I wonder if anyone has studied, or knows, what (if anything) separates suicide bombers from the rest of the population. Obviously they hate their intended targets (generally Israel or the US). But a lot of people hate other people. Few are willing to die in order to kill as many as possible. Do these people hate more than their fellows? Are they more religious than others (thus less concerned about death)? The little I’ve read about their lifestyles in the US does not give me the impression that these particular suicide bombers were particularly devout.
I wonder how often it is that a suicide bomber “chickens out” of his mission. Do the terrorist commanders have some means of ensuring that this doesn’t happen? I would imagine if I was a terrorist leader sending a terrorist to live undercover in the target country for an extended period of time, I would worry that the guy might come to empathize with his intended victims, or at least to be influenced by their culture. Or at least to decide that maybe he would rather live after all.
Do the families of the suicide bombers know of their mission? Or do they hear the news and discover that “hey, that was my husband/father”? (Did the FBI immediately grab all the family members?) How do they tend to view their family member’s mission?
Are all suicide bombers volunteers? Or do they take the assignments from their commanders as ordered?
I saw a picture once that will haunt me to the end of my days. It was of the two terrorist bombers that blew up a tourist bus in Egypt a few years back. Post explosion, the two upper torsos of the bombers were pulled next to each other for the picture. Both had apparently had explosives strapped to their chests or abdomens. It wasn’t all the little cuts over evey part of their remains or the hollow glassy looks on their faces that freaked me out. It was the smile both were still wearing, left over from the moment they knew they were about to die.
What I am about to relate is something I recall from a recent snippet on a news show in the last few days. Unfortunately my memory isn’t perfect nor do I remember which news show or who it was that was talking since they all seem to have blurred together. In short, take this with a grain of salt.
The guy I saw was saying how American law enforcement agencies would have to re-work their profiles of suicide bombers. Prior to the WTC attack their profile of a suicide bomber was a young, uneducated, most likely poor, disaffected male. It was this type of person they felt was most susceptible to the ‘brainwashing’ (my words, not the speaker’s but I am not sure how else to put it). They also felt that a suicide bomber had to be kept close watch over with the idea being that they needed fairly constant pressure and oversight to motivate them right up to the attack that would take their lives.
With the WTC attacks they are now rethinking that profile. Here we have men who had families (in some cases) and were reasonably well educated (at least educated enough to get through flight school). They were also out of sight and out of control of overseers for months while they prepared their attacks.
I saw an interview (very brief) with the father of one of the suspected terrorists. The father is Egyptian and is an attorney there and vehemently rejected (and that is putting it lightly…he was very upset) the accusation that his son had something to do with these attacks. While this doesn’t necessarily speak to all who engage in this behavior it is anecdotal evidence that the families do not necessarily know what these men are up to nor do they necessarily agree with their son’s (in this case) actions.
From a CNN online story that I do not currently have a link for:
Recruits, if the are to be used as suicide bombers, are specifically trained for the task. I got the impression that they are volunteers. They may wait weeks, months, or years before they are selected for a specific mission. I got the impression that the mission itself is assigned and not picked by the bomber. Once selected for a specific mission the bomber is kept in isolation for security and secrecy until he is sent to his target. Once the mission is complete the family is notified (and often throws a celebratory party). The family is well rewarded by the terrorist organization. The article followed a suicide bomber who killed about 20 people in Israel. His father was interviewed as he was preparing the post mission celebration. He was very proud of his son because, acording to him, death for Allah was the highest possible use of life and he hoped his other sons would follow in their brother’s foosteps.
This was my thought, immediately after the bombings. But it seems more likely that two of the team would be the minimum to know – you wouldn’t want to get as far as being in charge of the plane with the only person knowingh the mission dead or unconscious.
This is the very thing that’s so confusing to me about the whole thing. It’s one thing to be in a somewhat isolated country and be brainwashed about someplace else (in this instance, America). But these guys lived here for several months/years at a time and were getting a pretty good dose of how great the US is. You’d think at some point these guys would look around and say “Gee, this well-built highway system, ample amounts of food, sturdy buildings, large-screen televisions, and even the women daring to show their faces outside of their house really ain’t so bad!” :mad:
Or they could think “This constant bulldozing of trees, gluttony, conspicuous wealth, materialism, and whorish display by women only proves what I was told about America!”
I happened to mention this to a friend this weekend and had to admit to having no proof that this photo actually exists. Not to call you out, lieu, but do you or anyone else have a link or a cite for the picture in question? Sorry for the slight hijack.
I’m going to include the rest of my original comment:
Post explosion, the two upper torsos of the bombers were pulled next to each other for the picture. Both had apparently had explosives strapped to their chests or abdomens. It wasn’t all the little cuts over evey part of their remains or the hollow glassy looks on their faces that freaked me out. It was the smile both were still wearing, left over from the moment they knew they were about to die.
Can somebody help me with this? I’d like to give stolichnaya more information on this but I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw this picture. Did anyone else see this in Time or some other publication? It was awhile back, probably right after the bombing of the tour bus occurred.