Terrorist Dropouts

Nearly ten years after the 9/11 attack, someone is actually thinking about terrorists and their family relationships. Michael Jacobson in a new study for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy looked at dozens of terrorists for the purpose of figuring out who motivates those who drop out of terrorist activity and how others might be influenced to turn their backs on violent operations. Since 9/11, al-Qaida is believed to have dispatched three men to blow up American airliners. Two tried and failed and the third backed out of the assignment.

Sajid Badat, whose family migrated from Malawi to Britain, didn't go through with a December 2001 shoe-bombing operation but instead stashed the bomb under his bed in his family home in Gloucester, England. Two years later he was tracked down by British intelligence on information provided by Richard Reid, the notorious shoe-bomber.

Michael Jacobson interviewed ten terrorist dropouts. Badat had returned from camps in Afghanistan and bailed out because he wanted "calm in his life". He returned to live with his family.

Al Qaeda recognizes that family ties can play both negative and positive roles in a terrorist's plans. Mohammed Atta instructed all his 9/11 colleagues to sever all ties to their families. The two who dropped out of 9-11 were both in contact with their families against Al Qaeda's orders.

Al Qaeda has also been known to pay men with wifes extra, giving them additional time off to be with their spouses and urge them to recruit them to the cause. But it was one slight to a wife that led L'Houssaine Kherchtou, a former member of Al Qaeda, to turn against the organization. They rejected his request for $500 to cover the cost of his wife's Cesarean and he thought this represented a larger pattern of stinginess.

An American recruit was intercepted by his sister who persuaded him to go home. An imam in Texas heard about this man's plans and orchestrated with the man's family the casual meeting of the sister at the foreign airport.

And sometimes the life of a terrorist camp gets too hard. Many Brits have returned home disillusioned with life in Pakistan's tribal territories. With the camps now in such disarray, recruits are now asked to pay for their own equipment and housing. Bad food and terrible living conditions have encouraged many to leave. Killing fellow Muslims doesn't solidify terrorist ties either.

Remember Dick Cheney wanted to invade Buffalo, New York to send a message to Al Qaeda. (I know people don't want to believe this. George W. Bush overruled him.) It was because five of six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna, N. Y. had just been arrested by the FBI after police surveillance determined they had plotted a terrorist attack. Despite pressure from their Al Qaeda recruiter they left the camps in Afghanistan. They feigned injuries because they found the food was better in the infirmary and remained there during their stay. After a time, Bin Laden himself gave them permission to leave.

Jacobson believes that potential terrorist recruits need to a hear a counter-narrative. He believes government, especially our own, can not provide it. Instead, it should be provided by former terrorists and extremists and trusted family members.