Program Objectives

Upon completion of this certificate, students will be able to:

• Identify psychological and sociological characteristics of terrorists.
• List the triggering mechanisms that can incite a cultic community to turn to violence.
• List the different personality types of people who join cults and the differing methods used to attract them.
• Analyze the workings of a Domestic (United States) Terrorist Group in order to classify and distinguish the different dynamics at work in these types of groups.
• Recognize the various behaviors inherent to Terrorist Groups and describe the ways the associated behaviors effect the workings of a Terrorist Group.
• Assess the core principles involved in vetting HUMINT sources for exploitation.
• Demonstrate the process needed to conduct a sound vetting plan through consequence and risk management analysis.
• Differentiate between the subjectivity of human bias (the “Art”) and the objectivity of psychology and precedence (the “Science”) of vetting methodologies.

Courses

INT 576      Analyzing the Terrorist Mind
Popular belief is that “normal” people do not kill civilians indiscriminately. Add to this the use of suicide as a terrorist tactic, and all acts of terrorism are viewed as irrational. Hence, the search is for some inner attributes to explain these acts as well as try to understand the basics of how terrorists think. This course will explore and assess various characteristics that may explain this behavior as well as delve into de-humanization factors that affect these individuals. This course will also address behavior and verbal signs the student can learn to assist in predicting the level of danger presented.

SOC 570       Cults and Charismatic Leaders
This course offers an introduction to thought reform techniques employed by various states and organizations that have exercised extraordinary degrees of social control over their members. Students taking this course will be able to describe the “brainwashing” methods used by the Chinese and North Korean communists and the social control mechanisms employed by religious cults and other highly authoritarian groups to recruit, control, and deploy their followers. They will be able to explain and discuss the nature of charismatic leadership. Among the groups covered as case studies in this course are the Manson Family, the Unification Church, the People’s Temple, the Order of the Solar Temple, Aum Shinrikyo, and Heaven’s Gate.

SOC 510      Terrorism Group Dynamics
Terrorist decision-making often depends just as much on the group’s structure and internal power relations as on ideology and external circumstance. Students in this course will acquire the tools necessary to identify and evaluate the variety of structures of terrorist organizations, from strict hierarchy to diffuse networks, as well as the implications of structure and internal dynamics on terrorist actions and capabilities. They will demonstrate the ability to apply theories of organizations and networks, as well as how these concepts can be exploited to infiltrate and nullify terrorist groups.

INT 502      Vetting
The word vetting is a technical term unique to the intelligence profession. It is used in agent authentication. The vetting process is one of testing and examining agents to determine the degree of their reliability and truthfulness in reporting information. It is designed to weed out fabricators and double agents. The vetting process takes into consideration the possible willful dishonesty of agents/sources and their limitations in remembering and reporting information accurately. This course teaches how vetting is conducted, and how the reliability of a source is established, quantified, reported, and verified.

Entrance Requirements/Costs

The Certificate in Intelligence and Terrorism Profiling is more exclusive and can only be taken by individuals who have demonstrated sufficient experience and understanding in these fields against the following criteria:

• A Masters Degree and at least one year of associated experience
• A Bachelor’s Degree and at least two years of associated experience
• An AA, or AAS Degree and at least three years of associated experience
• No degree and at least five years of associated experience.

Each certificate is worth 18 quarter units and the student must maintain a 3.0 GPA in each course.