Police Should Improve, not Drop, Terror Suspect Stings

The case of Aaron Driver, a 24-year-old Canadian killed by RCMP officers in a confrontation before he could carry out his ISIS-inspired plot to blow up civilians is more proof that lone wolf terrorists pose a threat.

But it also highlights how poorly the RCMP handled the now infamous file of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody.

One conclusion to draw is that the RCMP, rather than abandoning their strategy of entrapping terror suspects, should become better at it. Being better at it would mean constructing stings far more efficient, avoiding the kind of massive and overly complex operation Nuttall and Korody turned out to be.

Let’s start with Driver, and then surmise how the RCMP could have better handled Nuttall and Korody.

A video and two bombs

According to police accounts, on Wednesday, August 10, Driver got up in the morning, made two improvised explosive devices and ordered a taxi. The young man wanted to reach a public place where he could detonate his homemade bombs and murder as many people as possible.

Fortunately, he also made a suicide video pledging allegiance to ISIS, which was picked up by the FBI and they alerted the RCMP. In the early afternoon on Wednesday the RCMP surrounded Driver’s house just as he got into the taxi. After he detonated one of the bombs in the taxi, the officers shot and killed him.

Driver is the classic lone wolf. He had serious psychological problems: his mother died when he was seven; he hated his stepmother and wished that his father had died instead of his mother. He came to the attention of the authorities when they detected that he was posting messages on social media supporting ISIS.

In 2015 he was arrested after the security services noticed that Driver was downloading information from the Internet on making bombs. Driver’s case alerted civil rights groups and instead of a prison sentence, the judge imposed a peace bond. This was similar to the controversy over the case of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody. The drug-addicted couple was arrested on terrorism charges, after a RCMP sting operation.

Initially, Driver was forced to wear a GPS device, receive religious instruction, and avoid use of computers, cell phones, or remotely accessing social media. However, the judge rescinded the GPS device as well as the religious instruction.

Subsequently, Driver continued his online links with ISIS and finally decided to transform from armchair radical to terrorist. It cost him his life, and the incident has resurfaced the debate over security at the cost of freedom of speech, privacy, and religious and political beliefs.

Trapping a wolf

There are only a few options in identifying a lone wolf: electronic surveillance triggered by access to a jihadist websites, informants, or intelligence from allies. Some of these, however, raise concerns for civil rights groups.

The second, and perhaps the most difficult alternative is for police to wait for an individual to commit terrorism and risk the lives of innocent bystanders.

Another option is to use entrapment. In the case of Nuttall and Korody, the RCMP conducted a sting operation for months involving over 240 RCMP officers and at a cost of $900,000.

The couple almost certainly lacked the wherewithal to make a pressure-cooker bomb on their own. But ISIS suggests also using: a gun, knife, an automobile or even a rock. Were Nutttall and Korody capable of simpler means of inflicting death? Certainly, even a drug-addicted individual can kill.

The judge of the BC Supreme Court, however, decided to stay the proceedings and release the couple. Effectively, this means that the charges won’t appear on any criminal record and cannot be used against the couple in the future. There will be no RCMP surveillance, and if Nuttall and Korody decide to take up jihad again the police will only find out after one or more people are killed.

Two years ago Martin Rouleau, a 25-year-old Montreal resident killed one Canadian soldier and injured another by using his automobile as a weapon. The police knew that Rouleau had radicalized, yet there was little they could do until the terrorist struck (Rouleau was killed by the police immediately after the incident). Perhaps, in this case entrapment could have saved the life of a Canadian soldier.

However, the security services need better skills in using entrapment to forestall a terrorist attack. In Nuttall’s and Korody’s case the process took far too long and the relationship between the undercover policemen and the couple was too complicated. An undercover operation must be straightforward -- ultimately offering the potential jihadist the means without trying to convince him or her to implement a terrorist attack.

In other words, a security service officer could pose as an ISIS operative online and establish contact with the prospective jihadist. Once a level of trust is established between the two, the undercover officer could arrange to meet the future recruit and give him a gun with blanks. The moment the radicalized individual fires the gun with blanks he can then be arrested.

This is a simpler scenario than going through the motions of training a radicalized individual to make a bomb. Another technique is for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to create fake jihadist websites, ones that appear radical yet steer aspiring jihadists away from ISIS by discrediting the organization.

Civil liberty tensions

The reality is that most lone wolves remain undetected, while many who have radicalized at best can only be observed. The other reality is that as ISIS is driven from Iraq, Syria and Libya, terrorism likely will increase. For ISIS, the lone wolf is an inexpensive and effective weapon.

The lesson of Driver, Nuttall and Korody is the same. While Canadian society sorts out how to balance civil liberties and safety, our law enforcement agencies are under increasing pressure to improve their abilities to locate, track and yes, if necessary, sting potential terrorists before they sting us.