Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:22:20 -0800 (PST) From: Santosh Helekar <[email protected]>
My own understanding, so far, based on my limited reading about terrorism psychology, and partly echoed by Selma, is that almost all of the terrorist recruits are common criminals, of whom there are plenty in every society. It is much easier to radicalize criminals, and graduate them to doing greater crimes, than normal people with intact innate moral sense. But I will let you know what I find. Mario responds: Santosh, While some of what you say about the proclivity of ne'er-do-wells to be recruited for conducting terrorist attacks sounds valid, not a single one of the 19 terrorists who attacked the US on 9/11 came from "common criminal" backgrounds. Neither did the attackers in Madrid, or Britain, some of whom were physicians. Besides, the nature of laws that address criminal activity in a civilized society, which requires a high standard of innocence until proven guilty, and due process that may jeopardize national security involved in the widespread war on terror against the current crop of Islamic terrorists, discriminates against the victims of the terrorism and the target society in general, and places witnesses and their families in mortal jeopardy by becoming targets for revenge. This is why suicidal terrorists must be treated and prosecuted fairly and humanely, but differently than common criminals, with special protections for the evidentiary information used and for the witnesses and their families.
