SELF-INITIATED TERRORISTS
77. Organisations within the Intelligence Community (including MI5, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) and the Home Office) have previously referred to the threat from 'Potential Lone Actors' (PLAs). Across Islamist terrorism, Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT) and left-wing, anarchist and single-issue terrorism (LASIT), the terrorist threat has emanated primarily from PLAs. In September 2020, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) assessed that this trend was likely to continue, and that any future attack in the UK would most likely be conducted by a PLA.[1]
78. However, a review commissioned by the Counter Terrorism Senior Responsible Officer[2] into the counter-terrorism approach to PLAs determined that the term itself was misleading, perpetuating unhelpful assumptions in particular that terrorists who plan and carry out these types of attacks "do so on their own, isolated from society and those around them, and are unknowable and unstoppable as a result, despite evidence that in up to 80% of cases Lone Actors broadcast their intent to carry out an attack".[3]
79. The review suggested that the term 'Self-Initiated Terrorists' (S-ITs) be adopted instead, defined as:
persons who mobilise to threaten or use violence, without material support or personal direction from a terrorist organisation; but who may still be influenced or encouraged by the rhetoric or ideology of a group.[4]
The review noted that inspired,[5] but self-initiated, terrorism can be conducted by groups as well as single individuals. The term Self-Initiated Terrorist was subsequently adopted by the counter-terrorism community in November 2020.[6] Homeland Security Group told the Committee that this clear definition will allow all organisations involved (including academia and partners) to improve data collection, understanding of the problem and allocation of resources.
80. JTAC advises that there are a number of factors that might influence why, where, when and how S-ITs decide to conduct attacks and that these might vary from their particular personal circumstances to the nature of their grievances and perceptions of their own capabilities. What is clear is that the growth of the S-IT phenomenon has resulted in the UK threat becoming more fragmented. S-ITs' motivations for conducting attacks can be highly individualistic and driven by personal circumstances, rather than by wider shifts in the global terrorism landscape.[7] S-ITs are also not subject to the same inhibitors as organised groups, which are subject to: internal conflict; a lack of unifying ideologies leading to factionalism; and scrutiny by the authorities.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 29 September 2020.
- ↑ The Director General for Homeland Security Group also holds the post of Counter Terrorism Senior Responsible Officer.
- ↑ Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), 'Submission to the ISC: Lone Actor Review Terminology', 1 March 2021.
- ↑ OSCT, 'Submission to the ISC: Lone Actor Review Terminology', 1 March 2021.
- ↑ JTAC currently uses the terms 'inspired', 'directed' and 'enabled' to denote the strength of the command and control relationship between a terrorist actor and a terrorist group. 'Inspired' attacks are perpetrated by individuals with no operational links to terrorist groups, but motivated to act by a group's ideology or propaganda. 'Directed' attacks are initiated by leadership of a terrorist group, training and deploying operatives to carry out attacks. 'Enabled' attacks are carried out by individuals assisted by terrorist groups [source: OSCT written advice, 1 March 2021].
- ↑ The CT community includes, but is not limited to, CTP, MI5, OSCT, GCHQ and JTAC.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 29 September 2020.
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