DaJudge
August 29th, 2007, 05:15 PM
The American Legion Magazine
September, 2007
Composition of the Enemy
The average, everyday terrorist is influenced by more than desperation.
BY RICHARD MINITER
As the war on terrorism enters its seventh year, we need to know how
terrorists are made. What sets them apart, and what attracts them to lives
of death and murder? The standby answer is that terrorism is caused by
poverty.
At first, it seems quite plausible that terrorists are poor people driven by
desperation. After all, a person with a good education, a decent salary and
a loving family has a lot for which to live. Religious extremists, who often
claim they are impatient to die, presumably have none of these advantages.
An authoritative study of the demographics of terrorists was published by
Marc Sageman of the University of Pennsylvania, and is found in his latest
book, ?Inside Terror Networks.? Sageman is not your typical ivory-tower
expert. He served as a CIA case officer working with anti-Soviet Afghan
rebels in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1987 to 1989. He then became a
forensic psychiatrist, devoting countless hours to interviewing, analyzing,
writing and testifying about murderers.
Then came Sept. 11, 2001. ?After leaving the CIA, I was happy in my na?ve
belief that I had left all that behind me,? he said. ?But after 9/11, like
everyone, I wanted to do something.?
He decided to compile one of the world?s largest terrorist databases outside
government hands. He collected 400 biographies, mostly al-Qaeda members,
from public records like court documents and began listing them. Fusing his
skills as a CIA officer with those of forensic psychiatry, he began looking for
patterns visible only after surveying large numbers of cases.
What Sageman discovered confounds most of the conventional wisdom
about terrorists. These people are not poor, nor are they deprived of
opportunities. ?(A)bout three-fourths of global Salafi Mujahedin (the radical
Islamic movement of which al-Qaeda is a part) was solidly upper or middle
class,? he writes.
The vast majority, 90 percent, came from caring, intact families. Sixty-
three percent had attended college, as compared with the customary 5
percent to 6 percent for the rest of the Third World. In many ways, the
majority of terrorists are the best and brightest of their societies.
What about the roughly one-quarter of terrorists from poor backgrounds?
They are found to be either Arab emigrants from Morocco or Algeria, or
French Catholics who converted to Islam, often in French prisons. Most are
beneficiaries of a generous European welfare state, receiving free or low-
cost housing, free education ? including medical or law school ? free health
care and a small stipend for daily expenses. By Third World standards, these
people are not poor, but rich. What these poorer terrorists have in common
with their well-heeled comrades is a sense of social exclusion or alienation,
a point to which I will return.
The rest of the story. (http://www.legion.org/?section=publications&subsection=pubs_mag_index&content=pub_mag_enemy_0907)
September, 2007
Composition of the Enemy
The average, everyday terrorist is influenced by more than desperation.
BY RICHARD MINITER
As the war on terrorism enters its seventh year, we need to know how
terrorists are made. What sets them apart, and what attracts them to lives
of death and murder? The standby answer is that terrorism is caused by
poverty.
At first, it seems quite plausible that terrorists are poor people driven by
desperation. After all, a person with a good education, a decent salary and
a loving family has a lot for which to live. Religious extremists, who often
claim they are impatient to die, presumably have none of these advantages.
An authoritative study of the demographics of terrorists was published by
Marc Sageman of the University of Pennsylvania, and is found in his latest
book, ?Inside Terror Networks.? Sageman is not your typical ivory-tower
expert. He served as a CIA case officer working with anti-Soviet Afghan
rebels in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1987 to 1989. He then became a
forensic psychiatrist, devoting countless hours to interviewing, analyzing,
writing and testifying about murderers.
Then came Sept. 11, 2001. ?After leaving the CIA, I was happy in my na?ve
belief that I had left all that behind me,? he said. ?But after 9/11, like
everyone, I wanted to do something.?
He decided to compile one of the world?s largest terrorist databases outside
government hands. He collected 400 biographies, mostly al-Qaeda members,
from public records like court documents and began listing them. Fusing his
skills as a CIA officer with those of forensic psychiatry, he began looking for
patterns visible only after surveying large numbers of cases.
What Sageman discovered confounds most of the conventional wisdom
about terrorists. These people are not poor, nor are they deprived of
opportunities. ?(A)bout three-fourths of global Salafi Mujahedin (the radical
Islamic movement of which al-Qaeda is a part) was solidly upper or middle
class,? he writes.
The vast majority, 90 percent, came from caring, intact families. Sixty-
three percent had attended college, as compared with the customary 5
percent to 6 percent for the rest of the Third World. In many ways, the
majority of terrorists are the best and brightest of their societies.
What about the roughly one-quarter of terrorists from poor backgrounds?
They are found to be either Arab emigrants from Morocco or Algeria, or
French Catholics who converted to Islam, often in French prisons. Most are
beneficiaries of a generous European welfare state, receiving free or low-
cost housing, free education ? including medical or law school ? free health
care and a small stipend for daily expenses. By Third World standards, these
people are not poor, but rich. What these poorer terrorists have in common
with their well-heeled comrades is a sense of social exclusion or alienation,
a point to which I will return.
The rest of the story. (http://www.legion.org/?section=publications&subsection=pubs_mag_index&content=pub_mag_enemy_0907)