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Radicalization and Terrorism

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DWill

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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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youkrst wrote:
DWill wrote:If what is meant is that we don't want to have more visible Muslim presence, we should reject that thinking.
that depends entirely on the Muslim presence surely

for example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoiCYwoJKrE

and speaking of Obama
Of the total killed since Obama took his oath of office on January 20 2009, at least 314 have been civilians, while the number of confirmed strikes under his administration now stands at 456.

Research by the Bureau also shows there have now been nearly nine times more strikes under Obama in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than there were under his predecessor, George W Bush.

And the covert Obama strikes, the first of which hit Pakistan just three days after his inauguration, have killed almost six times more people and twice as many civilians than those ordered in the Bush years, the data shows.

The figures have been compiled as part of the Bureau’s monthly report into covert US drone attacks, which are run in two separate missions – one by the CIA and one for the Pentagon by its secretive special forces outfit, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

The research centres on countries outside the US’s declared war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yes, it does depend on the nature of the presence, you're right. It always will. Aggressive criminality that can be tied to what people see as their religious rights needs to be punished. I was talking about religious expression comparable to that of other established groups.

When I said I approve of Obama's handling, I mean specifically his public posture regarding whether terrorism is Islamic. He has avoided saying this, though many want him to. The day before yesterday he did make a more forceful, but still constructive statement about Muslim leaders needing to make their condemnation of terrorists better known.

The political fire of Obama somehow being soft on terrorists or radical elements doesn't make sense because of the facts you cite.
youkrst

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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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Depleted uranium

http://williamblum.org/aer/read/136
Where has all this Islamic fundamentalism come from in this modern age? Most of it comes – trained, armed, financed, indoctrinated – from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. During various periods from the 1970s to the present, these four countries had been the most secular, modern, educated, welfare states in the Middle East region. And what had happened to these secular, modern, educated, welfare states?

In the 1980s, the United States overthrew the Afghan government that was progressive, with full rights for women, believe it or not , leading to the creation of the Taliban and their taking power.

In the 2000s, the United States overthrew the Iraqi government, destroying not only the secular state, but the civilized state as well, leaving a failed state.

In 2011, the United States and its NATO military machine overthrew the secular Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi, leaving behind a lawless state and unleashing many hundreds of jihadists and tons of weaponry across the Middle East.

And for the past few years the United States has been engaged in overthrowing the secular Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. This, along with the US occupation of Iraq having triggered widespread Sunni-Shia warfare, led to the creation of The Islamic State with all its beheadings and other charming practices.

However, despite it all, the world was made safe for capitalism, imperialism, anti-communism, oil, Israel, and jihadists. God is Great!
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out… invasions … bombings … overthrowing governments … occupations … suppressing movements for social change … assassinating political leaders … perverting elections … manipulating labor unions … manufacturing “news” … death squads … torture … biological warfare … depleted uranium … drug trafficking … mercenaries …

It’s not a pretty picture. It’s enough to give imperialism a bad name.

Read the full details in: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II.

“Far and away the best book on the topic.” – Noam Chomsky

“I enjoyed it immensely.” – Gore Vidal

“I bought several more copies to circulate to friends with the hope of shedding new light and understanding on their political outlooks.” – Oliver Stone

“A very valuable book. The research and organization are extremely impressive.” – A. J. Langguth, author, former New York Times Bureau Chief

“A very useful piece of work, daunting in scope, important.” –Thomas Powers, author, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

“Each chapter I read made me more and more angry.” – Dr. Helen Caldicott, international leader of the anti-nuclear and environmental movements
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ant

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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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I am sharing a brief summary from Dr. Gary Lafree that was emailed to participants of the Coursera course Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat .

Read if you like.

Thanks
Now that you all have had several weeks to get familiar with the broad characteristics of world-wide terrorism data from the Global Terrorism Database, it might be useful to think a bit more concretely about some of the implications of these data for counter terrorism policy. In general, I think much of what we have learned about terrorism so far in this course provides some indication of why developing effective counter terrorism strategies is so very difficult. Let me provide just three examples that build directly on materials you have already covered.

First, by now we have hopefully convinced you that compared to many other types of bad outcomes, terrorism is an extremely rare event. Despite the fact that there is a large and growing number of attacks in the GTD worldwide, the total numbers are still relatively small. For example, in 2012, the GTD reports about as many terrorist attacks worldwide as there were homicides in the United States alone. Moreover, as we have learned in the course, the number of attacks producing mass casualties is even smaller. Thus, in a database that includes over 125,000 terrorist attacks from around the world and for nearly fifty years, only ten attacks claimed more than 300 lives.

Second, I hope that we have convinced you that accurately attributing responsibility in terrorist attacks is a complex business. In around 50 percent of all the cases in the GTD our team was never able to assign responsibility to a specific group. For some years the percentages of unattributed attacks is over 70 percent. And in some regions of the world—Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, unattributed attacks are over 80 percent. Attributing responsibility for attacks from open sources is often complex in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan but also challenging in countries not actively engaged in war like India and Pakistan.

And finally, our descriptions in the earlier lessons should make it clear that there is tremendous diversity in terms of the organizations and individuals that actually carry out terrorist attacks. In fact, we could argue that from both a policy and research standpoint the idea of a terrorist group is an abstraction around which there is a great deal of variation. To begin with the level of organizational complexity of the entities that carry out terrorist attacks is highly variable. On one extreme are individuals who are not a part of any known extremist movement and who have no recognized links to a specific terrorist group and from available evidence receive no help from any organization in planning or carrying out a specific attack. On the other extreme are highly organized terrorist groups which may persist over time, have a more or less well defined chain of command, and have stable leadership and hierarchical organizational structures. In between are loosely connected groups as well as shadowy networks that can be identified only generically in terms of overarching ideological affiliation (e.g., “right-wing extremists”) if at all. These disparate entities are often in a state of evolutionary flux; change is constant and stability rare. Even when we can attribute a terrorist attack to a specific group the organizational capacity of groups is highly variable. Some groups are able and willing to attack frequently over many years; others attack only sporadically and only over a short period of time. About half of the more than 2,000 terrorist groups in the GTD are associated with a single attack only. And finally, even for groups that manage to develop a high degree of organization and maintain this organizational structure over a period of time, ambiguities are still common.

So, what are the implications of these terrorism characteristics? The fact that terrorist attacks are rare makes it difficult to formulate general policies and stymies statistical analysis. The fact that responsibility for attacks is often ambiguous or altogether unknown makes consistent response difficult. And the fact that many attacks are done by individuals or groups that are short-lived, inchoate, or rapidly evolving makes rational policy responses difficult and poses unique problems for prevention strategies. These empirical characteristics of terrorism may help explain the challenges we face in countering it.
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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chomsky on the presidents crimes, plenty of radicalisation and terrorism here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXtgq0Nhsc
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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Ant linked to an article titled "Obama calls on world to focus on roots of ISIS, al Qaeda extremism". Here's some info on that.
A key window into understanding ISIS is its English language "in-flight magazine" Dabiq. Last week the seventh issue of Dabiq was released, and a close reading of it helps explains ISIS' world view. The mistake some make when viewing ISIS is to see it as a rational actor. Instead, as the magazine documents, its ideology is that of an apocalyptic cult that believes that we are living in the end times and that ISIS' actions are hastening the moment when this will happen. The name of the Dabiq magazine itself helps us understand ISIS' worldview. The Syrian town of Dabiq is where the Prophet Mohammed is supposed to have predicted that the armies of Islam and "Rome" would meet for the final battle that will precede the end of time and the triumph of true Islam.

In the recent issue of Dabiq it states: "As the world progresses towards al-Malhamah al-Kubrā, ('the Great Battle' to be held at Dabiq) the option to stand on the sidelines as a mere observer is being lost." In other words, in its logic, you are either on the side of ISIS or you are on the side of the Crusaders and infidels.

...ISIS wants a Western ground force to invade Syria, as that will confirm the prophecy about Dabiq.

We live in an increasingly secularized world, so it's sometimes difficult to take seriously the deeply held religious beliefs of others. For many of us the idea that the end of times will come with a battle between "Rome" and Islam at the obscure Syrian town of Dabiq is as absurd as the belief that the Mayans had that their human sacrifices could influence future events. But for ISIS, the Dabiq prophecy is deadly serious. Members of ISIS believe that they are the vanguard fighting a religious war, which Allah has determined will be won by the forces of true Islam.

This is the conclusion of an important forthcoming new book about ISIS by terrorism experts J.M. Berger and Jessica Stern who write that ISIS, like many other "violent apocalyptic groups, tend to see themselves as participating in a cosmic war between good and evil, in which moral rules do not apply."

This also similar to the conclusion of an excellent new cover story about ISIS in the Atlantic magazine by Graeme Wood who writes, "Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State (another name for ISIS) adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, 'the Prophetic methodology,' which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn't actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combated, has already led the United States to underestimate it." Amen to that.

Peter Bergen 2/18/15
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/16/opinion/b ... s-enemies/
_______________________________________________________
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
Isaiah 1:15

But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Exodus 21: 23 - 25
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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What ISIS ideology offers is cognitive closure for a recruit that is psychologically ripe due to a cognitive opening:

Cognitive opening: a strong desire to achieve an identity that promises an escape from some socio economic opression; the righting of a personal or social wrong; and the achievement of instant status and significance.

Cognitive closure: the end of some great personal/social angst, or the fulfillment of an ideological dream. Could be a combination of all.
Last edited by ant on Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
youkrst

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Cognitive opening: a strong desire to achieve an identity that promises an escape from some socio economic opression; the righting of a personal or social wrong; and the achievement of instant status and significance.
yes, i think a lot of people get radicalised because the life was bombed out of their village, and all their dear ones are dead or injured or scared etc
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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"Obama calls on world to focus on roots of ISIS, al Qaeda extremism"
yes, rather than focus on drone strikes and american terrorism :)
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Re: Radicalization and Terrorism

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speaking of terrorism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombi ... adquarters
The NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters occurred on 23 April 1999, during the Kosovo War. It formed part of NATO's aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and severely damaged the Belgrade headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS). Other radio and electrical installations throughout the country were also attacked.[2] Sixteen employees of RTS died when a single NATO missile hit the building. Many were trapped for days, only communicating over mobile phones. The station returned to the air 24 hours later from a secret location.[3][4] NATO Headquarters justified the bombing with two arguments; firstly, that it was necessary "to disrupt and degrade the command, control and communications network" of the Yugoslav Armed Forces, and secondly, that the RTS headquarters was a dual-use object which "was making an important contribution to the propaganda war which orchestrated the campaign against the population of Kosovo".
if they do it to us it's called terrorism, if we do it to them it's called....???
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