Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism/Self-Initiated Terrorists
SELF-INITIATED TERRORISTS
77. Organisations within the Intelligence Community (including MI5, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) and the Home Office) have previously referred to the threat from 'Potential Lone Actors' (PLAs). Across Islamist terrorism, Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT) and left-wing, anarchist and single-issue terrorism (LASIT), the terrorist threat has emanated primarily from PLAs. In September 2020, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) assessed that this trend was likely to continue, and that any future attack in the UK would most likely be conducted by a PLA.[1]
78. However, a review commissioned by the Counter Terrorism Senior Responsible Officer[2] into the counter-terrorism approach to PLAs determined that the term itself was misleading, perpetuating unhelpful assumptions in particular that terrorists who plan and carry out these types of attacks "do so on their own, isolated from society and those around them, and are unknowable and unstoppable as a result, despite evidence that in up to 80% of cases Lone Actors broadcast their intent to carry out an attack".[3]
79. The review suggested that the term 'Self-Initiated Terrorists' (S-ITs) be adopted instead, defined as:
persons who mobilise to threaten or use violence, without material support or personal direction from a terrorist organisation; but who may still be influenced or encouraged by the rhetoric or ideology of a group.[4]
The review noted that inspired,[5] but self-initiated, terrorism can be conducted by groups as well as single individuals. The term Self-Initiated Terrorist was subsequently adopted by the counter-terrorism community in November 2020.[6] Homeland Security Group told the Committee that this clear definition will allow all organisations involved (including academia and partners) to improve data collection, understanding of the problem and allocation of resources.
80. JTAC advises that there are a number of factors that might influence why, where, when and how S-ITs decide to conduct attacks and that these might vary from their particular personal circumstances to the nature of their grievances and perceptions of their own capabilities. What is clear is that the growth of the S-IT phenomenon has resulted in the UK threat becoming more fragmented. S-ITs' motivations for conducting attacks can be highly individualistic and driven by personal circumstances, rather than by wider shifts in the global terrorism landscape.[7] S-ITs are also not subject to the same inhibitors as organised groups, which are subject to: internal conflict; a lack of unifying ideologies leading to factionalism; and scrutiny by the authorities.
81. MI5 advises that the increase in ERWT online material enables S-ITs to:
Self-radicalise online with no real world or direct communication with an organised group; ***. The variety of [E]RWT material online enables [S-ITs] to quickly form a hybrid of [E]RWT ideologies, rather than having to adhere to a strictly defined set of principles. While a lack of ideological consensus amongst members can prevent groups from moving to violent action, [S-ITs] have no such constraints, requiring neither the sanction nor involvement of others. For this reason [S-ITs], especially those who Radicalise online, can move from theoretical inspiration to real world action in a short space of time.[8] ***.[9]
82. The Head of CTP noted that, looking at terrorism across the board and regardless of ideology:
[it] has become much more in that self-initiating space, their being incited and inspired, rather than directed and trained and enabled, and that is harder to spot. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about Right Wing, Left Wing, Single Issue or Islamist.[10]
E. The terrorist threat—regardless of ideology—is increasingly posed by Self-Initiated Terrorists, those who are incited or inspired rather than directed. Self-Initiated Terrorists are difficult to identify, and pose a significant number of challenges in terms of detection and monitoring. Their motivation can be highly individualistic and determining how, why and when they may choose to attack is particularly difficult for MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing. An innovative approach will be needed to counter the fragmented and complex threat posed by these disparate groups and individuals.
Mental health and developmental disorders
83. MI5 acknowledges that mental health issues can be a factor when retrospectively attempting to assess an individual’s motivation for conducting a terrorist attack. It is often not possible to determine the extent to which an attack was motivated exclusively by an extremist ideology, or was exacerbated by complex mental health issues. This is a particular problem when it comes to S-ITs who may have had no prior engagement with terrorist organisations, or indeed expressed any intention of carrying out a terrorist act. The Director General of MI5 pointed to the mass stabbing in a Glasgow hotel in June 2020 by Badreddin Abdalla Adam as an example of an attack that it transpired had, in fact, been prompted by a row with a fellow asylum seeker over noise:
you will recall an episode in Glasgow where a man stabbed a number of other people in a hotel that was being used for asylum seekers and, again, for the first few hours it was not clear to Police Scotland colleagues, or to ourselves, what really we were dealing with here: was this, as it turned out, a desperate man in some form of deranged state, or was this an ideological attack?[13]
84. Reporting shows that a number of those convicted of ERWT offences have the developmental disorders Asperger's or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Jonathan Hall QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, recently announced that he understood that the incidents of autism and referrals to the Prevent programme were "staggeringly high" and that "it is as if a social problem has been unearthed and fallen into the lap of counter-terrorism professionals".[14]
85. It transpires that ASD with regard to ERWT is the subject of debate across the medical profession. The Head of CTP told the Committee that the issue of ASD was something of a "contested space" in this area:
So not all medics agree with my [CTP] people's assertion that the people that they are dealing with might have complex psychological needs. So it is not just the fact that we are very early on this; some people won't see it. So we are seeing what we think are younger people, particularly with Asperger's and autism, on that spectrum, but, you know, it is not agreed by any stretch of the imagination. So you are right to flag that more work needs to be done in this area. We are doing that work. It is very early days.[15]
86. This was borne out by Homeland Security Group, who, with particular regard to the Prevent programme, observed:
Anecdotally, if you asked any of my Prevent coordinators across the country, they would say they are seeing a link between autism and some of the right wing casework; any mental health professional would say those people are not really qualified to say that, which is an entirely legitimate observation but it is something I get very regularly from my folks on the ground.
In prison, where obviously the opportunity to look more carefully at the mental health conditions that affect any prisoner is easier it is a more controlled environment a study we have done has shown about a five times higher than normal prevalence of autism amongst those [Extreme] Right Wing prisoners, but even that I caveat because the numbers in that sample are so low that any mental health professional worth their salt would say that is just not enough to make a judgment on. So it is something we are looking at very carefully. It is really really difficult, but it is very much on all of our minds.[16]
F. Without an agreed understanding of the links between Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism and the developmental disorders Asperger’s and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is difficult to see how this problem can be tackled effectively. It is imperative that more is done to establish a cohesive and joined-up effort across the agencies, organisations and medical professionals involved in this area.
Drugs
87. A number of commentators have pointed to a correlation between drug abuse and terrorist activity. When we asked MI5 about this issue with specific reference to ERWT, MI5 observed that there was evidence of drug use by subjects of interest across both ERWT and Islamist terrorists—and sometimes that drug use might provide an alternative route to prosecution, as might other forms of low-level crime—but the Director General said:
I think our casework over the years would not support such a strong version of that conclusion. ***.[17]
- ↑ JTAC paper, 29 September 2020.
- ↑ The Director General for Homeland Security Group also holds the post of Counter Terrorism Senior Responsible Officer.
- ↑ Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), 'Submission to the ISC: Lone Actor Review Terminology', 1 March 2021.
- ↑ OSCT, 'Submission to the ISC: Lone Actor Review Terminology', 1 March 2021.
- ↑ JTAC currently uses the terms 'inspired', 'directed' and 'enabled' to denote the strength of the command and control relationship between a terrorist actor and a terrorist group. 'Inspired' attacks are perpetrated by individuals with no operational links to terrorist groups, but motivated to act by a group's ideology or propaganda. 'Directed' attacks are initiated by leadership of a terrorist group, training and deploying operatives to carry out attacks. 'Enabled' attacks are carried out by individuals assisted by terrorist groups [source: OSCT written advice, 1 March 2021].
- ↑ The CT community includes, but is not limited to, CTP, MI5, OSCT, GCHQ and JTAC.
- ↑ JTAC paper, 29 September 2020.
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 13 January 2020.
- ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 13 January 2020.
- ↑ Oral evidence – CTP, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ This section is sub judice as at Monday 22 November 2021.
- ↑ On 16 March 2019, Vincent Fuller, a White Supremacist, stabbed Dimitar Mihaylov in Stanwell, Surrey. He received an 18‑year jail term on 10 September 2019.
- ↑ Oral evidence - MI5, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ 'Staggeringly high number of people with autism on UK Prevent scheme', The Guardian, 7 July 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - CTP, 29 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office, 28 April 2021.
- ↑ Oral evidence – MI5, 29 April 2021.