A dry run or a test run is an act committed by a

terrorist organization A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

without carrying out any actual

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

in an attempt to determine whether a technique they are planning to use will be successful. The dry run is part of the rehearsal for a terrorist act, and is often the immediate precursor to the attack. It may include attempting to smuggle weapons or other items to be used in the attack past a

security checkpoint Civilian checkpoints or security checkpoints are distinguishable from border or frontier checkpoints in that they are erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary control. Civilian checkpoints have been employed ...

to determine whether this will be noticed, or monitoring the reactions of security personnel to the actions that would occur during a real attack. The dry run is considered to be the heart of the planning stages of the terrorist attack. It is the method by which strengths and weaknesses in the plot are exposed to the terrorists, unforeseen obstacles can be detected, and the techniques are refined. Sometimes, multiple dry runs are conducted in an effort to perfect the ultimate attack.

Suspicious signs

The following are suspicious signs a dry run may be occurring: *Appearing out-of-place *Sitting in car and observing operations for no apparent reason *Photography or videotaping with no obvious reason or illegally *Monitoring of a police radio frequency and observing response times to calls *Mapping out routes to determine timing of traffic flow and lights *Attempting to learn inside information about the operations of a place *Abandoning object(s), such as pieces of luggage

Notable reports of dry runs

*In 2004 a group of Syrian musicians boarded

Northwest Airlines Flight 327 Northwest Airlines Flight 327 was a June 29, 2004 flight from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus, Michigan to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on N543US, a Boeing 757-200. The behavior of a group of ...

. Some passengers were alarmed by the men, including Annie Jacobsen who brought the flight to national attention. She described the group of men's behavior as consistent with a dry run. Investigating authorities including the FBI concluded there was no terrorist threat. *In 2006, British authorities uncovered a plot in which suspected terrorists were making a dry run in an attempt to make bombs out of peroxide that could be ignited with an electronic device. This led to restrictions internationally on carrying liquids on aircraft. *Investigators believe that the

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

branch of

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

may have been conducting a dry run with shipments they made in 2010 on

cargo aircraft A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger am ...

in preparation for the

2010 transatlantic aircraft bomb plot On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's securi ...

.http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/01/1903479/terrorists-may-have-conducted.html

References

{{reflist Terrorism tactics Smuggling