December 19, 2014 – Vol. 19 No. 51 Researchers link psychological problems to ‘lone wolf’ attacks Dec 11 2014 WINNIPEG - Manitoba has in- troduced legislation that would create a First Nations safety of- ficer program to help prevent crime in remote communities while also enforcing band by- laws and specific provincial laws, Justice Minister James Al- lum announced recently. Page 3 Dec 11 2014 TORONTO - A Second World War law used by police to make mass arrests during the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010 was officially scrapped Thursday and replaced with new legislation. Dec 15 2014 Page 5 LONDON - A radical Muslim killed a “lone wolf’’ terrorism. soldier outside Canada’s Parliament. Now academics and law enforcement of- Dec 17 2014 A right-wing extremist opened fire on ficials are working to turn that research into An RCMP officer says not buildings in Texas’ capital and tried to tools to prevent deadly attacks. enough was done to care for burn down the Mexican Consulate. An “It’s never an either-or in terms of ideolo- some members in the wake of Al-Qaida-inspired assailant hacked an gy versus mental illness,’’ said Ramon Spaaij, the shooting deaths of three of off-duty soldier to death in London. a sociologist at Australia’s Victoria University their colleagues in Moncton, Police said all three were terrorists and who conducted a major study, funded by the New Brunswick. motivated by ideology. Authorities and fam- U.S. Justice Department, of lone wolf extrem- Page 9 ily members said they may have been men- ists. “It’s a dangerous cocktail.’’ tally ill. A growing body of research suggests The study preceded Tuesday’s ending of they might well have been both. a 16-hour siege involving a gunman who took Dec 18 2014 New studies have challenged several hostages in a cafe in Sydney. The gunman, MONTREAL - The Montreal Po- decades of thinking that psychological prob- Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, was already lice Department’s plan to mod- lems are only a minor factor in the making of facing charges including sexual assault and ernize its computer system terrorists. The research has instead found a accessory to murder in separate cases, and his touted a budget of $1.65 million significant link between mental problems and former lawyer said the standoff was “not a in 2001, but now it’s forecast to reach $28.4 million by the time it’s completed in 2016, the city’s latest capital works program shows. Page 10 concerted terrorism event’’ but the work of “a terrorists are much more likely to have men- several alleged attacks through sting opera- damaged-goods individual.’’ tal health problems than either members of tions in which agents posed as terror support- With groups like Islamic State spreading the general public or participants in group ers, supplying advice and equipment. Critics violence in Syria and Iraq - and bloodthirsty terrorism. say the strategy can amount to entrapment rhetoric on the Internet - authorities around Spaaij and Mark Hamm of Indiana State of mentally vulnerable people who wouldn’t University studied 98 lone wolf attackers in the world have issued increasingly insistent have the wherewithal to act alone. warnings about the threat posed by lone wolf the U.S. They found that 40 per cent had iden- attackers. tifiable mental health problems, compared Meanwhile, the fundamental question of They can be difficult to stop with a coun- with 1.5 per cent in the general population. whether there is a link between mental health terterrorism strategy geared toward intercept- Their conclusion? Mental illness is not problems and terrorism remains controver- ing communications and disrupting plots. the only factor that drives individuals to com- sial. Solo terrorism “doesn’t take an awful lot mit terrorist acts, but it is one of the factors. The most lethal lone-wolf attacker in of organizing. It doesn’t take too many people Spaaj said mental illness can play a part recent years was anti-Muslim extremist An- to conspire together. There’s no great com- “in shaping particular belief systems and in ders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people plexity to it,’’ London Police Chief Bernard constructing the enemy, externalizing blame in a bombing and gun rampage in Norway in for one’s own failure or grievances onto this Hogan-Howe told the BBC recently. “So what 2011. Breivik was unrepentant. One psychiat- that means is that we have a very short time to all-threatening enemy.’’ interdict, to actually intervene and make sure A second study by Paul Gill and Emily ric report found him to be insane, while a sec- that these people don’t get away with it.’’ Corner of University College London looked ond concluded that he was sane - and judges Police forces and intelligence agencies at 119 lone wolf attackers and a similar num- agreed, sending him to prison indefinitely. are examining whether insights from research ber of members of violent extremist groups The killer was happy with the outcome. by Spaaij and others could help. in the U.S. and Europe. Almost a third of the For Breivik, it was recognition that his views Spaaij said a number of law enforcement lone wolves - nearly 32 per cent - had been were legitimate and not those of a madman. and intelligence agencies have shown interest diagnosed with a mental illness, while only (UK Daily Mail) in his work. In Britain, a police counterterror- 3.4 per cent of terrorist group members were ism unit is using a major study of lone wolf mentally ill. terrorists to develop risk-assessment analysis. “Group-based terrorists are psychologi- A British security official who spoke on cally quite normal,’’ the researchers said. THURSDAY condition of anonymity because he is not They said one reason may be that terrorist DECEMBER 11, 2014 authorized to talk on the record said many recruiters are likely to reject candidates who attackers display warning signs, but that rec- appear erratic or mentally ill. ognizing them is easier in retrospect. He said Mental illness could make lone wolf at- Dec 11 2014 British intelligence officials are studying the tacks easier to foresee: Gill said 60 per cent of OTTAWA - Security officers who guard link between mental illness and lone-actor the attackers he studied leaked details of their the House of Commons were given a terrorism. plans, sometimes telling friends or family. rousing tribute in the chamber they Most people with mental health problems He and Corner are working with a British are there to protect. are neither terrorists nor violent, and mental counterterrorism unit as police try to develop As part of the winding down of business ways of distinguishing genuine threats from illness alone can’t explain lone wolf attack- before the Christmas holidays, Speaker An- ers. Some experts dispute whether there is a hot-headed talk. The unit declined to discuss link at all. the project, but recent cases suggest deter- drew Scheer threw open the doors on Thurs- After Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s deadly at- mining who really is a threat is fraught with day and allowed dozens of guards on the tack on a soldier Oct. 22 in Ottawa, Jocelyn difficulty. floor of the Commons while MPs cheered Belanger, a psychology professor at the Uni- More than a year before he hacked a and applauded. versity of Quebec at Montreal, told the Ca- soldier to death in London in 2013, Michael He says he wanted to acknowledge the nadian Senate’s national security committee Adebowale’s online extremism drew the at- courage and professionalism of the detail in that “to believe that radicalized individuals tention of Britain’s intelligence services. light of the Oct. 23 attack. are crazy or not playing with a full deck will Domestic intelligence agency MI5 told Scheer says their quick response after a a parliamentary inquiry into the murder that be our first mistake in developing effective gunman stormed Centre Block “most certain- counterterrorism strategies.’’ it uses a range of factors to assess the threat But the new research suggests that solo from potential lone wolves, including an in- ly prevented an even more tragic conclusion ability to cope with stress and anxiety, social to the day’s events.’’ isolation and mental health problems. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman, mur- MI5 agents suggested that Adebowale - dered Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the foot of the who is now serving a life sentence in a psychi- national war memorial and then stormed Par- atric hospital - be assessed by the agency’s Be- liament Hill before being fatally shot by se- havioral Science Unit, a team of psychologists curity staff outside the Parliamentary library. ISSN 1704-3913 and social scientists, but the assessment was Copyright 2014 Scheer acknowledged Samearn Son, a 10- Blue Line Magazine Inc. & The Canadian Press never done. The lawmakers’ report called that a missed opportunity, and recommended that year veteran and one of the unarmed guards Permission to reprint may be obtained in advance from who was injured trying to stop the gunman. Access Copyright “MI5 should ensure that the unit’s advice is in- Phone 1-800-893-5777 [email protected] tegrated more thoroughly into investigations.’’ Signals also were misread in the case of Dec 11 2014 Published weekly by Blue Line Magazine, Inc. as an executive Nicky Reilly, a 22-year-old convert to Islam WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Integrat- news briefing service to Canada’s top level law enforcement personnel. who walked into a restaurant in the English ed Organized Crime Task Force has Most information supplied in this publication is from news- town of Exeter in 2008 with a homemade charged 14 people in a long-term in- wire services.