Can You Help Stop Terror Plots?

• by
• John Hollywood,
• Kevin J. Strom

This commentary appeared on CNN on May 10, 2011.

In retaliation for Osama bin Laden's death, al Qaeda supporters may try to carry out attacks in the United States. Widely reported threats from the Pakistani Taliban and others have put officials on the alert for small-scale acts that can be executed quickly.

Just 48 hours after the president's announcement of bin Laden's death, police in the U.K. detained five London men in their 20s sitting in a vehicle near a nuclear plant in West Cumbria. They are being held pending further investigation.

Given the alerts and a heightened sense of impending acts of terrorism, is there anything the public can do to help foil terrorism on our soil?

Recently, researchers from the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions at RTI International and the RAND Corporation analyzed what thwarted 68 potential cases of terrorism in the United States from 1999 to 2009....

The remainder of this op-ed can be found at cnn.com.

John S. Hollywood is a researcher at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis. Kevin J. Strom is a senior research scientist at RTI International, a nonprofit research institution dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice.

• Related Topics:
• Terrorism Threat Assessment,
• Terrorist Organizations