PrintJanuary 19, 2010
When Terrorists Have a Falling Out
Forty years ago, violent radical groups wanted to destroy America, but they ended up destroying themselves...with a little help from the FBI.We have faced down zealots before. Think of the passionate uprisings now consigned to the history books. Where are the Boxers, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands? Where are the Thuggees? Why is "terrorist bomber" no longer synonymous with "Italian" for the New York Police Department? But, you might reply, the Western world has more scruples than it did back in the days when the British lashed sepoys and blew them to kingdom come. And the modern jihadist movement has a much larger pool from which to recruit. Forty percent of British Muslim students favor introducing sharia law, for example. But the jihadist movement, like any organization that is authoritarian, paranoid, and nihilistic, carries the seeds of its own destruction.No doubt there are bitter battles within al-Qaeda over tactics and strategy, as well as clashes...(Read Full Article)
