by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 11, 2002
All Rights Reserved.

ending a team of behavioral scientists to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the FBI will try to make heads or tails out of Al Qaeda prisoners faced with indefinite confinement. With the help of linguists, profilers will try to get inside the minds of terrorists, especially those under the evil spell of Osama bin Laden. While no easy task, their mission involves figuring out the mindset of "illegal combatants," whose dangerous personalities parallel the 19 Islamic kamikazes responsible for Sept. 11. Facing trial in Virginia federal court, alleged 20th hijacker Moroccan-born Frenchman Zacarias Moussoui also sheds light on the mystery of suicide bombers. "I pledged my loyalty to the sheik," Moussoui told the court, referring to his death pledge made to master Osama bin Laden. "We are trying to get more cultural knowledge and get into the minds of radical fundamentalists," said an unnamed official, hoping to ascertain (a) why they joined Al Qaeda and (b) what they think about the United States.

      Since incarcerated at Camp X-Ray, the army has conducted exhaustive interviews trying to uncover whether another attack was in the works. Several national security alerts—an countless leaks—stemmed directly from prisoner interviews at Guantanamo Bay. Holding 564 detainees captured in Afghanistan, the Army hopes to preempt future attacks. But credibility is often a problem. Prisoners learn quickly how to cull special favors by supplying precious info to their captors—regardless of the veracity. "This is an important piece of our plan to look beyond today and tomorrow and think about even further down the line," said the unidentified source. While there's no official report yet, numerous interviews point toward disenfranchised mercenaries, carefully selected, systematically indoctrinated and methodically programmed to commit violent acts on command. Motivations of Islamic extremists baffle U.S. authorities, especially suicidal bombers sacrificing their own lives for the cause.

      Studying doomsday cults provides a good scan into the internal world of today's Islamic suicide bombers and illegal combatants. Whether in Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, Branch Davidians—or now Al Qaeda—they all follow charismatic leaders to their deaths. Cult masters recruit disenfranchised youth, proselytize and indoctrinate, paint apocalyptic visions, supply exigencies for survival and give diabolical orders. For cult masters like Osama bin Laden, radical Islam provides the perfect context—and excuse—for harvesting extremists, converting them into programmed assassins and creating the illusion of cultural supremacy. Martyrdom is the highest aspiration of radical Islam, propelling fanatics into mythical paradise in the afterlife. "Keep a very open mind, keep a very open heart of what you are to face," wrote Mohammed Atta in a pre-9/11 note given to suicide bombers. "You will be entering paradise. You will be entering the happiest life, everlasting life," providing the manipulative mantra to nervous hijackers ready to face death.

      Mindless recitations of the Koran, combined with unrelenting hatred, coercion and indoctrination about the West, and then blended with false promises of salvation, make the lethal formula needed to send programmed assassins to battle. When you add weapons, training, and, yes, money to the recipe, misanthropes get new identities and develop undying loyalty. Lower-level recruits rarely question why upper management doesn't volunteer for active duty as human hand grenades. "Oh God, you who open all doors, please open all doors for me, open all venues for me, open all avenues for me . . . There is no God but God . . .We are of God, and to God we return," read instructions to hijackers by Sept. 11 ringleader Mohammed Atta, controlling the minds of recruits for Bin Laden's killing machine. Mosques and madrasses [religious schools] in the Islamic world harvest innocent children like sheep for Bin Laden's death cult.

      Bin Laden's recruits become mindless automatons, obediently serving without any insight into the destructive purpose for which they're being used. "We are seeing the rejection of the Western world—an attempt to find identity in a world that has been denied to them," said Emilio Viano, a terrorism expert at American University in Washington, failing to admit the diabolical nature of Bin Laden's cult. Like Hitler's Nazis, Al Qaeda spends inordinate effort brainwashing recruits, demanding automatic obedience without debating philosophical issues of East and West. Al Qaeda has no real ideological spine. It operates like a third world mafia, exploiting Islam to recruit foot soldiers to serve its criminal activity, including narco-trafficking, gun running and murder-for-hire. Master propagandists like Bin Laden have the uncanny ability to transform mass murder and common criminality into glamorous causes. Like other religious cults, Al Qaeda uses religion and spirituality to legitimize ordinary lawlessness and human exploitation.

      Conjuring up fanciful images, it's easy to forget that Bin Laden's terrorists bear striking similarity to converts in doomsday cults. Clashes of civilizations have little to do with how Al Qaeda recruits, brainwashes and converts disenfranchised youth into programmed assassins. "I am as proud as any American but the unfortunate truth is they are angered by a policy in the region, which has nothing to do with freedom and democracy . . . " said Stephen Zunes, a professor with the University of San Francisco, attaching unrealistic motives to Islamic extremists. Most recruits—including Johnny Walker Lindh—have some hatred that can be directed toward an artificial enemy. But with enough poverty, hunger and desperation, charismatic psychopaths like Osama bin Laden have an easy time of harvesting new recruits. In radical Islam, politics and ideology play only a minor role in transforming true believers into programmed killers. Terrorist profiling isn't rocket science—but it does involve common sense.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's a consultant and expert in strategic communication. He's the author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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