Advice from a Certified Homeland Protection Professional

Allen Norton, Certified Homeland Protection Professional, from GDSI Intelligence and Training spoke to our SinC-Central Virginia group about international and home-grown terrorism and the characteristics of each. He provided a lot of good details and samples of training materials/documents for our mystery and thriller writers.

His presentation focused on foreign and domestic terrorists and characteristics of each. He had quite the collection of propaganda and recruiting tools. It was interesting to see the variety of materials. The common theme, despite the dogma, throughout all of them was hatred.

Who knew some groups even had membership applications to become a terrorist? He explained the left/right continuum of the major terrorist organizations. The extremes on the left side tend to be more politically motivated, and the goal is to create a new or their own political structure. The extreme right tends to be religiously motivated and wants to return to some previous state from the past.

It was interesting to see how technology and social media have changed the recruiting and communication tactics and practices of these groups.