Mark Harris66 said:I’m not even surprised, Benny. If you pick up the book by Agent Storm, you'll see his autobiography—he's a Dane who actually converted to Islam and went through terrorist training in Yemen... then, after a few years, he ended up working as a secret agent for the Danish intelligence service. He describes how he could fly back and forth between Denmark and Yemen multiple times a year without anyone batting an eye. To make matters even wilder, the Danish government actually subsidized his Arabic studies in Yemen—plus, whenever he was back in Denmark, they covered his rent and social benefits because he was technically a "social case." He really drives home the point that Europe doesn't take these risks seriously enough. He predicted these kinds of events happening across Europe, and he wrote the book two years ago—it came out in the US about a year and a half ago. It’s a great read that breaks down exactly how and why terrorists radicalize so easily, how the whole thing is organized, and how it all works... plus, he touches on the terrible—maybe even intentional—lack of cooperation between European intelligence agencies.
Could you maybe elaborate a bit more on the bolded part?
Look, as a seasoned psychologist, I’m not surprised by anything involving our human race—even all that political maneuvering and playing people like puppets is just a subset of the psychological manipulation we're all susceptible to. Sure, some of us fall for it more than others, but it’s universal.
You can buy one person with money, another with a good reputation, a third with empty promises, and a fourth with religious zeal... but at the end of the day, it’s all just psychological manipulation.
Obviously, regular folks often use these tactics subconsciously, unlike politicians and people in uniform—and honestly, that's where terrorists fit right in.
