You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Terror Networks
The Case for Calling Them Nitwits
2010-10-27
Long piece at The Atlantic that makes the case that most Islamicist terrorists aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, and why that's a good thing.
But their leaders tend to be doctors and engineers -- people trained to deal with bodies and buildings, but not people in countries where the knowledge base is more important than bedside manner or optimizing the experience for the user.
Good help is so hard to find these days ...
Posted by:Steve White

#7  [ROBIN-WILLIAMS-VS-ARMY-SGT-MAJOR + B ***J *** Comment, Scene from "GOOD MORNING VIETNAM" here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-10-27 23:36  

#6  NET POSTERS > [Whoa, Seabiscuit] THE HARD BOYZ HAVE DISCOVERED WOMEN/GIRLS!

versus

* ARTIC > "intimate relations with a Donkey".

THE NET REPORTS, YOU DECIDE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-10-27 23:33  

#5  And, speaking of goat p0rn...

If our terrorist enemies have been successful at cultivating a false notion of expertise, they’ve done an equally convincing job of casting themselves as pious warriors of God. The Taliban and al-Qaeda rely on sympathizers who consider them devoted Muslims fighting immoral Western occupiers. But intelligence picked up by Predator drones and other battlefield cameras challenges that idea—sometimes rather graphically. One video, captured recently by the thermal-imagery technology housed in a sniper rifle, shows two Talibs in southern Afghanistan engaged in intimate relations with a donkey. Similar videos abound, including ground-surveillance footage that records a Talib fighter gratifying himself with a cow.

Pentagon officials and intelligence analysts concede privately that our foes also have a voracious appetite for pornography—hardly shocking behavior for young men, but hard to square with an image of piety. Many laptops seized from the Taliban and al-Qaeda are loaded with smut. U.S. intelligence analysts have devoted considerable time to poring over the terrorists’ favored Web sites, searching for hidden militant messages. “We have terabytes of this stuff,” said one Department of Defense al-Qaeda analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “It isn’t possible that they are encrypting messages in all of this stuff. Some of these guys are just perverts.”
Posted by: tu3031   2010-10-27 19:20  

#4  The author seems to complacent because some Islamic terrorists have been inept (underwear bomber, Times Square bomber, etc.). Far too many terrorists have been successful in their quest for death and destruction.
Posted by: JohnQC   2010-10-27 17:03  

#3  Terror attacks are a, very, small part of Jihad.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2010-10-27 16:16  

#2  Yes they recruit nitwits because the educated would never strap a bomb on and light it off. But you point the right nitwit at the right target and it can be devastating.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge    2010-10-27 16:12  

#1  The real troubles begin when professionals -- state intelligence agencies -- use these ne'er-do-wells for operations. The nitwits are simply incapable of producing mayhem on a large scale.

It suits politico-bureaucratic purposes to frame terrorist incidents as the work of lone gunmen or small bands of extremists. (Nineteen guys with knives... and nobody else? Really?) But it's the state-backed professionals who are the problem, not the cannon fodder.
Posted by: Pstanley   2010-10-27 12:28  

00:00