June 20, 2025 • 15 mins
George Noory and Dr. Jeffrey Simon explore his research into the continued threat of terrorism in the world, what inspires most lone wolf terrorists to plot their deadly attacks, and if he believes the United States should get involved in the growing war between Israel and Iran.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Noriy with you.
Doctor Jeffrey Simon with us as we talk about terrorism.
One of his books includes The Terrorist Trap. Jeffrey, what
got into Osama Bin Laden? Here was a guy who
had family money into the millions, the mastermind, one of
the mastermind of nine to eleven, definitely the financier. Why
would a guy want to do that and ruin everything
(00:27):
for himself?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, So the.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Mind of terrorists is so complex. In this case with
the antagonism he had first against the US in terms
of the participation in the First Gulf War using Kuwait,
and he basically had the following during the Soviet invasion
(00:50):
of Afghanistan and he created all these followers, and after
they won that war, he decided.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
To turn it against the US.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
And you know, he was among the most dangerous terrorists
we have had.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Do you think there was something mentally ill with him?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
And yeah, it's always hard to say.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You know, a long time ago, many people would always say, oh, well,
terrorists have to be mentally ill. And we do have
a number of especially within lone wolves a certain percentage
that are suffering emotional disorders. But he had his plan,
he had his beliefs, and he was able to get
all these people to follow him. And so you know,
(01:30):
whether or not there was some mental illness there, I
really can't say, but he was just definitely a very
manipulative leader.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
How does the media, in your opinion, Jeffrey, handle the
handling of terrorist stories.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Well, you know, there's the relationship between media and terrorists
is what we call a symbiotic relationship. But that means
is that each need need each needs each other for
mutual benefit. For example, the media would need the drama
terrorist incidents to generate television ratings and increase circulation of newspapers,
(02:05):
and the terrorists would need the media to publicize their cause,
give extensive coverage to their attacks, make them seem sometimes
more formidable than they may really be. And the media
coverage can also bring in new recruits and funds for
extremist groups. But it's really been changing with the rise
of the Internet and social media. Terrorist groups now don't
(02:26):
need traditional media as much as they did in previous years.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
They can just now post.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Themes on the Internet. They can put their websites there
and they could call for actions.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
By the lone wolves.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So we're really seeing the relationship change where the social
media and the Internet has sort of overtaken traditional media
in terms of being something that terrorists strives to affect.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And you give us your definition of the lone wolf terrorists.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Well, you know, the lone wolf terrorists is really I
think the most dangerous threat we're facing today, the most
serious threat, but I also would extend it to lone
wolves who may not fit the traditional definition of terrorism.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So basically, a lone wolf terrorist.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is an individual who who perpetrates a violent act in
the name of some ideology or religion or social cause,
but does not have any support from an organization, so
they're basically working by themselves. They can be inspired via
the Internet by these groups, but they're really you know,
(03:33):
their own person, their own operation. Now there are cases
where we wouldn't call somebody a terrorist if they don't
have a political or religious motivation, but that has always
sort of bothered me. So for example, the worst mass
shooting in our history was the shooting in Las.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Vegas where all those music owers.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Were killed by exactly and we don't call it terrorism
because they never were able to uncover a motive. Yet
we have to ask what's the difference. You know, there's
still the issue of you know, getting all those guns
into the hotel and being able to plant it. And
it's almost as though every time this some violent act,
(04:16):
we wait and see the media will call it or
you know, authorities will say that this terrorism or it's
not terrorism.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So it's really a gray area.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
But we only have to look at what's happened this
past year to see how lone act or lone wolf's
active violence has really become a major threat. We had
the shooting of the healthcare insurance executive in New York
last October, and the perpetrator was protesting quote unquote corporate greed.
Then we had the driving of a truck into a
(04:45):
crowd in New Orleans or New Year's Day by an
ISIS inspired lone wolf. Then we had the explosion later
that day at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas by
an active duty Green Beret who was suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder. Then we've had the arson attacks by
a lone wolf in February and March in New Mexico.
One was at a Tesla's showroom in Albuquerque. The other
(05:07):
was against the headquarters of the Republican Party. Then we
had the three recent attacks by pro Palestinian lone wolves,
the arson attack of the home of Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro,
with the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington,
d C. And the fire bombing of a demonstration to
free Israeli hostages in Bouda, Colorado. And then of course
(05:30):
we had the shooting last week of Minnesota lawmakers by
an anti abortion lone wolf.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So we see this.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Wide range in types of lone wolves and the wide
range of tactics that they used since as shootings, car bombings,
fire bombings, truck rammings into crowd.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
So this threat cuts across.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
The entire political and religious spectrum. And what's really difficult, George,
is that there's no single profile of a lone wolf.
Oftentimes they'll have personal grievances, but they'll last onto an
ideology to justify their violence.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Is it true that most of the lone rlves Jeffrey
commits suicide.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
No, they're about thirty percent have emotional issues or mentally ill.
Now some of them again, in terms of suicide by
you are just waiting to be shot, or they did
a suicide attack.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But there are a lot of lone wolves who have
been caught.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You know, we saw the case of Minnesota right where
the lone wolf has been captured, and there are a
number of cases where sometimes they actually do not intend
to die, but there are a certain number that do.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Truly what's their goal, what's their mission? What do they
want out of all this?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well, the ones who aren't fully committed to the ideology,
they are having financial difficulty, or they have some personal
issue and they just have this urge and this desire
to commit violence, and they then get kind of latching
onto the ideology. Either it could be an Isis al
Qaeda ideology, it could be right wing, left wing, whatever
(07:00):
it might be, but it gives them a justification for
who they are.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And it's really.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Difficult to deal with the lone wolf violence. But there
are certain measures that can be taken, and the most
important are the early warning signs of retential attack. Many
loan wolves exhibit erratic behavior or say something concerning or
lobbing to family and friends about wanting to commit violence,
and that has to be reported to the authorities in
(07:27):
order to try.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
To prevent an attack.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
The monitoring of the Internet and social media while not
violating civil liberties and privacy rights is another important strategy
that needs to be pursued to reduce these incidents of
lone wolf terrorism. Many loan wolves do there talking online
by posting manifestos and other things. And also important strategies
are the continued use of detection devices in post offices
(07:52):
and other places for explosives and chemical agents that may
be being sent through the mail. We've had attacks like
that in the past by lone wolf and we may have.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
More in the future.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
We also need, of course, the expansion of closed circuit
television cameras in public places because lone wolves do often
pre incident surveillance and hopefully we can catch some of
them before they commit that act. And finally, the really
important thing for everybody to remember is increase public awareness.
You know, we have to be alert for unattended packages
(08:24):
and bags in crowded areas and that old slogan.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
See something, say something.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's the role we all can play in trying to
prevent this type of violence.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Jeffrey, would you say that the young kid who goes
into a school and shoots up his schoolmates. Is a
lone wolf terrorist?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Definitely a lone wolf now I would, you know, I'll
use the broad definition of terrorism in terms of the political, social,
religious motive, but we can't call them a terrorist because
without that motive, it doesn't fit into our understanding what
terrorism is. They definitely call terror and they cause you know, problems,
(09:02):
you know, to have this whatever made them commit that act.
But the effect is the same as if they say
if they said they did it because they had a
political reason.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
But yeah, I would view them as terrorists. But we
sometimes have to have these distinctions because otherwise, you know,
somebody who goes into just a convenience store and takes
a few hostages there, we don't necessarily always call that terrorism.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
What do you expect to happen next year?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
We're going to have more, unfortunately, lone wolf terrorism. I mean,
that's really what I see. And the reason because, as
I had mentioned, is such a diverse phenomenon and anybody
can be inspired to be doing these acts. And you
know you mentioned before the role of you know, Iranian
sleeper cells. Well, most terrorists don't even need sleeper cells anymore.
(09:53):
Because we've seen with ISIS and al Qaeda they just
post on their message boards or they have the their
website to trying to inspire people to do certain violent
acts in their homeland. So unfortunately, we were going to
have to be prepared for more of these kinds of attacks.
But at the same point, at same time, take some
(10:15):
of those measures I mentioned just before to try to
reduce the number of attacks.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The nine to eleven tourists, of course, all knew that
they were going to die on the plane crashes. Yeah,
it was a suicide mission. What makes that mindset.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
The religious fanaticism.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And actually there was a guidebook or I forgot it
called the maybe a manifesto that was found among some
of the hijackers before they boarded the plane, and they
had all these procedures where they were to stay together
and not lose their nerve, not lose you know, their mission,
and they just believed they were, you know, on a
(10:53):
mission to God and that was you know, they looked
upon their suicide as something that they were welcoming.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Were they take it since they were kids?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You think they sometimes we're surprised that who turns out
to be, you know, a terrorist and it's not always
anything that you could see early on, you know, in
their childhood. So I think some of the nine to
eleven terrorists for a long time were very committed to
their cause.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But I don't know whether or not.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
You know, as children, they had any experiences or things
that were different from other people.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You tied a course on terrorism at UCLA for what
twenty years, George.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was so fascinating, And the reason is that the
students in my class came from all parts of the world,
and so they had experiences. Some had experiences with terrorism
and their families in their villages, and so when we
would get into discussions, it would really really be interesting
to see the interactions among you know, all the students,
(11:58):
and so I really enjoyed teaching the class. But what
I learned as you get older, you have to be
careful with some of the jokes you say, because sometimes
they just won't get it because of the age difference.
You know, MEA's instructor and these as the young students.
I would always say before the fourth of July holiday,
because you know, you have that hot hot dog eating
(12:19):
contest in Coney Island with the hot dogs. I said, okay,
have a, yeah, Nathan's hot dogs have a great, great
Fourth of July, but don't need too many hot dogs
because it's not good for your cholesterol. So they look
at me with the blank face like, you know, what's cholesterol?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You know they don't have to be worried about that.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
And then totally but one joke always works no matter
how older I got, and that was I would tell
the students on the first day of class that basically
I want you to get out of this class an
understanding of what terrorism is all about, and that ten
(12:56):
or twenty years from now you still be able to
hope we talk about it intelligently, because we're still going
to have terrorism. But if any of you should take
the wrong path in life and become a terrorist, please
don't cite this class as your inspiration.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So that one always.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Got the last Well, doctor Jeffrey Simon, we're talking about
his work on terrorism. One of his books includes America's
Forgotten Terrorists. Where do we get your books?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Jeff?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They're on Amazon and bonson Lobil, Bondanobyl, and.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You go to bookstores.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I'm sure the bookstore there could order it, but Bondanobyl
and Amazon are easy ways to get them.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Have we quit a crippled Al kada An Isis No.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I mean we've made great strides against them, and the
possibility of another nine to eleven is very remote because
of all the security now that we have and how
we have weakened them.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But they're not totally weak.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I mean, they are still active in the Middle East,
North Africa, Southeast Asia, and they have worldwide networks, followers
and sub routes that can attack in many places. And
here in the US. The threat for US in terms
of Al Kayder and Isis is when they make these
calls for lone wolves to take any action they can,
(14:14):
ramming cars into crowds, shooting and whatever for the cause.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So that's that's why they still.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Remain a former of enemy.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And there are a lot of sick people on this planet, Jeffrey, unfortunately,
jud and they know I have access to guns and
all the other weaponry.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I guess they do.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Do you think what we're doing with Israel and Iran
is the right thing?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I have to say, you know right now, I mean
time Hotel, everybody would like to see the capability of
Iran with the nuclear weapons to you know, be totally eliminated.
And President Trump has given a two week kind of
rest it now in terms of seeing if there could
be a diplomatic solution. But I don't think anybody he
(15:00):
has a crystal ball in terms of what is going
to happen down the road with this situation.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Noriy with you.
Doctor Jeffrey Simon with us as we talk about terrorism.
One of his books includes The Terrorist Trap. Jeffrey, what
got into Osama Bin Laden? Here was a guy who
had family money into the millions, the mastermind, one of
the mastermind of nine to eleven, definitely the financier. Why
would a guy want to do that and ruin everything
(00:27):
for himself?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, So the.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Mind of terrorists is so complex. In this case with
the antagonism he had first against the US in terms
of the participation in the First Gulf War using Kuwait,
and he basically had the following during the Soviet invasion
(00:50):
of Afghanistan and he created all these followers, and after
they won that war, he decided.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
To turn it against the US.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
And you know, he was among the most dangerous terrorists
we have had.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Do you think there was something mentally ill with him?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
And yeah, it's always hard to say.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
You know, a long time ago, many people would always say, oh, well,
terrorists have to be mentally ill. And we do have
a number of especially within lone wolves a certain percentage
that are suffering emotional disorders. But he had his plan,
he had his beliefs, and he was able to get
all these people to follow him. And so you know,
(01:30):
whether or not there was some mental illness there, I
really can't say, but he was just definitely a very
manipulative leader.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
How does the media, in your opinion, Jeffrey, handle the
handling of terrorist stories.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Well, you know, there's the relationship between media and terrorists
is what we call a symbiotic relationship. But that means
is that each need need each needs each other for
mutual benefit. For example, the media would need the drama
terrorist incidents to generate television ratings and increase circulation of newspapers,
(02:05):
and the terrorists would need the media to publicize their cause,
give extensive coverage to their attacks, make them seem sometimes
more formidable than they may really be. And the media
coverage can also bring in new recruits and funds for
extremist groups. But it's really been changing with the rise
of the Internet and social media. Terrorist groups now don't
(02:26):
need traditional media as much as they did in previous years.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
They can just now post.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Themes on the Internet. They can put their websites there
and they could call for actions.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
By the lone wolves.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
So we're really seeing the relationship change where the social
media and the Internet has sort of overtaken traditional media
in terms of being something that terrorists strives to affect.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
And you give us your definition of the lone wolf terrorists.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Well, you know, the lone wolf terrorists is really I
think the most dangerous threat we're facing today, the most
serious threat, but I also would extend it to lone
wolves who may not fit the traditional definition of terrorism.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
So basically, a lone wolf terrorist.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is an individual who who perpetrates a violent act in
the name of some ideology or religion or social cause,
but does not have any support from an organization, so
they're basically working by themselves. They can be inspired via
the Internet by these groups, but they're really you know,
(03:33):
their own person, their own operation. Now there are cases
where we wouldn't call somebody a terrorist if they don't
have a political or religious motivation, but that has always
sort of bothered me. So for example, the worst mass
shooting in our history was the shooting in Las.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Vegas where all those music owers.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Were killed by exactly and we don't call it terrorism
because they never were able to uncover a motive. Yet
we have to ask what's the difference. You know, there's
still the issue of you know, getting all those guns
into the hotel and being able to plant it. And
it's almost as though every time this some violent act,
(04:16):
we wait and see the media will call it or
you know, authorities will say that this terrorism or it's
not terrorism.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So it's really a gray area.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
But we only have to look at what's happened this
past year to see how lone act or lone wolf's
active violence has really become a major threat. We had
the shooting of the healthcare insurance executive in New York
last October, and the perpetrator was protesting quote unquote corporate greed.
Then we had the driving of a truck into a
(04:45):
crowd in New Orleans or New Year's Day by an
ISIS inspired lone wolf. Then we had the explosion later
that day at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas by
an active duty Green Beret who was suffering from post
traumatic stress disorder. Then we've had the arson attacks by
a lone wolf in February and March in New Mexico.
One was at a Tesla's showroom in Albuquerque. The other
(05:07):
was against the headquarters of the Republican Party. Then we
had the three recent attacks by pro Palestinian lone wolves,
the arson attack of the home of Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro,
with the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington,
d C. And the fire bombing of a demonstration to
free Israeli hostages in Bouda, Colorado. And then of course
(05:30):
we had the shooting last week of Minnesota lawmakers by
an anti abortion lone wolf.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So we see this.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Wide range in types of lone wolves and the wide
range of tactics that they used since as shootings, car bombings,
fire bombings, truck rammings into crowd.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
So this threat cuts across.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
The entire political and religious spectrum. And what's really difficult, George,
is that there's no single profile of a lone wolf.
Oftentimes they'll have personal grievances, but they'll last onto an
ideology to justify their violence.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Is it true that most of the lone rlves Jeffrey
commits suicide.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
No, they're about thirty percent have emotional issues or mentally ill.
Now some of them again, in terms of suicide by
you are just waiting to be shot, or they did
a suicide attack.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But there are a lot of lone wolves who have
been caught.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You know, we saw the case of Minnesota right where
the lone wolf has been captured, and there are a
number of cases where sometimes they actually do not intend
to die, but there are a certain number that do.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Truly what's their goal, what's their mission? What do they
want out of all this?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well, the ones who aren't fully committed to the ideology,
they are having financial difficulty, or they have some personal
issue and they just have this urge and this desire
to commit violence, and they then get kind of latching
onto the ideology. Either it could be an Isis al
Qaeda ideology, it could be right wing, left wing, whatever
(07:00):
it might be, but it gives them a justification for
who they are.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And it's really.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Difficult to deal with the lone wolf violence. But there
are certain measures that can be taken, and the most
important are the early warning signs of retential attack. Many
loan wolves exhibit erratic behavior or say something concerning or
lobbing to family and friends about wanting to commit violence,
and that has to be reported to the authorities in
(07:27):
order to try.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
To prevent an attack.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
The monitoring of the Internet and social media while not
violating civil liberties and privacy rights is another important strategy
that needs to be pursued to reduce these incidents of
lone wolf terrorism. Many loan wolves do there talking online
by posting manifestos and other things. And also important strategies
are the continued use of detection devices in post offices
(07:52):
and other places for explosives and chemical agents that may
be being sent through the mail. We've had attacks like
that in the past by lone wolf and we may have.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
More in the future.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
We also need, of course, the expansion of closed circuit
television cameras in public places because lone wolves do often
pre incident surveillance and hopefully we can catch some of
them before they commit that act. And finally, the really
important thing for everybody to remember is increase public awareness.
You know, we have to be alert for unattended packages
(08:24):
and bags in crowded areas and that old slogan.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
See something, say something.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's the role we all can play in trying to
prevent this type of violence.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Jeffrey, would you say that the young kid who goes
into a school and shoots up his schoolmates. Is a
lone wolf terrorist?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Definitely a lone wolf now I would, you know, I'll
use the broad definition of terrorism in terms of the political, social,
religious motive, but we can't call them a terrorist because
without that motive, it doesn't fit into our understanding what
terrorism is. They definitely call terror and they cause you know, problems,
(09:02):
you know, to have this whatever made them commit that act.
But the effect is the same as if they say
if they said they did it because they had a
political reason.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
But yeah, I would view them as terrorists. But we
sometimes have to have these distinctions because otherwise, you know,
somebody who goes into just a convenience store and takes
a few hostages there, we don't necessarily always call that terrorism.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
What do you expect to happen next year?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
We're going to have more, unfortunately, lone wolf terrorism. I mean,
that's really what I see. And the reason because, as
I had mentioned, is such a diverse phenomenon and anybody
can be inspired to be doing these acts. And you
know you mentioned before the role of you know, Iranian
sleeper cells. Well, most terrorists don't even need sleeper cells anymore.
(09:53):
Because we've seen with ISIS and al Qaeda they just
post on their message boards or they have the their
website to trying to inspire people to do certain violent
acts in their homeland. So unfortunately, we were going to
have to be prepared for more of these kinds of attacks.
But at the same point, at same time, take some
(10:15):
of those measures I mentioned just before to try to
reduce the number of attacks.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
The nine to eleven tourists, of course, all knew that
they were going to die on the plane crashes. Yeah,
it was a suicide mission. What makes that mindset.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
The religious fanaticism.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
And actually there was a guidebook or I forgot it
called the maybe a manifesto that was found among some
of the hijackers before they boarded the plane, and they
had all these procedures where they were to stay together
and not lose their nerve, not lose you know, their mission,
and they just believed they were, you know, on a
(10:53):
mission to God and that was you know, they looked
upon their suicide as something that they were welcoming.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Were they take it since they were kids?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
You think they sometimes we're surprised that who turns out
to be, you know, a terrorist and it's not always
anything that you could see early on, you know, in
their childhood. So I think some of the nine to
eleven terrorists for a long time were very committed to
their cause.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
But I don't know whether or not.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
You know, as children, they had any experiences or things
that were different from other people.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
You tied a course on terrorism at UCLA for what
twenty years, George.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was so fascinating, And the reason is that the
students in my class came from all parts of the world,
and so they had experiences. Some had experiences with terrorism
and their families in their villages, and so when we
would get into discussions, it would really really be interesting
to see the interactions among you know, all the students,
(11:58):
and so I really enjoyed teaching the class. But what
I learned as you get older, you have to be
careful with some of the jokes you say, because sometimes
they just won't get it because of the age difference.
You know, MEA's instructor and these as the young students.
I would always say before the fourth of July holiday,
because you know, you have that hot hot dog eating
(12:19):
contest in Coney Island with the hot dogs. I said, okay,
have a, yeah, Nathan's hot dogs have a great, great
Fourth of July, but don't need too many hot dogs
because it's not good for your cholesterol. So they look
at me with the blank face like, you know, what's cholesterol?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You know they don't have to be worried about that.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
And then totally but one joke always works no matter
how older I got, and that was I would tell
the students on the first day of class that basically
I want you to get out of this class an
understanding of what terrorism is all about, and that ten
(12:56):
or twenty years from now you still be able to
hope we talk about it intelligently, because we're still going
to have terrorism. But if any of you should take
the wrong path in life and become a terrorist, please
don't cite this class as your inspiration.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
So that one always.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Got the last Well, doctor Jeffrey Simon, we're talking about
his work on terrorism. One of his books includes America's
Forgotten Terrorists. Where do we get your books?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Jeff?
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They're on Amazon and bonson Lobil, Bondanobyl, and.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
You go to bookstores.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I'm sure the bookstore there could order it, but Bondanobyl
and Amazon are easy ways to get them.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Have we quit a crippled Al kada An Isis No.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
I mean we've made great strides against them, and the
possibility of another nine to eleven is very remote because
of all the security now that we have and how
we have weakened them.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But they're not totally weak.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I mean, they are still active in the Middle East,
North Africa, Southeast Asia, and they have worldwide networks, followers
and sub routes that can attack in many places. And
here in the US. The threat for US in terms
of Al Kayder and Isis is when they make these
calls for lone wolves to take any action they can,
(14:14):
ramming cars into crowds, shooting and whatever for the cause.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So that's that's why they still.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Remain a former of enemy.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
And there are a lot of sick people on this planet, Jeffrey, unfortunately,
jud and they know I have access to guns and
all the other weaponry.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I guess they do.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Do you think what we're doing with Israel and Iran
is the right thing?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I have to say, you know right now, I mean
time Hotel, everybody would like to see the capability of
Iran with the nuclear weapons to you know, be totally eliminated.
And President Trump has given a two week kind of
rest it now in terms of seeing if there could
be a diplomatic solution. But I don't think anybody he
(15:00):
has a crystal ball in terms of what is going
to happen down the road with this situation.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
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com for more
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George Noory
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