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American Arabs concerned over FBI's 'October Plan'
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=9015

BEIRUT: The Arab American Institute has expressed concern over recent reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have already or soon will be enacting an aggressive new initiative, the so-called "October Plan."

According to news reports, the initiative will include "aggressive - even obvious - surveillance" of individuals "suspected of being terrorist sympathizers, but who have not committed a crime," said a statement released Tuesday by the AAI. Furthermore, "other 'persons of interest,' including their family members, may also be brought in for questioning," and "mosques will be revisited and members asked whether they've observed any suspicious behavior."

Additional reports suggest that the DHS component of this initiative will include a massive immigration sweep in major metropolitan areas with the purpose of detaining those who are "out of status." DHS's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will concentrate its efforts on individuals who had to report as part of the Student Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the National Security Entry/Exit Registration System (NSEERS), and the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (U.S. VISIT). It should be noted that NSEERS, or Special Registration, required citizens from 24 Arab and Muslim countries and North Korea to register with immigration authorities. The national origin based program was suspended by DHS in December 2003.

"We oppose ICE's use of selective enforcement at this time. While doing little to prevent terrorism, these tactics will further alienate Arab and Muslim Americans, the very people with whom law enforcement needs to build trust," said James Zogby, President of the AAI. "We are also concerned, given the pre-election nature of this initiative, that these tactics may have a chilling effect on the participation of some segments of the Arab American and American Muslim communities in the coming election," he added.

Friendships drive Islamic terrorists, CIA veteran says
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2004/10/04/friendships_drive_islamic_terrorists_cia_veteran_says/

PARIS -- Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks forced the West to take a collective crash course on Islamic terrorism, the myths endure: The militants are impoverished and uneducated. Lifelong religious fervor drives them to embrace jihad. Al Qaeda aggressively recruits and brainwashes the men.
Those ideas are tempting but wrong, argues Marc Sageman, a CIA veteran-turned-forensic psychiatrist. In a book based on 172 case studies of jihadis, Sageman concludes that social bonds are a more vital force than religion in molding extremists.

Mohamed Atta and his fellow hijackers were a classic example of this ''bunch of guys" theory: educated, upwardly mobile, but alienated immigrants who formed a tight-knit clique in Hamburg. Powerful friendships drove their radicalization, Sageman said. In long talks about Islam, their love for one another mixed with hate for the West, propelling them finally into Al Qaeda, he says.

''It's a group phenomenon," Sageman said. ''To search for individual characteristics in order to understand them is totally misleading. It will lead you to a dead end."

Sageman came to Paris early last month to discuss his book, ''Understanding Terror Networks," with scholars and law enforcement officials who are among the West's foremost specialists on radical Islam. His work has struck a chord because it searches for scientific answers to questions that haunt the world with each new act of bloodshed: Why? Who are the terrorists? What makes them kill?

Like many European investigators, Sageman, who spent seven years in the CIA, emphasizes the fluid, spontaneous nature of the global jihad and Osama bin Laden's hands-off approach to leadership, based on providing money and inspiration.

The Al Qaeda network has not engaged in active recruitment or so-called mind control, he argues. Instead, extremist cliques made up of friends and relatives seek out brokers, usually veteran jihadis who can channel them to training camps and other gateways to the network, he said.

''Joining the jihad is more akin to the process of applying to a selective college," Sageman wrote. ''Many try to get in, but only a few succeed, and the college's role is evaluation and selection, rather than marketing."

His theses have been disputed. In 2002, the Dutch intelligence service found that Al Qaeda had ''explicitly instructed" recruiters to base themselves in Europe and troll for aspiring jihadis in prisons, mosques, and other gathering places.

Although he has advised the Homeland Security and Defense departments and testified before the Sept. 11 commission, Sageman says his book relied on court documents, articles, and other data. Most of the accused or convicted extremists Sageman studied were middle class or wealthy, rather than poor; married, rather than single; educated and skilled, rather than illiterate.

The main threat to the United States is a Madrid-style attack, Sageman asserts.

''A 9/11 is no longer possible for two reasons," he said. ''Al Qaeda is no longer the threat it was . . . and the environment has completely changed. Everyone is looking out for terrorists."