UM picked for center to study terrorism; $12 million federal grant

[rainbow4321]

BTW, it was posted on DU last night that part of LexisNexis is free now...
http://www.lexisnexis.com/news/

------------------------------------------------

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=25106&docId=l:250554041&start=1


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday that it will underwrite a new center at the University of Maryland to conduct social and behavioral research into terrorists and terrorist organizations, hoping to break new ground by employing many of the same academic tools used to battle drug gangs and violent crime.

One of the center's first tasks will be a study of how terrorist organizations form and recruit, with a focus on specific organizations, such as al-Qaida, that pose a danger to the United States. The center's scholars will also study such questions as whether terrorists inspired by religion are more likely to use weapons of mass destruction, and whether American prisons have become terrorist recruiting grounds.

The new center, the fourth of five Homeland Security Centers of Excellence that federal officials hope to create, will be based at the University of Maryland, College Park and financed with a $12 million federal grant parceled out over three years.


But the center will be somewhat unusual because of its close link with the government agency that sponsors it, and because of its decidedly nonacademic mission of helping to prevent and fight terrorism. In statements announcing the new center, LaFree called it "the social science equivalent of the Manhattan Project," referring to the World War II research effort that led to the atomic bomb