ABSTRACT
In June 2019, Ashiqual Alam was a “lawful permanent resident” of the United States and of Queens, New York City. It was not particularly unusual, in such a big city, that he was also a citizen of Bangladesh, or that he deemed himself a Muslim, or that he studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. For terrorists, New York’s attractions include great towers, Wall Street, prestigious targets such as the Statue of Liberty, busy ports and transportation hubs, and almost any mass gathering of citizens. In the post-Cold War world, a range of many other terrorist “actors” prowl about in search of opportunities for impact and political influence. Old nationalisms may have been dealt with (as in Basque regions of Spain) or have burned out (as in Corsica, once famous for small bombings) but in other lands they still fester.
