The Narco-terror Trap | Hacker News Reader

The Narco-terror Trap

propublica.org

66 pointsdanso5 comments

I highly suggest that if you have the time to read about Portugual, and their results 14 years later after decriminalizing all drugs. It is what I would call a great success story, and it is a case study that I rarely see get brought up. There are two things that really get my blood boiling, the first one sadly works as intended, and the second one usually doesn't. The first one is fear mongering, and which usually perpetuates the second one is prohibition.

"If I don’t ﬁnd a job, maybe I’m going to have to join al-Qaida for real."

The author of the article seems to imply that this is a tongue in cheek comment on the part of Mr. Touré, but it seems to me that this type of meddling via "sting operations" could easily create more converts to terrorism, even if only out of pure utilitarianism on the part of the converts.

Fortunately it's unlikely to be as effective (in terms of sheer numbers) at creating new converts as UAVs dropping bombs on weddings and hospitals is.

Oh it absolutely will create more "converts to terrorism". Just look at the results of the mass incarcerations post invasion of Iraq. You put thousands of people in detention centers and prison camps and you give them an unprecedented opportunity to recruit and plan. These camps were the birthplace of the Islamic State. Arrests for anything related to terrorism ruin the life of the accused and put them in close proximity to other "terrorists". Of course all this activity makes Jihad appear all the more justified. Imagine being innocent or guilty of a victimless crime and getting this sort of royal treatment. You can really see how an otherwise mild-mannered person might have a change of heart.

Unfortunately LE agencies across the U.S. are engaged in a perpetual struggle to justify their existence, particularly anything to do with narcotics or terrorism. We've seen plenty of cases where informants fund, encourage, and supply vulnerable people (often of questionable mental states) with anything from drugs, weapons, to explosives. I don't really see what can be done to remedy this when agencies have a magic word to become unbound by the Constitution and get access to seemingly unlimited quantities of fiat money.

These camps were the birthplace of the Islamic State.

Huh? ISIS came from Jordan into Iraq. These guys were already active before the 2nd Iraq war.

All of the mainstream media I've read on the subject identify the Iraqi camps (Camp Bucca in particular) as the modern origins of ISIS and attribute the camps to facilitating networking and radicalization, without which ISIS would not have been able to spread the way it did. [1] [2] [3] [4] I'm not an expert on the subject, that is just what I've gathered from mainstream sources.

I was able to find a profile on the Islamic State by the Brookings Institute [5] that corroborates the earlier roots:

Although currently centered within Syria and Iraq, IS’s roots lie in Jordan and Afghanistan and date back to at least 1999. However, IS has evolved considerably since then, transforming from a small and loosely structured body with broad international ambitions to a vast organization focused on governing as an Islamic state across nation state boundaries.

Throughout this 15-year period, IS and its various predecessors have undergone a significant process of operational and organizational learning. While a first attempt at Islamic state building in 2006-2008 proved overzealous and alienating, a second attempt from 2013 onwards has proven more sustainable, although concerted international intervention begun in 2014 will pose a serious challenge to its success. Nevertheless, through its impressive advances across large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2013 and 2014, IS has arguably proven a more successful organization than al-Qaeda.

[1]: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-in...

[2]: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-origins-of-isis-finding-the-...

[3]: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/camp-buc...

[4]: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3104859/US-Prison-ca...

[5]: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2014...

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