Religion, Modern Day Terrorism, And the Convert Phenomenon

The behavioural scientists from MI5 tried to pin down the profile of today's terrorists. While some of their findings go against the received and unquestioned aprioris about terrorists, they however confirm the strange convert phenomenon...

Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.

Indeed...
There were converts in Madrid...
And then there were converts in the Toronto plot (this is a teenage group infiltrated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who provided them with fertilisers and training terrain. The only conviction in this plot may come soon on mostly an ideological basis with no evidence, and the would be convicted was a minor at the time of the events)...
Bin Laden's media 'brain' is a Jewish convert to Islam
Jewish Israeli converts in Lebanon's wars...

Another study pointing at the central role played by converts...

And aside from manipulating public opinion with the active collaboration of news media this story tells us one thing: We are all terrorists.

Foiling Terror Plots: It Is Either Minority Report Or Conspiracy

And of course, none of the above is democratically acceptable in a free open society.

Despite all the talk and wars on Terror, can somebody tell me how many terrorists have been publicly tried up to now ? That's a legitimate question since we, citizens, are spending our tax money on these wars on terror, and we are renouncing our fundamental freedoms and rights because of the whole WOT business.

When reading the latest terror report from Germany, I stumbled upon a text full of hypothetical terms to describe the latest raid of the German police on the alleged perpetrators. So, with particular attention to the highlighted text in what follows, I was struck by the higly hypothetical feature of the plot. I also realised that this highly hypothetical feature was present in all foiled terror plots since 9/11. Indeed, most terror plots since 9/11 have the following in common:

- They are at the stage of 'possible' intentions;
- They are foiled even before reaching the stage of active planning;
- They are 'creative', at least in the minds of those who discover them;
- They are full of western converts to Islam, and most often alleged ex Mossad agents Jews who converted to Islam. These converts appear to be more and more playing the role of the psychics pre-cogs in Minority Report;
- Once they are publicized, they disappear from the public eye and we don't know what happens to their possible perpetrators;
- And every demand for a public and open investigation about these terror operations is either ignored by our governments, or staged, or treated with contempt via a media campaign aimed at labelling those who ask for the Truth as conspiracy theorists.

Now enjoy the reading:

"Three terror suspects have been arrested in Germany. They are thought to have been plotting bomb attacks on Frankfurt Airport and the US military base at Ramstein.
The US air base at Ramstein was one of the possible targets of the three suspects.
Three Islamist terror suspects have been arrested in Germany, under suspicion of plotting bomb attacks on Frankfurt Airport and the US military air base at Ramstein.

The three men were arrested in Medebach-Oberschledorn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday afternoon. Around 20 police were involved in the arrests, and there are reports that shots were fired. According to the Associated Press, the three men were staying in a vacation apartment. Local newspaper Hessische-Niedersächsische Allgemeine reported that police from Germany's elite GSG-9 unit had stormed the flat. Raids also later took place in other federal states, according to media reports.

According to information obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, the three men were Daniel S. from the state of Saarland and Fritz G. from Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, both of whom are German converts to Islam, as well as Adem Y., who is believed to be from Turkey. The three, who had apparently founded a terrorist cell, have been under intensive investigation for several months. All three men were considered radical Islamists and had contact with Islamist groups in Germany and Pakistan.

The investigators spontaneously made the arrests on Tuesday afternoon after the men were observed moving chemicals that could be used to make bombs from one storage location to another. Police believe that the men wanted to experiment in the coming days and weeks with the chemicals and possibly start building a bomb. They were, however, far away from making a bomb that could be detonated.

The choice of targets was also not yet fixed. As well as Frankfurt Airport and Ramstein Air Base, the men had apparently also discussed other locations, such as a nightclub. The preparations for the attacks were, however, at an early stage.
The group was treated very seriously by German investigators right from the beginning. US authorities were also informed about the threat and raised the security level at their facilities as a result.

A spokesman for the Office of the Federal Prosecutor confirmed the arrests to SPIEGEL ONLINE early Wednesday morning. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung also confirmed the arrests in remarks to the German broadcaster ARD. "There was an immediate threat," he said, without going into details.

The suspects are due to appear before the Federal Court of Justice later on Wednesday."

And of course we will know very little what will happen after next wednesday.