Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Terrorist Pro-Am Circuit

In the aftermath of the London-Glasgow failed attacks, a lot of counter-terrorism experts have been ridiculing the wannabe terrorists' incompetence, leading Noah Shachtman over at Danger Room to pose the question, "Were these bombers Beavises?  Or was this a legitimate threat?" Intuitively, the answer seems to be clearly, "Yes, and yes." And this article in Le Figaro explains why.

According to the counter-terrorism experts cited in the article, the London attacks demonstrate not that highly-trained al-Qaeda operatives have been replaced by bumbling amateurs, but that they've been supplemented by them. In addition, contrary to previous waves of militants, who were recruited, these next-generation, "homegrown" threats tend to be self-motivated. They find their way to terrorism by themselves, with no need for extended conditioning to prepare them to cross the line into violence, and make contact with established networks only for reasons of legitimacy and technical support.

In other words, established global jihadist networks can throw the amateurs into the front lines at little to no cost or investment. The downside risk if they fail is minimal, and the upside benefits if they succeed enormous. In the meantime, the A-Team bides its time, planning major strikes with its elite operatives.

So maybe the London guys were Beavises, but that doesn't necessarily make their buddies Buttheads.

Posted by Judah in:  Global War On Terror   

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