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Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Homeland Security: An Introduction to Principles and Practice

Boko Haram Discussion Forum

The radical Islamist group Boko Haram is a gang that claims the hypocritical, corrupt

Muslims should control politics in the north. Their goal is to create an Islamic state ruled by

sharia law, and part of that strategy includes attacking them and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Islamic terrorist organization is based in Northeastern Nigeria, Central Africa, Muslim

North, and Christian South. It is also dominant in Niger, Chad, and Northern Cameroon.

Boko Haram was involved in the Chibok kidnapping in April 2014, where 276 girls were

kidnapped from school, many were sold as wives, and some were used as suicide bombers. Still,

in 2014, the gang raided a boarding school in Yobe, killing 29 males and taking females as

wives. Previously in 2013, they had set the school on fire, killing students and teachers as they

tried to get out of the burning building. Boko Haram has also been involved in attacking

Christian churches. They did so in July 2015, killing 200 people. In 2011, they executed four

attacks on the Redeemed Church of God and St. Theresa, which had 37 people dead.

Given its position as Nigeria's principal foreign investor and a major supplier of foreign

aid, the United States must act against Boko Haram. Approximately one million Nigerians and

Nigerian Americans call the United States home, and over 25,000 Americans call Nigeria home.

The USA can help stop Boko Haram by boosting their support to the Nigerian Armed Forces. In

addition, the United States can assist in addressing the political grievances and socioeconomic
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conditions that make young people susceptible to Boko Haram. This action can be accomplished

by adopting significant measures to tackle unemployment, poverty, and environmental

degradation's effects.

Module 6: Textbook Review

Question 1: The seven directorates of FEMA are disaster assistance, disaster operations,

logistics, mitigation, national continuity programs, national preparedness, response, and recovery

(Nemeth 301).

Question 2: The national response framework serves as a guide in the event of any disaster,

major or little. The model lays out the fundamental principles of response and the responsibilities

and mechanisms that organize national reaction (Nemeth 321).

Question 3: The five core competencies that professional employees in Homeland Security need

to master include intelligence, border security, immigration, transportation security, and public

health (Nemeth 332).

Question 4: The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) is the nation's front line to combat

foreign and internal terrorism. The FBI has reaffirmed the significance and operational function

of JTTFs, which combine federal, federal, and local authorities in key American cities to combat

terrorism (Nemeth 340). The following agencies are members of JTTF across America: Central

Intelligence Agency; U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; U.S. Immigration and

Customs Enforcement; U.S. Internal Revenue Service; U.S. Department of State (Bureau of

Diplomatic Security); U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; New York State

Office of Inspector General; New York State Police and Vermont State Police;

Albany, New York, Police Department (Nemeth 342).

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Question 5: The four parts of the definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are as

follows (Nemeth 346):

a) Any bomb, grenade, rocket, missile, mine, or other device with more than four ounces of

charge is illegal.

b) Any weapon that uses or has the potential to utilize toxic or poisonous substances or their

precursors to inflict death or significant bodily harm.

c) Any weapon that can cause an infectious illness.

d) Any weapon that can potentially discharge lethal doses of radiation or other radioactive

materials.

Question 6: The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was established as a hub for sharing

and analyzing data related to terrorism (Nemeth 355).

Question 7: The five goals of the Secure Border Initiative are as follows (Nemeth 374).

i. Acquiring more agents to guard our borders, protect our airports, and check everyone

who tries to enter or leave the country.

ii. Improved capacity to detain and expel offenders, ending "catch and release."

iii. Better internal enforcement of immigration laws, especially in the workplace.

iv. Increased border infrastructure investment providing physical security to cut unlawful

border crossings dramatically

v. Increasing human aircraft assets, crewless aerial vehicles, and next-generation detection

technologies to control the border.

Question 8: The US-VISIT program, administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland

Security, equips visa-issuing facilities and ports of entry with biometric technology for
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establishing and verifying the identities of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States

(Nemeth 397).

Question 9: The following are the three core values of the Transportation Security

Administration (TSA) (Nemeth 405):

i) Integrity

 Respecting and caring for each other.

 Being trustworthy, honest, and ethical.

 Being unified by our cultural diversities.

ii) Innovation

 We are ready and embrace change.

 We are always ready to take on new challenges.

 We uphold an enterprising spirit for innovation.

iii) Team Spirit

 We are dedicated to improving others.

 We yearn hard for success.

 We team up to strengthen ourselves.

Question 10: The three components of the definition of biometrics are biometrics

describes either a trait or a process, it is a quantifiable characteristic of physiology or behavior

that may be recognized systematically, and it is also a process that uses measurable biological

and behavioral traits to recognize an individual (Nemeth 417) automatically. The six bodily

components targeted for identification are the eye, face, fingerprint, palm, speech, and vascular.

Question 11: The five-part mission of the U.S. Coast Guard is as follows (Nemeth 57):
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i. Maritime safety - creates an environment where fishing, boating, and recreational boating

are safe for everyone, without any accidents or fatalities.

ii. Maritime security - combat unlawful fishing and marine law violations, as well as the

smuggling of pharmaceuticals, aliens, and contraband into the United States via sea

routes.

iii. Maritime mobility - promote recreational exposure to and enjoyment of the sea while also

facilitating marine trade and removing obstacles to the efficient and cost-effective flow of

products and people.

iv. National defense - guard the nation as one of five U.S. armed services and use the Coast

Guard's unique marine abilities to assist the National Security Strategy and stability in the

region.

v. Protection of natural resources - minimize ecological harm and natural resource

deterioration through maritime traffic, fishing, and recreational boating.

Question 12: The National Pharmaceutical Stockpile is a repository whose main objective is to

ensure that underserved areas have access to lifesaving medications and medical supplies

(Nemeth 496).

Question 13: The fronts on which our food and agricultural supplies can be attacked are as

follows (Nemeth 474).

i. Chemical and biological agents.

ii. Substances derived from nature, materials resistant to antibiotics, and synthetic

molecules.

iii. Toxic substances and foods that cause gastrointestinal issues.

iv. Dangerously contagious pathogens and those that cannot be spread.

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v. Easy-to-get and harder-to-get substances.

vi. Weaponized and usable agents.

Question 14: The Center for Disease Control describes bioterrorism as "the deliberate release of

a biological agent with the aim to cause illness or death in humans, animals, or plants." (Nemeth

490).

Question 15: A pandemic is an outbreak of a contagious illness that has spread over a sizable

area, such as several continents or the entire world, and impacts a substantial number of people

(Nemeth 497).

Question 16: A novel influenza A (H2N2) virus first appeared in East Asia in February 1957,

setting off the "Asian Flu" epidemic. Three genes from an H2N2 virus that descended from an

avian influenza A virus, including the H2 hemagglutinin and the N2 neuraminidase genes, made

up this H2N2 virus. The H1N1 influenza A virus produced the worldwide pandemic of 1918–

1920, sometimes known as the Great Influenza Epidemic or the erroneously named "Spanish

flu." (Nemeth 499).

Question 17: A new flu virus ravaged the U.S. and the world in the spring of 2009. On April 15,

2009, the first U.S. H1N1 case was reported. By April 21, the CDC had started developing a new

viral vaccine. The U.S. declared H1N1 a public health emergency on April 26.  US H1N1 cases

reached 18,000 by June 2009. The pandemic affected 74 nations. H1N1 vaccination was initially

scarce. The vaccination was given first to high-risk patients.  Forty-eight states reported H1N1

illnesses by November 2009, especially among youth. Sixty-one million vaccination doses were

ready that month. The medical community vaccinated more people if flu activity decreased in

some areas. H1N1 was mitigated by 80 million H1N1 vaccinations (Nemeth 504).
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Question 18: The following are the six parts of the current DHS mission that he states need to be

reviewed to help the agency prosper.

i. Probabilistic risk assessment

ii. Qualitative risk assessment

iii. Resilience

iv. Return on investment

v. Risk Acceptance

vi. Risk analysis

Question 19: Author's suggestions (Nemeth 531).

i. Behavioral profiling of terrorists.

ii. Randomize airport and transit checkpoints.

iii. Increasingly allowed frequent fliers to bypass security.

iv. Grant local police some homeland functions.

v. Demand a localized grant program.

Types of Intelligence

HUMINT: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is intelligence gained through interpersonal

interaction. It is knowledge produced from information obtained and delivered by human

sources.

SIGINT: Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence gathered by the surveillance of signals,

such as communications between humans (COMINT) or electronic signals not directly utilized

for communication (ELINT). Intelligence collection management includes signals intelligence as

one of its subsets.

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IMINT: Reproductions of physical objects made electronically or optically and then displayed

on film, digital display systems, or other media, are all considered part of the Imagery

Intelligence (IMINT) domain. Radar sensors, visual photography, lasers, electro-optics,

and infrared sensors are all viable options for gathering information.

MASINT: The field of intelligence known as Measurement and Signature Intelligence

(MASINT) focuses on identifying and quantifying the unique properties and elements that make

up an object or action. With these features, the object or action may be recognized and described

each time it is encountered.

OSINT: Open-source intelligence (OSINT) refers to gathering and analyzing information

available to the public for intelligence purposes. Researchers who employ non-sensitive data to

address personal, unclassified, or commercial information needs across the intelligence

mentioned above disciplines benefit greatly from OSINT's widespread application in national

security, enforcement agencies, and business intelligence.

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Work Cited

Nemeth, Charles P. Homeland security: An introduction to principles and practice: Second

Edition. CRC Press, 2013.