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Al-Qaeda's Job Application Form Revealed 149

HughPickens.com writes: ABC News reports that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released a list of English-language material recovered during the raid the killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011 including one document dubbed "Instructions to Applicants," that would not be entirely out of place for an entry-level position at any American company – except for questions like the one about the applicant's willingness to blow themselves up. The questionnaire includes basic personal details, family history, marital status, and education level. It asks that applicants "answer the required information accurately and truthfully" and, "Please write clearly and legibly." Questions include: Is the applicant expert in chemistry, communications or any other field? Do they have a family member in the government who would cooperate with al Qaeda? Have they received any military training? Finally, it asks what the would-be jihadist would like to accomplish and, "Do you wish to execute a suicide operation?" For the final question, the application asks would-be killers that if they were to become martyrs, who should al Qaeda contact?

The corporate tone of the application is jarringly amusing, writes Amanda Taub, but it also hints at a larger truth: a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda is a large bureaucratic organization, albeit one in the "business" of mass-murdering innocent people. Jon Sopel, the North American editor from BBC News, joked that the application "looks like it has been written by someone who has spent too long working for Deloitte or Accenture, but bureaucracy exists in every walk of life – so why not on the path to violent jihad?"
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Al-Qaeda's Job Application Form Revealed

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24, 2015 @11:58AM (#49763821)

    I always wondered where the Cobra employees came from. Now I know.

    • by mujadaddy ( 1238164 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @12:30PM (#49763937)
      And knowing is half the battle!
    • I always wondered where the Cobra employees came from. Now I know.

      Actually, this was answered in the GI Joe comic (written by the guy that had the idea for the new GI Joe IIRC). Cobra employees typically came form the slums of the world. They would find gang members, poor, the dispossessed. Move them to Cobra facilities where they are inducted into a new gang, clothed, fed, socialized into a new family, given education and training, entertainment, healthcare, and even plans to send some of their salary back to their families and help elevate them out of poverty. The typic

  • That is hardly exclusive to Al-Qaeda. You are tagged by the direction you point your gun.

    • by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @12:57PM (#49764027) Journal
      If anything, Al-Qaeda isn't actually in the mass-murder business.

      They are a nasty bunch, treat civilian casualties as a feature not a bug, etc.; but they don't have nearly the resources or the direct combat assets; much less specialized infrastructure that must either be carefully hidden or sited in an area where you are the de-facto government, to do 'mass murder'.

      They do terrorism: that tends to include a good deal of violence; but calibrated with an eye to maximum psychological impact, attacks on culturally salient targets, that sort of thing. In terms of straight body count, they rank well below more-or-less-strictly-business drug cartels, and even a fair percentage of the 21st century bush wars in countries that aren't interesting enough to even attract a few foreign correspondents; much less the sort of stuff that made the 20th century so notorious.

      The numbers get a bit fuzzy because of the various more-and-less-actually-connected 'franchise' operators, some of which were actually collaborators to some reasonably close degree, some of which were little more than unrelated thugs with a taste for trademark infringement; but Al-Qaeda's body count just isn't that big. It's well weighted for psychological punch, lots of Americans in important buildings, fewer peasant conscripts in ethniclashistan; but in absolute numbers? Chickenshit. ISIS and Boko Haram are almost certainly well ahead; and let's not even talk about how quickly the professionals working for established nation states can stack up bodies...
      • by Anonymous Coward

        ...and let's not even talk about how quickly the professionals working for established nation states can stack up bodies...

        Now you're talking about 21st century Bush wars.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          ...and let's not even talk about how quickly the professionals working for established nation states can stack up bodies...

          Now you're talking about 21st century Bush wars.

          Bush Wars
          Obama Wars
          Hollande Wars (Libya)

          The French are as devious and cruel as the Americans. They just like to kill with no tv's around. Especially in their old time African colonies.

      • 10 or 20 deaths in a single event qualifies as mass murder. I'm pretty sure the 'qaeda has killed fiftyfold that amount in single events.
        • by Anonymous Coward

          Once or twice doesn't make a sustainable business.

      • by bazorg ( 911295 )

        Totally agree. I suspect that if the Al Qaeda affected somehow the interests of a traditional Mafia or of a large drug cartel, they would not survive long.

      • ISIS, now known as Da'esh, started out as Al Queda in Iraq. Eventually, there were some management disputes and Al Queda kicked them out.

      • I see Al-Qaeda as more of an agency, or employment center. They are definitely little more than one of many middlemen that executes(?) a purchase order from the nation states that need their services, a procurement office for weapons and personnel, passports, credit cards, you name it. They might even have an iStore. Either way it is a facade, a front, in the global terror business. They attract everybody's attention, while their financiers are off to Monaco!

    • by murdocj ( 543661 )

      Well, and who you point it at. And whether you use teenagers to kill as many innocent people as is possible. It's a bit like saying there's no difference between a civilian getting killed on the battlefield and herding people into gas chambers. At some point, yes, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

    • by plopez ( 54068 )

      mmmm... ot to different that any corporation that hires untrained people and puts them into deadly situations with poor safety. Such as coal mining, oil field work, handling agricultural chemicals, chemical refineries, etc. One does it for Allah, the other does it for profit.

  • Truth be told... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @12:01PM (#49763827)

    These 'applicants' would probably never consider the path to jihad if they had a decent job and the ability to earn a living to raise a family

    The unemployment rates are 27% with even higher rates for people in their twenties
    The application takes advantage of their desires to have a 'real' job and twists it into continuing strife that does nothing to improve their economic conditions

    • BULL FUCKING SHIT (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      These 'applicants' would probably never consider the path to jihad if they had a decent job and the ability to earn a living to raise a family

      The unemployment rates are 27% with even higher rates for people in their twenties
      The application takes advantage of their desires to have a 'real' job and twists it into continuing strife that does nothing to improve their economic conditions

      BULLSHIT.

      Jihadi John [wikipedia.org]:

      Emwazi was born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri[15] on 17 August 1988 in Kuwait[1] to Jassem and Ghaneyah.[14] The family, who were Bedoon of Iraqi origin,[14] moved to UK in 1994 when he was six.[16] They settled in inner west London, moving between several properties in Maida Vale,[17] later living in St John's Wood and finally in Queen's Park.[17][18] Emwazi attended St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school, and later Quintin Kynaston Community Academy.[3]

      In 2006 he went to the University of Westminster, studying Information Systems with Business Management. He secured a lower second-class BSc (Hons) on graduation three years later.[3] At age 21, he worked as a salesman at an IT company in Kuwait and was considered by his boss as the best employee the company ever had.

      You are one addle-brained moron.

      • Clearly, most/all 'applicants' have similar qualifications as Jihadi John.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by KGIII ( 973947 )

        And Osama came from a wealthy family and was wealthy himself. So? You realize that your post includes a link to Wikipedia? The reason there is an article about him specifically is because, well, they are an outlier and their exception to the rules makes them noteworthy enough to have an article to start with. Occam's Razor ring a bell? Yay! You found an exception and that somehow disproves, "...applicants' would probably never consider the path..."

        At risk of going a bit too far I would highly recommend a Cr

        • by KGIII ( 973947 )

          And see post http://news.slashdot.org/comme... [slashdot.org] where I decided to actually research this and learned something new. My sincere apologies. In my defense I know, for a fact, that I read a study that stated otherwise but I am unable to find it thus will concede the point and consider the benefit as having learned something new.

          • Trading papers, I will see yours and offer:
            "This paper also suggests that the Gini Index of economic inequality may also have a significant correlation with terrorist risk. The results overall imply that exclusion from the economy can be a motivator for terrorism just as exclusion from politics can be, regardless of the overall wealth of a country."
            http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/... [iwu.edu]

            I will even go on to say that it is the political control over the economy (whether the military control of Egypt or Pakistan, o

            • by KGIII ( 973947 )

              I was unable to find a study that supported that side though I knew that I had read the opposite (like the one you linked) view in the past. I also think that I followed the link from a comment here. The one you link is not the same though but reaches similar conclusions. My guess is the data can be interpreted either way depending on how you choose to view it.

          • It is a wise man--or woman--who can admit error.

            Fortunately, **I** am never wrong.

            Oh, yeah, :-)

        • by plopez ( 54068 )

          He has ties to the Saudis and the 'war on terror' has been described as a civil was inside the Saudi ruling class.

    • That's all too true, and this is described in The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (who later wrote Going Clear about Scientology). The big Q paid a decent wage with health benefits and a hefty compensation package to your family, especially upon "martyrdom." The fanatics were in the top-middle of the organization; the rank-and-file were mostly just desperate young males with a lot of social/familial obligations and nothing to lose. Depressing, really.

    • by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @01:10PM (#49764061) Journal
      Anonymous coward( 'Bull Fucking Shit', below) is far too strident; but it is the case that there's a curious sort of 'bifurcation' in the 'terrorist' labor market(a confusion we probably contribute to by conflating the various local tribal militias, warlords, strongmen, etc. who cause us trouble during our ground campaigns with the 'terrorists' who are much more international in scope).

      On the one hand, as you say, the terrorist grunt supply is heavily drawn from frustrated young men(inconveniently, lots of prime recruiting grounds have demographics that skew fairly young, so there are lots of them), with limited economic prospects, often compounded by a culture where you probably aren't getting laid unless you've achieved enough economic stability to get married. The miscellaneous 'insurgents' who raise hell when you attempt to occupy their home sand trap; but lack international ambitions and/or capabilities are mostly these guys. Some of the lower-skill terrorists proper are as well(particularly for the Israelis, since Gaza's festering-prison-slum atmosphere provides an endless supply of the angry and hopeless; and you don't even need to buy them plane tickets to have them go do a 'martyrdom operation'.

      On the other hand, a lot of terrorist leadership, and high-skill recruits(if you want to blow stuff up, it sure helps to have some real engineers and chemists around), are not driven by economic desperation. Bin Laden himself was basically a trust-fund fundamentalist, and a lot of the more influential and logistically important figures are people with decent university degrees, often in marketable subjects, who are financially stable; but alienated by some aspect of the injustice of the world, or disaffected by secularism or the wrong sort of religious practice, exactly which one varying by person.

      They come in both flavors.
      • I agree on both flavors, and I suggest that they are rooted in the same cause, which is an attempt to prevent internal revolution due to lack of opportunity

        Even bin laden was relegated to some son-of-the-boss position if he had toed the line, so he traded that away for leading his own quasi-government

        By design, this was outside the borders of his birth and in no way threatened the people who actually limited his ambitions at home

    • As it happens, I'm unemployed right now and extremely (clinically) depressed. (Too bad I can't afford COBRA, so I can't afford the antidepressant I was taking.) And yet--for some bizarre reason--I have not considered the option of murdering a bunch of people who don't share my philosophical views. Maybe I should. Do they offer dental?

      Come on. If a bunch of people are one layoff away from going jihadi-apeshit, then there is a problem here quite distinct from whatever economic woes they might face.

      And
      • I am really sorry for your situation and hope you get medical care that you need and your prospects improve. You raise a good question from your terrible circumstances. Why don't lots of people in terrible circumstances turn to crime or destruction out of the unfairness of their situation? I think that most people even in extreme circumstances are mostly just interested in improving things for themselves and their family. Those people living in the terrible despair of the Palestinian refugee camps or Syria
      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        a maximum benefit cap of roughly $4000 (maximum for the year. Not per-payment max.)

        WTF? State law or you only worked a limited time? Republican in office? That is entirely unacceptable, seriously. I would almost suggest posting a PayPal address but I got bitched at the last time I suggested that though I still made use of it much to the chagrin of the naysayers.

        • I appreciate the thought and sympathy, but I was trying to address that overblown ultra-echochamber-progressive concept of poverty being the main driver of religious terrorism.

          I wouldn't complain if someone mentioned a good entry level position for a math-y major thinking about jumping into CS/IT, but I suspect there would be competition.
          • by KGIII ( 973947 )

            It may be worth clicking the Jobs link at the bottom of the page.

          • trying to address that overblown ultra-echochamber-progressive concept of poverty being the main driver of religious terrorism.

            Hunger drove the "Arab spring" not Facebook. Everybody seemed to forget that there were rolling food riots in cities like Cairo and Aleppo shortly before the outbreak of hostilities. They were brought on by skyrocketing food prices due to record breaking droughts that were occurring in Australia, Russia, and the Fertile Crescent during the 2000's. In Syria alone, 2M people abandoned their farms and moved into the city looking for jobs, in a nation of 20M people it's not surprising that such internal displac

          • by dave420 ( 699308 )
            You are the one who is confused. It's not "poverty", but being outside of the economy and not being allowed in. It's like mega-poverty, as you simply don't exist, have no voice, yet still have the lovely gift of being shat on by those with power.
            • I was specifically using Britain's Muslims as an example (they have it much better than America's from a poverty standpoint, but there is a bigger radicalization problem over there.) Focusing exclusively on the lowest classes in the third world is another conversation entirely. Yes, they are a significant part of the game here but the founders and leaders of ISIS and al-Qaeda were not and are not impoverished.
      • by dave420 ( 699308 )
        You being unemployed is not exactly comparable. If you are going to try to understand this, starting from your own experience is not the best way, as you are not directly comparable. Plenty terrorists have had good jobs, but the vast majority have not, or have no chance of finding one again. Pointing out the relatively-rare as evidence that the majority doesn't exist isn't particularly helpful.
        • As I said in my other reply, my situation is directly comparable to British Muslims (like Jihadi John, the 7/7 bombers, etc.) and the statistics of what British Muslims vs. American Muslims believe show that this is not a purely anecdotal point I am making. Protection from poverty is clearly not preventing extremism.

          Also, it is worth focusing on the middle and upper classes, because they are primarily the ones creating all of these organizations and ideologies (Osama bin Laden, Sayyid Qutb, Abu Bakr al-B
      • This was a job application written in English, so I was comparing my situation to those of lower class Muslims in Britain. If you dislike my anecdote, I direct you to the hard data concerning:

        a. The differences between American assistance for the lower classes and the unemployed vs. British assistance (even under a Tory government)

        and

        b. The statistics describing what American Muslims believe vs. what British Muslims believe


        Or, you know, you can just mod me troll because I'm too lazy to post
    • Re:Truth be told... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @01:45PM (#49764209) Homepage Journal

      Dear moderators: "Troll" is not a synonym for "I disagree with this".

      That said, I disagree with this.

      We've known since the investigation of 9/11 that suicide bombers are not necessarily dead-enders except in the literal sense. Economic powerlessness might play a role in the political phenomenon of extremist violence, but it is not a necessary element of the profile of a professional extremist. These people often come from privileged backgrounds and display average to above average job aptitude.

      Mohammed Atta's life story makes interesting reading. He was born to privileged parents; at the insistence of his emotionally distant father he wasn't allowed to socialize with other kids his age, and had a lifelong difficulty with relating to his peers. At university he did OK but below the high expectations of his parents. He went to graduate school in urban planning where his thesis was on how impersonal modern high rise buildings ruined the historic old neighborhoods of the Muslim world.

      That much is factual; as to why he became an extremist while countless others like him did not, we can only speculate. I imagine that once he decided modernity was the source of his personal dissatisfactions Al Qaeda would be attractive to him. Al Qaeda training provided structure which made interacting with his new "peers" easier than ever before. And martyrdom promised relief from the dissatisfactions of a life spent conscious of his own mediocrity. Altogether he was a miserable and twisted man -- but not economically miserable.

      • Hey,
        I would argue that Atta, and many of the well educated 'forefathers' of this movement were facing their own glass ceilings, and would never reach the levels of social success in their own countries (as compared to what they could expect in the western countries they were educated in) due to the members of the royal families that got all of the sweet positions

        One solution to their problem would be to mount an internal revolution

        To prevent this they were intentionally radicalized by royally-supported Wahh

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )
        A few people with or capable of getting PHDs will join the armed forces for the challenge or career opportunities, this does not mean most who join the army are PHD candidates. In fact I'd say the average Rifleman/General Infantry recruit is quite the opposite.

        Why would any other armed force, regular or otherwise be any different. You want to attract highly skilled people for highly skilled work, you need grunts for grunt work and there is a lot of grunt work to be done.

        The only real difference is tha
    • These 'applicants' would probably never consider the path to jihad if they had a decent job and the ability to earn a living to raise a family

      The unemployment rates are 27% with even higher rates for people in their twenties
      The application takes advantage of their desires to have a 'real' job and twists it into continuing strife that does nothing to improve their economic conditions

      The 9/11 hijackers included an architect, a law student and a school teacher. A significant number of suicide bombers have technical backgrounds, have families and have had a pretty good life. They have found solutions to the problems of jobs, food and home life and choose to focus on a perceived evil in the world that they don't think they can change in any other way.

      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        I opted to school myself on quickly via the mighty Google. I learned something today and it is surprising.

        Perhaps surprisingly, our review of the evidence provides little reason for optimism that a reduction in poverty or an increase in educational attainment would meaningfully reduce international terrorism. Any connection between poverty, education and terrorism is indirect, complicated and probably quite weak. Instead of viewing terrorism as a direct response to low market opportunities or ignorance, we suggest it is more accurately viewed as a response to political conditions and long-standing feelings of indignity and frustration that have little to do with economics.

        Citation: http://www.uvm.edu/~wgibson/PD... [uvm.edu] (Note: PDF)

    • The psychological examination of terrorism has shown the good news that it's not really linked to how poor, religious, or mentally unstable the people are. The poorest countries are not the ones that create the most terrorism, many terrorists are educated and middle class or higher (with respect to the countries they came from, anyway), and unsurprisingly, a lot of terrorists aren't devoutly religious. Terror cells require secrecy and organization, so while crazy guys might seem easier to persuade to do cra

      • "and unsurprisingly, a lot of terrorists aren't devoutly religious"

        I think that it may be a similar phenomenon to Born Again Christians in America, where people are deeply indoctrinated when they are young, put aside their beliefs for lives of debauchery in their young adult years, then fall back to their original beliefs (or influence of religious leaders who represent those beliefs) in later years or when facing some emotional hardship

    • These 'applicants' would probably never consider the path to jihad if they had a decent job and the ability to earn a living to raise a family

      Sadly, not true there was a study that showed the terrorists, at least in the middle east, tend to come from relatively upper class backgrounds. It's more a bunch of privileged apsies who think they know what God wants and have no human empathy. People who are struggling depend on other people enough to learn a little empathy and have other worries than "what does God want"

  • Are we sure corporations didn't get their recruiting style from jihadists and crusaders?

    Corporations just tend to be a little more subtle about their attitudes to the human pawns they exploit to subvert enlightened civilization.

    • by plopez ( 54068 )

      And kill them when they put them into dangerous situations. See my comment re: safety regulations and getting low wage workers killed on the job. Corporations do not even see them, and probably us, as human.

  • I forgot to ask (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @12:05PM (#49763843) Journal

    Why is "business" in quotation marks? This is a business. Al-Qaeda and ISIS are brand names, just like DuPont and AT&T. Financed by big money from around the world. That would most likely include your favorite financial institution.

  • "Do you wish to execute a suicide operation?"

    So what's the state of their pension scheme and healthcare package?

    • "Do you wish to execute a suicide operation?"

      So what's the state of their pension scheme and healthcare package?

      For Al-queda? I'm not sure. For Hamas and the PLO attacking Isreal, it was probably more money than they would every be able to save in their lifetime donated to their families. Used to be paid for by Iraq, but now Iran has stepped in to pay the price last I read. I can only imagine that Al-queda had a similar deal if nothing else.

  • Its not like corporations are a democracy anyway.

  • Let's get serious: how well do they pay?
  • This form poped up on net about a week ago and looks fake as hell ..al Qaeda is like grampa with the old ass computer with a dot matrix printer that family has to hunt cartage's down for and isis 4k HD video makeing high gloss pdf magizine makeing teen

  • by koan ( 80826 )

    Al-Qaeda and ISIS are manufactured FUD, why does media like /. want to further that crap?
    A Primer:
    http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu... [msu.edu]

    A snippet:

    This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

    In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

    We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

    Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

    In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

    Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

    The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present

    and is gravely to be regarded.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by koan ( 80826 )

      Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US "Created" ISIS As A "Tool" To Overthrow Syria's President Assad
      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/... [zerohedge.com]

      Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State
      http://www.thedailybeast.com/a... [thedailybeast.com]

      CIA-funded al Qaeda
      http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03... [nytimes.com]

      Start with the top link it leads to all the others, and there are a LOT of them.

      • Or I'd mark you and your parent as "overrated." We don't need this kind of bullshit here or anywhere.

        • To dissent, and express an opinion? Or to think for himself? We don't stand for that crap in this country! This is the East India Trading Company! AHEM, the U S of A! Sorry, I got my flags mixed up.

          But if you still don't believe me, then let me throw some numbers at you! Five! Twenty three! Eight hundred six!
    • Al-Qaeda and ISIS are manufactured FUD,

      I'm really interested......do you realize that the link you posted does not logically support this statement? Eisenhower could be right, and Al-Qaeda/ISIS could not be manufactured. They can both be true.

      Seriously, are you saying the government orchestrated the crash into the twin towers? Because if you are, you need to get your head screwed on straight.

      • by koan ( 80826 )

        I don't believe I mentioned 9/11, What I am trying to say is that every bit of this terrorism you see today is manufactured.
        I was pretty specific about this.

        As far as 9/11 goes, well maybe it was a straight forward attack maybe it wasn't, but the people in charge needed something like 9/11 to put their agenda into action.
        Little chance the US would have gone to war and occupation of Iraq without it, and no way you get the PATRIOT act and the NSA issues without it.

        By the way if you're under 30 I really don't

        • There are only 2 paths of discussion for the majority of the people out there.
          A: The government told the truth.
          B: Conspiracy nuts.

          There is no "in between" has been my experience, no room for conjecture or debate.

          You find this to be true because you sound too much like the latter. Change the tone of your writing and you'll end up with better conversations.

        • You can look at this a different way, answer these questions (true or false):

          1) The government only acts for the interests of the wealthy few.
          2) George Bush only wanted to help his rich friends.
          3) Obama only wants to help his rich friends.
          4) Rand Paul only wants to help his rich friends.
        • They also said we needed a 'new pearl harbor'. Pearl Harbor itself may have been allowed to get us into the war. Hawaii itself was unlawfully annexed, and invaded. President Cleveland called it an 'act of war'. People called us isolationist in WWII, but I believe Major General Smedly Butler's book 'War is a Racket', which sold millions of copies was likely the reason. He was the youngest Major General of the Marine Corps, and received two Congressional Medals of Honor, and the Brevet medal, all for separate
          • Pearl Harbor could have been predicted by a modern intelligence agency, of the sort the Department of War created in January 1942 (the timing is not accidental). In fact, nobody was in charge of putting top secret intelligence together. In fact, it was no secret that war with Japan was imminent, and Pearl Harbor received two warning messages ten days before the attack, which were pretty well ignored by the authorities there. General Short, in charge of the defenses, was a fossil who disregarded the impo

  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @12:35PM (#49763969)
    Al-Faruq has 12 sticks of dynamite in his vest. El-waqui has 4 packs of C4. They trade 3 sticks of dynamite for 1 pack of C4.
    a) Did Al-Faruq's vest weight go up or down?
    b) How many infidels can each send to hell when they're a martyr?

    Awan-Afuqya and Al-Suq Aweenr can destroy 1,000 feet of priceless ancient artifacts in 3.5 hours. Awan-Afuqya alone takes 6 hours. How long would it take Al-Suq to do the job alone?

    M'Ballz Es-Hari made 2 IEDs yesterday, and 3 IEDs today. How many IEDs does M'Ballz Es-Hari have?

    Divide 80 infidels into 3 groups such that the second group will have twice as many as the first, and the third will have 5 less than the second.
    • There was a famous math book for small children used in Lebanon and probably Syria that had questions like:
      You have twelve Jews to kill, you kill five of them, how many Jews do you have left to kill?

    • Those sound like school math test questions, not job interview ones.

      Estimate how many infidels there are in the middle east right now that need killing.

      Please talk about a time you had a disagreement with a Shia colleague and how you handled it?

      How many sticks of dynamite can you fit in a Peugeot sedan? Before the suspension starts to visibly sag?

      Explain Jihad to an 8-year old in 3 sentences or fewer.

  • by linebackn ( 131821 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @01:01PM (#49764037)

    This story has been brought to you by your dice.com overloads.

    Which makes it even more disturbing...

    Wonder that the health benefits are like. :P

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I wonder if they have a fat-ass HR clown drilling them on stupid questions like "well, we are looking for somebody with X years experience in suicide bombing"

  • Jihadists believe that the people they are killing are in some way interfering with their goals. They generally believe that the land they are fighting in is rightfully theirs, so they see the killing of "infidels" as a righteous cause. It just so happens that the people they are killing are better skilled at selling their own cause to the media that reports the killings.
    • Naw, they just don't think of people who are unlike themselves as people, and they're sure God agrees and will reward them for killing them.

  • How do you get references from dead martyrs?

  • We live in a nation that was fool enough to elect Baby Bush and in my state the notorious Rick Scott as governor. In such a warped society I do not find it unthinkable that recruits for a nut job cult that enjoys suicides and murders would be here for the asking.
  • I Applied (Score:5, Funny)

    by BlackHawk-666 ( 560896 ) on Sunday May 24, 2015 @04:07PM (#49764781)

    I applied, but the recruiter insisted I already have five years experience in suicide bombing before he could get me a decent placement.

  • Listen, if you wanna join Al Qaeda, you have to really hate the Americans.

    "I do!"

    Oh yeah? How much?

    "A lot!"

    Right, you're in.

  • Button presser extraordinaire

    Dinghy 'Captain'

    Box truck 'Driver'

    Fuse lighter

    Foot switch operator

    Parking lot attendant briber

    U.S. Navy public access schematic reader

    skiff load capacity mathematician
  • by PPH ( 736903 )

    ... can't find any applicants who have had 5 years experience martyring themselves.

  • Do they have Pointy Haired Boss? [wikipedia.org]. Pointy-bearded boss, perhaps?
  • Seriously!
    Do you remember the 90's widespread hoax of a company selling kittens grown up inside glass bottles as "bonsai"? I consider this to be on the same level of hoax - but for some possible state-intelligence level sponsoring that could be used to stir even more the rage against "the terrorists". Just to keep the wars going, you know.

  • by Kiyyik ( 954108 ) on Tuesday May 26, 2015 @08:26AM (#49774389)

    So, does this mean that somewhere out there is someone who wanted to join Al-Qaeda and become a terrorist and blow themselves up and all that jazz but got rejected for poor penmanship?

    "Well, Ahmed, you scored high in fanaticism and lack of moral scruples, but this application is frankly a mess. I could barely read the thing. I'm afraid you're just not what we're looking for, sorry. Have you tried Amway?"

    "They sent me here."

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. -- Henry David Thoreau

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