This document analyzes the relationship between increased availability of electronic media and domestic terrorism in the United States over the last 20 years. It finds that while electronic media access has greatly increased, the number of indicted or killed domestic terrorists has not shown a clear rising trend. Statistical analysis finds no significant difference between the number of terrorist cases in recent years compared to earlier years, despite vast growth in internet usage. While electronic tools may aid terrorist communications, the data does not support the hypothesis that increased information access has led to more domestic terror cells or activities in the U.S.

1. AMERICAN MILITARY UNIVERSITY
Electronic Media and United States Terror Cells
BY
Thomas A. Riner Sr.
HLSS500
3-29-15

2. Table of Contents
Introduction:.................................................................................................................................... 3
Literature Review:........................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology and Research Design: ............................................................................................... 6
Analysis:.......................................................................................................................................... 6
Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................... 10
References:.................................................................................................................................... 11
Table of Figures
Figure 1 U.S. Indicted or Killed Terrorist (Kahn 2013) ................................................................ 6
Figure 2 People Using The Internet In United States (World Bank 2015) ..................................... 7
Figure 3 Internet Users and Indictments & Terrorist Killed (World Bank 2015) (Kahn 2013) ..... 8
Figure 4 Regression Analysis (World Bank 2015) (Kahn 2013).................................................... 9
Figure 5 # of Websites By Year (Internet Live Stats 2015). .......................................................... 9
Figure 6 Killed or Indicted Terrorist vs. Number of Websites (Internet Live Stats 2015) (Kahn
2013). ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Table of Tables
Table 1 Two-Sample T-Test (Kahn 2013)...................................................................................... 7

3. Introduction:
Over the last two decades, the American culture has changed dramatically. There are
numerous causes for these changes and they include everything from an economic downturn to a
country that has been at war for years. However, two causes stand out from the rest. The first is
the increase in electronic media that is easily accessible to anyone in the United States and that
can be generated almost anywhere in the world. This includes the Internet, use of cell phones,
and social media sites such as Twitter or YouTube. The changes in electronic media over the
last twenty years have provided people with virtually unlimited access to news, other cultures
and beliefs that is unparalleled to any other time in history.
The second cause that stands out from the others is the terrorist acts that have been
committed against the Unites States, specifically on U.S. soil. The starting point for terrorist
attacks on United States soil is debatable however, for the purpose of this research its starting
point will be the Oklahoma City bombing and the impact it began to have on American culture.
There were numerous attacks or foiled attempts leading up to the largest terror event on 9/11. At
the same time America appears to have seen an increase in the number of terror cells or activities
the amount of information that is available to the average American has increased dramatically.
How has the increase in available information contributed to an increased number of
terror cells or activities within the United States? One hypothesis is that if there has been an
increase in available media over the last 20 years this has contributed to a paralleled increase in
the number of United States domestic terrorist cells. The research documented in this report will
provide qualitative evidence that includes graphical and statistical analysis on whether there has
been an increase in available information or terrorist cells and activities in the United States and
if they parallel each other.

4. Literature Review:
Its common knowledge or widely accepted that the internet has grown at a tremendous
speed. The amount of information that is now available to people has increased at a staggering
rate. This information has affected cultures in numerous ways and changed the way information
is available. Television and radio are still used, however the internet allows users to choose their
sources of information and when, where, and how they interact with that information (Clair
Cridland 2008, 3). A website called Internet Live Stats lists the number of internet sites by year
and shows via a table how the number of websites has exploded over the last twenty years
(Internet Live Stats 2015). The World Bank also has a website that lists the number of internet
users per 100 people by country by year and shows via a table how many people use the internet
in the United States. The information, displayed in a table format, revealed how the number of
people using the internet in the United States has risen quickly in a short period of time (World
Bank 2015).
There are a number of articles or journals on the subject of how electronic media has
affected terrorist or terrorist cells over the last twenty years. One of those articles, written by
Gabriel Weimann, is titled “Virtual Disputes: The Use of the Internet for Terrorist Debates”.
This article revealed that the number of terrorist websites, blogs, videos, and propaganda has
increased dramatically over the last twenty years (Weimann 2007, 624). The article went into
detail about how terrorist use websites even for discussion on what is acceptable and what is not
acceptable behavior, tactics, or protocol (Weimann 2007, 624-633). The electronic platform has
allowed terrorist all over the globe to communicate in a manner that was not possible before.
The article lists several reasons why the internet is the ideal tool for the terrorist. Some of those
reasons are easy access, limited regulation or censorship, and the fast flow of information

5. (Weimann 2007, 624). Another article written by Clair Cridland of the Ministry of Defense for
the United Kingdom proposed that terrorist use the internet much like a charity would. Just as a
charity would recruit new members, promote ideas, or plan events terrorist use the internet in the
same way (Cridland 2008, 5).
An article written Ruhi Khan and stored on the Terrorism Research and Analysis
Consortium database examined whether or not the terrorist threat against the United States was
increasing or decreasing. The title of the article was “Is the Terrorist Threat Declining? The Use
and Abuse of Statistics.” The article contains data on the number of jihadist killed or indicted in
the United States and it does allow the reader to get an idea of what appears to be a trend. Kahn
makes an argument that the country needs to be cautious when it views data on the number of
jihadist indicted or killed. He lists several reasons that would allow the data to skew over time
(Kahn, 2013). The article highlights some of the pitfalls of using the number of jihadist arrested
or killed as a metric. Any changes to policing strategies or policies could sway the number and
give a false sense of security or danger. The author also provided a theory on why there was a
spike in the data and re-highlighted his caution of how the country uses statistics to determine
this type of trend (Kahn 2013). Kahn’s hypothesis was that the number of jihadist arrested or
killed in the United States remained the same as in previous years (Kahn 2013).
Based on the available data the author of this paper will be able to provide a qualitative
perspective of the effects of the increase in electronic media on United States based terrorist or
terrorist groups. The author will also provide a quantitative look at the increase in electronic
media, the current number of jihadist, and any potential relationships between the two.

6. Methodology and ResearchDesign:
The hypothesis for this research paper states that if there has been an increase in available
media over the last 20 years it would have contributed to a paralleled increase in the number of
United States domestic terrorist cells or activities. The two variables that are involved with the
hypothesis are the number of domestic U.S. terror cells or activities and the amount of available
electronic media. In this hypothesis, the number of United States terror cells is dependent upon
the amount of available electronic media.
Analysis:
Data from the New American Foundation showed the number of terrorist indicted or
killed in the United States from 2002 up through 2013 (Kahn 2013). This data began in 2002
and does not allow for a comparison for years prior to that. The data graphically reveals that
there does not appear to be growing trend. However, there was a spike observed in the 2009 and
2010 period. There are varying theories on why the spike occurred. Ruhi Kan believes the spike
is a result of the war in Somalia that was occurring during the same period, which resulted in
numerous United States based Somali’s being arrested (Kahn 2013).
Figure 1 U.S. Indicted or Killed Terrorist (Kahn 2013)

7. As a comparison, the number of Indictment and Killings from 2002 through 2007 was
compared to 2008 through 2014. There was no specific reason to segregate the data in this way.
However, segregating the data did provide a way to compare the last six years to the previous six
years. Based on the data that was available there is no statistical difference between the number
of indictments and the number killed between the two data sets (Kahn 2013).
Table 1 Two-Sample T-Test (Kahn 2013)
Two-Sample T-Test: U.S. Indicted or Killed Terrorist
Category N Mean StDev SE Mean
2008 - 2013 6 20.3 15.4 6.3
2002 - 2008 6 15.67 5.24 2.1
P-Value = 0.510
The results from these statistical tests indicate that there has not been an increase in the number
of terrorist within the United States over the last twenty years (Kahn 2013).
Data from the World Bank was used to document the increase in the number of people
using the internet in the United States. From the graph below, you can see there has been a huge
increase in the number of people in the United States using the internet (World Bank 2015).
Figure 2 People Using The Internet In United States (World Bank 2015)

8. The data from the World Bank was also used to graphically display and statistically study
the relationship between the number of United States Internet users and the number of terrorist
arrested or killed in the United States. The graph below has both the number of internet users
and the number of terrorist indicted or killed (World Bank 2015) (Kahn 2013).
Figure 3 Internet Users and Indictments & Terrorist Killed (World Bank 2015) (Kahn
2013)
A regression analysis was performed to determine if there was any relationship between
the number of United States indicted or killed terrorist and the number of United States Intent
users. Based on the a high P Value and a low R squared number there is no relationship between
the number of internet users and the number of indicted or killed terrorist (World Bank 2015)
(Kahn 2013).

9. Figure 4 RegressionAnalysis (World Bank 2015) (Kahn 2013)
Additional data on the number of websites was obtained from the internet site called
internet live stats. The data in the graph below reveals that the number of websites has increased
dramatically since 1995 (Internet Live Stats 2015).
Figure 5 # of Websites By Year (Internet Live Stats 2015).
858075706560
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
S 1 1 .5683
R-Sq 4.1 %
R-Sq(adj) 0.0%
U.S. Net Users Per 1 00 People
U.S.IndicmentorKilledTerr_1
Fitted Line Plot
U.S. Indicted or Killed Terrorist vs. The Number of Net Users In The U.S.

10. A regression analysis determined no relationship existed between the number of websites
per year and the number of United States terrorist indicted or killed (Internet Live Stats 2015)
(Kahn 2013). The regression analysis had a high P value and a low R Squared value.
Figure 6 Killed or Indicted Terrorist vs. Number of Websites (Internet Live Stats 2015)
(Kahn 2013).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the data that was collected revealed that there has been a large increase in
the electronic data that is available. In particular, the growth of the Internet has exploded over
the last twenty years. This rapid growth has come in the form of the number of Internet users
and the number of websites that are available to the Internet user. This in turn means that the
amount of information that is available has increased dramatically.
However, when we examined the number of terrorist or terrorist cells within the U.S. we
did not see a similar growth. With the exception of a spike that may or may not have a known
7000000006000000005000000004000000003000000002000000001000000000
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
S 1 1 .6055
R-Sq 3.5%
R-Sq(adj) 0.0%
Websites
Num.KilledIndictedTerrorist
Fitted Line Plot
Number of Killed or Indicted U.S. Terrorist vs. Number of Websites

11. reason, the number of terrorist indicted or killed in the U.S. has remained at a constant level
since the early 2000’s.
The data that was collected for both the Internet use and the number of terrorist within the
U.S. allowed graphical and statistical analysis to be performed. This analysis confirmed that
there was a rapid increase for information available on the Internet and that there was no increase
in the number of terrorist or terrorist cells within the U.S.. It also confirmed that there was no
relationship between the Internet use and the number of U.S. terrorist. Based on the analysis the
hypothesis for this research paper was proven false.
The graphical and statistical analysis revealed that, there was no relationship between the
two sets of data. However, the only conclusion that can be made is that there is no statistical
difference between the two sets of data. If the data that was available was flawed, inaccurate or
lacking in totality it could have produced results that would skew the analysis. The need for
better data is obvious and a stronger effort is needed to ensure that the U.S. is collecting, tracking
and trending the number of terrorist or terrorist cells within the U.S. In order to do this a
standard definition of what a terrorist is should be created and all data should be filtered using
this definition.
Using data that is better defined, closely tracked and trended would allow for the creation
of a robust metric that has a higher confidence level associated with the numbers. The higher
confidence level would allow those that track the numbers to be alerted to changes or spikes in
the data, which could ultimately save lives and capture terrorist within the U.S..
References:
Clair Cridland, “The History of the Internet: The Interwoven Domain of Enabling Technologies
and Cultural Interactions,” Response to Cyber Terrorism (2008)
Gabriel Weimann, “Virtual Disputes: The Use of the Internet for Debates” Studies in Conflict
and Terrorism (2007)

12. Internet Live Stats, “Internet Live Stats”, last modified February 26, 2015. Accessed February
26, 2015, http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/
Rui Kahn, “Is the Terrorist Threat Declining: The Use and Abuse of Statistics” Terrorism &
Analysis Consortium, (2013), accessed February 26, 2015
The World Bank, “Internet users (per 100 people)”, last modified December 31st, 2014.
Accessed February 26, 2015,
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2?cid=GPD_44