“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.
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.
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.
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.
Russia started this in Ukraine.
Blaming encrypted messaging and cryptocurrency. Great.
