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The modern media often use the term ‘Terrorist cell’ but rarely explain what exactly a terrorist cell is. The ‘Cell system’ is an effective and long established method of organisation for terrorist or resistance groups. It has been and still is being used by terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda to great effect.
A terrorist cell is a small group of terrorists who have a specific task and operate together normally all knowing each other but having very little contact if any with anyone else in the terrorist organisation. This allows an efficient specialisation of role but also reduces the damage to the organisation if a cell is infiltrated or members captured. Think of the cell system as a damage control mechanism, once a cell is captured it is easy to prevent the damage spreading into the rest of the organisation and some cells may actually be physically close to each other and not know of each others existence. Cells are tightly knit and all members know each other well making infiltration very difficult and time consuming as strangers are rarely trusted. The leader of the cell may have infrequent contact with the next person in the chain, a regional commander who will have contacts with several cells as and when they are needed.
Al Qaeda has a highly developed cell system in some areas with specialised cells. In the aftermath of September 11th a cell was discovered in Italy whose function was purely to produce fake passports and other ID. Some cells will be recon cells where the members have no criminal record and do not get involved in illegal activities. These cell members can move about without attracting suspicion and are used to find out details about potential targets. For example a recon cell can travel to an airport and discreetly make sketches and take photos on mobile phones and then never visit the area again and since they have a clean record they rarely attract any attention on CCTV. The information they gather can then be used to plan and attack and passed onto a planning cell that may also acquire and make explosives; this can then be passed onto an attack cell often via an equipment dump so the bomb makers and attack cell may never meet. This allows skilled bomb makers to remain fairly safe and allows groups to use enthusiastic amateurs who are expendable to actually carry out the attack; it would be a waste to use a skilled bomb maker to carry out a suicide attack. Cells that specialise in recruitment and recon pose particular problems for the security services, often they require careful surveillance but don’t actually do anything that’s illegal or if their actions are illegal this can be difficult to prove in a court of law. The cell system is far from a new idea and was used by various resistance groups during World War 2, it has become highly developed in modern times and means that the current war on terrorism is a long war of attrition rather than likely to end quickly.