Sheriff J. Alton Cannon: The Fight Against Terrorism

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January 5, 2016 – To begin the new year our club received a very timely message from Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon on the fight against terrorism.  First elected in 1988 Sheriff Cannon heads a department which employs 900 people and has an annual budget of over $60 million.  A retired colonel in the United States Air Force, he and his wife have two children and five grandchildren.

As it happens in February Charleston will be hosting a joint North Carolina – South Carolina conference on counter-terrorism:  the theme – “It can happen here.”  We all know of the recent events in France and California, but Sheriff Cannon said, if we think because we are in Charleston we are shielded from experiencing these same horrific acts, we should think again.  He reminded us of the episode in Goose Creek when a traffic stop by a Berkeley County deputy resulted in the arrest of two students from Florida who ultimately were charged with trying to commit an act of terrorism.  He relayed the story of a young man who traveled to southwest Asia and came back radicalized.  He traveled to Alabama where he was arrested for aiding ISIS.  That young man was from a Charleston family.  In our own community a Russian national was arrested for attempting to sell prohibited goods to Iran.  These are not events happening half a world away.

The threat has changed substantially since September 11.  In reviewing the attacks in San Bernadino, Garland, Texas, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sheriff Cannon noted that the threat today is small-scale attacks, not the mass-catastrophe of planes flown into buildings.  This threat represents a significant challenge to local law enforcement and, as Sheriff Cannon pointed out, of the well over 18,000 law enforcement programs in the United States, over 95% are local or state agencies.  The FBI has ongoing anti-terrorism investigations in every state of the union, but local police departments are trained primarily in addressing the day-to-day street crimes we most read about in the paper.  Sheriff Cannon, who certainly has reason to know, noted that hundreds of Americans have joined ISIS overseas along with thousands of Europeans.  The tech-savvy recruits of ISIS with their cyber sophistication create an overwhelming problem for local agencies, but Sheriff Cannon noted that since 9/11 one of the biggest weapons against terrorism has been the lay public.  The shoe bomber and the underwear bomber were both stopped by fellow passengers.  After 9/11 the “Let’s Roll!” attitude of Flight 93 has become the prevailing approach of airline passengers when presented with unruly passengers or even flight crew members.  The mantra “If you see something, say something,” should be our daily watchword according to Sheriff Cannon.  By reporting those situations that to us do not appear normal, we can become a great asset to local law enforcement.

Technological advances are always a challenge for law enforcement.  While the automobile and the interstate highway system have given us the benefit of ease of travel across the country, these same innovations have granted mobility to criminals never before available to them.  Similarly the internet and cell phone technology have given criminals, especially terrorists, the ability simultaneously to communicate as they wish and to hide from authorities.  Sheriff Cannon is serving on a national task force charged with how to respond when terrorists or other criminal networks “go dark” in an effort to overcome the ability to hide which technology gives these groups.

When asked about internet security, Sheriff Cannon noted that it truly is an area of vulnerability for our nation.  The electric grid has components with technology ranging from today back to the 1880s.  As for gun control, he noted that just as you cannot stop the obesity epidemic by banning forks, knives and spoons, he does not believe further restrictions on guns will stem violence.  Sheriff Cannon believes the worry over guns may be exaggerated.  He noted that in 2010 there were 18,000 homicides and a third of those homicides did not involve firearms.  In that same year there were 30,000 deaths from suicide and 30,000 deaths from drug overdoses.  In other countries where firearms are more strictly controlled than in the United States, the rate of violent crime is not substantially different; the criminals simply find other means to inflict that violence.  Sheriff Cannon noted that even the infamous Columbine school massacre was intended by the perpetrators to be centered on explosives, not guns.  The good news according to Sheriff Cannon is that he and his colleagues in law enforcement worry about and work to overcome all threats, so that we do not have to.  The best action we can take to defeat the terrorists’ intentions, is to live our daily lives as normally as possible.

Alex Dallis, Keyway Committee