May 25, 2003

SEMTEX UNIVERSITY

Via MSNBC:

Police are hunting two men in Britain who have been trained as suicide bombers by al Qaeda, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

How, exactly, does one train a suicide bomber? (“Step one: strap explosives to body. Step two: explode”.) And who does the training? A suicide bomber veteran? Someone with experience?

Posted by Tim Blair at May 25, 2003 04:12 PM
Comments


They need to perform their obligatory "allah be praised" speeches and gesticulations on camera.
So they can acchieve their their post-homicidal celebrity status.

The Palestinans "greatest contribution to un-civilization"...the suicide vest.

*linked here from "Gweilo Diaries"

Posted by: Tricia at May 25, 2003 at 05:10 PM

"Training" is something of a misnomer; "brainwashing" would be a better word. It takes a very careful regimen of this "training" in order to completely suppress a person's survival instincts, empathy, and all other inconvenient forms of emotional and rational thought, long enough to get them to strap on a vest that they know is going to kill them, find some people they've never even met, and blow them all up, killing themselves in the process.

Posted by: Tatterdemalian at May 25, 2003 at 05:32 PM

Remember, those that can't do, teach.

Posted by: JohnO at May 26, 2003 at 02:02 AM

One headline you'll never see: "Suicide Bomber Strikes Again."

Posted by: Lewis Amselem at May 26, 2003 at 02:07 AM

The instructor of the bomber candidate demonstrates the vest - once.

Posted by: Fred Boness at May 26, 2003 at 05:16 AM

Look up my site, scroll down for a great graphic on suidide bombers under 22 May -says it all.

Kev

Posted by: Kev Gillett at May 27, 2003 at 01:23 PM

I seem to remember a Japanese PM ten years or so ago who was famous for his war service as a kamikaze bomber.

Seems like politics really is a refuge for people incompetent in other spheres (at least that explains Dubya's rise ... ).

Posted by: derrida derider at May 27, 2003 at 02:26 PM

I'd imagine there's things to teach, like how to look nonchalent ("who me? Just buying some chewing gum... explosive vest? What explosive vest would that be, friend?"), when NOT to blow up ("put the pin back in! Put the pin back in!"), and of course the grisly and truly macabre element: WHEN and WHERE to blow up, how to cause the most damage to infrastructure and, well, people (innocent civillians, mostly). Ugh.

Posted by: mark at May 29, 2003 at 05:50 AM