The Washington Monthly

August 21, 2008

TERRORIST PROFILING....The British security service, MI5, has concluded an exhaustive investigation into domestic terrorism and says that it's impossible to draw up a profile of a "typical" terrorist:

The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.

....They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they "mad and bad".

Those over 30 are just as likely to have a wife and children as to be loners with no ties, the research shows.

The security service also plays down the importance of radical extremist clerics, saying their influence in radicalising British terrorists has moved into the background in recent years.

....Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.

Is this bad news? Hard to say. If MI5 had identified a decent profile (or a set of profiles), that would have led inevitably to targeting of often innocent communities. But the lack of a profile will almost inevitably lead to authorities spreading an ever-wider surveillance net. Hobson's choice.

—Kevin Drum 1:03 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (19)

Comments

Clearly, we should round up anyone who is not a religious zealot.

Posted by: Daryl McCullough on August 21, 2008 at 1:05 PM | PERMALINK

Actually, it's Brown's choice.

Posted by: Shelby on August 21, 2008 at 1:11 PM | PERMALINK

Not a Hobson's Choice, a dilemma.

From wiki: A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one option is offered, and one may refuse to take that option.

Posted by: Francis on August 21, 2008 at 1:12 PM | PERMALINK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson's_choice

Hobson's choice is a choice in which only one option is offered. Here we had two options, but they are both bad, which is more like Morton's Fork.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton%27s_Fork

Posted by: TheNitpicker on August 21, 2008 at 1:13 PM | PERMALINK

Hobson's choice or hobnailed boots on the throats of everyone, regardless of what the intelligence?

Posted by: Mrojo on August 21, 2008 at 1:28 PM | PERMALINK

Posted by: mhr on August 21, 2008 at 1:37 PM | PERMALINK

mhr, I think any liberals who are freed of having to share a flight with you will call it a blessing.

Posted by: Houdini's Ghost on August 21, 2008 at 1:42 PM | PERMALINK

confirms my view, only ten percent facetious, that data mining is akin to astrology especially when it is used for something important like putting a person in jail and non-torturing him.

Posted by: gregor on August 21, 2008 at 1:48 PM | PERMALINK

Clearly, this means that everyone is a suspect and a potential terrorist, and a total police state is the only answer.

Posted by: Speed on August 21, 2008 at 1:59 PM | PERMALINK

Doesn't it also suggest that these terrorists are driven by something more long-simmering and wide-ranging than the single-minded, highly focused motives of an Al-Qaeda member?

Posted by: wishIwuz2 on August 21, 2008 at 2:24 PM | PERMALINK

The most dangerous people of all time, going by sheer body count, are clearly white, European, Christians. Frankly, I cross to the other side of the street when I see one coming towards me. I say we put 'em all on the Terrorist Watch List (TWL).

Next up, car drivers. They kill tens of thousands of Americans per year- far more than any Jihadis or even the white, European, Christians listed above. I say we first confiscate everyone's car keys, + put them in preventative custody- just in case, y'know.

OK, we've now locked up probably 75% of the population of the US. Who's left? Angry vegans? Lock 'em up too. Mad meat eaters? They away the key- after you put them in the same cell as the vegans; that should make for some entertainment.

Anyone else? Who's next?

-Z

Posted by: Zorro on August 21, 2008 at 2:31 PM | PERMALINK

If, in the waiting room of the flight I'm taking, five guys with checkered towels on their heads, spread little rugs out on the carpet, kneel down and begin bowing and chanting, I'm changing flights. And I don't give a damn what liberals call my action.

A blessing, if you happen to hold a ticket anywhere within five rows of where I am seated.

Besides, you fucking moron, it isn't the devout and obvious you have to worry about. It's the dude in the leather jacker and tight pants, reaking of too-much Aramis and trying to pass himself off as a Greek.

Posted by: on August 21, 2008 at 2:33 PM | PERMALINK

That was me at 2:22 (and 2:33)

Sorry about the unsigned double post with the misspelled word. A veritable hattrick of blog-commenter faux pas.

Posted by: Blue Girl on August 21, 2008 at 2:46 PM | PERMALINK

If, in the waiting room of the flight I'm taking, five guys with checkered towels on their heads, spread little rugs out on the carpet, kneel down and begin bowing and chanting, I'm changing flights

I share this objection. Those prayer rugs totally clash with mhr's plaid pants, and the proximity of keffiyeh makes his ear-to-ear combover more obvious. Of course, there's only one flight to Branson a day from Bumblefuck, so he may have to come back tomorrow.

it isn't the devout and obvious you have to worry about. It's the dude in the leather jacker and tight pants, reaking of too-much Aramis and trying to pass himself off as a Greek.

It's funny 'cause it's true!

Posted by: shortstop on August 21, 2008 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINK

reaking of too-much Aramis and trying to pass himself off as a Greek.
Posted by: on August 21, 2008 at 2:33 PM | PERMALINK

It's true ... you don't mess with the Zohan.

Posted by: Gonads on August 21, 2008 at 6:45 PM | PERMALINK

I can't believe that these people are just realizing that converts are often the most zealous - haven't they ever heard of St. Paul?

Posted by: Doug on August 21, 2008 at 6:52 PM | PERMALINK

St. Paul wasn't a murderer.

Posted by: Dov on August 21, 2008 at 10:32 PM | PERMALINK

What do you think his day job was before he had his esperience on the Damascus road?

Posted by: derek on August 22, 2008 at 7:25 AM | PERMALINK

derek/doub
His day job was a tax collector. He persecuted people as well. The point being did he murder people in his zealotry afterhis conversion?

To compare him after his conversion to modern terrorists is something only an uneducated person would imply?

At the time, in the region, if anything it was the non converted orthodox sectors within Judaism that were the most zealous and intolerant, not much different than the Taliban. Christians reached an intolerant murderous stage centuries after St. Paul.

Posted by: Dov on August 22, 2008 at 12:40 PM | PERMALINK