Terrorists can be weaned away from violence, study suggests

Washington : Since 2001 Al Qaida is believed to have despatched three men to blow up American airliners. Two of them tried but failed to set off explosions, and the third backed out of his assignment.

What made him different? A new study suggests family ties may have played an important role.

The report to be released this week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy looked at dozens of terrorists in trying to figure out what motivates terror dropouts and how others might be influenced to turn their backs on violent operations.

Michael Jacobson, who wrote the study, said one of the key differences in the case of British student Sajid Badat was his continued connection to his family, which had emigrated from Malawi to Britain before he was born.

Badat, then 21, didn't go through with a December 2001 shoe-bombing operation. He stashed the bomb under a bed in his family home in Gloucester, England.

British intelligence tracked down Badat two years later using evidence found on shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to bring down a plane in December 2001 and is serving a life sentence in a high-security US prison.

More recently, a Nigerian man, Omar Farouq Abdul Muttalib, was charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas with explosives sewed into his underwear.

Jacobson, who interviewed 10 of the dropouts, said that unlike Reid and Abdul Muttalib, Badat returned from militant camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and eventually moved back in with his family.

Seeking calmness

Badat told prosecutors he bailed out because he was hoping "to introduce calm into his life." He is serving a 13-year sentence.

Families can play either a positive or negative role in a terrorist's plans, something Al Qaida recognises. Lead September 11 hijacker Mohammad Atta instructed his compatriots to cut off ties to their families. However, the two September 11, 2001 conspirators who dropped out were both in touch with their families.

At the same time, Al Qaida is known to realise the power that families can exert in keeping a terrorist in the fold. For example, it has paid extra to men with wives and given them additional time off to be with their families, according to the report.