Counter-Terrorism: Divine Intervention

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June 18, 2015: In Pakistan there was an increasingly common event involving Islamic terrorists; another case of those seeking to carry out a suicide bombing attack instead destroying themselves because of incompetence. In this case police investigators found that two men sitting on a park bench were seen arguing with each other. The two then started punching each other and shortly after that they both exploded. The two dead men were wearing suicide bomb vests and police have still not found out who they were working for or what their target was. Many locals attribute the explosion to divine intervention and punishment for terrorists who claim to be fighting for Islam but mainly kill innocent civilians.

Islamic terrorists put a lot of effort into suicide bombings because these get the most media attention. However, suicide bomber organizations are expensive to operate and take time to set up. Islamic terror organizations in general and in Pakistan in particular have suffered heavy losses in the last few years and the quality of personnel available to organize these attacks has declined. This has led to more incidents of Islamic terrorists killed while assembling or placing bombs. What was unique about the Punjab incident was the apparent lack of supervision of the suicide bombers. This is rare because suicide bombings are very much a team operation with the actual bomber having the benefit of a lot of support.

Each suicide bomber attack is supported by a team of ten or more people. The "technicians" do things like make the bomb, and come up with a costume the bomber can wear and carry the bomb undetected. There are instructors to teach the bomber how to act, and then drill the bomber to make sure he can do it under the stress of moving among alert security personnel looking for him. There are also several "minders" who stay with the volunteer bomber to make sure he doesn't un-volunteer. And then there are recruiters, looking for more bombers. There are also administrative personnel, to handle records and cash. A large cash payment (usually several thousand dollars) is paid to the family of the suicide bomber, to insure that the kin don't bad mouth the terrorists, and make it easier to pretend that their dead son was truly a hero.

 

 

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