Media Advisory: Terrorism Expert – Hostages Freed But Related Events Likely
Randy Rogan, an internationally recognized expert on hostage crisis negotiation, is available to comment on the unfolding hostage crisis in France.
Rogan a communication professor and co-Interim Dean of the College at Wake Forest, has worked with the FBI and was a member of the team of analysts that helped identify the Unabomber. His expertise is specifically related to communication dynamics in crisis negotiations and author identification and threat assessment.
Rogan says:
“In general, my thinking is that these sorts of incidents are going to proliferate, as we have seen with Canada, Boston, and Australia, and now Paris. AQAP, and their online publication Inspire, is quite the robust source for advancing what it refers to as open source jihad, targeting the west and disenfranchised individuals in the west who are seeking a cause and source for an identity with which they can align.
As for these incidents, I fear that a non-violent outcome is highly unlikely, that more civilians will be killed and the perpetrators will not be taken alive. The basis for jihadi ideology is that tawhid (tawhid al rububiyya) belongs only to Islam and that all secular laws are illegitimate. Martyrdom is their desire.”
