Abigail r esman biography of barack

In fact, all were relatively comfortable financially, and well-integrated within their communities. Similarly, Fouad Belkacem, the leader of Sharia4Belgium, an organization responsible for helping radicalize many Belgian Muslims, even laughed at a journalist once for assuming he must have come from a struggling background. His father was a car salesman and he once planned to take over the business, but his father retired early.

And Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged leader of the Paris attacks, reportedly attended a "posh" school, where, his former classmates recalled, "he was one of us. Moreover, the demographics of Muslims in Europe are pretty much the same across the board; so if poverty and discrimination are the issue, why have there been no mass deaths from attacks in the Netherlands, say, or Germany — both of which border Belgium?

All of which may be why the Wall Street Journal once referred to the notion of "poverty as cause of terrorism" a bad idea that refuses to die, confirming the position expressed by Harvard economist Robert J. Barro and others. As for the argument about geography, this is precisely the genius of Islamic State leaders. It matters not that U. Muslims have a harder time traveling to Syria than do their European brothers and sisters.

They are radicalized just the same way the Europeans are, on the Internet. In prisons. By recruiters already on the ground. Nor do they need military training in Raqqa; the instructions for bomb-making are online, freely available to anyone who wants them. Not to mention the easy availability of assault rifles. It is insulting, this argument that because fewer people died in Boston than in Paris, say, the effect or the threat of the Marathon bombings somehow wasn't "quite so bad," that somehow it's okay, as if those killed and injured in America didn't matter quite as much, or as if the number of dead and maimed was the issue, and not the effort at killing and maiming in itself.

What is true, and Benjamin calls this one right, is that American counter-intelligence and security actions have been far superior to Europe's since American officials have foiled dozens of plots to date; but let's not forget that James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Sira nearly bombed the New York Subway system a day before the Republican National Convention in ; that Faisal Shahzad came frighteningly close to blowing up Times Square in ; and that Mohamed Osman Mohamud had been spotted by the FBI well before he attempted to detonate bombs during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon one month later.

After all, if your neighbor's husband beats her up twice a day, and your husband beats you only once, does that make the beatings any better? Does it take away the horror or the pain?

Abigail r esman biography of barack

Does it make you any safer? Abigail R. So yes, terrorists have killed fewer Americans than Europeans since that bright September morning. But to suggest that Americans are somehow any safer is simply irresponsible. Related Topics: Civil suits Abigail R. BarroCivil suits. Excellent Article. Submitted by Northern VAMar 26, This puts the current outlook in perspective; in many ways America's security agencies understand terrorist methods better for the sad work of necessity terrorists have brought them.

One thing I feel is important is for Americans to take to heart "See something, say something. We can remain abigail r esman biography of barack - not fearful or intolerant - but actively aware as we go about our lives and take the simple step of reporting tips to the FBI via their online system. Note: IPT will moderate reader comments.

We reserve the right to edit or remove any comment we determine to be inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, comments that include swearing, name calling, or offensive language involving race, religion or ethnicity. Esman, a contributor to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, lays bare the personal traits and domestic abuse that can be used to forecast radicalization and accurately assess intent to commit acts of terrorism.

The terrorism and domestic violence numbers are stark. Esman notes that, in alone, more than 26, people died due to terrorism around the world, most in the Middle East. Contrast that with over 10 million men, women, and children in the United States who were victims of domestic violence that resulted in 1, deaths, in the same year. Domestic violence and terrorism have the intent to terrorize the family or community.

The purpose is to inject fear and control both in private and in public. What moves someone from domestic violence to radicalized mass murders or terrorism and how society should respond is what makes Esman's book Rage an important contribution to understanding terrorism. Esman writes, "millions of men and women around the world are raised without fathers, or with strict fathers and overindulgent mothers.

Some but not all become pathological narcissists. And of those, some, but certainly not all, become terrorists, or beat their children or their wives. What is it that makes the difference? The book dissects one repulsive case after another to reveal common behaviors that left undeterred, can flourish and cause extraordinary terror.

It is fair to ask what could these cases possibly have in common. Once the data is extrapolated, the links become clear and hard to hide again. Esman identifies five target life events, phases, and personal choices that, when known, show how the level of the crime can be transformed from domestic violence to radicalization to mass murder. For instance, Osama bin Laden experienced four out of five life events.

His parents divorced shortly after he was born. He was one of 50 children his father had with possibly 10 or 11 wives. His father was killed in a helicopter crash piloted by an American when he was 10 years old. Esman writes, "Osama's reaction to his father's death surely also was filled with conflict and confusion. HIs father, however devoted, was also known to beat him cruelly.

Was young Osama then, in the face of his father's death, relieved as much as he was grief stricken? In another example, Rage looks at Norwegian Anders Breivikwho killed 69 children and eight adults at the summer camp on Utoya. Breivik was an only child. His parents separated when he was "barely a year old," and he was raised by his mother.

Breivik had a "bizarre relationship with his mother, who at once repelled him but with whom he was at the same time pathologically intimate, literally climbing on top of her to kiss her," Esman writes. And yet that same mother was also known to hurl verbal abuse at her son, telling him frequently she wished he were dead. Esman describes him as "Self conscious and vain.

He had plastic surgery, took testosterone supplements, wore makeup, and was a known body builder. Esman turns to expert psychologists to identify these common threads that lead perpetrators from rage expressed privately at home to the public stage.