for legitimate reasons, until you come up with the list of those, whose presence there is questionable. As US citizens you can’t just incarcerate them, when they return, as that is a FR problem, you have to take appropriate legal steps to either ensure they are monitored on arrival or are put under a electronic tag to monitor their movements.  

No doubt Sri Lankan authorities maybe able to give some suggestions, on how they monitored suspected LTTE carders in our mist in Colombo, as there were terror cells responsible for both suicide and other bombings.


It is also reported that there are Sri Lankan citizens who have also joined IS, as foreign recruits are recommended, and now they will want to terrorize world with their brand of atrocity, by using foreigners, to return to their homelands and commit atrocities on demand from their handlers via social media etc.         

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