Confronting the Narcoterrorism Nexus
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Confronting the Narcoterrorism Nexus
Entry Excerpt:
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Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
An interesting development in Minnesota, where experience of radicalisation, going abroad to fight and terrorism - from the settled Somali community - as a local court opts for a new non-custodial option:http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...not-jail.html?
The article starts with:Quote:
The first attempt to de-radicalize an Islamic extremist is happening in Minnesota right now, and it resembles a high-school civics class.An American citizen who pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS was ordered by a federal judge to leave jail—and go to a halfway home instead. That rehab program is run by a group that had no prior experience with would-be Islamic terrorists, The Daily Beast has learned.
Abdullahi of Minnesota was allowed to depart from jail and stay at a halfway home after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the so-called Islamic State widely known as ISIS in January. (Yusuf was stopped at the airport trying to fly to Turkey in May 2014, at age 18.) Once inside the halfway home, Yusuf was to be “de-radicalized” through regular meetings with a counselor whose curriculum looked more like a high-school civics course than religious deprogramming.
A contrast to the first post, a long, local newspaper article on the Somali-Americans who have fled the USA to fight or who await court:http://www.startribune.com/from-the-...ror/324121191/
Hat tip to WoTR for this medium-sized article 'The Social Science of Online Radicalisation' by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Nathaniel Barr:http://warontherocks.com/2015/10/the...dicalization/?
A short article via Brookings by J.M. Berger:http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/marka...online-berger?
A contrarian viewpoint; which starts with:Link:http://www.radicalisationresearch.or...dicalisation/?Quote:
From “shoebomber” Richard Reid, to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the attacks in Paris, there seem to be increasing examples of people becoming “radicalised” in jails. So how concerned should we be about the role of prisons in producing violent extremists? Contrary to those who argue that jails are at risk of becoming “universities of terror” there is actually relatively little systematic evidence of a link between prison and involvement in terrorism.
A different focus, the English Defence League (EDL) seen by many as an extremist right wing group and short article:http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo...civilisations/
The summary:Quote:
Joel Busher reflects on what his 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork with the English Defence League tells us about what distinguishes them from the ‘ordinary English people’ that they claim to represent. His research highlights the importance of linking the attitudes and ideology of EDL activists with their lived experience, and questions what role society at large plays in shaping that experience.
A really interesting critique by two academics, thanks to WoTR:http://warontherocks.com/2015/12/cur...ticism-wrong/?
They end with:Quote:
The result is that public policy in the West ignores fanatic agency and responds instead in self-consciously depoliticized ways. In effect, this criminological therapeutic model treats the converted zealot not as a danger to the wider society but as a victim pumped full of ideological steroids by unscrupulous online recruiters who, like predatory pedophiles, groom their otherwise innocent prey. The approach becomes even more suspect when extended to the case of the young women who happily trip off to Islamic State-controlled territories to offer themselves as jihadi brides. De-radicalization paints these young women as the deluded subjects of brainwashing. The simple but harsh truth is that like the men they embrace, they too have found meaning in an enthusiasm, which the wider society finds rebarbative, but which inspires action.
Neither “radicals” nor victims, they are largely immune to community sensitive de-radicalization programs promoted by Western governments because there is not much that is particularly radical in jihadist self-understanding. Arguably, it is we in the West who are deluded and we should make a start by “de-radicalizing” our own thinking.
The Country Club Jihad: A Study of North American Radicalization
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Malaysia has a long established counter-radicalization programme for those who are interned / detained without trial and rarely do I spot any reports. Here is one after a regional conference:http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/m...sts-says-zahid
A curious mixture of thoughts in this short article, mainly as it is based on East African and Australian experience:https://www.issafrica.org/iss-today/...lent-extremism
Alison Jamieson is an author from way back, with a focus on IIRC on Italian terrorism and the linked memo to a UK parliamentary inquiry on 'Prevent', has many useful points. Not only on 'Prevent' in schools, but also other approaches to the issues:http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevi...ten/28666.html
A FP article that challenges the traditional narrative to explain radicalisation:http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/13/...adicalization/
Here is one passage:Quote:
...perhaps the more realistic — and in some ways more unsettling — scenario is that the Abdeslam brothers drifted in and out of jihadi activism and that this owed more to who they knew and how they lived than anything they believed.....
Later (CVE uses) the transformational view of radicalization: Implicit in their language and rhetoric is the idea that terrorism is the end stage of a process in which people come to adopt an extremist worldview that justifies violence.
A short, excellent BBC World Service podcast (23mins), using four experts to answer the question: What Kind of Person Becomes a Violent Jihadi? I caught Marc Sageman and Andrew Silke's names. The summary:Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qr716Quote:
For decades researchers, academics and psychologists have wanted to know what kind of person becomes a terrorist. If there are pre-existing traits which make someone more likely to kill for their beliefs – well, that would be worth knowing. In this edition of The Inquiry – part of the BBC World Service Identity Season – we tell the story of that search for a ‘terrorist type’. It’s a story which begins decades ago. But, with the threat from killers acting for so-called Islamic State, finding an answer has never felt more pressing.
One expert towards the end says words akin to:The presenter says words akin to:Quote:
Friends radicalise friends, nowt else. In Belgium two men started the recruiting off.
Marc Sageman has a very short comment:Quote:
After the next attack questions will be asked. What kind of person would do this? Anyone.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03r5572Quote:
Intelligence analysts know everything, but understand nothing....his ex-colleagues don't have the skills to find out why some people turn to political violence.
By coincidence and being a post-arrest report maybe inaccurate, The daily Mail reports an arrest of an ISIS suspect in Majorca, Spain under the headline:Link:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3549309/ISIS-recruiter-arrested-Majorca-Moroccan-immigrant-cocaine-dealer-worked-chef-tourist-resort-hotel.html?Quote:
Revealed: 'ISIS recruiter' arrested in Majorca is Moroccan immigrant 'cocaine dealer' who worked as a chef at a tourist resort hotel
From an international research project by ICSR @ Kings; the summary ends with:Link:http://icsr.info/2016/04/icsr-report...tate-families/Quote:
Fighters’ families are among the most powerful assets in the struggle against IS. Their stories highlight the pain and suffering that aspiring jihadists are causing to their loved ones. Families can be key to stopping their sons and daughters from leaving; encouraging them to defect; and helping them re-integrate once they return. They need to be empowered, not left alone.
The short review of the book Radical seems germane here. The link goes to that review.
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...56&postcount=9
From VICE:Link:http://www.vice.com/read/former-extr...aticism-behindQuote:
I wanted to find out how and why a few former extremists left the world of fanaticism behind, so I got in touch with a few of them: ex-Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members Billy McCurrie and Martin Snoddon, reformed racist Matthew Collins, former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Shane O'Doherty, and Manwar Ali, who was once involved in violent jihad. Here are their stories in their own words.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...bangladeshi-e/
Another source I can't place here because it was based on a phone call, stated the captured terrorist indicated it was becoming a fad for college kids to associate with the Islamic State.Quote:
"They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background," said Asaduzzaman Khan, the country's home minister, of the gunmen.
Regardless, these kids weren't motivated by poverty or not having jobs. They were well do to kids. In some ways this reminds me of many who join far left militant groups or protests, and then when they're interviewed they prove they have no knowledge (except for a limited number) of what they're fighting for, or what they're protesting against, it is just something cool to do. We tend to ignore the psychological aspects when we focus on the political factors, which at times can be a red herring.
Aren't the higher strata of Arab society also overreppresented in the rank of the Daesh? Maybe somebody has some study at hand...
Obviously that vile murder of foreigners, among them many Italians will have a negative effect on the economy.
*On a side note a distant relative of mine was a Catholic priest in Bangladesh during British Rule. Another, more distant one was murdered in China over a hundred years ago while serving as Franciscan friar. Nothing new under the sun...
There is a short thread Poverty & Militancy do not mix, from 2012-2015:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=16304
This may help readers.