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Ultra-Marathoners of Human Smuggling: How to Combat the Dark Networks that Can Move Terrorists Over American Land Borders
"National legislation requires America's homeland security agencies to disrupt transnational human smuggling organizations capable of transporting terrorist travelers to all U.S. borders. Federal agencies have responded with programs targeting extreme-distance human smuggling networks that transport higher-risk immigrants known as special interest aliens (SIAs) from some 35 'countries of interest' in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia where terrorist organizations operate. Yet ineffectiveness and episodic targeting are indicated, in part by continued migration from those countries to the U.S. southwestern border since 9/11. Should an attack linked to SIA smuggling networks occur, homeland security leaders likely will be required to improve counter-SIA interdiction, or do so preemptively. With a better understanding of how SIA smuggling networks persist in foreign geopolitical eco-systems, despite U.S. disruption efforts to date, could their most vulnerable fail points be identified for better intervention targeting? This essay presents the key findings of a systematic analysis of U.S. court records about SIA smuggling, as derived from 19 known prosecutions and a variety of other data between 2001 and 2015. It will discuss suggested leverage points and conclude with a list of strategy options for a more effective disruption campaign against them."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bensman, Todd
2016-05
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Ultra-Marathoners of Human Smuggling: Defending Forward Against Dark Networks That Can Transport Terrorists Across American Land Borders
From the thesis abstract: "National legislation requires America's homeland security agencies to disrupt transnational human smuggling organizations capable of transporting terrorist travelers to all U.S. borders. Federal agencies have responded with programs targeting extreme-distance human smuggling networks that transport higher-risk immigrants known as special interest aliens (SIAs) from some 35 'countries of interest' in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia where terrorist organizations operate. Yet ineffectiveness and episodic targeting are indicated, in part by continued migration from those countries to the U.S. southwestern border since 9/11. Should an attack linked to SIA smuggling networks occur, homeland security leaders likely will be required to improve counter-SIA interdiction or may choose to do so preemptively. This thesis asks how SIA smuggling networks function as systems and, based on this analysis, if their most vulnerable fail points can be identified for better intervention targeting. Using NVivo qualitative analysis software, the study examined 19 U.S. court prosecutions of SIA smugglers and other data to produce 20 overarching conclusions demonstrating how SIA smuggling functions. From these 20 conclusions, seven leverage points were extracted and identified for likely law enforcement intervention success. Fifteen disruption strategies, tailored to the seven leverage points, are recommended."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.); Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bensman, Todd
2015-09
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Ultra-Marathoners of Human Smuggling: Defending Forward Against Dark Networks that Can Transport Terrorists Across American Land Borders [Supplemental]
This document is the supplemental to the thesis "Ultra-Marathoners of Human Smuggling: Defending Forward Against Dark Networks that Can Transport Terrorists Across American Land Borders" by Todd Bensman. "Five pre-2004 court cases analyzed for this research were not entirely available on PACER: United States v. Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah, United States v. Mehrzad Arbane, United States v. Mohammad Assadi, United States v. Mehar Jarad, and United States v.
Nancy Zaia. Court documents related to these cases were acquired directly from U.S. Attorney's offices in 2007, during related research." The associated thesis can be found at the following link [https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=788177].
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.); Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bensman, Todd
2015-09
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