Terror Family
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=21839
2310

The Olympics are weeks away and organizers are scuttling to
further tighten security. Researchers say terrorist groups are doing
organizing of their own, using a trait found in evolution to train
suicide bombers.
Kin Altruism
Wrestling mats absorb all kinds of shocking wins and losses.
Olympic wrestler Kerry McCoy tosses teammates across these
rubber landscapes in preparation for the upcoming Games in
Greece. But his competition bounces back with alarming alacrity,
just as terrorist groups that target venues like the Olympics do.
While McCoy says he's satisfied with security in place for the
Games, researchers who study terrorism say such confidence
could be misplaced. They believe terrorists are getting craftier:
One scientist who studies suicide bombers says they're using a
trait found in evolution called kin altruism to ensure success.
"As far as kin altruism is concerned, that is the naturally selected
disposition among organisms to sacrifice themselves for a closely
related kin like a mother for her child or a brother for his sister or
other brother," says Scott Atran, anthropology professor at the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Director of Research at
the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.
Atran saw kin altruism employed in the 1980's, when he became
acquainted with Palestinians who were joining the nascent Hamas
movement. Hamas recruits”and Al Qaeda members too”are
often sequestered in camps where their former identities are all
but obliterated. There, feelings of camaraderie are fostered until
"they feel for one another as a kin would for other close kin,"
Atran explains. And just as in nature, the recruits are willing to
give up their lives to assure that their new "family" and their cause
thrives.
The camps teem with activity, as would-be suicide bombers learn
to foment chaos and terror. "They're taught first of all discipline,
loyalty, brotherhood, technological know how, tactical and
strategic thinking but, most of all, why they're doing what they're
doing," he says.
The reins that prompt them are often pulled by prominent leaders
with strong religious convictions they use to manipulate recruits.
"They're fostering that bond that takes them further and further
into the life of terrorism," says Kenn Kurtz, CEO of The Steele
Foundation, a security and counterterrorism consulting company
whose roster of clients includes multinational corporations and
foreign governments.
Kurtz and Atran agree: Suicide bombers may be religious, but
they're not crazy. Misconceptions about the 9/11 terrorists
prompted Atran to gather evidence that lifts the veil on
stereotypes about suicide bombers, namely that they're insane and
impoverished. Atran told Discover Magazine that studies show
otherwise. "They were deeply committed, highly motivated and
were passionate in their own way to their own kind, patient,
poised, highly, highly educated and better off economically than
their surrounding populations," he says. "So they were in fact the
complete opposite of all the stereotypes being promulgated by the
administration and the media."
With attacks mounting around the globe, insight into the terrorist
mind could cut down figures like the nearly 4,000 people
wounded in terrorist attacks in 2003, a significant boost from just
over 2,000 persons wounded the year before, as State Department
figures show. There's worry that those numbers will multiply as
terrorists hit more "soft targets" like churches and synagogues,
hotels and commercial districts.
Certainly, there's no shortage of operatives to keep the momentum
going. For every terrorist fait accompli, a new plot hatches, time
ticks down for future victims, and a fresh-faced would-be
martyr”an individual who's very calm, cool-headed under
pressure and in life threatening situations, Kurtz says”takes the
first step down a path that will lead to certain death.
No doubt terrorists young and terrorists bold will become better
schooled at navigating the shadows of any security measures
taken to stop them. There will come a point when their grievances
will have to be redressed to staunch the flow of new recruits,
Atran says. Such an effort will require "long-term investment in
promoting civic education and civic liberties," he adds, noting that
massive displays of force”as in bombing Iraq”only disperse
terror cells. "The present approach is a disaster at all levels," he
says.
Kurtz advocates something else”reform. "The first line of
defense is building a much stronger intelligence service both
inside the United States and outside," he says, adding that
profiling certain communities may have to be part of that
approach.
With only weeks left to fine-tune security at the Olympics, Kerry
McCoy, who finished fifth in the 2000 Games, is keeping an eye
peeled on the gold, not terror attacks. "Until somebody gives me a
reason to believe otherwise, I'm excited about the [Olympic]
opportunity," he says. "I think that the U.S. team and any of the
athletes that might be concerned, given the same assurances that I
feel that I have, I think won't even have it be an issue."

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