Neuropsych'rist: 'Eliminate Muslim Zealots'

[Jan Klimkowski]

Dr Jean Maria Arrigo's letter is both courageous and insightful.

It appears to have received no public response.

Excerpts from posting :

"Racism in U.S. Intelligence?

An article by a former U.S. Navy Chief of Neuropsychiatry at Guantanamo Bay struck me as insupportably racist attributing the problem of Middle East terrorism largely to the neurological defects of terrorists. William Henry Anderson's article on "Terrorism Underlying Causes" was published in the Winter/Spring 2004 issue of The Intelligencer, journal of the Association of Former [U.S.] Intelligence Officers (AFIO). Apart from the ethical implications, the author seems to violate one of the firmest principles in intelligence: do not underestimate the enemy..."

"... Below is a copy of my letter (sent 6/1/04) to the editors of The Intelligencer..."

To the Editor and Contributing Editors of The Intelligencer:

William Henry Anderson's essay on "Terrorism Underlying Causes" in the Winter/Spring 2004 issue of The Intelligencer [1], appears to me invalid and unsuitable for publication this journal. I write to you as an AFIO member and a social psychologist who studies ethics of intelligence.

Anderson conjectures that many hard-core Middle East terrorist zealots "have brains that are structurally and functionally different from ours" (p. 55). He attributes their violent behavior to defects in particular areas of the brain (frontal lobes, amygdala, and temporal lobes), as a result of inbreeding, environmental toxins, birth injuries, and other developmental risks, amplified by cultural factors. In his positions as Harvard Lecturer in psychiatry, Senior Psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and former U.S. Navy Chief of Neuropsychiatry at Guantanamo Bay, presumably he has had opportunity to test his conjecture. Yet he offers no empirical evidence whatever. Moreover, he has not addressed seemingly contradictory scientific literature. A 1999 U.S. government report on The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism, for example, synthesized dozens of cross-cultural empirical studies in search of terrorist profiles [2]. The report concluded that terrorists do not have "visibly detectable personality traits that would allow authorities to identify a terrorist," and they are not "diagnosably mentally disturbed" (except for an occasional psychopathic top leader). Indeed, terrorist organizations tend to weed out the conspicuous and the mentally ill as liabilities. Anderson's acknowledgment of his failure to offer scientific evidence for his neuropsychiatric conjecture does not excuse the failure.

Anderson also uses a misleading rhetorical ploy, the image of cancerous cells in healthy tissue: "Let us consider terrorism with an analogy from medicine" that of terrorism as a cancer. There are about 1.4 billion Muslims in the world. Embedded within this healthy body are, perhaps, 100,000 people who are eager and active in pursuit of the goal of killing us. But Anderson has developed no structural analogy here to guide inquiry and policy, only a loose metaphor unsuitable for serious political analysis. For instance, the physician does not motivate the patient's tumor, whereas the counterterrorist program may well motivate terrorists.

Lastly, in proposing direct extermination of Middle East terrorist zealots, Anderson adopts the infamous racist metaphor used by the Nazis: "tumors as Jews, Jews as tumors" in the body politic [3]. Anderson says, in parallel, Just as successful treatment of cancer requires the killing of the malignant cells, we will need to kill this small minority [of 100,000 or so Middle East terrorists].... Anderson's argument may be valuable historically as a sample of the thinking of military authorities at Guantanamo Bay, but publication without editorial reservations appears to make the The Intelligencer complicit with Anderson's unsupported racism.

I am troubled that the editorial review process let pass Anderson's irresponsible science, misleading rhetoric, and in this delicate time for the dignity of the U.S. intelligence community his Nazification of intelligence. The damage could be mitigated by publishing some reviews of Anderson's article by other intelligence authorities.

Thank you for your attention to my concerns.
Sincerely, Jean Maria Arrigo, Ph.D.

P.S. You may forward my letter to others or publish it.

References
1. Anderson, William Henry. (2004). Terrorism underlying causes. The Intelligencer, 14 (1), 53-58.
2. Hudson, R.A. (1999) The sociology and psychology of terrorism: who becomes a terrorist and why? Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Pp. 56-58. Accessed January 27, 2003...
3. Proctor, Robert N. (1999). The Nazi war on cancer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. P. 8"

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