The+Mind+of+the+Terrorist+notes

'The Mind of the Terrorist' notes
“The Mind of a Terrorist”, an essay by Fergal Keane, is a fascinating consideration of recent and current terrorist activities. It looks at those who perpetrate and those who orchestrate these activities and compares them to terrorist activities in Ireland throughout the last century. Keane then goes on to explore the psyche and motivation of the terrorist.

 **“The heart fed on fantasy, grown brutal from the fare.”** W B Yeats

The quotation from Yeats links from the outset Ireland and other sources of terror activities. It contrasts with the title of the essay, “The **//Mind//** of the Terrorist” in that the quote’s focus is the **//heart//** as the source of terrorist activity. The food image, “fed on fantasy” and “fare” creates the idea of a very basic, physical and incorrigible craving. The word “fantasy” states that there is a powerful relationship between mythology and terrorism: a terrorist has to **//feed//** such an insatiable passion – like a created monster. The terrorist cannot separate fact from fiction.

Keene makes frequent recourse to anecdote. By making a personal comment, he engages the reader in this impromptu exchange with the father and son on **Page** **54** by emphasising in parenthesis the age of the boy:  “- I guessed his age to be about twelve – “ he draws a shocking contrast with the words, “death to America” being screamed all around the boy. The use of first person in the dialogue draws the reader into the scene in Pakistan. By including a child in the description, ideas of innocence and authenticity are introduced. This is crucial to one of the central concerns of the essay: the juxtaposition of childhood innocence and impassioned fanaticism.
 * //P 54 //**

Look closely at Keane’s word choice here – “hate”, “right” and “wrong”, introduce the idea of simplistic, unreasoned belief systems, black versus white, just like a child whose reasoning powers have not fully developed might see situations.


 * Keane uses very emotive, loaded language to describe this man’s perspective: “convulsed” suggests a physical but involuntary response, an irrational act. A convulsive seizure is usually the result of irregular brain activity. This begs the question: is this man in rational control of his thinking faculties?
 * “cartoon simplicities” – brilliant, highly effective word choice again: one thinks of carton violence, “Tom and Jerry” or even ‘Itchy and Scratchy”. Fiction not fact is in control here: this is indeed “The heart fed on fantasy…” Keane’s word choice here gives a clear sense of the simplistic thinking that prompts and condones terrorism.


 * “peddled” – suggests a dishonest seller acting beyond the boundaries of the law. This word is commonly used nowadays in relation to drug distribution. The message can make you dependent and all you want is more of the same; the fact that it harms you and others does not enter into your thinking.

Keane is saying here that this is not a mindset more an emotional explosion. What chance do any of the young boys have of developing a reasoned response to American foreign policy?

There is a lack of logic, of reason, of thought in the response of the crowd:  “Abandoned to the passion of the crowd and the comfort of its boisterous solidarity, the mind is swept along a narrow, dark corridor.” Are they still in control? Very strongly hinted is the belief that they are not? This is not something they are doing or thinking; this being done to them. Collective madness is in the air – “passion of the crowd” – and there is comfort in this unified reaction – “boisterous solidarity”.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 55 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The “corridor” image – a recurring one – is very visual. The journey along this corridor - a route which permits no deviation – taken by the mind of a terrorist allows for no manoeuvre – “narrow” – and its end result is evil – “dark”! This is made all the more chilling in the context of the loving and intimate father and son picture immediately preceding this image - “many fathers holding the hands of young boys in the crowd.” The distinction between love and hate is becoming unclear.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">There is no one terrorist mind set but there are similarities: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “Chief among these are the power of simplistic mythologies/ideologies in providing the necessary justification for acts of terror, and the childhood circumstances of the terrorist.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">All will have been damaged in some significant way – some overtly some subtly <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">There are, however, significant differences between the functionaries and the bosses. The “foot soldiers” feel deeply about personal and global injustices. Their masters, however, through their own desire for power, exert a strong motivational power over their underlings, a power that channels them into acts of menacing reality that will hopefully help to realise their aim of overturning whatever establishment they wish to overthrow. These leaders are sustained by a belief in themselves and nothing else beyond, a system that allows them to deny the reality of their actions. They are shaped by events in their childhood, by history real, or imagined (mythology). From somewhere they display a magnetic power to influence, to affect others with their zeal.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…assassination, reprisal, house burning, ethnic cleansing.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Memories of Kosovo and Rwanda flood our minds. The countryside had been desecrated by terror: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…a **//landscape ravaged//** by two years of savage conflict.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Ireland became the “cradle” of terrorism in the 20th century in the name of decolonisation – a polite name for ethnic cleansing.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 56 //**
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Structure **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">: Keane reiterates the Yeats’ quote, reminding us that terrorism is not just something that happens on the other side of the world. This reminder is meant to be unsettling. The recent history of Britain and Ireland links us to bin Laden. Indeed, it was in Ireland that the international terrorist handbook was written! Keane contrasts the rural idyll of the Irish countryside with the terminology of terrorism:

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">He revisits the “corridor” image: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “- it is necessary to narrow the mind, make it subject to a very limited range of ideas and influences.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">There is a deliberate and conscious attempt here, “make it subject” – keep it tightly controlled, allowing no thoughts other than those associated with the cause to exist. Pity for individuals must be excluded for the greater good of all!

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The master terrorist deploys memory (usually selective) as a powerful weapon in influencing his followers. Keane’s word choice is again deliberately effective. The language is pejorative, deliberately arcane having almost a legendary feel to it so that the sense of mythology and fantasy is highlighted: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…//uniquely evil// and //perfidious// Albion…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">was the orthodoxy used to show that Britain above all others is treacherous and the source of all their woes. This is the dark unthinking corridor that allows for no disagreement.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Bin Laden uses the same appeal only varying his terminology as he: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> …summons up memories of centuries of infidel treachery and oppression to infuse his warriors with passion.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">This is fact and myth rolled into one. This is bin Laden’s dark corridor.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The Catholic Church is compared to the radical mullahs of Islam in that they both shared: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “… a militant hatred of the imperial presence…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">In other words, in the Irish experience the church implicitly supported terrorist activities. Despite this one dimensional view of the world being shown to be wrong in so many ways, had people wished to look beyond the blinkers, yet the belief in “perfidious Albion” remained throughout the 20th century and is still adhered to in certain radical sectors of the republican community today.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Therefore terrorism demands: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…a rigid adherence to a simple idea.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">There is no discussion permitted. Debate usually leads to blood-letting. Let’s win the struggle, then we’ll discuss. Keane calls this the terrorist “refrain” suggesting ideas of simple repetition, cliché almost. The world is either black or white; there is no in-between. To disagree with Bin Laden is to be branded ‘infidel’ and risk becoming a target.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 57/58 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The terrorists’ narrow thinking is contrasted to the “vast latitude” (connotations of open space, no boundaries) allowed by them in their choice of victim. To support his point, Keane uses a family anecdote which personalises and brings the theory to life, ending the previous paragraph with this simple personal reference: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “Consider one murder in my father’s home town in 1921.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Note the use of domestic detail, the policeman apparently at ease and friendly with everybody going “home to lunch”, the family detail, “small boy”, “mother”, “father”, the community setting. The routine of daily life is vividly portrayed: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…the town’s daily narrative” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The events are set in an actual place with real people. The account is simple but detailed, almost cinematic in its approach. It is almost as if some observer knew this was going to happen and as a result watched it and recorded it. We see events from the watcher’s perspective: involving us and implicating us in the anecdote. Short, almost staccato sentences build suspense but also give a sense of a closely watched event taking place in slow motion. A terrible inevitability develops. This is retrospective history but like all history it omits to mention the minor players until Keane wonders at the impact of this event on the five year old son and leaves it up to the reader to respond to that horrendous thought. Note the fact the policeman’s name is held back to help further emphasise that this was a real person being so callously targeted.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The whole community is implicated in this murder. The actual participants: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…were protected and in later years revered as heroes of Ireland’s struggle…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Keane dismisses this misplaced, sentimentalised nonsense with a short, stark, value laden sentence. These men were no heroes: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “They were terrorists.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The sentence contrasts sharply with the attitudes of those silent witnesses who fed evil and just condoned evil by their silence. Keane makes clear his belief that the community collectively are culpable because of their passive acceptance of the deed.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">When Keane talks about visits to generous and gentle white-haired relatives, he is lulling us by contrasting their present with their past activities – appearance and reality. He could not equate this kind man with the: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…ruthless and dedicated enemy of the police, the British army and anyone who had collaborated with them.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">It seems that the terrorist’s narrow corridor can be compartmentalised, can be kept separate, allowing for “normal” family life to go on. Phrases like “version of history” and “It was nonsense” indicate the double standards and double lives that were prevalent.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The killers of the policeman were never caught because they had <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…a constituency of psychological approval.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Alone and unloved they would not have survived. Terrorists need to be broadly accepted by the communities in which they operate. Keane uses the word “resonance” which is effective because it suggests accord and a vague assent from people who would themselves do nothing other than support the activists. These people are referred to as the “sneaking regarders” who would nothing to upset the authorities but secretly celebrate acts of terror: this is the “community of acceptance” that Keane talks about. Communal dissatisfaction is a source of support necessary to all terrorists.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 59 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Almost all terrorists are passionately motivated by political or religious causes. In addition, there is a personal factor, usually stemming from some incident or circumstance in childhood

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Osama bin Laden is distinguished by his utter inflexibility. His cause permits no negotiation, no differences of opinion. He does not care who he kills: they are all enemies if they do not believe as he believes. To care would be to permit compassion: a weakness that would cause the whole belief system to crumble. Any one guilty of this, bin Laden characterises as “enemy” a synonym for “target”, Hanan Ashrawi for instance. This response is made clear in a carefully structured sentence: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “A Palestinian like Hanan Ashrawi who has suffered the humiliations of Israeli occupation is still capable of promoting dialogue; bin Laden, who has never suffered any privation that he did not himself choose, would regard such as person as a traitor.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The sentence is balanced by the use of semi-colon to emphasise the contrast between the two and also to illustrate the idea of freedom fighter versus terrorist. Their experiences also contrast: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> (Ashrawi) “…suffered the humiliations of Israeli occupation” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">whereas bin Laden: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…never suffered any privation that he did not himself choose…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">By these words, Keane mocks bin Laden by hinting at a basic shallowness, suggesting he is more a construct rather than the genuine article.
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 60/61 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Keane returns to the “dark corridor” image and develops it to include the role of beliefs as well as ideas in the terrorist mind. The suggestion is that “true belief” in anything requires rigorous thought and investigation. Terrorists: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…retreat from the true complexities that might challenge dogma and shine light into the dark corridor.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The phrase “shine light” is used ironically as it is normally used in a “seeing the light” sense e.g. spiritual enlightenment. Those whose minds are enclosed in the “dark corridor” would undoubtedly claim to have discovered “truth” when in actual fact they are avoiding any possibility of achieving the truth.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Powerful imagery is again used: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">“…fear always coils in the heart of apparent certainty.” (“The Crucible”!) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Serpent imagery is used here, a Biblical allusion symbolic of evil entering the heart of humanity. Other connotations link to venom poisoning the soul or the ability to crush life or doubt, or opposition. Fear is the most powerful weapon of the terrorist. His acts are meant to spread fear. There is a sense of masquerade, of fear hiding behind a mask of certainty, ready to pounce like a coiled spring on anything or anyone who questions or threatens.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Spreading fear and despondency by using bombing to spread mass destruction is not a new concept. The British and American air forces used it against Germany and Japan in WW2. It was the Japanese, however, who pioneered concept of the suicide bomber: the Kamikaze pilots were not meant to return; the British and American air crews were meant to return. The Kamikaze pilots were hailed as national heroes. To this day they are remembered and revered in the history of the country for which they died with no hint of questioning the purpose and rationale behind their actions.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Keane deliberately reminds us of the effects of bombing He tries to adequately describe the carnage resulting from a terrorist bomb attack: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “The tableau of ruined humanity spread across the street…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">A “tableau” is a static picture deliberately created to achieve a certain effect. That word alone powerfully communicates the desolation and destruction created by this attack. Note also that Keane is once again lost for words, “impossible to describe” and he has to fall back on metaphor to convey the scene (cf “Spiritual Damage”). “ruined humanity” holds connotations of ragged and torn devastation – the bomb and the bomber takes no prisoners, has no compassion, no humanity – remember it has been ruined. And what has been gained compared to what has been lost? Destruction seems to be an end in itself when governments make clear that they will not respond to terror!
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 62 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The perpetrators are referred to inside inverted commas as “‘true believers’”. Belief in what distortion of the “truth”, version of the “truth”, selection of the truth is at play here? There is no compassion here, referring back to Keane’s argument that only unquestioned belief can be tolerated. The claim that the use of violence is a “holy end” increases in us the sense of hopeless incomprehension and separation from those who espouse the stance of the terrorist.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The concept of martyrdom is common to all terrorist groups. Suicide bombing, however, is not: it has never been a tactic used by Western terror groups such as the IRA and Baader-Meinhof. Perhaps, Keane suggests, this could be down to the Muslim conviction that heaven is real and their act of sacrifice will guarantee them instant access to paradise. The IRA on the other hand:

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…believe in heaven, but they aren’t willing to bet their lives on getting there by blowing themselves up. The men of Al-Qaida believe absolutely in paradise after death.”
 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 63 - 65 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The abject poverty of the refugee camps and the oppression that created them are often cited as the motivation of the suicide bomber. The “afterlife” must surely be better than the “slum” of reality; surely death is regarded as “no great tragedy”. The facts, however, do not support this theory. Very, very few of the truly oppressed resort to suicide bombing. What other element is required? Keane suggests this other element is excessive self-love. A suicide bomber believes he is going to paradise and to this end he is willing to kill others who, he totally believes, will never reach paradise.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The middle class participants of 9/11 do not fit into the poverty and oppression theory. What do these men have in common to the “semi-literate boys from the desert wastes”? Keane calls it “apocalyptic nihilism”: life de-valued to the point of nothing. Nihilism is an extreme form of scepticism in which nothing beyond their beliefs is of any importance let alone relevance. ‘apocalyptic’ suggests the end of the world and echoes the idea that nothing is sacred beyond their closed group mentality. Further uniting these disparate groups is the **charisma** of the leader, bin Laden who is accorded the status of “a military/religious superstar”.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The word “charisma” comes from one of the Greek words for love and means a gift gracious bestowed by the gods. It is interesting that this word has come to be used to describe those who strongly influence others for good or ill. The god given aspect suggests absolute power and no room for dispute. Bin laden uses this charisma to assure his followers that they are “immune to pity” – as if pity were an illness. To deny pity is to deny an emotion that humanises us thereby denying our humanity.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">When bin Laden claims “there are no innocents” he is more closely aligned to the proponents of genocide: thus the Nazis could gas women and children without compunction. Most terrorist groups have specific targets and specific rules forbidding the targeting of civilians. Bin Laden aims for collateral damage – the more civilians killed the more successful the attack: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “He does not seek an accommodation…but desires to kill…until they bend entirely to his will. Their surrender (has to be) **unconditional**…a **complete abandonment** of… culture and beliefs (and) absorption by his culture.”

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Another link between bin Laden is established via Auschwitz survivor Promo Levi’s words describing the Nazis. Levi characterised those involved in the Holocaust, the believers in Hitler, as being: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…held in thrall by a ‘monster with beautiful words’”.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">So too with the followers of bin Laden. His “beautiful words” gives them a cause, a raison d’etre, and: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">“In giving them a reason to live he had given them a reason to die.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Hitler had the “final solution”; bin Laden has the “simple solution”. Without mentioning Hitler until later, Keane establishes clear links between the two.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The control of other famous dictators of the twentieth century: Stalin and Mao Tse-tung was different, was based on fear – no seductive words here.


 * //<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">P 66/67 //**

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Bin Laden rejects personal wealth in favour of his goal: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…the ecstasy of righteousness.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Note the religious nature of the words chosen – the joy that comes from knowing (believing) you are right: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “Like Hitler he can present himself as a messiah for an oppressed people…” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The use of the “messiah” carries religious connotations, this time of the Jewish race often seen as representative of oppressed people. The Messiah was the promised saviour of the Jews. It is ironic that Hitler and bin Laden who both sought the destruction of the Jewish people should be thus labelled. The verbs used to refer to those ‘saved’ by bin Laden re-emphasise the “heart over head” irrationality of the mind control being exerted: “feel”, “believe”. Again, these beliefs are not well thought through and closely argued position. It is part of the “anti-rational universe” in which the end always justifies the means: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “…a world where anything is possible in the name of righteousness.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">(“The Crucible”)

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Keane returns to bin Laden’s childhood to further analyse his psyche. Bin Laden’s <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">childhood, although surrounded by wealth was characterised by: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">These factors produced a man uncertain of his own value and in order to assert himself has become a control freak in its most extreme form.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Loneliness
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Lack of identity
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Lack of security
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Sense of failure, inadequacy
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Son of an outcast

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">What will destroy him in the end? Unobtainable emotional security could well be his undoing, Keane asserts. His inability to compromise until he controls that which is uncontrollable will in the end destroy bin Laden. Bin Laden’s resources are finite. The time must come when he overreaches himself (just as Hitler did when he invaded the USSR). His followers: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “… are mortals and he is no Messiah.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Bin Laden’s biggest threat comes from the fact that he believes his own propaganda. Keane is significantly perceptive, prophetic even, when he states:

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “His actions have put him beyond negotiation…”

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">His mindset also negates the possibilities of negotiation. This was why, when he was cornered by American Special Forces, their orders were to kill, not to capture.

<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">What made bin Laden so frightening was the fact that he was not in any particular way special: <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “(He was not) some prophet who…walked out of a…wilderness to lead the righteous to heaven.” <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">Nor was he a madman; his followers were not madmen either. At the end of the day, this makes him all the more frightening because he was responding to a desire common to all of us, that deep often hidden desire to have things our own way. Dangerous and disturbed he may be, and we may be tempted to say he is not “normal”; but who or what is “normal”? <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"> “He is of our world and that is what made him so frightening.”


 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Ideas **
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The terrorist cannot separate fact from fiction and fiction not fact informs the mind of a terrorist
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Childhood circumstances are important. Impressionable children are easy victims of impassioned fanaticism especially when they respect those preaching these so-called facts
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Solidarity – swept along by the emotion of the crowd - is synonymous with a lack of individual control in responses to situations
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists are narrow-minded – one simplistic route, one course, one set of beliefs from which one cannot deviate.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorist leaders want to control others; they have the ability to motivate others to commit acts of terror. Their strongest belief is in themselves and the righteousness of their cause.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The leaders motivate by using memory - historical events or versions of history or myth
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Ireland was the cradle of modern day terrorism. The IRA developed the tactics used throughout the world today
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The terrorist mind must be disciplined, “make it subject”, only thoughts of the cause can be permitted to exist
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The Catholic Church supported terrorism secretly; Islamic mullahs support it openly. Both give credibility by their support – always good to have God on your side. Terrorists only survive because of local support – “sneaking regarders”
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Old ideas that influence terrorist thinking die hard in Ireland
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Their thinking may be narrow but the targeting opportunities are limitless because everybody who does not think their way is an enemy
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists are often regarded as heroes by the communities they represent
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Keane thinks the words “terrorist” and “hero” are mutually incompatible.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Keane cannot reconcile the fact that the kind, silver haired old men he remembers from his childhood could be responsible for the acts of terror.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">He suggests that terrorists can separate their ruthlessness from other aspects of their mind. Double standards as well as double lives were prevalent
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists are driven by political and or religious beliefs as well childhood events
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin laden was utterly inflexible; conform to his beliefs or die. Compassion = weakness. Those who wished to negotiate = enemies/targets
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Despite an unhappy childhood bin Laden had to create his own privations similar to those of his followers to somehow justify himself to his followers – he was not real, merely a construct
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The “true beliefs” of terrorists are never scrutinised, never debated, cannot therefore not “true”. Terrorists avoid the truth at all costs. Fear of the truth hides behind a mask of certainty.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The Japanese developed via their “Kamikaze” attacks the concept of suicide bombing
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Suicide bombing was never a tactic of Western terror groups. Belief in paradise recruits many suicide bombers. For many, their harsh life makes paradise a desired option but there is more to a potential terrorist than this.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The middle-class participants of 9/11 display signs of “apocalyptic nihilism” i.e. nothing beyond their beliefs matters
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin Laden’s charisma was such that he could convince his followers that they felt no pity (but to deny pity is to deny one’s humanity). Thus he could proclaim that there was no such thing as an innocent – similar to those involved in genocide.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Trying to control that which cannot be controlled will be his undoing. Bin Laden is vulnerable because he believes his refusal to compromise is a strength and not a weakness
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin Laden is so frightening because he was not special.


 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Structure **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Step by step we are introduced to the mind of the terrorist
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The acceptance of myths, half-truths and simplistic thinking are factors
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">A receptive mind is not enough – among those potential terrorists there has to emerge a leader to shape minds, to plan and promote acts of terrorism
 * 4) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">A childhood scarred by humiliation and/or brutality is an important aspect. Bin Laden’s humiliations in childhood were psychological rather physical, leading him to create his own physical privations.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists are intolerant of all who do not agree; are intolerant of those who wish to debate
 * 6) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Support from the local community is an essential for terrorist survival
 * 7) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">political motivation when allied to religious belief produces suicide bombers
 * 8) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin laden compared to Hitler in two ways – both were monsters with beautiful words, both aimed fro genocide
 * 9) <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Although bin Laden displayed psychopathic tendencies, what makes him so frightening was the downright ordinariness of the man


 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Intro **
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Quotes W.B. Yeats: “The //heart// fed on fantasy…” which contrasts with the title “The //Mind// of the Terrorist”
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The conflict in Ireland is his starting point increasing relevance to his readership.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Links quote to events in a stadium in Quetta, Pakistan where many //hearts// were being “fed on fantasy”, showing that what was true in Ireland is true in other places of the world
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Uses reported speech in an interview to involve the reader more, to invite the reader to answer his question.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">The **irrationality of thought** is associated with terrorism and how glib contradictions are totally accepted: “…of course it is wrong to hate, but in this case it is right.”
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Sums up his findings based on this meeting in Quetta: **simplistic thinking** justifies acts of terror.


 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Development **


 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Builds up a picture point by point **
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Adds to the summing up by saying he will look at how **bin Laden and** **other leaders ‘shape’ receptive minds.**
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Yeats is quoted again, leading into the fact that Ireland was the cradle of worldwide terror tactics
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists adopt a “with us or against us” stance. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Uses **anecdote (**murder of the policeman) which links Keane to these events through his relatives and linking us by virtue of the fact that we read Keane
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Detailed step by step account as if being deliberately recorded for posterity. Saves policeman’s name to the last to remind us this was a person and not a statistic. Domestic details included to add impact. Concern about the five year old son…
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Considers his own family, expressing disbelief that the kindly old men of his childhood memories could be capable of unspeakable cruelty.
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Terrorists need support from local population – “constituency of psychological approval” **
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Many extreme terrorists are driven by childhood memories of humiliation or brutality. **
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">“True belief” **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">figures prominently in the shaping of a terrorist.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Keane disputes their claims of “true belief” because it is never subjected to debate and scrutiny, it is merely accepted.
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Suicide bombing, **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">an Eastern tactic **is dependent on the bomber’s belief in paradise**
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Poverty and oppression are not the only factors in the creation of a suicide bomber **


 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin Laden’s charisma sways middle class terrorists as well – **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">apocalyptic nihilists who believe to destroy their enemies – those who think differently - will bring upon them God’s blessing
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin laden compared to Hitler – “…monster with beautiful words” **
 * **<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Compared to perpetrators of genocide – “…there are no innocents” **


 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Conclusion **
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin Laden and followers wants to kill until all enemies are dead or until they convert to his beliefs – **a vision of control, psychopathic behaviour**
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Bin Laden more than the product of political circumstances –childhood circumstances must played a role
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">Intelligent but inflexible – a weakness. Dangerous and disturbed but human – that’s why he was so frightening.
 * <span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.66px;">More like him could emerge with others ready to follow unquestioningly

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