The martyrdom bonus
===================

The martyrdom bonus is the term for a payment John Kiriakou says captured al-Qaeda fighters repeatedly described to him during the counterterrorist operations he led in Pakistan in 2002.

The account

Kiriakou has said that so many al-Qaeda personnel were caught in these operations that a pattern emerged, and that at what he calls the grunt level, men of eighteen and nineteen, they all told basically the same story. 

In that story the recruits were illiterate, lived in isolated villages in their home countries, and wanted to marry. The obstacle they described was that no man would give his daughter to someone who could not read or write, had no job prospects and no skills of any kind. The local imam would then approach them and tell them they should not stay in the village, that they should go to Afghanistan and make jihad against the Americans, and that they would be paid three hundred dollars a month, with five hundred dollars going to their parents as a martyrdom bonus if they were killed. 

Kiriakou's summary of the economics is blunt: they could not find the United States on a map, but three hundred dollars is better than no dollars, and so they made their way to Afghanistan. 

The distinction Kiriakou draws

He separates this level of the organization from its leadership. Of the camp commanders and al-Qaeda's senior figures he gives political motives, American military bases in Saudi Arabia, which he identifies as Osama bin Laden's personal objection, and American support for Israel, which he says other leaders saw as a betrayal of poor Arabs.  Put to him directly that the foot soldiers had no quarrel with America and were going for the job, Kiriakou agreed. 

See also

- The two Tunisians
- The al-Qaeda foot soldier
- Pakistan Station (2002)
