Demographics of Terrorists

[Xue Sheng]

From the Institute for Biosecurity, Saint Louis School of Public Health

The Demographics of Terrorists

 

[Nolerama]

Thanks. Interesting read.

 

[CoryKS]

Ten dollars at Amazon would have told them everything they needed to know.

 

[MA-Caver]

Basically it says a terrorist can be anybody. To profile a potential terrorist would be ludicrous at best because you just don't know who is going to act. The two boys who committed the Columbine massacre could be defined as terrorist if you will, although they didn't necessarily have a political or religious agenda to "kill and die for" other than on their own peer level they were political outsiders so to speak.
When the events of 9/11 unfolded before our very eyes I had a fear for the Middle-eastern Americans that resided in this country. That they would be treated the same as the Japanese-Americans during WWII, piled into internment camps and ostracized by the communities that they lived in. Only a few outraged attacks on these people (who for the most part were legal American citizens or in process of becoming) occurred days after 9/11 and for that I was, as an American, thankful. We seemed to have matured and realized that not all can be lumped into a stereotype.
Yet we do know that cells do reside here in the states (and England) and waiting for... something, to give them the green light to do whatever it is that they have planned. Many are being found and arrested (very quietly I might add) which is a good thing. Hopefully they're being tried correctly under our laws as well.
But with the advent of Homeland Security are people, especially those with ties/origins to the Middle East being watched? Are their rights/privileges as U.S. citizens being infringed quietly on a daily basis, are their personal finances being scrutinized, simply because they are of Middle Eastern descent or have families in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, etc?
What about the attacks in India Mumbai? They weren't the stereotyped middle eastern muslim radicals that we've come to know and hate. They were from an entirely different demographic altogether. Are we going to be watching people descended from that particular group more closely now?
Might as well keep an eye on the white middle class male that keeps his hair short and likes to wear steel toed black engineer boots.

IMO we can only watch for suspicious activity NOT suspicious people, because if we do watch people rather than what they're doing, then we're no better than the Germans in the late 1930's

 

[Xue Sheng]

When the events of 9/11 unfolded before our very eyes I had a fear for the Middle-eastern Americans that resided in this country. That they would be treated the same as the Japanese-Americans during WWII, piled into internment camps and ostracized by the communities that they lived in. Only a few outraged attacks on these people (who for the most part were legal American citizens or in process of becoming) occurred days after 9/11 and for that I was, as an American, thankful. We seemed to have matured and realized that not all can be lumped into a stereotype.

Right after 9/11 the woman I was dating at the time ran in fear from a group of people that were from the Middle East in a Macys. I asked what was going on and she showed me the group. I told her she had nothing to be afraid of, they were all Hindu, and they were. I saw a lot of that after 9/11 in many different places

Yet we do know that cells do reside here in the states (and England) and waiting for... something, to give them the green light to do whatever it is that they have planned. Many are being found and arrested (very quietly I might add) which is a good thing. Hopefully they're being tried correctly under our laws as well.
But with the advent of Homeland Security are people, especially those with ties/origins to the Middle East being watched? Are their rights/privileges as U.S. citizens being infringed quietly on a daily basis, are their personal finances being scrutinized, simply because they are of Middle Eastern descent or have families in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, etc?
What about the attacks in India Mumbai? They weren't the stereotyped middle eastern muslim radicals that we've come to know and hate. They were from an entirely different demographic altogether. Are we going to be watching people descended from that particular group more closely now?
Might as well keep an eye on the white middle class male that keeps his hair short and likes to wear steel toed black engineer boots.

IMO we can only watch for suspicious activity NOT suspicious people, because if we do watch people rather than what they're doing, then we're no better than the Germans in the late 1930's

A real problem with locating terrorist cells is that organization of a terrorist organization. A cell could literally be on the other side of the street form another within the same organization and neither cell would know it. Cells tend to get their orders form someone above them who may or may not know of the existence of other cells but generally a Terrorist Cell does not know the whereabouts of other cells. This makes it rather difficult to locate ALL members of a terrorist group within any country.

And I am not supporting rampant surveillance but it is equally as hard to look for suspicious behavior. Many terrorists (external and internal) know the system and they use it to their advantage and some are legal citizens with families and regular jobs. But some are not legal and that is where immigration (now Homeland security) should look and update their database.