How Over-Zealous and Overly Aggressive Homeland Security Policies Can Backfire

(The following was my research paper for my final project for my grad class).

How Over-Zealous and Overly Aggressive Homeland Security Policies Can Backfire

          In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. federal government created new departments, gave more power to and expanded existing ones, and wrote into law new acts. These include creating the Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), passing the Patriot Act, (and later, passing the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA), and augmenting the size, force, and power of local police forces. The government claimed to take these measures to combat terrorism. However reports from news agencies, human rights organizations, think-tanks, and scholarly research have shown that terrorism has never been and is not a major threat to Americans, certainly, there are at least a dozen other causes of death that have caused more American deaths than terrorism. The first part of this paper will analyze the threat and death rate of terrorism against Americans, compared to the threat and death rate of the government against the American people. It will also go into how Homeland Security policy makers dealt with these issues. The second part of this paper will analyze the rights of the American people taken away or being taken away from terrorism, compared to the rights taken away or being taken away by the government, from a Homeland Security perspective. Lastly, this research paper will explore a case study of Homeland Security in action.

          Before delving into the topics, first it is necessary to identify the actors in this issue. The principal actors are government agencies, as they are the ones that enforce the policies. These include DHS, the National Security Agency, (NSA), the Department of Justice, (DOJ), Customs and Border Protection, (CBP), FBI, and all local and state police and sheriffs offices. 

          The two main concerns that privacy advocates and human rights organizations have in relation to federal agencies and local police forces’ actions in Homeland Security is the militarization of police, and the taking away of peoples’ human rights.  The first one is important when talking about the threat and death rate of terrorism against Americans, compared to the threat and death rate of the government against the American people. Here are some statistics that will illustrate this concept:

·         Americans are 8 times more likely to get killed by police than by a terrorist. All emotions and political slants aside, strictly statistically speaking, the American police is more of a threat to the American people than terrorists are, (www.huffingtonpost.com). Not counting 9/11, that statistic jumps to Americans are 29 times more likely to get killed by police than by a terrorist.   

·         SWAT Teams invade more than 100 private homes every day, (www.abajournal.com).

·         The number of police raids has jumped from 30,000 in 1995 to 45,000 in 2001, (same source as the one above).

·         DHS will purchase 450 million bullets over the next 5 years, including 75 million in 2014 alone, (www.businessinsider.com).

·         DHS also purchased 2,500 mine resistant APCs.

          DHS coordinates with the FBI and state and local police forces to achieve its goals of stopping terrorist attacks and disaster response. Some of DHS’s mission statements that pertain to this topic are as followed: prevent terrorism and enhancing security; secure and manage our borders; enforce and administer our immigration laws; and ensure resilience to disasters. Behind the statistics are the policies that result in the statistics. The problem is that current homeland security efforts undermine preparedness every bit as much as they support it. Homeland Security officials and local and state police chiefs also involved top-down management systems and military-style command and control strategies in planning and implementation, often focusing on a doctrine of offense and preemption, (Bach). They are so focused on offense that they lose hindsight of the main goal of homeland security: to protect citizens’ lives and human rights.

          This leads to the first of two articles that form the backbone of looking at the actors’ approach to Homeland Security. Robert Bach and David Kaufman say in the very first sentence of their article that federal, state, and local authorities must work with citizens to achieve security. Constantly attacking citizens, taking away their guaranteed human rights, and ultimately creating a narrative or implying that they are the enemy is not working with them in any sense of the definition. That is why Bach and Kaufman say security has eluded us since the “War on Terror” started.

          So focused on offense that policies set by agencies such as the FBI and DOJ can break trust between the government and its citizens, the fundamental concept that Homeland Security relies on. Citizens cannot trust a government whose policies can be seen as making the citizens the enemy of the government. Such a policy would be the FBI’s and DOJ’s guidelines as what actions could be done by a “potential terrorist”:

Ø  Purchasing anything with cash most of the time instead of a credit or debit card.

Ø  Opposition to war.

Ø  Opposition to abortion.

Ø  Frustration with the two main political parties.

Ø  Buying a large amount of bullets, (doesn’t say what a “large amount” qualifies as).

Ø  Being concerned about your privacy from the government.

Ø  Complaining about the quality of tap water.

(www.publicintelligence.net)

       These actions are what ordinary, non-terrorists do every day. These are actions that many FBI and DOJ employees do. Is the FBI and DOJ calling their own employees potential terrorists? If government agencies want to protect Americans and their rights, a peaceful engagement of communities in collaboration would be much more effective in enhancing the resiliency and security of the nation, (Frazzano).

       This is what the second article talks about: government agencies redefining their cultural and operational identities to accurately combat new and emerging threats. It also introduces a concept called “The Whole Community,” in which “shared understanding of community risks, needs, and capabilities leads to an increase in resources through the empowerment of community members.” Nowhere in the article or in this concept does it suggest that the large majority of American citizens are potential terrorists due to doing ordinary tasks. DHS policies must incorporate the concept of The Whole Community, as this shows that DHS is working with the communities, not against them. 

       In comparing the amount and severity of the American people’s human rights taken away by terrorists and taken away by the government, the only right the terrorists took away have been the 3,000+ peoples’ right to life that they have killed since 9/11 to the present. The rights that the government has taken, is taking, and has the power to take away if it wants to, are:[1]

§  Freedom of speech. For example, protesting certain government policies is called “terrorism,” for which the government can kill U.S. citizens for. Talking against certain police actions or simply asking a police officer questions is called “assault,” or “resisting arrest.” There is no need for the government to convict a person of terrorism, they only label them a “suspected terrorist” and then kill them.

§  Freedom of the press. There have been 7 instances in which a government official has been criminally charged with leaking classified information to the news media, the most during any U.S. presidential administration in history. In comparison, it has only been used 3 times before Obama took office. It has stolen emails, phone records, and tracked the movements of journalists, (Fox News reporter James Rosen, for example), it secretly seized records for telephone lines and switchboards used by more than 100 Associated Press journalists, and prosecuted sources of journalists with felony charges, (Zongker).

§  Second Amendment. The Obama administration, and many past administrations, has repeatedly infringed on American citizens’ right to bear arms. While it is not DHS policy that affects this right, the police forces are the ones that enforce states’ laws relating to this amendment. Whether it has been trying to ban magazines that hold more than 10 bullets, or trying to reinstate the 1994 “assault weapons ban,” (www.whitehouse.gov), Obama has made it clear, through his actions and words, that he does not believe that the second amendment means that Americans can own guns.

§  Fourth Amendment. From allowing home invasions by police and SWAT teams without a warrant, to having the NSA steal personal information from customers of many U.S. companies, to stealing emails and phone calls from ordinary American citizens who haven’t committed terrorism, nor committed any other crime. Some statistics related to this would be, for example, that the NSA surveys 75% of all American Internet traffic, (www.reuters.com), and collected near 100% of American phone calls in 2006, down to 30% today, (www.digitaltrends.com).

§  The Fifth Amendment: The Patriot Act, and later, the NDAA, gives the government to hold an American citizen in prison indefinitely, without charges, or access to an attorney. That effectively destroys the 5^th amendment.

§  Sixth Amendment: Those same two pieces of legislation also takes away an American’s right to a trial, nullifying the 6^th Amendment.

          Examples of some of these rights being taken away from American citizens can be seen in the case study of this paper, which is the case of Sarah Abdurrahman. Sarah, her family, and some friends were returning from Canada to the United States through the Niagara Falls border crossing on September 2^nd, 2013. Sarah, and everyone in her party, are American citizens. They had been attending a wedding of another family member in Toronto, Canada, and now were returning home on Labor Day.

Sarah Abdurrahman

           When they got to the border crossing, they were immediately detained by CBP agents, with no explanation. They were held in a freezing cold room without bathrooms for six hours. Sarah repeatedly asked an agent why they were being held, but he answered “It is not your right to know.” Then they took all of their cellphones after demanding they unlock them. They didn’t get their cellphones back. After about five and half hours in detainment, one of the detained men, Khaled Ahmed, was put into handcuffs, without warning, taken from his family and put into a jail cell. The officers did not inform either Ahmed or his family why he was being taken. The rest of the family was soon released but CBP refused to tell them where Ahmed was. Eventually, they told the family that another “agency” was coming to pick Ahmed up. The agency ended up being the Michigan State Police, picking up Ahmed for an unpaid ticket for a crooked license plate (i.e. not screwed on right) from 2006. After Sarah got home, she tried to contact CBP and DHS to demand an explanation, but they never picked up the phone. Since CBP never gave Sarah a reason for doing all of this, she can only assume it was because of her and her party’s religion, (Sarah wears a hijab), (Reuters). 

          It is illegal for law enforcement officers to perform searches or detentions based solely on your race, national origin, religion, sex or ethnicity. The CBP officers infringed on Sarah’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. CBP and other Homeland Security officers are allowed to conduct stops and searches with no probable cause or arrest warrants at the border, under what is known as the "border search exception." The exception allows for routine searches. However, once you start holding citizens for prolonged detentions, it falls under non-routine searches. For that, the officer needs a particular and objective basis for suspecting that person of illegal activity, (Reuters).

          There are a number of conclusions and observations that can be made from this story. One is that the rapid expansion of and the lack of oversight over CBP contributed to Sarah being treated the way that she was. CBP has grown so fast in the decade that it has existed that government oversight has not kept pace. CBP had 10,817 in 2004. Today, it has 63,560. Therefore, there is no logical reason for CBP to not treat Muslims like they did Sarah. None of the CBP agents in the example even got a harsh comment from any supervisor. Nothing bad happened to them, so in their minds, they are thinking: why should we change our behavior?

          This is not the only time something like what Sarah experienced has happened. Human rights groups, such as the ACLU, have seen that these human rights abuses happen regularly, i.e. it is not an isolated incident that can be blamed on just a few bad CBP agents. No, they infringe on Americans’ human rights daily, meaning it is a DHS policy; the policy makers at DHS and CBP, along with training instructors, are teaching the CBP to act this way. That means certain DHS policies run contrary to the Constitution. There is no other reason why this problem is so widespread and across agencies, not just in CBP. This case study could not capture an agency breaking more Amendments than the Fourth and Fifth. But that doesn’t mean that at other times, in other situations, that DHS and local police forces are not breaking the other Amendments listed on the fifth and sixth and pages.      

          CBP’s actions run in line with the narrative and training that DHS’s approach has to Homeland Security. An overly aggressive Homeland Security doctrine saw Sarah and her party as potential terrorists, hence, their human rights being broken. Citizens are the first line in Homeland Security. Many terrorist attacks have been stopped because concerned citizens report what they heard/saw someone doing to police. That is the vital link between authorities and the communities that Bach and Kaufman talked about. If that link is broken by human rights abuses, and aggressive and rude behavior by the authorities, then the nation as a whole will not be as effective in stopping terrorist attacks and achieving security.  

Works Cited

          “American journalist and family detained and harassed at US border.” September 24^th, 2013. http://rt.com/usa/abdurrahman-npr-border-detain-291/

          Bach, Robert and David Kaufman. “A Social Infrastructure for Hometown Security: Advancing the Homeland Security Paradigm.” Homeland Security Affairs, Volume V, NO. 2 (May 2009). 

          Balko, Radley. “How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?” ABA Journal, 1/8/2013.

          Erman, Michael. “NSA surveillance covers 75 percent of U.S. Internet traffic: WSJ.” Reuters. 8/20/2013.   

          “FBI “Communities Against Terrorism” Suspicious Activity Reporting Flyers.” February 1^st, 2012. https://publicintelligence.net/fbi-suspicious-activity-reporting-flyers/

          Frazzano, Tracy, and Matthew Synder. “Hybrid Targeted Violence:

Challenging Conventional “Active Shooter” Response Strategies.” Homeland Security Affairs, Volume 10 Article 3 (February 2014).

          Johnson, Robert. “The Department Of Homeland Security Is Buying 450 Million New Bullets.” Business Insider, 4/5/2014.  

          Nield, David. “New reports say NSA phone tracking covers 20-30 percent of calls.” Digital Trends. 2/8/2014.

          Whitehead, John. “Vigilantes With a Badge: The War Against the American People.” Huffington Post, 2/26/2014.

          White House. “Now is the Time to Do Something About Gun Violence.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/preventing-gun-violence

          Zongker, Brett. “Report: Obama brings chilling effect on journalism.” The Associated Press. 10/13/2013.  

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[1] The following bullet points are merely quick summaries of the rights the government has taken away from us, as a whole paper can be written just one of these bullet points.

Links To My Other Social Media....stuff

Yep, this isn't a current events post. I'll periodically post links to the other stuff that I do on the Internet. It would be great if you could follow me on other sites so you'll never miss any exciting/stupid stuff that I do.

My garage band Disorderly Conduct's FB page!: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Disorderly-Conduct/612264142194507
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An excerpt from my book "Battalions of Shadow Fall."

(An excerpt from Chapter 2. Jinan and her political advisor Qudamah are traveling to the West Bank from Gaza, in order to start back up Jinan’s late father’s paramilitary organization.)       

          SAME DAY, SOUTH-WEST OF HEBRON, NEAR ABU AL-ASJA

          Qudamah and Jinan had a long day of driving the same day that Brian received his big news. They could not drive directly from Gaza to the West Bank, because Israel had instituted a siege around the entire strip of land. The one exit was through the Rafah Crossing on the Egyptian border. So they drove to Egypt, and then went into the Sinai Peninsula. From there they did basically a big U-turn. They went back into Israel from the Sinai, and then from there they entered the West Bank. Crossing into Israel from the Sinai was not a problem because the border was so long that they easily were able to pass into it without going through a checkpoint.

            However getting into the West Bank was a different story. The Israelis had built their infamous Apartheid Wall around all of the West Bank, sealing it inside of Israeli control. Qudamah and Jinan had deliberated about which of two options to pick as to how to enter the territory.

            Option one would be to go to an Israeli checkpoint along the wall, kill the guards quickly and quietly, and then drive on through the checkpoint. This was the faster of the two options, but the Israeli deaths would attract a swarm of Israeli soldiers to the area, and that could be potentially dangerous for the two resistance fighters as they had a mini arsenal of weapons in their car.

            Option two would be to drive a section of the wall where there weren’t any soldiers around, i.e., away from a checkpoint and away from Palestinian villages. They could blow up a part of the wall, and then drive through the hole they would’ve made. This would take longer as it would take Jinan some time to set up all the explosives and the charge. But it would take hours for the Israelis to notice a hole in the wall that was far away, since the wall was hundreds of miles long. By then, the two would be long gone from the area.

            In the end, the two decided that killing Israeli soldiers, although Jinan would never back down from a fight, would be too risky. So they went with Option two. 10 minutes later, they were in the West Bank, on their way towards the village of Abu al-Asja.

            The two did not talk much. All the driving and the afternoon sun were making Jinan tired. Qudamah had driven in the earlier part of the day while Jinan slept. Then they had switched drivers after they blew the hole in the apartheid wall.

            Now Jinan was driving and Qudamah was busy receiving emails over his cellphone and filing all the important documents needed to run a paramilitary organization on his laptop. Jinan didn’t want to disturb him so she didn’t even turn the radio on.

            She was busy thinking about what happened yesterday, after Qudamah and she got to Qudamah’s house.

           

            FLASHBAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK^[1]

            “Hey kids” Qudamah said as he opened the front door to his house, “We’re back.”

            “Daddy!” 2 little girls came running towards him and hugged his legs.

            “Haha okay let me get through the front door” He said with a smile as he awkwardly stepped a few steps so that Jinan could get inside also. As soon as his girls let go of his legs they ran over to Jinan.

            “Aunt Jinan!” they exclaimed in the same happy high pitched voices.^[2]

            “Hi girls” Jinan as she bent down on her knees and kissed them both on one cheek, “Did you have a good day today?”

            “Yes” the older one named Rana said.

            “Jinan! Do you want to see a picture I drew today?” squealed the younger one named Shireen.

            “Haha sure sweetheart” Jinan said.

            Shireen ran back into the kitchen, where Tasnim, Qudamah’s wife, emerged from. She was a middle aged woman with curly dark brown hair that went down to her neck. She was wiping a big stirring spoon clean with a towel, so that meant she was cooking. Almost certainly dinner. She had a glare in her eyes that Qudamah had been unfortunately gotten used to the last couple of weeks. 

            “Hello honey” Qudamah said as he pecked a kiss on her lips, “Is there anything I can do?”

            “No” she replied, “Dinner is actually almost ready. You two came at a good time.”

            Meanwhile Jinan and the two little girls were sitting on the couch near the front door. Shireen was showing Jinan her picture.

            “Shireen’s been showing everyone that picture all day” Rana said to Jinan.

            “Mhmmm and I remember your dad telling me that you did the same thing when you were her age” Jinan said.

            She unfastened her hijab and pulled it off. Her wavy black hair, which came down to her waist, came tumbling down. She shook it around a little to get it out of her face, much to Shireen’s amusement.

            Qudamah, without even thinking about it, looked in Jinan’s direction when she did this. Tasnim saw this right away and gave Qudamah a quick slap on the wrist with her big metal spoon that she was using for stirring.

            “Ow!” Qudamah hissed, making sure to keep it below Shireen’s and Rana’s talking to Jinan.

            “I saw that” Tasnim said as she went back into the kitchen.

            Qudamah rubbed his wrist as he walked back in with her. Jinan noticed all of this but gave no indication that she did. She continued to talk and play with Shireen and Rana.

            “What the hell was that for?” Qudamah asked sternly as Tasnim continued preparing dinner.

            “You know exactly what it was for. This isn’t the first time you’ve looked at her like that.”

            Qudamah’s ears and face reddened.

            “What? So I looked at her. Big deal.”

            “It is a big deal to me” Tasnim replied as she chopped up some celery and put it a pot full of boiling water that was on the stove.

            “Tasnim, you’d better get over the fact that Jinan and I work in the same organization, so we’re going to be together most of the days” Qudamah said sternly.

            “Am I? Or am I supposed to get over the fact that you and Jinan had a fling several years ago, and judging by the way you looked at her, I don’t think it’s completely done.”

            Qudamah gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything. The only noises were the water boiling, Jinan blowing a raspberry on Shireen’s stomach, and Shireen giggling with joy.

            “That was before we got married” Qudamah said finally.

            “I know. But do you see where I am coming from?” Tasnim said, dropping her confrontational attitude, “I’m middle aged, chubby. Then I see my husband running around with this beautiful younger woman, who he had a fling with.”

            “I do see where you are coming from” Qudamah said as he walked away towards the stairs, “But you being jealous all the time is not going to help matters.”

            FLASHFORWARD TO THE PRESENT

            “I’m sorry” Jinan said.

            “What?” Qudamah asked, barely looking away from his computer screen.

            “I said I’m sorry.”

            “For what?”

            “For causing…..tensions between you and Tasnim.”

            “Jinan” Qudamah started, looking up from the screen, “That is absolutely not your fault at all. You are not responsible for Tasnim’s behavior.”

            “I know, but I should’ve asked to have stayed at another person’s house, or at least kept my hijab on even when I was indoors.”

            “That is behind us. You asked me if you could stay because you were just returning from abroad after you had run away for 8 years, and you didn’t know who else you could’ve trusted.”

            Jinan smiled back at him.

            “There’s a roadblock up at Kurza by the way” Qudamah said as he pointed down the road, “So you’d better turn right up ahead.”

            “Thanks” Jinan replied as she did so.

            “You can turn the radio on now” he continued, “I’m done doing my work, at least for now.”

            Jinan did so and flipped through the stations, trying to get to a news station. She didn’t like most of the hip-hop and pop shit they played on the radios most of the time. They drove in a curve around a hill that was past the intersection that she had just turned onto.

            “JINAN STOP!” Qudamah suddenly yelled.

            Jinan looked up. There was a whole crowd of people randomly in the street. She slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt. She had not seen them earlier because they were turning around a hill.

            Now that they were stopped they could figure out what was going on. All of the people were either Israeli soldier or settlers; the soldiers were armed with TAR-21s and some of the settler had AR-15s or M-16s.^[3] They were all crowded around something, but neither Qudamah nor Jinan could tell what or who it was.

            “Jinan just back up and get out of here, this is not good at all” Qudamah said tensely.

            Jinan started to do so, but then she saw what the settlers were gathered around.

            “They’re beating up two Palestinians, look!” she said.

            Through the mass of people, Qudamah could make out a man and a woman lying on the street with their hands covering the back of their heads, jolting every time a settler kicked them.

            “Ah shit man” Qudamah sighed.

            Jinan turned around in her seat and opened a secret compartment behind her seat. She pulled out her cherished AK-74M^[4]. It had an ACOG scope on top on its rails and a grenade launcher on the bottom. On one side of the stock there was an Iraqi flag painted on it, and on the other the Palestinian flag was painted on it. 

            “Jinan….” Qudamah said gravely as his face turned white.

            “Don’t even think about stopping me” Jinan said sternly as she pulled the bolt back and then letting it go forward, putting a bullet into the chamber “Those people need our help.”

            “Yeah but there’s like 2 dozen armed Israelis!”

            “Like I give a fuck” Jinan replied as she hid the rifle under the robes of her chador.

            She got another magazine and put it in her pocket. Then, she got out of the car and started to walk towards the settlers.

            “Jinan!” hissed Qudamah, but she did not acknowledge him as she continued to walk towards them.

            None of the settlers noticed her because they were all too focused on the couple they were beating up. The ones that weren’t actively stepping on them or kicking them were yelling curses and racial slurs at them. Jinan didn’t speak a word of Hebrew so she didn’t know what they were saying. None of them noticed her until it was too late.

            Jinan got within 2 yards of the group and then opened fire on them. The results were devastating. The bullets mowed down the group of radical settlers like blades of grass. Blood and guts were spewed everywhere as the bullets tore through the bodies. The Palestinian couple stayed on the ground, getting drenched with blood.

            Chaos and panic followed. The settlers scattered, scrambling to find cover from Jinan’s onslaught of bullets. The Israeli soldiers that were nearby were on high alert now. They figured out where the shooting was coming from and shot back at Jinan.

            She was forced to duck for cover behind an Army jeep. She left 7 bodies lying on the street. It was hard to see who was dead and who was mortally wounded. The Palestinian couple staggered from the bloody mess, completely dazed.

            “Find cover!” Jinan yelled as she gave them some covering fire to give them some time.

            The couple crawled over to their car and shut the door, bullets ricocheting off of the metal.

            There were 6 people shooting at Jinan, and they were spread out in 3 different locations. There were 2 settlers not 15 yards in front of her, shooting from behind another Army jeep. Then there was a soldier to her left about 50 yards away, shooting from behind a roadblock. Lastly there were 3 soldiers up on a hill about 150 yards in front of her.

            “Damn, gotta take care of this fast, otherwise they’re gonna call for reinforcements” Jinan thought as she gritted her teeth.

            She looked over the hood of the Army jeep. As the soldier on her left stood up to shoot at her, she shot at him first, hitting him 3 times in the chest and left shoulder. He fell down behind the roadblock. With her attention on that soldier, the two remaining settlers rushed around the other side of the jeep. Jinan realized this too late. She turned around in horror as the settlers closed in on her, raising their weapons.

            Out of nowhere a car rammed the two settlers from behind, sending them flying past Jinan and into the roadblock. Jinan looked at the driver.

            It was Qudamah.

            But Jinan had no time to thank him. She spun around and shot the two settlers who lay bloodied and dazed on the ground, before they could recover and shoot her back.

            The bolt on her AK stayed back, meaning she was out of ammo. She pulled the empty magazine out, and switched it out with the other one she had.

            All was quiet now. Jinan peeped her head over the jeep again to figure out where the other 3 Israeli soldiers were. But she scanned the whole hill and didn’t see them at all. Jinan warily stood up, and walked over to the Palestinians’ couple’s car, where the couple was hiding in.

            “Are you two okay?” she asked.

            “Yyyeeesss” the man stammered.

            The woman could only nod her head.

            “Good. You’d better get out of here fast. Stay in your village for the next couple of days until things simmer down” Jinan said.

            “Okay” replied the bewildered man as he started his car.

            The car sped off down the road. Jinan walked towards the pile of settler’s bodies, where 2 of them were still alive, barely moving.

            “Jinan let’s go!” said Qudamah in a hushed voice.

            He was scared that the Israeli soldiers were still nearby, about to strike again while Jinan wasn’t paying attention. But Jinan stood over the two men that were still barely alive, and shot them both once in the head. Qudamah winced.

             Then, she ran over to Qudamah’s car. He moved from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat. Jinan got in the driver’s seat, tossed her AK in the secret compartment, and sped off just as fast as the Palestinian couple did.

            “Oh shit oh shit oh shit” Qudamah said as he placed the cover over the compartment.

            Jinan said nothing as she continued to drive.

            “You really did it now Jinan, the Israelis will swarm this place like motherfuckers until they find us” Qudamah said, the panic evident in his voice.

            “Those terrorists forced my hand” Jinan replied sternly, “What was I supposed to do, just turn around leave that poor couple to die? Cuz you know that’s what was going to happen if I didn’t intervene, it happens all the time here.”

            “I know I know I’m sorry, you did the right thing, but I just wish it didn’t have to happen on our first day here” Qudamah said, checking his map on his computer, “You know, before we got our organization even off the ground.”

            “I know” Jinan replied.

            She drove fast for a while longer, and then slowed down to a normal speed so they wouldn’t stand out amongst the other cars on the road. She was silent as Qudamah listened to his Israeli police scanner, figuring out what the best route to take based on where their opponents were sending their officers. He, unlike Jinan, spoke Hebrew pretty well so he could understand the majority of what they were saying. Jinan understood none of it but could tell by the tone of their voices that she had hit a hornet’s nest by saving that couple.

            “Thank you” She finally said, “For saving me back there.”

            “Huh?”

            Jinan pointed towards the small dent on the car’s hood from where Qudamah hit the settlers.

            “Oh….you are welcome. They forced my hand as well, I had to do something.”

            Jinan looked at him and said “Do not worry Qudamah. We will get past the Israelis and to our destination. I know you can guide us to safety.”

            Qudamah smiled back as he listened to the scanner again, taking notes on his computer about the Israeli police positions.

            AL-KHUSNA, WEST BANK

            Jinan and Qudamah were not the only ones busy at work. All of the other Palestinian factions also had to get a lot of work done before their next meeting the following week. Sa’dun Daher, the DFLP leader who was also at the meeting in Gaza, faced the daunting task of trying to re-activate his faction, which had disbanded in 2005. He was at his house in al-Khusna, a suburb of Bethlehem. The long and difficult list of all of the things he had to do in order to have a battle ready faction was causing him a bit of stress. He knew what his first step would have to be: simply calling up old members and influential people in the community to see if they wanted to work for him. Before he did anything else, he needed manpower. So, he sat down on his living room couch, got his untraceable cellphone, and went through his personal telephone book. Of out all of the conversations he had that afternoon, one of them stuck in his mind, illustrating just how hard it was going to be.

            “Look Ismail, stop beating around the bush. If you don’t wanna join back up again, then just say so. You being indirect is just wasting my time; I got dozens of other people to call today” Sa’dun said harshly.

            “Well I’m sorry you think talking to me is a waste of time” Ismail shot back.

            “Ah! I didn’t mean it that way” Sa’dun exclaimed, “I enjoy talking with you, but now, this is different. This is business, and time is money.”

            “Fine. I don’t wanna join the organization again” Ismail said, “Because I have a wife and kids now. I have to think about them, and their future. If we bring war to Palestine again, things are going to go right back to the way they were during the Intifada. And that FUCKING sucked.”

            “Is this the future you want for them? Living under occupation? Not having any rights?”

            Ismail was silent.

            “I’m not gonna try and convince you to join up again” Sa’dun said with a sigh, “If you don’t have the will to fight in your heart anymore, then I cannot put it there. It has to be sincere from you, and you alone.”

            “I’m sorry Sa’dun, but that part of my life is over now” Ismail said, “I fought my fight, now I am done.”

            Sa’dun ended the call, and looked about his living room in frustration. It was serenely quite in the mid-afternoon. The sun’s rays shined through the partly curtained windows, lighting up the floating dust in the room. Sa’dun had a rather small but quite nice one story house. He and his wife Zinat, their two children already grown up and moved out of the house, did not need a lot of space so they were perfectly content with their house.

            The curtains were a dark purple, and the carpet of the living room was a greyish-tan. Sa’dun was sitting on a large couch facing their small T.V., and there was a smaller couch right next to it, making an L shape. Ornate candlesticks and curiosities dotted the small tables next to the couches that had reading lamps on them. The foyer, which was just a small vinyl floored area in front of the front door to leave one’s shoes, was to the right of the living room, if you were facing the T.V. like Sa’dun was. The kitchen was past the foyer, and the only bedroom connected the kitchen and living room. Zinat was in the kitchen, just starting to make dinner.

            “All of this could go away if we start fighting again” Sa’dun thought to himself, “Is that really what I want?”       

          THE MORNING OF AUGUST THE 16^TH FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA

          Brian picked up the newspaper the next day while eating his breakfast, to see the headline of:

PALESTINIAN TERRORIST ATTACK LEAVES 7 ISRAELIS DEAD, 3 WOUNDED

       “Hmmm this is interesting” Brian thought as he sipped his coffee, “Palestinians rarely kill this many people in one attack, not like they used to back in the 80’s and 90’s.”

            He continued to read the story that was right under the headline.

-Reporting from Jerusalem

        A group of 4 Palestinian terrorists attacked a group of Israelis traveling in the West Bank near the settlement of Otniel, killing 7 and wounding 3 in the worst terrorist attack in the West Bank in years. An Israeli army spokesman said that 2 men and 2 women, dressed in civilian clothes, opened fire on Israeli civilian cars with assault rifles from their concealed positions next to a road near the settlement. When the IDF approached the scene, the terrorists bade a hasty retreat. The IDF soon lost track of the cars amongst traffic.

        “We have the entire southern part of the West Bank under lockdown right now” the army official said, “So that means the terrorists have not left the area and that it will only be a matter of time before we find them and kill them.”

        This comes just after the Israeli military bombed a terrorist house in Gaza 2 days ago, wounding two terrorists. Israeli analysts believe that yesterday’s attack was in response to the IDF strike.

          “I’ll have to find out if my office has any additional information on this; Peter did say to stay on top of events in Israel so I’d be up-to-date when I arrive there.”

          SAME DAY, TO THE EAST OF BETHELHEM, NEAR AL KHUSHNA

          In fact, the Israeli army official couldn’t have been more wrong about Jinan’s and Qudamah’s position. Thanks to Qudamah’s directions and Jinan’s excellent driving skills, the two managed to get north of the area that the IDF was locking down before they actually managed to lock it down. They were safe and sound, well, as safe as sound as you could be in the West Bank. They had spent the night at a fellow al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade member’s house, a man by the name of Ajib Safar. Ajib was in-between the ages of Qudamah and Jinan. His skin was a lot lighter than both of theirs also. He had brown hair that was cut in a buzz cut, and a full beard that was not too long.

            The next day Ajib drove them to a small military base in Al Khushna, one that the Palestinian Authority, (PA) had allowed them to use for their operations. Of course, if the PA knew that the Brigade actually intended to fight Israel, they would never had allowed it, since they were obsessed with their 2 decade fruitless “peace talks.” The Brigade had told the PA that they just wanted to help in security in the West Bank, and since the PA was short on manpower due to their extremely low popularity amongst Palestinians, they allowed them to.

            It was a little after 10 o’clock, and Qudamah and Jinan were taking inventory in the main warehouse in the very small complex. It had mostly small arms but it had a few armored cars in there as well. Ajib was outside, welcoming volunteers that had responded very quickly to Qudamah’s emails that he had sent out the previous day. Ajib told them to sit down in rows of chairs out on a field next to the warehouse. Qudamah and Jinan were due to speak with them after they were done taking inventory.

            “Are you pleased with our stock here?” Qudamah asked Jinan.

            “It is sufficient for a couple dozen fighters, which is a good start” Jinan replied, “If we continue to get funding from the PA and buy more weapons, more of the same and more different ones, then we should be adequately prepared to fight Israel when the new government comes into power.”

            “Leave that to me and we should be good” Qudamah said, “The international market is full of sellers of all the weapons we could ask for. And since we have the sympathy of much of the world, some governments might even just give us a bunch of equipment for free, or at least give them as a loan, since our organization does not have a lot of money.”

            “Gotta love the globalized 21^st century, right?” Jinan asked with a smile.     

            “Of course” Qudamah smiled back.

            Ajib came walking inside the warehouse.

            “Your exploits are on the cover of every single Israeli newspaper” he said, “Look.”

            He threw down a newspaper at Qudamah’s and Jinan’s feet. Jinan waited for Qudamah to translate it or at least say something about it. He chuckled.

            “Of course it calls us terrorists; we weren’t expecting anything different” he said, “But it also says that the couple we saved also took place in the attack. Apparently all 4 of us, two terrorist couples, ambushed them.”

            Jinan had to laugh. If she let herself get mad at Israeli lies and propaganda, then she would always be angry. There was no use in getting mad at something she couldn’t help.

            “And it says all the settlers were un-armed, just driving down the highway” Qudamah continued, “Oh, and it said that an Israeli soldier tried pleading with you to stop before you shot him.”

            “Right, was that before or after he was kicking a woman in the back of the head while she was huddling in fear?” Jinan sarcastically asked Qudamah, “Anyway, I’d better go out there and talk to our new recruits.”

            She motioned towards a few various guns that she had separated from the rest.

            “Can you gentlemen please carry those for me? I’m just gonna show them a few of what we have.”

            Ajib, eager to do practically whatever Jinan told him to do, happily went over to get a couple while Qudamah, rolling his eyes, grudgingly took the rest off of the concrete floor.    The 3 walked out of the warehouse.

            There were about 40 men waiting for them outside. The morning sun shined brightly over the field as the 3 made their way over to three chairs that were behind a table that was facing the rows of men sitting in the chairs. After setting the weapons down on the table, Qudamah and Ajib sat on either side of Jinan, who stayed standing up to talk to the men.

            “Okay, it’s 10 minutes past 10, which 10 o’clock is when I said I would start, so, as to not be as late as every other aspect of Arab society, I’d like to start now” Jinan joked.

            Most of the men laughed.

            “I’d like to thank each and every one of you for coming to this meeting on such short notice” she continued, “your promptness and eagerness shows your love for your Din, (religion), and your country.”

            She could tell just from facial expressions of some of the men that they were confused that a woman was addressing them and not Qudamah or Ajib. She could tell that a confrontation would erupt, just like in the meeting in Gaza. But she didn’t want to bring it up; she would wait for one of them to bring it up.

            “I am Jinan al-Najjar, and I’ll be leading this, orientation, if you will, to our brigade. As my political advisor Qudamah told you yesterday, either by phone or through email, however he contacted you, we are starting up the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, which has been inactive ever since Fatah pursued the “peace process,” even though it is hardly peaceful for us. As I’m sure you have heard by now, we are having national elections on December 20^th. We have much work to be done if we want our brigade up and running to serve the new elected government.”

            “However we are not going to organize this brigade like a standard military brigade. We are going to organize it like a guerrilla unit, because that is how we must fight if we get attacked by the Israelis, because there is no way we can match them in open conventional warfare. So that means we will be relying mostly on small arms and small explosive devices. I have some weapons here that I hope will become standardized according to what role you have in a unit.”

            “I know many of you have fought with the AK-47. It is a great rifle and has served us well. But it is outdated, and we must move on to a newer assault rifle, at least as new as we can get while still being able to buy a huge quantity of.”

            She picked up an AK-74M that was identical to her own, minus the custom painted flags of course.

            “This is an upgrade to the AK-47, the AK-74M. Made 17 years after the AK-47, this rifle is very maneuverable, light, can be bought for a very cheap price, and can compete with the assault rifles the Israelis use, which are mostly the TAR-21, M-4, M-16’, and Galil. The rails also allow us to put on optics that will make it perform better in combat. I know this will be something that many of you will have to adjust to, because you are used to shooting AK-47’s that don’t have any optics at all, just standard iron sights.”

            The group of men was silent after she paused. They were stunned that a woman would know so much about weaponry. Not that Jinan presented a lot of information, it’s just they didn’t think a woman would know anything about guns.

            “You can pass it around, it’s fine, it’s unloaded” Jinan said as she motioned to Ajib.

            Ajib took the rifle and handed it to the man who was sitting in the corner of the first row.

            “Now, being a guerrilla organization, our infantry are often pitted against vehicles, both on land and in the air, without vehicular support of their own” Jinan continued, “that means our anti-vehicle weapons are of the utmost importance. The rocket launcher of choice for us has historically been the RPG-7. However that launcher has some major drawbacks. It’s big and bulky to carry, and not that accurate over long distances. I have something that remedies both of those.”

            She pulled out a rocket launcher that was only a meter long.

            “This is a M72-LAW. As you can see it’s a lot smaller and lighter than the RPG. This advantage cannot be overstated because it is so crucial that our troops be able to move fast, in tight spaces, and carry a lot of ammo.”

            A man in the third row raised his hand.

            “Yes?” Jinan asked.

            “The United States, who developed that weapon, phased it out a while back, replacing it with the AT-4” The man said, “Why aren’t we gonna use that instead?”

            “What is your name, sir?” Jinan asked.

            “Ruwaid, ma’am” he said humbly.

            “That is a very good question Ruwaid. What you say is true. There are some missile launchers, such as the AT-4 and RPG-29, which can shoot farther than the LAW and are more powerful. However, they are much bigger than the LAW. I have found from personal combat experience that I value maneuverability and the ability to conceal easily over penetration and power.”

            As soon as she said personal combat experience most of the men started to murmur amongst one another.

            “You’ve actually fought before?” another man blurted out.

            “Yes” Jinan replied in an irritated voice, “I fought in the last Intifada and in the Iraqi insurgency for 3 years.”

            This made the murmuring only louder.

            “Now, if I may continue-“

            “You’re lying!” yelled a man in the back row.

            “I’m sorry, were you with me my entire life to see if I actually fought or not?” Jinan mockingly asked.

            “I wouldn’t have needed to. You’re a woman, you cannot fight.”

            Jinan’s nostrils flared just like in the meeting in Gaza.

            “Here we go again” Qudamah thought as he rolled his eyes.

            “If I cannot fight, then you should have no problem fighting me” Jinan challenged.

            “Hmph! I do not hit women.”

            “Yet you have no problem publically insulting them. Okay, whatever, shut up.”

            Many of the men laughed. They turned around to see what the man in the back row would do next.

            “Why are you letting her speak for your organization man?” he asked as he pointed to Qudamah, “It’s obvious that you are the leader of this brigade.”

            “Who, me?” Qudamah asked, “No, I am not the leader. As Jinan said earlier, I am her political advisor.”

            “Why are you covering for her?”

            “I’m not.”

            “Sir, if you do not shut up and stop wasting my time, I will have to ask you to leave these grounds” Jinan said, her patience fading fast.

            “Ha, like you could make me.”

            Jinan started to walk towards him.

            “Sir I would really advise that you leave before she gets to you” Qudamah warned as Jinan walked down the rows, “Seriously you do not know what you are getting yourself into to.”

            The man ignored him as Jinan came closer to him. Everyone was silent as all eyes were on the two. The man stood up and smirked.

            Jinan kicked him in the left calf, and in his reaction he let up his guard on his face. She then followed up with a punch to his right cheek, sending him sprawling to the ground. She picked up the empty chair that he had been sitting in, folded it, and started slamming it down on the back of his head. Everyone winced as the guy covered the back of his head with his hands as Jinan slammed the chair down a second and third time, the metal making a deafening BANG noise every time it slammed into him. 

            After the third time, the man, still lying on the ground, kicked out in a sweeping motion with his right foot. The kick caught both of Jinan’s feet, causing them to flip out from under her. In panic she let go of the chair, sending it flying up in the air while she went down. She landed in the dirt on her butt, gasping in pain.

            The man leaped onto her, and wrestled with her for a few seconds. He grabbed her wrists as she struggled to break free of his grasp. Now the spectators were alarmed at this; it was natural for them to help a woman if she was being attacked. Some of them got up out of their chairs or at least half got out, waiting to intervene if things got any worse for Jinan.

            “You’re gonna pay for that one, bitch” the man snarled.

            In a split second he let go of Jinan’s right wrist and punched her in the mouth. Before she could do anything else he had already grabbed her wrist again.

            “Don’t count on it, asswipe” she shot back.

            She pulled up her feet under him, and launched him over her, making him land behind her on his back. In the same motion she jumped to her feet, while the man was struggling to get on his. His face was exposed as he was using both of his hands to push himself upwards. But before he could do that, Jinan let out a cry and kicked him as hard she could in the face. She put so much power into it that she had to spin around on her other foot to avoid falling to the ground. The man spun to the ground. When he didn’t get up after a few seconds, Jinan realized that she had knocked him out cold.

            The other men were in complete silence in shock. They could not believe what they had just seen. All except for Qudamah, who had heard of Jinan doing similar things to men dozens of times before. He could only smile.

            Jinan spat out some blood in the dirt, turned towards the crowd, and asked “Now, does anyone ELSE have a problem with being led by a woman?”  

 

---

[1] Should be said with a deep opera voice.

[2] Jinan was not Qudamah’s sister but since the two had known each other for so long, Qudamah’s children called her Aunt.

[3] Israel has hundreds of illegal settlements in the West Bank, completely built and paid for by the government. Only Jews are allowed to live in these settlements; no other person from any other religion is allowed to even visit them. The government has built them in strategic areas in the West Bank to cut off Palestinian villages from their farmland, water sources, and each other. 

[4] An upgraded version of the AK-47.

I hope you guys enjoyed the read. I appreciate any feedback or comments. Since I cannot afford an editor or a publisher at this time, it might be at least a year until I finally publish this book. But I will definitely let everyone know when I do.