(New York Times) - Scott Atran As logical as the poverty-breeds-terrorism argument may seem, study after study shows that suicide attackers and their supporters are rarely ignorant or impoverished. Nasra Hassan, a Pakistani relief worker, interviewed nearly 250 aspiring Palestinian suicide bombers and their recruiters. "None were uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded or depressed," she reported in 2001. Officials with the Army Defense Intelligence Agency who have interrogated Saudi-born members of al Qaeda being detained at Guantanamo Bay say that among these fundamentalists, especially those in leadership positions, a surprising number have graduate degrees and come from high-status families. Suicide attackers do not opt for paradise out of despair.
2003-05-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive