Those who have read my three part series of posts "When victims become vigilantes" will have seen references to a group calling itself the "Scarlet Dawn".

But who are they? What are they? What is their goal?

These are questions every law enforcement and intelligence agency has been asking, without getting any real answers beyond the obvious ones. By that I mean, yes, they are terrorists, and one can assume their goal is world domination, but the latter is only a guess based on stereotypes rather than any documented facts.

They do not appear to be tied to any known government, or for that matter any known radical movement. Which is not to preclude the possibility that they may have agents within these, but so far nothing concrete of that nature has been proven.

There have been multiple attempts by various law enforcement and intelligence agencies to send their own undercover agents into the Dawn, but to date such agents have failed to report back; some have been found dead, others have simply disappeared.

One reason that they so far cannot be tied to any government is that they have committed multiple atrocities in various countries; bombings, assasinations, etc., scattered across every continent.

Another reason getting any clear information has so far been impossible is that few if any Dawn agents have been successfully captured by law enforcement, and not for said law enforcement's lack of trying. Some manage to escape, others commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. The few that have ended up in the hands of the authorities *and* can be made to talk, do not appear to know much more than whatever they needed to to carry out whatever task the Dawn had given them. These rank and file thugs do not even know by name or face the person who gave them their instructions; either they were masked, or they were merely a voice on a speaker phone.

In recent years, the Dawn has taken to using superhumanly powered individuals -- presumably mutants -- in some of their actions. This has only made attempting to stop them that much more difficult.

Interesting... the Scarlet Dawn uses a traditional cell structure for security. Beyond that, two things stand out:

1) the Scarlet Dawn is able to inspire fanatical loyalty- or uses industrial grade mind control- if captured members commit suicide to avoid capture. Those few that are somehow captured would not be contract workers- they would endlessly spout their ideology (i.e. what made them try to kill themselves to avoid capture). If not, that would raise an immediate red flag as proof of mind control (whether it's true or not is irrelevant), and provoke a seriously heavy response at the highest levels. The situation would no longer be handled by mere law enforcement.

2) Terrorism occurs to send a message. Period, no ifs, ands, or buts. If an organization goes to the trouble of such brazen acts, it's to promote their ideology. You don't commit random acts of violence and not tell anybody why. At the risk of injecting real life politics, look at every single color revolution: everything is calculated to a single message, be it corruption, injustice, or what have you. If Scarlet Dawn's message isn't obvious, if their goals aren't being divulged to the four winds, then they won't get very far.