Overt attacks and covert thoughts

The process in which an individual moves from radical opinion to violent action is of immense interest to law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies. A deep understanding of these processes could help in the complex pursuit to thwart terrorism. Our goal is to gain insight into the thought processes of a lone wolf terrorist prior to an event. Herein, we consider the case of the Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Utilizing a novel web-based text analysis environment that helps visualize the distribution of words within a single text corpus, we analyze Hasan's presentation at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2007 and his secret messages to Anwar al-Awlaki in 2009. We show that the analysis of the content of Hasan's speech and his correspondence can reveal his intention and motivation. The use of a case analysis of Nidal Hasan is unique, in that he was directly corresponding with a senior member of al-Qaeda, while he was an active duty Army officer. Thus, this paper contributes to our understanding of intent and thought patterns of some lone wolf terrorists.