A class on counterterrorism at New York University, taught by former Navy criminal investigator Marie-Helen Maras, requires graduate students to plan a hypothetical terrorist attack, according to an Oct. 29 article in the New York Post.

The article quotes anonymous New York police officers who denounced the assignment as insensitive, claiming that actual terrorists could carry out the attacks.

While the assignment may seem a little inconsiderate of those affected by real terrorism, there is no inherent danger. It is designed to prepare professionals in the counterterrorism field to analyze and prevent terrorist attacks, Maras said in the article. A class that takes an honest look at terrorism and how it functions is preventing danger, not creating it.

The assignment requires students to plan every element of a successful terrorist attack, from funding to execution. This may sound controversial to people outside of the course and especially jarring for a city that has experienced terrorism firsthand, but

the assignment has real educational value.

One source in the Post article said the assignment is doing work for terrorists. The article then mentions multiple terrorists who have received an American education, including the radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a leading figure in Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.

It’s unlikely that a terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda would choose to carry out an attack that was thoroughly analyzed by a classroom of graduate students planning to enter the fields of intelligence and counterterrorism.

Without understanding the full context of the class and the purpose of the assignment, the claims of the Post’s anonymous sources don’t have much credibility.  Information is only dangerous when the wrong people use it. Anyone with an Internet connection can find instructions to make bombs or hack computers.

On the science magazine Wired’s website, journalist Ryan Singel sarcastically suggests that action movies that depict terrorism, such as “Live Free or Die Hard,” should also be considered dangerous.

The U.S. military and various policy organizations conduct exercises similar to the assignment on a regular basis, simulating attacks, analyzing how effective the response is and gauging what could be done better.

One such simulation of a cyber warfare attack was broadcast on CNN in 2010. If students interested in counterterrorism shouldn’t simulate attacks, then wouldn’t it be problematic for one of the nation’s largest news organizations to publicly display a similar exercise?

Perhaps Maras could revamp the assignment to make it less controversial if she would like to avoid criticism in the media, but she shouldn’t have to. Criticizing a former Navy criminal investigator for teaching students about counterterrorism is what’s truly insensitive.