Terror networks

In his book Understanding Terror Networks, Marc Sagemen argues that the global jihad can be explained as arising out of social networks, and not as a movement spun purely out of ideology. Sagemen writes on page 171:

In conclusion, the final shape of the global Salafi jihad consists of four major clusters surrounded by innumerable islands consisting of cliques and singletons of potential candidates.

Family and friends provide the reinforcement that builds bonds between terrorists, not merely the desire to please one's god.

This fits with a document I linked to before, a report by Michael Taarnby which was funded by the Danish Ministry of Justice and published in January 2005. (It can be read here in PDF.)

This document looks at terrorist recruiting in Europe, and recruiting cells there operate by forming social networks.

Instead of a top-down process where the terrorist organisation actively and aggressively searches for new members, it was a bottom-up process of young people volunteering to join the organisation. Many wanted to join but didn’t know how to get in touch with the right people. Joining a terrorist organisation was often a chance phenomenon (Sageman 2004). Formal affiliation with the Jihad appears to have been a group phenomenon, with friends deciding to join the Jihad together rather than as isolated individuals. On a global scale this self-organising structure resulted in a profusion of multiple parallel networks, all of them loosely connected. These networks were defined by the characteristics of its members, certain important localities, and specific procedures.

Taarnby cites Sageman's book, and says "there is no evidence of a top-down recruitment programme in the global Jihad." Rather, terrorists find themselves alienated from civil society and begin to group together in similarly minded clusters.

This example of a recruitment process contained the following elements:

* Individual alienation and marginalisation
* Spiritual quest
* Process of radicalisation
* Meeting and associating with likeminded people
8 Gradual seclusion and cell formation
* Acceptance of violence as legitimate political means
* Connection with a gatekeeper in the know
* Going operational

The amorphous nature of these networks makes them difficult to penetrate. How do you get between two closely bound nodes?