In her 1980 book "The Terror Network", journalist Claire Sterling established that the typical terrorist is the offspring of mid-to-upper-class parents, usually with at least 2-3 years of college, and a PoliSci major in college, which is where they usually became radicalized. Harvard could have just bought a copy of the paperback on Amazon.com and saved their "angels" a bunch of money..

I doubt if professor Abadie will have to worry about getting tenure now that he's expressed such politically incorrect views. Do they "silence" people at Harvard?

Abadie, whose work was published in the Kennedy School's Faculty Research Working Paper Series, included both acts of international and domestic terrorism in his analysis.. . . In addition to downplaying 'Poverty' as a causal factor in creating terrorists, it sounds as though the Prof's Hypothesis might offer some academic/statistical support for the Kennedy/Dean/Kerry assertion that our[Bush's] Iraq intervention has created more terrorists -- at least over the short term. Abadie said it could be that autocratic nations' tight control and repressive practices keep terrorist activities in check, while nations making the transition to more open, democratic governments - such as currently taking place in Iraq and Russia - may be politically unstable, which makes them more vulnerable. If valid, the analysis also provides ammunition for the Bush Admin's argument that the transition to a democratic state in Irag & Afghanistan should be as rapid and comprehensive as possible. Another fruitful avenue is the pursuit of the notion that terrorist events cause much more damage to economies than Democrats and others have been willing to admit. All in all, the Basque Professor should be able to milk these sophmoric questions for at least the next 10-20 years. On Watch, Let's Roll