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"One big question is whether it still makes sense to talk about radicalisation of a perpetrator if they are just interested in getting paid,” said Neumann."
I would argue they are still radicalized, just by capitalism. People doing anything for money is not natural really, nor healthy.
They are called mercenaries and the practice is as old as war.
There are tons of mercenary companies working for the US Government too.
Mercenaries are professionals, though. This phenomenon is about ordinary or at least commonly criminal people.
The non/semi-professional mercenaries have to start somewhere before they get promoted to the big leagues.
Well first they need to get promoted to “assistant to the mercenary” before they become truly professional.
They usually start as foot soldiers in a formal state military before moving on to mercenary work.
That was before the Gig Economy took over.
Anyone who does this type of work for money and isn't employed directly by a government is a "professional mercenary." What's the difference between some ex-Marine who gets hired as a mercenary after a 4 year tour and an "ordinary" or "commonly criminal" person?
You're using "professional" to mean "ethical and skilled" but anyone who takes a job killing people for money from the highest bidder is far from that.
If they are paid they are professional and not all mercenaries are paid in coin.
Mercenaries are definitely not all professionals - who do you think are the boots on the ground for all the proxy wars happening today?
Turkey and Russia were flying out Syrian mercenaries to north Africa to fight each other over Libya.
It's extensively published in military research papers that guns for hire (mercenaries) are becoming much more ubiquitous in today's proxy wars.
Look up the definition of professional in the dictionary. If you get paid for a job, your are a professional. Level of experience or skill is not part of the definition.
I think the key term being used is "mercenary" though
TLDR: terrorism as a service. A new form of terrorism in Western countries: “disposable terrorists.” Instead of trained ideological extremists, hostile states and proxy groups recruit ordinary people online for money to carry out attacks, sabotage, or intimidation. Using encrypted apps, cryptocurrency, and criminal networks, organizers can quickly hire low-skill operatives who are easy to replace and difficult to trace. The article links this trend to Iran-backed networks and describes it as part of modern “hybrid warfare,” combining espionage, cyber tactics, propaganda, and deniable violence.
> creates conditions that cause millions of people to be economically desperate, lacking access to basic human needs
> some economically desperate people turn to increasingly violent crime as a way to make ends meet
> shockedpikachu.jpg
Oh come on, you can't expect these people to think further than one quarter ahead. That's all they ever learned and needed.
Once, a hostile secret service had to send a skilled and experienced operative to commit assassination, sabotage or terrorism thousands of miles away, or activate networks of sleeper agents, or find and train ideologically committed recruits ready to betray their country. Such schemes took years to prepare.
Nope. This is not how spy work works. Want you want is a bunch of turned deniable assets. ~~The skill operative is an invention of the American movies~~
That's an unfortunate codename in the modern day: STI
I don’t say that « super spies » don’t exist, what I’m saying is that they aren’t the norm
There’s more George Smiley that they have James Bond
I have edited my first post
Crinkle cut fries also aren’t the norm. Super spies are an asset that get trained when they are needed.
Yeah. Volume is good as it degrades the enemy's trust and increaes defence costs.
One extra smart guy is fine if youve already got a load of greedy fools running amok.
Every country operates similar systems. The Israelis have the perfect one - honey trap operators like Epstein and Mossad assassins using fake foreign passports
Everything old is new again.
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/
The Indian medical student who created a MAGA amazon could have just as easily used 'her' to recruit an army.
This is not a new menace, nor is it just Western countries who are dealing with it.
Mercenaries have been around forever and everyone is using them. I would say that the entire continent of Africa has been menaced far more than 'Western' countries.
Russia started this in Ukraine.
Blaming encrypted messaging and cryptocurrency. Great.