Propaganda of the deed?

View 771 Sunday, April 21, 2013

"Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

<http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/boston-bombers-fbi-hunting-12-strong-1844844#.UXM54Yqm6hA.twitter>

Roland Dobbins

I have heard this from other sources as well. The Brothers Tsarnaev expected to get away with it, melting back into the woodwork and never being suspected. In that scenario, in due time some organization not associated with the Tsarnaev family would step forward and take credit for the Marathon Bombing. We have little experience with such long term activities of this sort. Communist and anarchist organizations more or less gave up “propaganda of the deed”, preferring other means for undermining confidence in the legitimacy of the government. Perhaps that is coming back?

Those who advocate suicidal jihad (generally for execution by someone else) find that the period in which the prospective jihadist is ready and willing does not last long: it is very difficult to plan long term events which require suicide for their culmination.  Obviously there are some operatives willing to spend a long time planning to die for their cause, but there is never a surplus of them. There is speculation that at least some of those involved in the 911 hijackings did not know that the end of the affair would be using the airplanes as cruise missiles. Obviously the pilots knew the mission and did not expect to survive.

In the Boston Marathon case it is pretty clear that both participants expected to get away with it. When they found that they had been discovered they had a sudden need for the means and wherewithal to flee, and it’s pretty clear that they had given that matter no thought; the most likely reason for that was they didn’t expect to have to do it.

If there is evidence of long term sleeper cells but no file on the Brothers Tsarnaev, can we draw any conclusions on how well the security organizations are working now?