Is There A Link Between Welfare And Terrorism?

Michael Kaus, Slate: Does Welfare Cause Terrorism?

Here are some suspected terrorists in the news:

* Zacarias Moussaoui, the French North African charged with conspiracy in connection with the 9/11 attack, became an Islamic radical living in London "while drawing welfare benefits and studying economics," Newsday reports.

* Ahmed Ressam, the member of Algeria's Armed Islamic Group who was arrested crossing the U.S. border with bombs designed to blow up L.A.'s airport, moved to Canada in 1994 where he "survived on welfare payments" and petty crime, according to terrorism expert Peter Bergen.

* Metin Kaplan, who heads a German radical Islamist sect suspected of attempting to fly a plane into the Ataturk mausoleum in Turkey, "claimed social [welfare] benefits in Cologne for many years until 2m Deutschmarks ($1.2m) in cash was found in his flat," reports the BBC.

* Abu Qatada, the cleric who taught Moussaoui and is accused of having links to al-Qaida agents in six countries, avoided extradition to Jordan on terrorism charges by settling in England, where "[l]ike many other London-based Arab dissidents, [he] has received regular welfare checks from the British government—and government subsidized housing," according to the Washington Post. Abu Qatada's welfare payments were stopped when it was discovered he controlled a secret bank account containing approximately $270,000.

Do you see a pattern? There's a story here! And it's not as crazy or demagogic as it seems.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Welfare does not cause terrorism .... but it is true that a lot of terrorists have been found to be receiving some form of government assistance.

Update: Forget about welfare and terrorism .... you know that economically this is not going to end well for Sweden .... Fewer than 500 of 163,000 asylum seekers found jobs (Local.se).

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