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Cops ‘Disgusted’ After NYU Asks Students to Plot a ‘Hypothetical’ Terrorist Attack

Oct. 29, 2012 10:45am Erica Ritz

Police and parents are outraged after prestigious New York University reportedly asked students to “hypothetically” plot a terrorist attack for a course on transnational terrorism. Just weeks after the most recent large-scale terrorist attack was thwarted in New York City, many are saying it is a slap in the face to those who have risked and given their lives to defend the country from extremists.

Noting that many of the world’s most notorious terrorists, from Anwar al-Awlaki to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, spent formative years in American universities, the New York Post writes:

For the assignment, [Professor Marie-Helen Maras] — who has a Ph.D. from Oxford and is also an associate professor at SUNY Farmingdale — instructs her pupils to consider all aspects of the attack.

“In your paper, you must describe your hypothetical attack and what will happen in the aftermath of the attack,” Maras wrote in the syllabus obtained by The Post.

They must factor in the methods of execution, sources of funding, number of operatives needed and the target government’s reaction, according to the paper’s outline.

At the same time, students must realistically stay within their chosen terror group’s “goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operational area,” the syllabus states.

Given the detail required — and possibly concerned that the how-to terror manuals could land in the wrong hands — Maras warns that each page of a student’s paper must bear the disclaimer: “This is a hypothetical scenario for a university course on transnational terrorism.”

When told of the term paper, one ranking police officer who lost coworkers on 9/11 called it “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” [Emphasis added]

The New York Post source added that he is “disgusted,” and that the course “flies in the face of the 11 years of hard work the NYPD has done in tracking down terrorists to the far reaches of the globe to make sure they never strike again.”

“What is this, we have our students do the work for the terrorists?” he asked.

Twitter users appear to be similarly shocked. “Seriously, who approved this lesson plan?” one wrote. Another sarcastically commented: “Brilliant idea, NYU!”

The NYPD has not officially released a statement, however, and the professor is standing by her course.

“The exercise is meant to prepare students for the field, to prepare them for careers in intelligence, policing, counterterrorism,” she remarked. “This is a grad-level assignment for a grad-level course.”

She also seemed perturbed that those offended by the exercise went to the press, instead of approaching her directly.

“Why didn’t the police call me if they have concerns?” she asked.

This post has been updated.

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Comments (91)

dholio
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:57am
According to a coworker of mine, they do the same thing at ITT Tech in Orange,CA…A criminal justice instructor told the students to plan a “pretend” terrorist attack on The Block in Orange…

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- Mil-Dot
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 5:28pm
  So what’s the problem? The federal, state and local govts routinely conduct exercises with mock scenarios in order to best formulate plans to crack down on the freedoms and rights of Americans. They do it every single day. Maybe the students can offer possiblities that the LE community has not yet thought of. They just don’t like it when the citizens do it. But they rub their hands together with glee thinking about ways to crack OUR skulls.
  
  Report this comment
RaydocX
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:55am
Uhm maybe a foolish exercise, EXCEPT that’s exactly what counterterrorism guys are supposed to do. Maybe something new we should plan for will come out of this. Maybe some students will realize how tenuous freedom is and how foolish the policies of the left are.

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- Iamnotanumber
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:21pm
  they are not counter terrorist operators and we hoped for change a while back and that didn’t work out so well. Any hope of changing an NYU students world view is slim to none!
  
  Report this comment
- Eastinfection
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:49pm
  If i was paying to take a class called “Transnational Terrorism” i would be upset if some of the assignments DIDN’T require hypothetical analysis…
  
  if you want to write about rainbows and puppy dogs take a different course!
  
  Report this comment
IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:41am
What a stupid thing to request the kids to do. What you think may be a hypothetical bullet from law enforcement could be real.

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- Al Gator
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:45pm
  Sorry IM, disagree with you wholeheartedly.
  
  Number One: These students are NOT “kids.” They are post graduate students who can range in age from 23 to 63 plus minus a few years. (Typically the average age is 25 and no one under 20 unless they are genius class.) Depending on the course, this type of exercise is in fact what you want them to be doing.
  
  Number Two: I don’t know if they still require the exercise, but it used to be that if you were accepted for testing by the CIA, you stood for a 12 hour test, and then several days of other tests if you did well on the 12 hour test.
  
  One of the test exercises was to plan a break in, robbery and successful escape of a secure facility, leaving no trace. You were instructed to elaborate on how you would compromise human, electronic and structural security. You needed to elaborate on your escape. You were allowed a full 2 hours to complete the exercise.
  
  Sun Tsu: Know yourself, know your enemy as well as you know yourself. In 1,000 battles, you will have 1,000 victories. (Or something like that.) Mao was a champion of Sun Tsu.
  
  Report this comment
COFemale
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:41am
I wonder what would happen if the students wrote the paper attacking NYU and killing all the Liberal professors? Would they fail?

By the picture alone you can see this is a dimwit Liberal Professor. If a student was going into counter intelligence, terrorism unit, they would get real data and create their scenarios there. I would be concerned that a scenario would be good enough that a potential terrorist could use it. This is a bad idea all around. This professor should pick a different approach like how to thwart the attack at all levels, not how jihadist who may or may not be in her class would successfully carry out one.

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- Vickie Dhaene
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:58am
  Could or would this assignment be found say in 20 years and be used against them on a personal level? Example: Running for the Presidency. Is this maybe one of the reasons Obummbler won’t show his college records. He has thesis on going around constitution and creating dictatorship? Hmmm
  
  Report this comment
- hippocritic-us
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:24pm
  How do you thwart attacks “at all levels” without thinking through a terror attack in all it’s details including terrorist motivations and mindset and seeing it from their perspective?
  
  Report this comment
hippocritic-us
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:36am
I agree with all those who instinctively think the worst about our university educators. I am appalled that a professor of an anti-terror program who’s students want to eventually work for the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, etc., would encourage her students to get into the heads of their subjects. I mean come on, why in the world would they EVER need to think like their enemies??? They should be learning only how to respond to terror attacks, never to look at systemic weaknesses, government response protocols, civilian customs, and all that bs. They should be taught to think reactively, not proactively. Wargaming is so unpatriotic.

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- COFemale
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:49am
  If these students are going into the FBI CIA or other agencies, they should be the ones setting up scenario’s to employee’s as they deal with real data. Why not take the approach of thwarting the attack, as that the intent of counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence.
  
  Use your brains.
  
  Report this comment
- hippocritic-us
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:18pm
  Sarcasm must not be your forte, but I’m glad you got my point anyway.
  
  Report this comment
- Eastinfection
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:41pm
  HIPPO….
  
  Isn’t it funny how quickly people endorse fascism when freedom inconveniently collides with their sense of right and wrong?
  
  Report this comment
Baja
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:32am
Deport the commie bastards. They are enemies of the state!

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rockymtngal
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:31am
Why not ask students to write a paper on pathological liars. Oh yeah…guess that would be done in a psych class. Why not have these students do a paper on how Obama and his administration lied about the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood, or the terrorist attack in Benghazi? There’s no need to write a paper on a fictional “terrorist attack”. Dissect those that have already been committed.

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:34pm
  Your telling people it’s better to me REACTIVE than PROACTIVE?
  
  I’m a building contractor. I plan water run off collection and ground drainage for these buildings by studying the lay of the land and deducing likely problems ahead of time..
  
  I don’t build the house, wait for rain, and then figure out where to put the gutters, flashing, and drains… if i did i’d get sued for neglect..
  
  Report this comment
Eastinfection
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:25am
How many of you that think this prof. should be fired or imprisoned regularly read Brad Thor, Baldacci, Vince Flynn, etc? Should they be jailed too?

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- COFemale
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:44am
  Brad Thor is not a Liberal professor. He is a conservative book writer. Big difference. People have a choice to read or not read his books. These students are REQUIRED to write this paper. Frankly, I would refuse and ask for an alternative assignment. If she refused, I would file a complaint against the professor and the school.
  
  Report this comment
- Eastinfection
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:07pm
  Hey COFEMALE…
  
  I’d support your request to do an alternate assignment just as i support this teacher’s right to assign projects like this one… I think hypothetical critical analysis/ cause & effect/ style creative writing is actually a healthy exercise.. Imagining the worst is a useful tool for preventative maintenance..
  
  Report this comment
00100111
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:24am
Translation: We liberal progressives and marxists are running out of ideas. Please give us ideas. We’ll make it an assignment. We will pick and execute the best idea and let you join our cause.

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Nepenthe
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:20am
“When told of the term paper, one ranking police officer who lost coworkers on 9/11 called it “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

And then that ranking police officer went back to telling his subordinates to do random stop-and-frisk searches of black people just because they are black.

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- SocialistSlayer
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:23am
  Communist Much ??
  
  Report this comment
Doc John
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:17am
Excuse me folks: I’m an army vet; a Conservative; a Christian; a Constitutionalist; hold a Ph.D. in History; teach in two graduate programs; have taught for the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps and done ‘wargaming’ work for the military. The assignment as described is exactly what DoD, DHS, DoJ ought to be doing all the time. And graduate students in a graduate course on transnational terrorism ought to understand the terrorist mindset, strategy and tactics in order to complete the course and get an MA in the field. This is an outstanding assignment. Now if NYPD is doing their job they’ll have a few of their own counter-terrorist folks taking the course to improve their own skills. And if DoJ, DHS, and DoS were doing their jobs instead of all the stupid things they are doing, we wouldn’t have to worry about terrorists in American Universities so that we would know the grad students in the course were honestly interested in working for the government and for major businesses which have to be cognizant of the terrorist threat. Let’s get real folks, if you don’t know yourself and your enemy you are doomed to a thousand defeats.

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- 00100111
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:25am
  I can understand this. If you don’t try to think like your enemy you’ll never be able to beat him.
  
  Report this comment
- PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:27am
  Here is a new film that exposes radical muslim “deception”. How front groups and sympathizers intimidate the major media and hollywood. By the Investigative Project on Terrorism. The film is called “Jihad in America: The Grand Deception” You can read all about the film and how long it took to make it at: http://www.usasurvival.org/ck10.26.12.html#axzz2ARoILRtI
  
  There is also a new commercial put out by retired special ops at: http://www.hillbuzz.org/special-ops-slam-obama-25771
  
  Report this comment
- Atrum Angelis
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:30am
  I was about to post something similar to yours, but you hit it on the head much better than I could.
  This is no different. If you can think like your enemy, you can predict your enemy. Without this kind of hypothetical analysis, many people would not be able to do their jobs.
  Even crime scene analysts have to do hypothetical crimes to understand how a criminal works.
  
  *PS: yeah for history. I’m an archaeology graduate.
  
  Report this comment
- Cavallo
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:35am
  Exactly.
  
  Report this comment
- Polarized America
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:42am
  .
  Doc gets an ..A +
  
  Report this comment
- objectivetruth
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:50am
  You hit the nail on the head.Far more eloquently than I could have.I do have worries over what will happen to them after they are finished and turned in.Not necessarily from her either.Lots of scenarios come to mind.
  
  Report this comment
- The_Almighty_Creestof
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:52am
  Exactly. Security firms hire ex-cons with backgrounds in hacking/burglary/ETC all the time as consultants to try and find their weak points.
  
  Since our Muslim-in-charge and his henchmen were unable to imagine a possible attack on US personnel on the anniversary of 9/11…maybe going to the freshest minds in the country, with wide open imaginations…is a good thing.
  
  Report this comment
- Madison2012
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:14pm
  I agree we must study our enemy and know what their objectives are and the means they have. However, we should not be allowing our universities to be brain-storming grounds for the terrorists. I would rather they connect the dots with what is going in the world right now. They may uncover current plots by our enemies. Use the students as CIA analysts and not terrorism proving grounds.
  
  Report this comment
mtnhimike
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:12am
Why is this Moron still employed at NYU. She should be arrested for plotting against the United States ! What in the world are we doing at our Universities.

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Mandors
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:12am
It’s a college assignment! How are you supposed to understand terrorist and what they might do unless you think about it? So all you WTP GED losers, including the NYPD, take one giant pill. Morons.

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- JimCDew
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:55am
  You understand terrorists by studying their past operations and extrapolating protocols and methods of prevention. It isn’t necessary to come up with new plans for acts of terror when there are so many oldies out their to critique for the leftist acedemia.
  
  Report this comment
- xendude
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:21pm
  In order to stop an attack you must think like the enemy, that is why you study military science, not just military history. They only need to win once the good guys must anticipate moves and counter moves. For the good guys winning means nothing noticeable happens. To know the enemy is a dark place indeed but it represents winning.
  
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GlennaBeckski
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:10am
“They” must be running out of devious ideas.

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Carrie3570
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:02am
Wow! I don’t even know …. I mean, my first thought is “who is she working with?”. They have all these students planning these attacks. If the teacher gives those papers to her “chosen terror group” they can use those to their advantage. I couldn’t do it. I mean, what if my plan was used to carry out an attack? I could never forgive myself. – I think a background check on the teacher is in order.

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- scuba13
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:13am
  Don’t the police have better things to do than worry about students planning a fake terror attack? Like enforcing the over 16 ounce soda ban?
  
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- OutObamaOut
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:15am
  As a Criminal Justice student in college, I find this appalling! I have taken courses on terrorism and I am currently in a class for homeland security. We don’t plan terrorist attacks, we dissect the handling of past events and analyze what worked and what did not. We discuss measures that can be taken to PREVENT attacks and how to track terrorist’s without trampling the rights of Americans. It is not an easy subject, but I can say with certainty that it is not good curriculum to plan a terrorist attack!
  
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- JRook
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:17am
  The reactions here are as moronic as the NY Posts assertion. Let’s hope that the federal, state and NY City emergency personnel are simulating any number of terrorists attacks. So let’s see perhaps it would be useful to educate future emergency personnel, managers, administrators, etc. in similar simulations and to be prepared one must be able to think like terrorists. You know I also heard that some university’s have course that consider other cultures and religions other than Christianity, as though they are legitimate and even worthy of consideration. Unbelievable right?
  
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- Cavallo
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:27am
  @OutObamaOut. How do you plan against an attack if you have no concept of what that attack might be? The US armed forces constantly place commanders and units in the role of “the enemy” for training. They plan attacks and assaults. How is this different. I would like to point out that Richard Reid, and the underwear bomber were stopped by dumb luck. It sounds to me that your education might be focusing far too much on shutting the barn door after the cows have escaped. We need to know what inventive ways the terrorists will attack us in the future. No terrorists are likely to be hijacking airplanes with box cutters ever again. The follow up to that paper, lesson plan, should be to then randomly switch the plans around and assign different students papers on how to prevent the other students terrorist plans from seeing success. Then notify the DHS that such research has been conducted and they are free to view it at their leisure .
  
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- 00100111
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:27am
  Rookie, I see you typed something. But the only thing that came through is “Derp derp derp derp derp derp derp”
  
  Report this comment
- OutObamaOut
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 12:10pm
  Cavallo, the difference is that the classroom differs from field work. I am in school. As I will not be performing terrorist attacks when I graduate, it is not beneficial to learn how to plan a proper one. We focus on the adaptive nature of terrorism and on where our security could be improved to PREVENT attacks, as well as respond to them if and when they happen. There is no way, even if we were to plan one ourselves as this prof has her students do, that we can foresee every possible route a terrorist may take. Any kind of battle tactics and individual training are handled within the various agencies in which we students may end up. There are different levels of response between local, state, and federal agencies. It is not as universal as folks think. They have their training and run drills on possibilities… It is just a stupid assignment to have in the college class… We learn from our past and we analyze ways to prevent attacks in the future. We leave the PLAN A TERRORIST ATTACK to those who either want a terrorist attack or are in an current role where they are charged to protect and defend, because every area has different geographical challenges, budget restraints, and equipment to utilize in prevention and response. You can be snarky, but this is a genuine response from someone who is actively engaged in learning how to best prevent and respond to threats in an academic setting, which differs from a field setting.
  
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Tigress1
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:01am
Wow! How will this be graded? Would they get an “A+” for the most destruction and casualties? Are the Occupiers looking for ideas?

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chkiaar
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:00am
You just can’t fix stupid! These are educated instructors, unfortunately, when they instill intelligence, they distill common sense.

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Tri-ox
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:59am
Liberalsim is a mental disorder.

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Jenny Lind
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:59am
And who is she working for? That was my first thought, my second is, are these being done for a certain group or groups of people? I do not buy it, her reasons I mean, too much chance for misuse.

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barber2
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:57am
“Why didn’t the police call me if they had concerns ?” My dear ” professor: ” Why were you so clueless to not see that this assignment would be a ” concern” for security agencies…especially in the New York area. Just another proof that IQ and common sense are NOT related.

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- Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:06am
  So would this fall into the “thoughtcrime” category?
  
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Bullfrog85
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:56am
Right, and what happens when one of these hypothetical plans falls into the wrong hands?

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soybomb315_II
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:56am
Asking people to come up with plots is at least more than the FBI requires….The FBI hatches the plot for you! FBI will even make you a bomb (dud) if you qualify

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IrritableGimp
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:53am
Yep, typical of the indoctrination ongoing in our institutes of lower learning…sheesh!

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Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:53am
Isn’t this what our government is supposed to be doing? Slap in the face? So when we had battle scenario logistic models for Korea and Iraq was that also a slap in the face? Good grief, maybe the government might just learn something from this effort. Geesh. More likely they won’t and they’ll just double down on the police state. THAT is the real slap in the face.

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- Cavallo
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:07am
  Exactly! I think more grad level courses in criminal justice and defense and strategic studies need to be doing this. Have bright young minds finding holes in our defenses so we can fill them up, and guard against them. This isn’t a reality TV show she was conducting. Why stick your heads in the sand and scream “it won’t happen! it won’t happen!”? I trust college graduate level students to think more critically than government employees, albeit only slightly.
  
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- Gonzo
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:12am
  I would think this could be helpful to the authorities as well. It’s not like real terrorists aren’t already plotting. Looking over what these students come up with, might help head something off in advance.
  
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- Nepenthe
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:17am
  This is exactly what I was thinking. It is as if people think that our government agencies only come up with scenerios that have already occured and do nothing to anticipate future attacks by creating specific events that might actually happen. People think our emergency response should have no contingency plans for unexpected events.
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 11:28am
  Well, like, first I would make sure that Starbucks like didn’t get any like espresso for a week and then like put stink bombs in the local like PF Changs and like the Cheese Cake factory and like that would like screw up the whole process, like sort of. Obama like would come to the rescue like, and we could like OWS the whole enchilada. Like. And we could like shut down all the weed places in Kalifornia and like wreck the whole Johnson thingy.
  
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- Gonzo
  Posted on October 29, 2012 at 2:38pm
  Dastardly Fubared, thank the Lord you didn’t figure out how to jam their Twitter and texting functions. Oh, the humanity!
  
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mattmo79
Posted on October 29, 2012 at 10:52am
Great let’s provide college level courses in planning terror attacks!! Does NYU even look at what is being taught? This professor is a complete moron!

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