Analyzing the Recent Lone Wolf Attacks

Stratfor Vice President of Tactical Analysis Scott Stewart discuss the recent spate of lone wolf terrorist attacks in Canada and the United States: This is really the type of tempo that these jihadist ideologues had hoped for all along. I really sense they began promoting heavily these sorts of leaderless resistance attacks in the West.

Screenshot/Stratfor/AOL

Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton and Vice President of Tactical Analysis Scott Stewart discuss the recent spate of lone wolf terrorist attacks in Canada and the United States.

Burton: Scott, I’ve noted in your piece that we’ve had three attacks in one week, which is a tempo that we’ve not seen before. What’s your take-away from that? 

Stewart: This is really the type of tempo that these jihadist ideologues had hoped for all along. I really sense they began promoting heavily these sorts of leaderless resistance attacks in the West. We saw that first with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in 2009 ... Last month in September we saw the Islamic State call for jihadists in the West to rise up. 

Burton: Do you think the three attacks we saw recently, the two in Canada and that horrific attack on the NYPD with the man with a hatchet, do you think that’s an anomaly or do you think we’re going to continue to see that degree of tempo?

Stewart: That’s the question, and obviously the thing we’re looking for. In the past, quite frankly, attempts to get the grassroots to take this kind of action on a consistent basis have pretty much failed.  

...

Watch the video above to hear more of Stewart’s analysis of the lone-wolf attacks.