SOME TERRORISTS LOOK JUST LIKE US

Mention the words Al Qaeda or terrorist; and chances are that you will conjure up images of swarthy, bearded men with cold, ruthless eyes - who never smile. Well you are far from being the unique. This is the image implanted in the minds of airport security guards; and these are the type of individuals inevitable singled out and grilled. And not just at airports. Spot such a person in some place as innocuous as a shopping mall; and your gut instinct will tell you to steer clear of him.

Now it seems that Al Qaeda and others of their tribe have cottoned on to this reality too. They have started recruiting white Europeans and inducting them in their 'crusade'. The fresh recruits hail from countries as diverse as Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Romania and Estonia. They are sent to training camps in Pakistan - George Bush's "ally" in the war against terror - where they are tutored in the grisly art of murder. Some are motivated by extreme dissatisfaction against the governments of the countries they live in. Others may just be psychologically inclined to commit mayhem.

Some of these 'Euro-terrorists' are suspected to have been already involved in terrorist offensives in Europe. Some of the attempted attacks have been on Americans. ABC News, quoting intelligence sources, recently reported that there is evidence that some European recruits may have already gone operational. Two of the suspects arrested in a September 2007 plot to kill American soldiers in Germany were native Germans, and US officials are investigating whether they were trained in Pakistan.

Western intelligence agencies now acknowledge that Al Qaida has successfully completed a major goal of their new strategy - recruiting and training Western would-be terrorists. According to a February Threat Assessment report from the director of National Intelligence, there has already been an influx of new Western recruits into the tribal area of Pakistan since mid-2006.

These 'white' terrorists pose a very clear and present danger to the United States. Most of them have retained their European nationality and hence may not require a visa to enter the US; and they are unlikely to be on Homeland Security's watch list. Moreover, they do not fit the profile of potential threat that security officers have been trained to look out for. The danger would be compounded once they are inside the US. Since millions of Americans come from ethnic European backgrounds, they could easily mingle into a crowd and get very close to their targets without arousing suspicion.

Another frightening aspect is that these terrorists would not need to smuggle arms or explosives into the country. There must be few "civilized" countries in the world where guns - including automatic weapons - can be more easily procured that in America. And, as the Oklahoma City bomber chillingly demonstrated, you don't need sophisticated explosives, like RDX, to cause horrendous damage to life and property. Mike Mc-Connell, the director of National Intelligence, said in a speech in March. "So if you can get a disgruntled person in Europe to come to Pakistan to be trained in how to buy something commercially-hydrogen peroxide-[and] use it in a particular way, you could have mass casualties in the United States greater than 9/11."

 
 PTI