The lone wolf and the low-tech threat of Islamic State
He idolised the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, Britain’s first jihadist, ‘lone wolf’ killers. And armed with a 12 inch knife and a hammer, Brusthom Ziamani had the weapons he needed to become the next.
He was on his way to carry out his plot to behead a British soldier when he was arrested in August last year. His conviction today, six months later, illuminates the perceived threat posed by the so-called lone wolf attacker.
Thwarting complex, organised plots once dominated the work of the British security services. Now, the lone wolf, radicalised by remote and not under the direct command of a terrorist organisation, is thought to be the greatest threat to our national security.
In 2010, Roshonara Choudry, a gifted student who had viewed online sermons given by a senior al-Qaida commander, tried to stab her local MP, Stephen Timms, because he had supported the Iraq war.
So although the lone wolf appears to be responsible for increasing anxiety for British authorities, it is not a new threat. But the frequency of such attacks has increased: not just in Woolwich, where Fusilier Rigby was killed, but in Ottawa last year and in Copenhagen last week.
The rise of Islamic State is one reason for the growth of the solitary terrorist with a simple armoury. Unlike al-Qaida, which favoured sophisticated plots, IS encourages its supporters to launch ‘low-tech’ attacks. The August issue of its glossy magazine, ‘Dabiq’, has a clear message to readers: “Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him”, it says.
Such attacks are easy to prepare for - Ziamani believed he only required a hammer and a knife - but they are difficult to detect. So the lone wolf might be the type of terrorist that security services fear the most.