Is America Safe?: Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Emergency Preparedness

Robert T. Jordan, Don Philpott

Scarecrow Press, 2010 - Emergency management - 316 pages

As potential targets, such as military facilities, symbols of democracy, government buildings, and infrastructure are "hardened" against possible terrorist attack, terrorists will shift to softer targets: churches, schools, malls, mass entertainment centers, high-rise apartments, transportation centers, and energy facilities. Their goal will be to disrupt or destroy our economy, impose fear and uncertainty, break our national will, and deflect our attention and support from the Middle East. We could wait for it to happen, or we can prepare now. This new book empowers Americans by providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to understand terrorist strategies, which, in turn, allow each of us to contribute to disrupting the terrorists' intended goals through observing and reporting suspicious activity, reducing target vulnerabilities, and minimizing casualties through education and preparation. The authors define terrorism and its origins and describe present-day organizations: where they operate, what their philosophies entail, and what their motivation and objectives are. They review different terrorist tactics and their desired effects, providing readers with guidelines and checklists for surviving them. Knowing how to prepare for, and how to survive, an attack is a step toward marginalizing intended casualty rates, psychological impacts, and propaganda values. At the same time, the lifesaving skills presented in this book may also be used in naturally occurring catastrophic events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or earthquakes.

Contents

• TwentyFirstCentury Threats to the Homeland: 3
• Counterterrorism Tactics: 21
• Are We Winning the War?: 47

About the author

Robert T. Jordan is an award-winning writer, photographer, artist, and broadcaster. He is the founding president of the Beirut Veterans of America and a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Marine Corps League, the Vietnam Veterans of America, and the U. S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Assn. Jordan is a former editor of Homeland Defense Journal, and he has written for Flying Tiger magazine, Leatherneck magazine, the Marine Corps Gazette, Sea Power magazine, TechTrends, International, Police Magazine, World Market Perspective, Defense Electronics, Defense World, Homeland Defense Journal, and various newspapers. Don Philpott has been writing and reporting on security, civil unrest, and terrorism for almost 40 years. He was a senior correspondent with Reuters-Press Association, reporting on major events and trouble spots, including Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Israel, South Africa, and the Far East. He is now senior correspondent with Homeland Defense Journal, and he writes for magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe. He is the author of more than 50 books, including The Wounded Warrior Handbook (Government Institutes, 2008) and The Workplace Violence Prevention Handbook (Government Institutes, 2009).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Is America Safe?: Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Emergency Preparedness
• Authors: Robert T. Jordan, Don Philpott
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2010
• Original from: Pennsylvania State University
• Digitized: Sep 2, 2011
• ISBN: 1605906492, 9781605906492
• Length: 316 pages