Trojan Horse: Indicative guidelines on the Fifth Column and Lone Wolves

Introduction

There is an area of comparison between two sociopolitical phenomena: the Lone Wolf and the Fifth Column. On the one hand, the Lone Wolf arrested the attention in the 1990s of the 20th century before it started to stir up much suspicions. On the other hand, the Fifth Column, which is derived from an ancient tale, has come to represent a wakeup call to mobilise all means in the disposal of the nation to fend off a looming threat.

Fifth Column (Quinta Columna)

The Fifth Column (Quinta Columna) is a geopolitical concept, which was introduced during the 3-year civil war in Spain in 1936.  The term is credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist army general, who was loyal to Gen. Franco.  As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, Gen. Vital referred to militant supporters, who were also loyal to Gen. Franco, as his “Fifth Column” fighting the Marxist government from within.

Gradual negative shift

 Vidal’s Quinta Columna played a positive role in rallying support for Gen. Franco, who was fighting the Marxist government, which invited help from Communist and Leftist troops from foreign countries. Yet, Vidal’s term was blown out of its context during the outbreak of the Cold War between the Socialist and Capitalist countries. The media apparatus in the Socialist communities associated Quinta Columna with the remnants of the era of retrogression, traitors and spies, who were lying in ambush until they would be given orders to act and assist the enemy of the people and the invading troops.

On the other hand, the media machine in the Capitalist camp illustrated Quinta Columna as a person standing among the pillars (liberty, fraternity, equality and unity) of the US society; and propagandizing the ‘destructive’ ideas of Communism.

Since then, Quinta Columna has been discounted being a reference to a group of people acting against the State, whether secretly or publicly, by assisting the enemy. In the meantime, the term has been used to condemn saboteurs, secret agents, moles and propagandists of misinformation.  

The meaning of Quinta Columna was expanded to disgrace individuals or groups of people, who would move to settle in foreign countries and embark on suspicious activities. For example, the Japanese were suspicious of North Korean residents, who maintained strong connection with the security authorities in Pyongyang. These alleged agents were branded as Quinta Column active in Japan.  Also, pro-Russian lobbyists in Ukraine were condemned for allegedly instigating violence in this country.

Lone Wolves

This term was coined by Alex Curtis, a white American who established a two-winged racist group in the 1990s of the last century. The first wing of this group was acting in the daylight as it was dedicated to broadcast and spread the founder’s ideologies and theories. Members of this wing were also responsible for sowing the seeds of hatred in the people’s minds. The group’s second wing was given clandestine activities. It comprised individuals or cells being responsible for assassinations by using bombs or bacteriological attacks. 

Like Quinta Columna, which initially gained mainstream attention before it bore different meanings; the Lone Wolves was initially declared by Alex Curtis to appeal to the psyche of the American racists, which was also debated in the novel Dances with the Wolves by novelist Michael Blake. The novel was adapted to the film carrying the same name, starring and directed by Kevin Costner in the 1990s.

In their pursuit of Alex Curtis and his underground activities, the FBI and the police in St. Diego in the US had to slightly modify the term Lone Wolves by launching ‘Anti-Lone Wolves Operation’. 

In this phase, security officials and the media in Western countries kept identifying perpetrators of racist crimes, which fall under the criminal law, as Lone Wolves. These crimes included murder and bombings. The term gained much more notoriety in the past two decades after the outbreak of a spate of terrorist attacks, including killings and bombings, which were committed by socially isolated Muslims—known as Islamists.

Accordingly, Lone Wolves, which used to leap to the mind when members of the far-right American racist groups would hit, has been broadened to include this new type of violence, which is vastly different from organized crimes. It was apparent that exponents of racism in the US sought to disassociate themselves from being referred as Lone Wolves to escape from the police hunt.  

The new identity of the Lone Wolves

The term Lone Wolves is currently referring to violence and terrorist acts committed by individuals, who would act on their volition. In other words, the Lone Wolf, who hits without receiving the signal from his high-rankings, embraces an extremist ideology and volunteers to attack his victims without conducting any consultations with alleged masterminds. 

As a result, the Lone Wolves, unlike members of conventional violent groups, increased the difficulties facing security officials, who are assigned to fight terrorism and piece together information about its perpetrators before launching preemptive operations. This dilemma prompted a number of international colleges and universities to open classes to teach this social phenomenon and its background. The trailblazer in this respect is George Town University, which issued security studies in 2015.

Gilles Kepel’s Critique of the theory of Lone Wolves

The theory of Lone Wolves was assailed by Gilles Kepel, a French political scientist, who is a specialist in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. According to Kepel, the term was cynically coined by charlatan academics in collaboration with journalists walking in their footsteps, who have no idea about the reality of Jihadists and their ideology. Kepel maintained strongly that the Lone Wolves is a myth. He explained that investigations of the Charlie Hebdo attack and others had revealed that these people were not acting independently. They, Kepel added, are belonging to groups and networks affiliated to terrorist organisations, such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. 

In his explanation, Kepel also said that the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine was the product of the era of ISIS, irrespective of whether the two brothers Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly would tell a different story to deny this fact. “Lone wolves are part of terrorist networks set up in European communities to attack Western intellectuals and Jews,” he said.  It is noteworthy that two Muslims were among 12 victims of Charlie Hebdo attack, which was part of a strategy planned by the Jihadists to spark a civil war in France.

Kepel substantiated his argument by saying that Sherif Kouachi, a veteran Jihadist, was sentenced in 2008 by a court in Paris after he was found guilty of sending young people to Iraq to join Jihad (the holy war) there. 

Kepel’s explanation should substantiate worries that lone wolves are part of a full-fledged rigorous organization, which aims at undermining the social fabrics in Western societies.

It must be said that ISIS and Al-Qaeda offshoots are no longer today structured hierarchically, a system that had been followed before by Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahri. The new terrorist organization seeks to attract young people ideologically and offer them military training before they would infiltrate Europe and lie in ambush (Quinta Columna) until they receive the signal to hit. 

Back to Kepel’s analysis of Charlie Hebdo attack, the French authorities managed to provide a strong evidence for a two-day communication conducted between different terrorist elements before the attack had taken place.

Kepel’s conclusion in this regard must have been substantiated by France 24’s presenter Wassim Nasr, who, likewise, cast much doubt about the presence of a lone wolf(ves). Nasr noted that the history of Jihadists’ attacks did not reinforce allegations about a lone wolf acting upon his own volition. “Every time an attack has taken place, we would discover sophisticated systems of communication and logistic support therein,” France 24’s presenter said. 

Conclusion

Now that Islamophobia has gained stronger footholds in the Western societies, it is our commitments to denounce the strategy of terrorism in Western societies. Worse, the media coverings are fuelling the situation in this regard. Islamophobia has taken root in the Western soil after ISIS, together with Al-Qaeda and radical preachers, intensified terrorist acts therein in recent years.

The Internet is undoubtedly playing a cardinal role in serving the non-hierarchical strategy behind attacks launched by lone wolves. For example, Anwar Al-Awlaki, nicknamed Bin Laden.com, launched an online monthly magazine, Inspire, to teach young people steps to possess a home-made bomb.  Al-Awlaki, who had a US citizenship, was killed by a drone. It was also revealed that Al-Awlaki acted as the link between Al-Qaeda and the USA. 

Whether terrorist attacks are committed by lone wolves or otherwise, it remains worrying that they are fuelling tensions between Muslim residents and the host countries. The biggest casualty is, nonetheless, the image of Islam across the world.

Examples of different attacks classified as operations carried out by lone wolves: 

1-On 24 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an ex-military physician in IDF, opened fire inside the Patriarch Tomb in Hebron, killing 29 people and injuring more than 100 people.

2-On March 19, 2005, Omar Ahmed Abdallah, an Egyptian, detonated a car bomb outside a theatre in Doha, killing a British director and wounding 12 people. He was said to have acted on his own volition.  

3-On 4 August, 2005, Adnan Natan Zada attacked a bus and killed four Arab Israelis on board. About 12 passengers were injured. The attacker was gunned down by a Palestinian passenger.

4-On 17 August, 2005, Asher Weisgan shot dead an Israeli bus driver; he also opened fire on four Palestinians in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh. Two people were injured in the attack.

5-On September 4, 2006, Nabil Ahmed Gourah, a Jordanian, opened fire on tourists visiting the Roman Amphitheater in Amman. A British tourist was killed and six others wounded.

6-In late 1991 and early 1992 in Sweden, John Ausonius opened fire on 11 black people; a man was killed in the attack.

7-Between 1993 and 1997 in Austria, Franz Fuchs detonated explosive devices during a campaign against immigrants and their sympathisers, Four people were killed and 15 wounded.

8-In April 1999 in London, David Copeland targeted blacks, Asians and homosexuals with nail-packed bombs, killing three people and injuring 129. He confessed that he was aiming at igniting a racist war. He was sentenced to 50 years in a psychiatric hospital.

9-On May 6, 2002 in the Netherlands and nine days before the general elections, Volckert van der Graaf assassinated Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn.

10-On March 2, 2011 in Germany, Oka killed two American soldiers at Frankfurt airport. Two people were seriously injured in the attack. The German authorities said that the attack was the first by Islamists on the German soil.

11-On 22 July 2011 in Oslo, Norway; eight people were killed in a car bomb detonated by Anders Behring Brevik. An hour later, he killed 69 people on the island of Utoya, 35 kilometers west of Oslo. The killer was said to be the sole member of a far right-wing cell.

12-In March 2012 in France, Mohammed Merah targeted French soldiers; and a few days later, he attacked civilians near a Jewish school in the Medi-Pyrenees area. He was compared to Bernard Schwarzenegger, a lone wolf. However, Manuel Fals suggested that Merah was not acting alone.