10 Best Buy Training Manual

COMMENTARY | An Al-Qaida training manual has been uncovered that instructs young jihadis traveling in the West how to avoid honey traps, which are young, attractive female operatives trained to seduce men and gain a measure of control over them, according to the Daily Mirror.

The manual suggests that terrorist operatives either tell any woman who tries to pick them up that they have a steady girlfriend and wish to be true to her or they are gay. In that way, it is supposed the seductresses will be discouraged from attempting to turn the stalwart young terrorist out to wreak death and mayhem upon the infidel.

A honey trap operation can proceed in a number of ways. One variant has the woman (or man depending on the gender of the target) establish an emotional bond with the person being seduced. In this way, valuable intelligence might be garnered through pillow talk. In some cases, the target can be turned entirely, all out of what he or she thinks is a newfound love.

The other variant, often used on married traveling businessmen, is for the honey trap to be sprung while the man is sporting with the female operative. Then a male operative bursts into the room demanding what is going on with his wife and making threats. A variant of this involves photographs or video used for blackmail purposes.

The authors of the training manual are well-intentioned. But they may not reckon with the loneliness of young men in a strange and for them sometimes off-putting environment, cut off from the familiar. Many of these terrorists are socially and sexually naive, coming as they do from repressive societies where women are neither seen nor heard. Thus they are particularly vulnerable to the wiles of someone who is trained to play on the emotional weaknesses of their targets, not to mention a young man's natural urges.

Praying to Allah, as the manual also suggests, to deliver one from temptation may work for a while on the religious, devoted terrorist. But think of it: If a young man is in London or New York getting ready to blow himself and as many of the infidel up as possible, one last-minute fling would look pretty good, even if one believes one is going to the 72 virgins. The 9/11 hijackers, after all, hung around strip clubs before doing the deed.

And in that instance, if there is a modern day Mata Hari at the right place and time, even the terrorist made of oak will be lost.

Source: UK terrorists told: Pretend to be gay so you don't get caught, Nick Owens, Daily Mirror, July 3, 2020