There have been some organizations that one describes as terrorists that can lack these fundamentals.
One is the Death Cult. Most horrifically was Aum Shinrikyo that perfected the multiple simultaneous attack plot with good COINTEL and internally cohesive structure. They did not thrive on grievance, but more on ennui and then a sophisticated form of chemical indoctrination, along with the Western standards of sex and rock’n'roll. Being a Death Cult they had few antagonisms and sought to hasten the day all the souls on earth could be set free. They had a unique funding scheme: running computer retailing outlets. Like the Rajneeshi followers they worked for little or nothing and their founder had made shrewd investments and withdrew them on a timely basis. That combined with the sale of narcotics allowed them to purchase industrial space in Japan and expand into the USSR. Additionally, as many of the recruitees were upper middle class, they could fund their own ways on many trips for doing chemical, biological and nuclear research outside of the constraints put on Iran, say. And their recruitment base was anyone attending a rock concert and wanting to listen to some of their teachings. The overwhelming majority were not recruited, but in straining society to get those who see life as pointless, they did get those and gave them purpose. They were effective enough to have properly produced Sarin and Vx nerve gas and actually weaponized anthrax but got the strain wrong. In one of the most chilling episodes, KGB agents sent to infiltrate them were turned, and many disappeared during the flux period between the end of Communist rule and the standing up of Russia. The individuals sent to perform deadly missions were expected to *return* for R&R and then go out to ‘release more souls’.
On the non-religious grievance side there are the various Red/Maoist and other groups adhering to forms of Communism, like Shining Path and the various Red Army groups. The fall of the USSR brought most of those to an end, but Shining Path continues its work in Peru, CPN-M in Nepal is still deadly, and FARC shifted from Marxism to narcotics based terrorism with a patina of leftism hanging around it. Over a decade of COIN is wearing FARC down, but recent backing from Venezuela still makes it a nasty organization to deal with. Shining Path is highly insular, but has been stubborn in giving up its ideals or struggle, even though it is not the threat it used to be.
What is disconcerting are the melding of Islamic based terror organizations with Balkan organized crime groups, particularly the 14 Families in Albania and Kosovo. The internetworking with Albanians has allowed ethnic based crime to stretch to the US and Canada, and that entree has allowed HAMAS, Hezbollah and al Qaeda to exploit those inroads. Getting to put a minor ‘terror tax’ on even 1% of the Balkan narcotics trade would make that one of the top funding sources for Hezbollah after Iran. Hezbollah, itself, has shifted to multiple bases of operations, particularly in S. America, where its use of money laundering for narcotics trafficking allows it to buy part ownership in shopping malls in Paraguay…. not something we consider to be a traditional haven for terrorists or financing them.
On the flip side are the brutal Red Mafias, that do not have the older ‘family code’ of interaction. These organizations have had little problem supplying terrorists for a price and even helping out on projects or doing some terror work of their own when necessary. That is more market share/competitor driven, and the ideology is capitalism in a very raw and meaty form. A mere handfull of individuals created a global money laundering system that even now, 8 years after discovery, the West has not pieced together and may never be able to do so due to the complexities involved. When trade in aluminum, steel and other industrial goods are used to hide proceeds from prostitution, narcotics trafficking and nuclear materials trade, and the web of companies set up on a global basis to deal with that makes tracking anything virtually impossible, you have a nascent organization driven by well known concepts and brutality to get their way.
These things do not obviate the traditional model of terrorist organizations, but those models have been morphing and hard for the last two decades and we must understand this. When state backed companies like Huawei from China can enter into agreements with terror supporting states and organizations and then utilize those contacts to gain and enforce market share via economic disruption, we no longer see a pure form of terrorism, but a hybrid form with multiple and often conflicting driving factors that have temporary coincidence and cooperation. And there is always the sophisticated, Western death cult with high technical capability and ability to utilize lawyers to deflect problems for years that can suddenly arise and create a nasty set of scenarios. These are *not* prevented by trade concerns or even production controls when a good front can be put up for dual-use equipment… and by being Western they can be highly ingenious in their views. A KGB agent thought it was funny that a death cult had ‘a fanciful imagination’… I find that absolutely chilling.
