Military "Profiles" Al Qaeda Recruits

Study Of Detainees Helps In Understanding What Makes Suicide Bombers Tick

(AP)  The suicide bombers who have killed 10,000 people in Iraq, including hundreds of American troops, usually are alienated young men from large families who are desperate to stand out from the crowd and make their mark, according to a U.S. military study.

As long suspected, most come from outside Iraq. Saudi Arabia, home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, is the single largest source. And the pipeline is continually replenished by al Qaeda in Iraq's recruiters.

The study, obtained by The Associated Press, profiles the suicide bombers and their support system based in part on interrogations of 48 foreign fighters who were captured or surrendered. The U.S. command is trying to understand the system, including al Qaeda in Iraq's recruiting, training and transportation network, so it can be disrupted before the bombers strike.

According to the summary, interrogators concluded that most foreign fighters are Sunni Muslim men from 18 to 30, with the mean age of 22. They are almost always single males with no children, and tend to be students or hold blue-collar jobs ranging from taxi drivers to construction and retail sales.

The summary went on to describe the majority of the fighters as having six to 12 years of schooling, with very few having gone to college. Most come from families in the poor or middle-classes and have six to eight siblings.

"In these large family groups, individuals seek ways to `make their mark,' to set them apart. In many ways, entering jihad gives sons a way to show themselves unique in a large family," the summary said.

According to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington, 949 suicide bombers killed 10,119 people and wounded 22,995 from the beginning of 2004 until now. Data compiled by the AP through its own reporting found that between April 28, 2005 and March 13, 2008 there were 708 incidents involving suicide bombings, with a total of 14,633 Iraqis wounded and 7,098 killed.

According to data tracked by author Mohammed Hafez in his own separate study, "Suicide Bombers in Iraq," there have been 1,800 suicide attacks worldwide since the phenomenon began in the early 1980s. Of those, more than half have taken place in Iraq.

"There have been more than 900 suicide attacks in Iraq ... certainly the phenomenon is growing," said Hafez, a political science professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the spokesman for Multinational Forces in Iraq, said the overwhelming majority of suicide attackers are foreigners.

"Iraqis are religiously and socially opposed to suicide, requiring al Qaeda to recruit foreigners to carry out their terror. Approximately 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by foreigners," he said.

Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said al Qaeda prefers to use suicide bombers instead of other weapons because they are "easy, cheap and effective."

"It's what we call a thinking, walking bomb. He watches the whole scene, choose the best time and best location," Alani said. "It's effective and costs nothing because you don't pay someone who is going to die."

Smith agrees that suicide bombers are the most deadly weapon in al Qaeda's arsenal.

"When you consider the indiscriminate carnage that a single suicide bomber can create against innocent civilians, the answer is unquestionably yes. In a broader sense, the foreign-born suicide bomber nearly drove Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006 and early 2007," Smith said.

In an interview, two senior analysts who helped question the 48 captured fighters said the picture that emerges is of a cold and calculating process that recruits young alienated men who are social outcasts. Neither of the interrogators could be named for security reasons.

"Al Qaeda recruits these people from the Middle East and North Africa, hitting them at the most vulnerable time of the life," said one of the senior analysts with the U.S.-led Multinational Force. The demand for many foreign fighters begins in places such as the dingy back streets of teeming Iraqi cities such as of northern Mosul - where al Qaeda still holds sway.

An al Qaeda cell decides it needs two suicide bombers. They put in an order which is funded by money made through racketeering, extortion and kidnapping. That request travels to Damascus and to the facilitators and recruiters training young men in North Africa and Saudi Arabia. Three months later, the bomber is delivered, military investigators and officials say.

According to the U.S, military, records seized from al Qaeda show that 40 percent come from North African countries such as Libya and Algeria, and 41 percent from Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda in Iraq recruiters troll mosques for potential fighters - impoverished young men who are believed to be at odds with their family or angry at the West, the military summary says.

"They are experts at identifying these men" who are often sitting alone in mosques, one of the analysts said. "They befriend them, usually by saying that they are praying wrong and offering to correct it."

They then offer to help them with Quran studies, and that is the start of their indoctrination into the jihadi philosophy.

The summary also claims that some Arab media reports and Internet coverage of alleged U.S atrocities in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib scandal were a "major factor" in motivating men to fight in Iraq.

One typical example involves a 26-year-old Moroccan with a facial disfigurement that made him a pariah in his home city of Casablanca. He was recruited in a mosque and went through the training process to become a suicide attacker. In Iraq, he was locked in a room for six months and saw some of his friends not return from missions.

When U.S. forces raided the house, one of the analysts said "he decided to surrender because he didn't want to fight."

His statement and those from other captured fighters "provided valuable insight into the demographics, motivations, and recruitment of foreign fighters from the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa," according to the summary.

According to the summary, the social and economic situation in the region "will keep this generation, and the next generations to come, impoverished." That will give fertile ground for al Qaeda to give such men "a purpose, a direction, and a reason to live and die."

[bill_chicago]

l Qaeda is in Iraq to stay, and the reason is simple - we invaded the wrong stinkin'' country to begin with:

http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

It''s like sticking 140,000 troops in France with orders to mill about smartly, and then wondering where all the Nazis keep coming from.

[standlee5]

Maybe they need to discover birth control in Saudi Arabia. Let''s send them the pill, the patch, condoms, diaphragms, whatever.

[patriotic9]

So, these bombers who are mostly foriegn are failures in their adult lives who can''''''''t even find a wife and are looking for a perceived easy way out?



Posted by donbl1 at 06:53 PM : Mar 16, 2008

fits the mold of most liberals on here

Posted by jwind11 at 08:17 PM : Mar 16, 2008

Most of these foreign fighters have not one but four wives at a time but there is no limit when it comes to sexual temptation. Have you forgot about New York governor? Male hormones make people aggressive and *****.

[jwind11]

So, these bombers who are mostly foriegn are failures in their adult lives who can''''t even find a wife and are looking for a perceived easy way out?



Posted by donbl1 at 06:53 PM : Mar 16, 2008

fits the mold of most liberals on here

[cyberus-2009]

-----
That profile sounds remarkably similar to our own military recruiting program: Look for economically disadvantaged people and take advantage of them to make war. Hey, theirs is an all-volunteer army too!

Posted by gce65 at 07:40 PM : Mar 16, 2008
------

Hmmm .. and to think that the Bush Administration has allowed our country to fall into a recession ... all those young people with no chance of finding a job make a great recruiting pool don''t they.
Its also a great way to keep the rich out of military service by not having a draft, just make sure that people on the lower end of the economic spectrum have no other choice.
IMHO if a no exclusion draft was implemented that this war would end much sooner.

[gce65]

That profile sounds remarkably similar to our own military recruiting program: Look for economically disadvantaged people and take advantage of them to make war. Hey, theirs is an all-volunteer army too!

[donbl1]

So, these bombers who are mostly foriegn are failures in their adult lives who can''t even find a wife and are looking for a perceived easy way out?

If unemployment wasn''t at 20% in some of their home countries they might not need to take a shortcut to a makebelieve nirvana.

[Latrocinor]

. Oh, I am sorry, that is the profile for recruiting into our "volunteer" military. My bad.

Posted by exCoachKen at 01:18 PM : Mar 16, 2008
--------------------------------------
Do ya think? (or do you hope?)

[ajaxtheleast]

And here all along we thought that the
recruits were from well-to-do families
and the young men drove around all day
with cell phones permanently attached
to their heads.

This administration whenever unable to
show some successful movement toward the
enemy, but still wanting to show that they
remain alive and functioning, always does
what''s left for them to do, "define the
enemy.".

But we''re used to this. Like after an IED
attack and the terrorists have escaped,
what do we hear? "The terrorists are
trying to break our will, but our resolve
will not be broken.".

The length of this "report" should have
at least explained one of Albert''s theories

[randynason]

Who needs to be worried about Al Qaeda when we have a President the likes of George Bush at the helm of our military and country''s government? He''s far more destructive and deceitful.

[feelfree1]

From the article-

Re: "The suicide bombers who have killed 10,000 people in Iraq, (blah,blah, blah...)"

And-

Re: "The study, obtained by The Associated Press, profiles the suicide bombers and their support system based in part on interrogations of 48 foreign fighters who were captured or surrendered."

48 foreign fighters captured or surrendered??? Even if we are gullible enough to believe that these "foreign fighters" are all members of the imaginary group known as "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq", 48 fighters is beyond a joke, and hardly significant.

If we are to believe that these "foreign fighters" are responsible for 10,000 deaths, then who shall we attribute the other 1,190,000 violent Iraqi deaths to?

We have always been overwhelmingly at "war" against the people of Iraq, not "foreign fighters". As illegal invaders, our troops retain zero rights in that country, while the people of Iraq obviously have every right to defend themselves.

Best of luck to the people of Iraq.

[jwind11]

Study Of Detainees Helps In Understanding What Makes Suicide Bombers Tick.....
-------

usually a clock or timer of some sort.....next.

Posted by FloydZepp at 01:04 PM : Mar 16, 2008

could just study mcvet to get an idea of how suicide bombers tick

[magoo2u1]

"Our soilders do not go into the middle of a bunch of civilians and blow themselves up"
The article is about recruiting and that is what my observation is about. Poor people do the dying in every conflict. In our civil war both sides were convinced that God was on their side.

[tylenol6]

Al Queda is controlled by Mossad-CIA.........

People call it "Al Cia - duh.............

[excoachken]

The profile goes like this: A disenfranchised youth from the lowest socio-economic class in the country, poorly educated, in trouble with the law, often with a drug history, who feels hopelessly overwhelmed by the loss of opportunity in his country and the present government''s lack of care for his family. Oh, I am sorry, that is the profile for recruiting into our "volunteer" military. My bad.

[getrealnow2]

Our soilders do not go into the middle of a bunch of civilians and blow themselves up. You can not compare our soilders to Suicide bombers who do the work for the cave dwelling Osama.

Osama for Obama

[magoo2u1]

If I told you a story of a country where it''s young men joined the military in order to aquire money to go to college, to defend their religion and to stand out from others and be respected, to get health care, could you guess it''s name? A country where the economic situation will provide fighters for generations to come. Young men recruited from meanial jobs like , taxi driver, convenience store clerk, hamburger flipper. Could you guess?

[bozworth4]

Kinda sounds like some of our "famous" shooting incidents. Thanks for showing us the way to do things, don''t talk or elect, just start shooting. We are our enviroment! Therefore we are our enemy.

[patriotic9]

Until 3000 people are wiped out in 3 hours because of them. Get it through your head? Dont I have a point? If someone believes that killing you for their religion is a good idea, doesnt it concern you now? I am not as dumb as you think I am. He he.

Posted by fibonacci_ at 08:28 AM : Mar 16, 2008

3000 Americans were wiped out in three hours because of those enemies of the United States who decided to take oil in cheaper prices from Arabs and in return supporting their those enemies who were brought into Palestine after WWII to occupy the land of those Palestinians by force who had nothing to do with the actions of Hitler.

The worst enemeis of United States are those RADICAL CHRISTIANS who want to buy HATRED, TERRORISM and 9/11 by sacrifising GOD-NEGELCTED AMERICAN MONEY, GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN LIVES and UNHOLY LAND UNITED STATES for a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN GOD CHOSEN PEOPLE and a NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND.

Christianity is PSYCHOSIS and CHRISTIANS are PSYCHOTICS.

[gkc99]

"The summary also claims that some Arab media reports and Internet coverage of alleged U.S atrocities in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib scandal were a "major factor" in motivating men to fight in Iraq. "


Just the coverage? The facts of the atrocities had nothing to do with it, eh?

Maybe watching your little sister get blown up by a 500 pound HE bomb dropped on a mud brick village by a U.S. Air Force jet might tend to radicalize one, also.

Must be something those geniuses in the Pentagon who told us the Iraqis would welcome the U.S. with flowers forgot to consider, eh?