The Middle East group blog 'Aqoul - which strikes me as a particularly open-minded, liberal-leaning (and anti-torture) site - has been delving into a US military document on the background and attitudes of about 600 Guantanamo detainees, most of them captured in Afghanistan. [I couldn't get the source link to work just now.] Make of these findings what you will:
1 – Most of these recruits joined up for the same reasons most young men have gone to war since the first corps of spearmen walked the Earth in time immemorial: a need to fill a gap in one’s life and gain honour for one’s self and way of life.
2 – Most expected to fight, if at all, in Chechnya.
3 – Al-Qaeda has a fairly slick recruitment infrastructure that is not matched by their post-recruitment preparation, personal care, and training. Contrary to a lot of buzz, these guys had no idea they would become prisoners, nor were they trained in what to say or do if they were captured.
4 – Most appeared to have been caught in a reward-based manhunt for Arabs by the Northern Alliance. Many had no access to their travel documents because al-Qaeda had them hide them.
5- Many were genuinely surprised that their home country embassies did not go to bat for them after capture by the Northern Alliance or the Americans.
6 – The al-Qaeda leadership did not prepare their recruits for the reaction to 9/11 and it is not clear if the leadership themselves were expecting the onslaught.
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