Knowing how the terrorist's brain ticks

Knowing how the terrorist's brain ticks

SINGAPORE - To win the war against terrorists, one needs first to understand the workings of a terrorist's mind.

At a time when terrorism has morphed from the Sept 11, 2001 type of large-scale attacks to smaller-scale assaults carried out by self-radicalised individuals, the old methods of chasing, catching, jailing or killing terrorists are fast losing effectiveness.

The way forward is to use the way a terrorist's mind works against him.

Recent work by security experts on how a terrorist thinks is providing new ammunition to fight terrorism.

Maryland University's Professor Arie Kruglanski tells The Straits Times that many terrorists are just like ordinary folk, placing importance on their families, career and hobbies.

The tipping point when they cross the line over to terrorism is when the level of motivation intensifies to the point where they use violent methods to kill.

Prof Kruglanski says that at the lower levels of involvement, a terrorist supports a terrorist organisation passively as a member or by giving money to the cause. He may join a terrorist organisation but does not take part in weapons training or a suicide attack.

But he becomes dangerous when he gets emotionally aroused and sees the need to defend others who have been humiliated by the enemy, either through massacres or other forms of injustices.

For some terrorists, the brainwashing may even begin young, with bedtime stories.

Ali Ghufron, the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings, told security analysts that his father told him and his two brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron, bedtime stories on the importance of jihad fisabilillah, or fighting in the way of Allah.

So one key strategy in countering terrorism is to make sure the vulnerable young grow up with a healthy perspective of their community.

In Singapore, only Islamic teachers, accredited by a panel of Muslim leaders, can preach at mosques or madrasahs.

One significant understanding of how a terrorist's mind works is by retired professor and renowned Israeli terrorist expert Ariel Merari.

He studied the minds of 15 suicide bombers who were jailed for attempted attacks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also had a control group of 12 men who were locked up for crimes unrelated to suicide terrorism.

His is the first empirical work on how and why suicide bombers kill. He also interviewed families of 34 Palestinian suicide bombers and 14 regional commanders of Palestinian armed groups involved in suicide attacks.

Profile of suicide bombers

The findings in his book, Driven To Death, show that suicide bombers are not misguided, determined youth. Instead they are shy loners, more followers than leaders. They are incapable of handling stressful situations.

The bombers also spoke of how they changed their minds on their way to suicide missions if they could find reasons that would retain their sense of self-respect.

Sixty-five per cent of the bombers said they were afraid of being a suicide bomber but took their orders from bosses who were better educated and forceful.

Leaders could handle stressful situations but were unwilling to be suicide bombers, saying that their role as a commander was more important.

The strongest reason the bombers gave for taking part in attacks was not personal suffering, but seeing a drastic need to redress what they saw as the humiliation suffered by Muslims at the hands of others.

Examples include the civilians killed in the clashes between Israel and Palestinian militants, and those killed in the conflict between the Philippines military and the Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

One of the two brothers behind the recent marathon bombing in Boston said the American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan had been motivations for their actions.

For security agencies, these findings are useful counter-terrorism tools. To reach the mind of a terrorist before a jihadist website does, the authorities, together with Muslim leaders, must swiftly put out the correct perspectives of Islam on armed conficts.

As the study shows that bombers can change their mind midway during a suicide mission, the factual material from responsible Muslim sources could even deter a terrorist from accepting a suicide- bombing job from his superior.

American historian and terrorism expert Walter Laqueur writes in his book, No End to War, Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century, that even in the unlikely case of all global conflicts being resolved, the threat of terrorism will remain.

"The combination of paranoia, fanaticism, and extremist political, or religious, doctrine will find new outlets. It is a reservoir from which the terrorism of tomorrow attracts its followers," he believes.

Terrorists can be rehabilitated, as several countries have shown.

But the programmes - drawing on insights from work into how terrorists think - have to be holistic, helping them to change their world view, rebuild community relationships and integrate back into work life.

In Sri Lanka, after the end of a bloody civil war between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, more than 10,800 former rebels were retrained and integrated back into society.

In Pakistan, there is Sabaoon, a school that has successfully de-radicalised about 180 teens who had been earlier trained to be terrorists. Their teachers are psychologists, social workers and teachers who don't just do counselling but also teach plumbing and tailoring, among other skills.

The Singapore authorities jail those who plot violent attacks. But it leaves it to Muslim leaders to provide religious counselling and guidance to the detainees on the correct interpretation of Islam.

The Muslim leaders also go beyond the jail cells to support and counsel detainees' wives and children to help them deal with the impact of imprisonment and lead stable lives at work and in school.

Anti-terrorism experts have found that the family can be used to rehabilitate terrorists.

One of the Bali bombers, Uma Patek, told Singapore terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna last year that he was surprised when his wife told him that she was against him being a militant. She told him to stay with her and his family.

"I love her, so I have to do everything and anything for her. I sometimes think, 'Is jihad more important?'"

These rehabilitation programmes are hence effective in not just winning the hearts and minds of terrorists but also drying up recruitment grounds for new recruits.

mnirmala@sph.com.sg


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