ABSTRACT
In the world of terrorism, though, success and failure are defined quite differently from what police find with normal criminality or social policy. If a murder occurs, police are thought to have done well if they identify and arrest the culprit within a short time. In terrorist incidents, however, the fact that an attack occurs is itself major failure, in that agencies have failed to detect and prevent what was going to happen. The greatest successes in antiterrorist campaigns consist of entirely preventing such deeds before they occur, and such triumphs occur more frequently than most people know or acknowledge. When an attack does occur, whether in the US or elsewhere, agencies are anxious to avoid blame for the failure. Participants are asked to imagine that high-ranked US politician is mysteriously assassinated, and that they represent a senior FBI official testifying to a Congressional committee.
