Counterterrorism Blog

As we witness historic and heroic events unfolding in front of us and marvel about the resolve of Egyptian people tasting true freedom for perhaps the first time, we should start to think about the small group of Egyptians and outsiders who are salivating about the bountiful criminal opportunities that the new found freedom of democracy will present to them. The United States and , in fact, the world is rightfully concerned about what impact Mubarak’s departure will have on peace with Israel, stability in the Middle East, and other geo-political considerations.
In short order, the intelligence and law enforcement community had better assess the emerging criminal and organized crime threat that we will inevitably face. Instead of being reactive, we should be proactive. We need to get out in front and contain the opportunists who will undoubtedly establish the new organized crime apparatus emanating from Egypt. Before they have the opportunity to establish roots, as did Russian and Eastern European Organized Crime, someone should be assessing the scope of the emerging threat. Following that, we better take pre-emptive steps to diminish the new threat before it has the opportunity to overwhelm us. If we can diminish or irradiate this threat before it has a chance to metastasize we won’t have to deal with their costly criminal consequences in a few years.
This, unfortunately, is not likely to happen until we wake up one morning and realize that Egyptian Organized Crime has become a transnational threat. Wouldn’t it be nice to recognize and get in front of such a threat.