Spolied Brat Terrorists

So you're a white American college student anarchist, devoutly believing in anti-globalism. You are willing to go out onto the streets and push the limits of the law to express your views. Your rich daddy is upset! You go online and complain about globalism with your other privileged Internet-using buddies.

You may have more in common with the 9/11 terrorists than you think. Could you be the next mass murderer?

Most of the hijackers in the terrorist attacks on America were recruited from wealthy Saudi families. Rather than being hired "muscle" or terrorists posing as Saudis with false identities, as previously thought, investigations have revealed a privileged and elite group.

Not only that, Saudi Arabia itself is a privileged and elite Muslim country. It is awash in petroleum, linked by fiber optics, and dotted with shopping malls, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks. The country has a GDP per capita of over $10,000, compared with Algeria ($5,500), Bangladesh ($1570), Djibouti ($1300), Sudan ($1000), or Afghanistan ($800).

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers are now known to be Saudis, including the brother of a police commander, the son of a tribal chief, two teachers and three law graduates.

Well-educated, intelligent and in their mid-twenties, many of them had a history of making trips both to other countries, including Germany, America and Afghanistan.

Mohammed Atta, 33, who the FBI said was on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, was an architect and has been described as a 'model student' at Hamburg's Technical University.

Ziad Jarrah, 26, who was aboard the United Airlines plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, was a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg where he studied aeronautical engineering.

Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23, identified by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation as a hijacker on the United Airlines plane that hit the south tower of the World Trade Centre, studied in a German-language program at the University of Bonn under the name Marwan Lekrab.

One hijacker now identified as a ringleader on September 11 is Nawaf al-Hamzi, who sat in seat 5F of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. Al-Hamzi, according to local sources, is the brother of a police chief from the coastal town of Jizan, in southwest Saudi Arabia. Talk about being "the man!"

Hani Hanjour, a trained commercial airline pilot and the son of a wealthy businessman from Ti'af, 50 miles east of Mecca, was also on the flight, as was Majed Moqed, a law student at the King Saud University in Riyadh.

A former college room-mate of Moqed was Satam al-Suqami, a hijacker on American Airlines flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Also a law student at the King Saud University, he was from a northern Saudi province.

Brothers Waleed and Wail al-Shehri, also on the same flight, came from Khamis Mushayt, east of Abha. Described by friends as "peaceful and devout", Wail had graduated from an institute of teachers. Where did their non-violence go?

Ahmed al-Nami, a hijacker on board United Airlines flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was identified last week as another law student, trained at the King Khaled University Law school in Abha.

These terrorists were not your average Muslim. They were not "the other." They were not the "starving masses." They didn't even come from a country with "starving masses."

They were just like you, spoiled college brats, caught up in a deadly combination of "rich man's guilt" and religious fervor.

If you believe too strongly in your cause, you may end up just like them.