Rex A. Hudson - Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?: The Psychology and Sociology of Terrorism

First published 1999 by Library of Congress.

First Skyhorse edition 2018.

Foreword copyright 2018 by Malcolm Nance.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

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ISBN: 978-1-5107-2612-3

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2624-6

Printed in the United States of America

FOREWORD

by Malcolm Nance

The September 11, 2001, attacks that collapsed the twin World Trade Center towers, struck the Pentagon, and revealed the heroism of United Flight 93 also left behind almost three thousand dead from the United States and more than sixty-one other countries. The attacks left behind more than the emotional and physical wreckage; they created the conditions that would lead to decades of war in the Middle East and South Asia. The nineteen terrorists entered the United States from friendly countries and spread the trail of destruction from southern Manhattan to virtually every country in the Muslim world, Europe, and Asia. The attack was the pinnacle of asymmetric warfare, a form of terrorism judo where the strengths of the mighty are turned against themselves by the weak. It was executed within the United States by exploiting the loopholes in democracy by misusing its own laws, breaking the rules of social decency, spitting on the laws of war, and even requesting dignified calm from the hundreds of airline victims as they hurtled towards their own deaths as a passenger-filled cruise missile. The goal of the terrorists was simple: to send to everyone in the world a mesmerizing message of spectacular destruction, fear, and hatred designed to spark a global war of opposing religious ideologies.

Terrorism since 9/11 has left the world in nearly perpetual wonderment as to who could commit such murderous crimes without heart or pity. Why would nineteen men do such an act? Only those who do not espouse the ideology would ask that. The tens of thousands of followers of al-Qaeda, its Iraqi-Syrian offspring, the Islamic State terror Caliphate, the savage Boko Haram of Nigeria, and its eastern sister organization, the Somali al-Shabab would ask a different question: How can I become one of those terrorists?

Since that tragic day in September, the global governance structure has been consumed with answering the most fundamental question of Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?

The worlds governing leadership, defense departments, intelligence communities, and academia have spent nearly a trillion dollars trying to come to grips with the spectacular terrorism that has spread itself across the international geopolitical stage like an incessant rainfall. Yet in over a decade and a half since the attacks, a never-ending series of questions has continued to punctuate the public discourse. Where does the terrorism originate? Who is responsible for the waves of political violence? How do they surrender basic human decency and swear loyalty to a life down a dark path where murder and fear are the terminal objectives of their lessons?

This book is a seminal document that does the laymans work in addressing the basic understanding of the profiles of terrorist organization members. Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why? , though drafted in 1999, is the single best study of both international and domestic terrorist members motivations. In it, one will find data on the psychology of mass murder and profiles of terrorists mind-sets, as well as case studies that provide an in-depth study. This one resource is absolutely required reading for all students and practitioners of anti-terrorism.

Malcolm Nance

Dear Reader:

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PREFACE

The purpose of this study is to focus attention on the types of individuals and groups that are prone to terrorism (see Glossary) in an effort to help improve U.S. counterterrorist methods and policies.

The emergence of amorphous and largely unknown terrorist individuals and groups operating independently (freelancers) and the new recruitment patterns of some groups, such as recruiting suicide commandos, female and child terrorists, and scientists capable of developing weapons of mass destruction, provide a measure of urgency to increasing our understanding of the psychological and sociological dynamics of terrorist groups and individuals. The approach used in this study is twofold. First, the study examines the relevant literature and assesses the current knowledge of the subject. Second, the study seeks to develop psychological and sociological profiles of foreign terrorist individuals and selected groups to use as case studies in assessing trends, motivations, likely behavior, and actions that might deter such behavior, as well as reveal vulnerabilities that would aid in combating terrorist groups and individuals.

Because this survey is concerned not only with assessing the extensive literature on sociopsychological aspects of terrorism but also providing case studies of about a dozen terrorist groups, it is limited by time constraints and data availability in the amount of attention that it can give to the individual groups, let alone individual leaders or other members. Thus, analysis of the groups and leaders will necessarily be incomplete. A longer study, for example, would allow for the collection and study of the literature produced by each group in the form of autobiographies of former members, group communiqus and manifestos, news media interviews, and other resources. Much information about the terrorist mindset (see Glossary) and decision-making process can be gleaned from such sources. Moreover, there is a language barrier to an examination of the untranslated literature of most of the groups included as case studies herein.

Terrorism databases that profile groups and leaders quickly become outdated, and this report is no exception to that rule. In order to remain current, a terrorism database ideally should be updated periodically. New groups or terrorist leaders may suddenly emerge, and if an established group perpetrates a major terrorist incident, new information on the group is likely to be reported in news media. Even if a group appears to be quiescent, new information may become available about the group from scholarly publications.