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Posted on 10/04/2001 8:44:36 AM PDT by milestogo

Everything disclosed so far about behavior of the suicidal hijackers and mass murderers of Sept. 11 reveals a tangled pattern of disguised obsessions, typical of such chosen warriors. They had a sense of profound grievance, fierce underlying hatred for Western, especially American culture and values, and iron, secretive discipline.

The roots of their obsessions, as well as their determination, likely formed far back in time in the Middle East and South Asia. Investigators now look for similar backgrounds among those on suspect or watch lists throughout the world.

Men like the presumed suicide pilots Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, who rammed the two airliners into the World Trade Center Towers, began life as good, if not always model middle-class kids, according to their incredulous parents who refuse to believe anything bad about them ("My son was an angel, a true angel, in his love and respect for others," Atta's Egyptian father told Greek television).

But as they grew up, they were exposed to widespread resentment of Israel, to a loathing of what the majority of Arab society perceives as one-sided U.S. support of the Jewish state, and to other litanies of hate, propagated both before and after the Arab-Israel peace agreements, which began in the late 1970s.

‘Well-Behaved Young Men’

The terrorists had developed a great ability to blend in and hide their resentment. Their neighbors, acquaintances and instructors at technical and flying schools in Hamburg and Bochum, Germany, or at Vero Beach and Venice, Florida, knew them as "quiet, well-behaved young men."

Like their classmates attending courses in aeronautics, ship design and electrical engineering, these young men, who German officials believe had been hatching their schemes since 1998, never discussed Islam, politics or America in public with anyone. They were content to act publicly like any other student in Germany.

Others, like Said Bahaji, a German citizen of Moroccan descent, are still at large, but they appear to also have lived double lives. A German warrant has been issued for his arrest on "charges of forming a terrorist organization and at least 5,000 counts of murder." A long-term Turkish girlfriend of Bahaji, now living under a new identity in a witness protection program, reportedly told FBI and German investigators of Bahaji's "dual personality." The gradual realization of his conspiratorial life in the shadows had "shocked her to the core" when she realized mass murder might lurk in his plans.

But "never," she told one German journalist before she disappeared, "did I dream that some of them were going to destroy themselves."

Teaching Terrorists

The known hijackers came from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya. With all expenses paid, they were flown to Pakistan to enroll in madrasas, or religious schools like ones in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and in Lahore, near the border of India. The CIA is widely considered to have bankrolled the efforts of the Pakistani intelligence service to train fighters.

A visiting New York Times magazine writer last year found 2,800 students enrolled in one school, ranging in age from 8 to 35. Most came from extremely poor backgrounds and spent their time memorizing the Koran. Subjects like math, computer science, or non-Islamic history were not taught.

More advanced students reviewed the hadiths, or sayings and traditions of the Prophet Mohammad. Non-Arabic speakers, like the Afghan or Pakistani Pashtuns, or the students from former Soviet republics like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and some Chechens, learned or brushed up on their Arabic.

Graduate students studied how to issue fatwas, or religious edicts, on subjects ranging from family law to the waging of jihad, or holy war. That course included about 600 students.

My Tunisian source explained that officers of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service recommended the North African students advance after crash courses of six to eight weeks into further military training, including guerrilla warfare and advanced terrorist techniques which were on the original CIA agenda during the days of robust U.S. support for Afghan fighters during the 10 years of Soviet occupation which followed the 1979 invasion..

As in the madrasas, all fees and expenses were paid. Eventually, successful alumni were paid salaries that were handsome by local standards — perhaps $100 a month or more. They were sent into battle, logistic or undercover situations where rank and earning possibilities increased with the risks.

Shifted Missions

Once the 1979-89 Afghan war ended and the defeated Soviet troops left Afghanistan and went home, Pakistan's ISI continued the training program, training volunteers for "holy war" missions inside Indian-occupied Kashmir or India's Punjab province.

Many of the graduates found their way to Europe or the United States. Men like Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, from well-to-do or middle-class families, apparently skipped the Pakistani phase of training and directly entered technical courses and flying lessons which prepared them for their ultimate suicide missions.

Others, including immigrants to the United States, may have skipped both, and remained "holy warriors" in sentiment only. At present, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada are only some of the states declaring their solidarity with America in a late start rooting out terrorism — a terrorism which grew and spread after the Afghan war into the monstrous atrocities of Sept. 11

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