Policy Memo Assignment One Directions: Select ONE of the following scenarios for your memo. Write a One-Page Memo answering the all of the questions in one of those choices. Be concise. Format: 12 pt font Single Spaced. Memo must have works cited. Citation page will not count against the one-page memo requirement. Submit this assignment via Canvas on Monday February 4, 2019, by 11:59 PM. Contact the instructor if there are conflicts meeting this requirement (e.g. excused absence). Before writing, watch the posted Mini Seminar on Writing for Decision Makers, via Canvas. I set expectations for written assignments in this recorded lecture. Scenario One: What is Homeland Security Anyway? Assignment: Your boss, the newly elected Representative from the 9th District of Indiana, has been assigned to the US House of Representatives Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC). He does not have a background in public safety, and ran primarily on a government reform program. He turned to you, his new legislative aide, for a briefing. He asks “So, what is this homeland security thing, anyway?"  ACTION: Answer the Representatives’ question. Provide a one-page memo on what homeland security is (i.e. define Homeland Security), with your recommendations on where she should focus as a Member of Congress new to this policy area. Use your readings from Week Two, reviewing Bellavita, the readings authors (Bullock, Oliver, et. al) and current policy doctrine by DHS (their mission, the various policy strategies and doctrine). Remember to defend your choice for what homeland security is, and defend your reasoning and recommendation. Scenario Two: Redefining Terrorism You are a legislative director for Senator Ortolan Finisterre (D-VT). Finisterre serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (the PATRIOT Act) required a periodic reauthorization of its provisions. Senator Finisterre has always believed that domestic terrorism was poorly defined under the PATRIOT Act, its successor, the USA FREEDOM Act and in the US Code. The senator has asked you to review the literature and provide two recommendations to amend the act The current definition under the former USA PATRIOT Act states that domestic terrorism: "(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." Prepare a one-page memo for the Senator, providing two recommendations to amend the definition of domestic terrorism under the PATRIOT Act, based on your review of literature presented in class, assigned readings or external s ...

1. Policy Memo Assignment One
Directions: Select ONE of the following scenarios for your
memo.
Write a One-Page Memo answering the all of the questions in
one of those choices. Be concise.
Format: 12 pt font Single Spaced. Memo must have works cited.
Citation page will not count against the one-page memo
requirement.
Submit this assignment via Canvas on Monday February 4,
2019, by 11:59 PM. Contact the instructor if there are conflicts
meeting this requirement (e.g. excused absence).
Before writing, watch the posted Mini Seminar on Writing for
Decision Makers, via Canvas.
I set expectations for written assignments in this recorded
lecture.
Scenario One: What is Homeland Security Anyway?
Assignment: Your boss, the newly elected Representative from
the 9th District of Indiana, has been assigned to the US House
of Representatives Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee (HSGAC). He does not have a background in
public safety, and ran primarily on a government reform
program.
He turned to you, his new legislative aide, for a briefing.
He asks “So, what is this homeland security thing, anyway?"

2. ACTION:
Answer the Representatives’ question. Provide a one-page
memo on what homeland security is (i.e. define Homeland
Security), with your recommendations on where she should
focus as a Member of Congress new to this policy area. Use
your readings from Week Two, reviewing Bellavita, the
readings authors (Bullock, Oliver, et. al) and current policy
doctrine by DHS (their mission, the various policy strategies
and doctrine).
Remember to defend your choice for what homeland security is,
and defend your reasoning and recommendation.
Scenario Two:
Redefining Terrorism
You are a legislative director for Senator Ortolan Finisterre (D-
VT). Finisterre serves on the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee. The USA PATRIOT Act of
2001 (the PATRIOT Act) required a periodic reauthorization of
its provisions. Senator Finisterre has always believed that
domestic terrorism was poorly defined under the PATRIOT Act,
its successor, the USA FREEDOM Act and in the US Code. The
senator has asked you to review the literature and provide
two
recommendations to amend the act
The current definition under the former USA PATRIOT Act
states that domestic terrorism:
"(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of
the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B)
appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian

3. population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a
government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping;
and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the
United States."
Prepare a one-page memo for the Senator, providing two
recommendations to amend the definition of domestic terrorism
under the PATRIOT Act, based on your review of literature
presented in class, assigned readings or external sources.
Your recommendations may also include deleting portions of
the definition, so long as you provide rationale. Make sure to
provide rationale and data for your recommendations.
Scenario Three: The Terrorist Next Door
This case study is based on a series of real events. Zach Chesser
is a white, middle-class American who was raised in the
northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, DC. Over the
course of 2 years, from the time he graduated high school until
his eventual arrest and conviction, Chesser moved through a
radicalization and mobilization process.
ACTION: Your audience is your professor. Evaluate the
timeline provided below against your readings, and the lecture
on radicalization.
This one-page assignment has three parts:
Identify Chesser's radicalization, using the assigned readings
(e.g. Moghaddam, NCTC, Alomari), lecture notes and the
timeline.
Explain in the memo at what point a crime may have been

4. committed, in your opinion. Use evidence/data from the
readings.
Explain what obligations law enforcement had to protect his
first amendment activities as well as what obligations law
enforcement had a duty to act, or at least, monitor his behavior.
Zachary Adam Chesser: A Timeline
December 22, 1989: Zachary Adam Chesser is born in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
Spring 2008: Chesser graduates from Oakton High School in
Fairfax County, Virginia, where he participated in high school
sports, joined a break-dancing team, and spent 4 years studying
Japanese.
Summer 2008: Chesser converts to Islam while playing on a
soccer team organized by a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an
Islamist political organization that has radical, but not officially
“terrorist” positions. Three months after converting to Islam,
Chesser obtained a copy of several lectures by Al Qaeda
operative, the American born Anwar al-Aulaqi. Chesser soon
became a devoted adherent to the radical cleric, frequently
visiting al-Aulaqi‟s web site for guidance. Al-Aulaqi was a U.S.
citizen and U.S. Government designated terrorist who inspired
dozens of homegrown terrorists to commit violent acts.
Fall 2008: Chesser begins his undergraduate studies at George
Mason University in Virginia, where he studied for one
semester before dropping out.
November 2008: Chesser‟s anti-American writings appear for
the first time on Anwar al-Aulaqi‟s blog.

5. January 2009: Chesser corresponds with Proscovia Nzabanita,
the daughter of a Muslim Ugandan diplomat, through al-
Aulaqi‟s blog.
March 2009: Chesser marries Proscovia Nzabanita.
November 2009: Nzabanita gives birth to Chesser‟s son.
Chesser unsuccessfully attempts to travel to Somalia with
Nzabanita.
December 2009: Chesser creates his own radical web site,
themujahidblog.com, which is intended to be “a web site
dedicated to those who give their lives for this religion.”
Chesser was a member of, and prolific contributor to, at least
six terrorist online forums; the creator of three YouTube
terrorist propaganda channels; the holder of at least two Twitter
accounts; the manager of an active Facebook profile; and the
creator and author of two stand-alone online blogs advocating
violent Islamist extremism
April 2010: Chesser issues a violent threat through a video on
YouTube to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the
television show “South Park,” following the release of a South
Park episode in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad is shown
dressed in a bear costume.
July 10, 2010: Chesser is questioned at John F. Kennedy Airport
in New York City by airport officials after being denied
boarding on a flight to Uganda with his infant son.
July 14, 2010: Chesser is interviewed by the FBI after trying to
travel to Somalia, and informs an agent that he had decided
against joining al-Shabaab after the group took responsibility
for bombings in Kampala, Uganda that killed 76 people on July
11, 2010.

6. July 21, 2010: Chesser is arrested by the FBI on charges of
providing material support to al-Shabaab.
October 20, 2010: Chesser pleads guilty to three Federal felony
charges: (1) communicating threats to Parker and Stone; (2)
soliciting violent Islamist extremists to desensitize law
enforcement by placing suspicious-looking but innocent
packages in public places; and (3) attempting to provide
material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
February 24, 2011: Chesser is sentenced to serve 25 years in
Federal prison. His current date of release is in 2032.