How Terrorists are Made

Quote of the day:
"Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope."
--Edith Wharton

Statistic of the day:
Number of foreign visitors to New York City in 2006:
44 million.

Since September 11th, there has been lots of public discussion about Al Qaeda-based terrorism, and some about its origins. But we have heard very little empirical research or even objective observation related to how actual human beings wind up as terrorists.

Former CIA case officer and forensic psychologist Marc Sageman closely studied the life histories of 172 known militants, and reported his conclusions to the September 11th Commission. His “profile” of those who became terrorists is interesting in its resemblance to those who got very involved with religious cults in the 1970s and 80s.

Here is a brief excerpt from a piece by Raffi Khatchadourian in the January 22nd New Yorker:

“Sageman discovered that most Al Qaeda operatives had been radicalized in the West and were from caring, intact families that had solidly middle- or upper-class economic backgrounds. Their families were religious but generally mainstream. The vast majority of the men did not have criminal records or any history of mental disorders. Moreover, there was little evidence of coordinated recruitment, coercion or brainwashing. Al Qaeda’s leaders waited for aspiring jihadists to come to them--and then accepted only a small percentage. Joining the jihad, Sageman realized, was like trying to get into a highly selective college: many apply, but only a few are accepted.

“Perhaps his most unexpected conclusion was that ideology and political grievances played a minimal role during the initial stages of enlistment. ‘The only significant finding was that the future terrorists felt isolated, lonely, and emotionally alienated,’ Sageman told the September 11th Commission in 2003.”