A John F. Kennedy School of Government researcher has cast doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation’s level of political freedom. ‘In the past, we heard people refer to the strong link between terrorism and poverty, but … when you look at the data, it’s not there. This is true not only for events of international terrorism … but … also for the overall level of terrorism, both of domestic and of foreign origin.’
Hmmm, I wonder what was his first clue. The godfather of terrorism, Yassir “I’m not dead yet!” Arafat, is worth over $1 billion and his heirs are desperately trying to figure out where his bank accounts are. The Baader-Meinhof gang was a bunch of German rich kids. Osama bin Laden is a Saudi multimillionaire and the Peruvian Shining Path wasn’t exactly strapped for cash thanks to healthy opium crops in the territory it controlled.