NYU terrorism class asks students to plot terrorist attack

Moms and Dads,

Not only will your child learn useful information to combat racism but courses like this will be offered to you/your child for the rock-bottom price of 20,439 per semester (40,878 per academic year).

http://www.nyu.edu/bursar/tuition.fees/rate12/ugcas.html

Parents s/b mindful that room & board are IN ADDITION; so figure another 12K for the year, PLUS books and other fees PLUS the walking-around money needed for living in Manhattan.

But hey, don't get all hung up on the money and these costs and whatnot. In the end all of this is of course worth it. Look at all these costs as buying inoculation from the dreaded disease of Islamophobia.

Former NCIS. I'm not surprised.

Why do they say nothing? For fear of failing your class, idiot. The pressure to not fight the system is enormous, and more so in grad school, where people's career arcs and networks are influenced ever more greatly. These people are operating in a very small world of individuals, and to disagree with the relevance and risks for this assignment would jeopardize their careers. They go along with it, and they'll probably burn them when they're done with your detestable assignment.

Please tell me there was no other way to explore the facets of fact-finding and forensic analysis of terror plots.

Lastly...for Pete's sake..."stay within their chosen terror group’s “goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operational area”? I'll bet she gets less than a third of the papers about Islamic jihad, out of fear of the students appearing Islamophobic. Instead, they will create scenarios where Pamela and Robert are plotting at the Elks Club to carry out their nefarious plans.

I happen to think the class is a very good idea, particularly if the papers are published, e.g. on the Internet.

I am sure the students will outsmart our incompetent counter-terrorism government officials and reveal the gaping weaknesses in our "security theater."

Maybe the press will actually ask these officials what methods they have, if any, to foil these hypothetical plots.

That turn of events may actually trigger some improvements.

As an example of a somewhat analogous situation, consider members of the press who often smuggle fake weapons through the TSA screening to demonstrate how incompetent they are.

If the some background assignment details were fleshed out a bit, maybe the students would give up planning a terrorist attack.

For example:
Start with a Sharia compliant MSM, add dhimmi politicians and judges, then throw in a public badly in need of education about Islam's true agenda, and finish in the knowledge that you can easily yell 'entrapment' if you are caught.

Who needs a terrorist attack? The odds are stacking up nicely in Islam's favor already!

Clowns!

C'mon, such wargaming is a necessary part of counterterrorism. I'd be willing to bet that every U.S. antiterrorism agency that has not been dhimminified already does this, including the NYPD.

What should NOT be done is putting these papers on the internet, since we really don't want to aid terrorists. The professor should circulate the most original of these papers with some professionals, just to see if something new has been devised and which would require a counter move on our part.

@ Tom Davis:

Terrorists are not stupid. Their leaders are provably smarter than our government officials. (They have less means at their disposal.)

They have already thought of whatever the students will come up with.

If the methods are public, the terrorists will learn nothing new. But our stupefied American citizenry might be motivated to put some pressure on government officials to actually protect us.

this is insane
m

is a field trip to Pakistan included as part of the course-work?

Actually, I approve. One must learn the ways of the enemy to know how to defeat him.

Terrorism may be a detestable means to a political end, but it is used by many. It is best that one learn how to counter this kind of thinking by learning how it is planned.

I do not see this as being any different than learning Russian to stop the Soviet threat.

If this was the DHS, CIA, FBI or NYPD doing it all the leftists and their muslim supremacist masters would be screaming

"It's waaaaciiiiiiissssst!"

Oh wait, they've already done that.

My bad.

I think it's a great idea. Security through obscurity does not work. You think terrorists aren't brainstorming to figure out exploits in our system? The more we do the same and plug the security holes the better.

Aren't we being a bit hasty here on passing judgement? Are we jumping to conclusions to fast? No doubt Professor Maras has a striking and impressive resume. One might concur she is an over achiever in the myriad of fields she has received degrees in for such a young pup.

No doubt it may have been in her best interest to share her ideas with this class with counter terrorism people to see what they think. Her first defense of the class so far has been, why didn't the police ask me and she says she has NYPD Officers in her class.

What is her final objective in presenting this class? Certainly I think we need to know and understand what drives a terrorist to do what they do and why,is this what she is trying to find out?

There is this feeling that we might be doing a little prejudging here. There must be a paper that she presented to the administrators or the lead professor in this particular class study to justify or define the objectives of this particular class.

Professor Maras has written a 400 page book this year entitled "Counter terrorism" by Jones & Bartlett Learning.

At this time I doubt she has some sinister reasoning on the subject given her already impressive background.I also reflect on how the dhimmiworld has prejudged those of us here as Islamophobes when they are so naive about the teachings of Islam.

Further and objective inquiry is clearly required here on Professors interesting class assigment.