The sociology and psychology of terrorism: Who becomes a terrorist and why? (A must read)

loc.gov ^

[chance33_98]

VERY long but fascinating article, a must read in today's world. Click here for full article

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[chance33_98]

Table of Contents (Partial)

PREFACE i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: MINDSETS OF MASS DESTRUCTION 1
New Types of Post-Cold War Terrorists 1
New Forms of Terrorist-Threat Scenarios 4
INTRODUCTION 8
TERMS OF ANALYSIS 10
Defining Terrorism and Terrorists 10
Terrorist Group Typologies 12
APPROACHES TO TERRORISM ANALYSIS 13

The Multicausal Approach 13
The Political Approach 13
The Organizational Approach 14
The Physiological Approach 15
The Psychological Approach 16
GENERAL HYPOTHESES OF TERRORISM 16
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis 17
Negative Identity Hypothesis 17
Narcissistic Rage Hypothesis 17
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE TERRORIST 19
Terrorist Motivation 19
The Process of Joining a Terrorist Group 20
The Terrorist as Mentally Ill 23
The Terrorist as Suicidal Fanatic 27
Fanatics 27
Suicide Terrorists 28
Terrorist Group Dynamics 29
Pressures to Conform 31
Pressures to Commit Acts of Violence 32
Terrorist Rationalization of Violence 33
The Terrorist's Ideological or Religious Perception 35
TERRORIST PROFILING 37
Hazards of Terrorist Profiling 37
Sociological Characteristics of Terrorists in the Cold War Period 39
A Basic Profile 39
Age 41
Educational, Occupational, and Socioeconomic Background 41
General Traits 43
Marital Status 44
Physical Appearance 44
Origin: Rural or Urban 44
Gender 45
Males 45
Females 45
Characteristics of Female Terrorists 47
Practicality, Coolness 47
Dedication, Inner Strength, Ruthlessness 48
Single-Mindedness 49
Female Motivation for Terrorism 50
CONCLUSION 51
Terrorist Profiling 51
Terrorist Group Mindset Profiling 54
Promoting Terrorist Group Schisms 56

How Guerrilla and Terrorist Groups End 57
APPENDIX 61


SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES: CASE STUDIES 61

[chance33_98]

Al-Qaida's expected retaliation for the U.S. cruise missile attack against al-Qaida's training facilities in Afghanistan on August 20, 1998, could take several forms of terrorist attack in the nation's capital. Al-Qaida could detonate a Chechen-type building-buster bomb at a federal building. Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House. Ramzi Yousef had planned to do this against the CIA headquarters. In addition, both al-Qaida and Yousef were linked to a plot to assassinate President Clinton during his visit to the Philippines in early 1995. Following the August 1998 cruise missile attack, at least one Islamic religious leader called for Clinton's assassination, and another stated that "the time is not far off" for when the White House will be destroyed by a nuclear bomb. A horrendous scenario consonant with al-Qaida's mindset would be its use of a nuclear suitcase bomb against any number of targets in the nation's capital. Bin Laden allegedly has already purchased a number of nuclear suitcase bombs from the Chechen Mafia. Al-Qaida's retaliation, however, is more likely to take the lower-risk form of bombing one or more U.S. airliners with time-bombs. Yousef was planning simultaneous bombings of 11 U.S. airliners prior to his capture. Whatever form an attack may take, bin Laden will most likely retaliate in a spectacular way for the cruise missile attack against his Afghan camp in August 1998.

[chance33_98]

Ping

[Spiritus Gladius]

Fascinating stuff:

Environments conducive to the rise of terrorism include international and national environments, as well as subnational ones such as universities, where many terrorists first become familiar with Marxist-Leninist ideology or other revolutionary ideas and get involved with radical groups. Russell and Miller identify universities as the major recruiting ground for terrorists...

The physiological approach to terrorism suggests that the role of the media in promoting the spread of terrorism cannot be ignored in any discussion of the causes of terrorism...

Moreover, in Guttman's analysis, the terrorist requires a liberal rather than a right-wing audience for success. Liberals make the terrorist respectable by accepting the ideology that the terrorist alleges informs his or her acts. The terrorist also requires liberal control of the media for the transmission of his or her ideology...

[chance33_98]

Spread the word :)

[chance33_98]

PS - I downloaded the HTML file for safe keeping. One never knows when such things will just go away...

[chance33_98]

Yousef was planning simultaneous bombings of 11 U.S. airliners prior to his capture. Whatever form an attack may take, bin Laden will most likely retaliate in a spectacular way for the cruise missile attack against his Afghan camp in August 1998.

They did not how right they were when they wrote this report. Damn sad.

[chance33_98]

Ping!

[madfly]

Thanks for posting this. I came upon it soon after 911 and it blew me away.

[madfly]

long read but jam packed

[Madcelt]

Yousef!!!

The Iraqi intelligence officer convicted of masterminding the 1st WTC bombings. My how many of the congress critters have forgotten this interesting side note. Kinda makes you wonder what they're thinkng.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[B4Ranch]

I read this quite a while ago and do recall it as good reading.

[Gritty]

Excellent article, chock full of information.

[madfly]

bttt

[Morrigan]

Wow, thanks for the ping, that was incredible.....how prophetic, too....

[chance33_98]

Ping