Terrorism expert warns of future threats

BRUSSELS, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A leading experts on terrorism has warned that U.S. attempts to crush the al Qaida network will lead to more attacks on the West unless Washington tackles the root causes of the Middle East conflict and learns to fight terrorism with psychological as well as military means.

Stephen Morgan, British-born author of "The Mind of a Terrorist Fundamentalist," told United Press International that in order to defeat terrorism, it is essential to understand the mentality of its perpetrators.

Describing terrorists as "coalitions of the mentally ill with weapons," Morgan, a convert to Islam, says groups such as Hamas and al Qaida find their foot soldiers among the millions of Afghans, Yemenis and Palestinians living in wretched conditions and traumatized by decades of war.

"If you were a young boy growing up in Palestine and had just seen your brother or sister shot dead by Israeli troops, you would grow up an extremely disturbed individual," says Morgan, who is due to address a Homeland Security conference in Portland, Ore., early next month.

Although Morgan supports U.S. military action in Afghanistan, he says airstrikes and special-forces operations will never defeat the al Qaida network.

"It's not like the Gulf War where American troops were able to bomb the Iraqis into submission," says Morgan, who was moved to write his book after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. "Like all guerrilla movements, the whole history of al Qaida is based on being able to disappear into the mountains and regroup in a different place."

Neither does the terrorism expert believe that getting rid of Osama bin Laden, the suspected leader of al Qaida and the man U.S. authorities has been the mastermind behind several attacks on U.S. interests including those on Sept 11, will prevent further attacks on the West.

"If the Americans kill bin Laden, he'll become an idol like Che Guevara: there will be thousands of young men wearing T-shirts with his image on them," says the Brussels-based author. "It's like the many-headed Hydra of ancient mythology -- you chop one head off and another one grows back immediately."

Morgan is also fiercely critical of President George W. Bush's plans to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"A war on Iraq would be the biggest recruitment drive for al Qaida it is possible to think of," says the 43-year-old management lecturer and professional speaker.

Instead, Morgan calls for a "Marshall Plan for the Middle East" to rebuild the region's hospitals, schools and housing and undermine the conditions in which terrorist groupings thrive.

Morgan, who was a far-left revolutionary for much of the 1980s and came face to face with militants in Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia, believes bin Laden is a "typical psychopath -- emotionally castrated, with no sense of empathy and finding his identity through self-aggrandizement and power."

Morgan suspects that al Qaida, which he describes as "the most sophisticated mind-control cult in history," is regrouping in Pakistan and preparing further strikes against the United States and Britain.

"Al Qaida needs to hit back soon for the psychology of its own troops -- it has to keep them on a war footing, show them they are not defeated and will ultimately succeed," he says.

Morgan fears that political instability and support for Islamic fundamentalism could lead to the "balkanization of Pakistan" and result in a "nightmare scenario" in which al Qaida becomes entangled in the Kashmiri conflict between the Indian subcontinent's two nuclear powers.