The Boston marathon bombings: the Tsarnaev brothers were either practicing addicts, or not in recovery from addiction.
Active Alcoholism Isn’t Required to Foment Terrorism…But a Failure to get Sober May Be
(Or, it Could be Amphetamines)
In a piece written shortly after 9-11, “Micro Terrorism and Macro Terrorism May Have Similar Roots,” I suggested the best explanation for terrorism lays in alcohol or other-drug addiction. While dramatically different in scope, I argue that the underlying cause of a man terrorizing his wife and kids is likely the same as for men converting aircraft into weapons of mass destruction: addiction-fueled egomania, creating a need to wield power over others. James Graham, in The Secret History of Alcoholism, made the indelible point that an alcoholic’s circumstances and environment help to determine his occupation and beliefs, which in turn determine how and where he wields that power.
Where we find a street thug, we’ll often find a teenager or adult who grew up in the ghetto and developed addiction. Where we see a bar fight, look for an alcoholic adult who grew up in a lower-to-middle income family. Financial and other white-collar crimes are often committed by addicts who graduated from private schools. Acts of terrorism are usually committed by young pseudo-Muslims who confabulate their reading of the Koran and think they are God-like due to the particular effect alcohol or other psychotropic drugs have on their brain.
Of the two brothers who carried out the Boston marathon bombings, the younger one’s seemingly innocuous behaviors has everyone fooled. Friends and classmates of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who will be tried on charges stemming from the attack, can’t fathom how the “pot-smoking, party boy” who they knew “enjoyed drinking” could be capable of such an atrocity. Yet the clue is in their words—not so much the “pot-smoking,” even though he “frequently reeked of marijuana,” but rather the “party boy” who had a propensity to “enjoy drinking.” While there may be exceptions, potheads who use only marijuana often under-achieve, readily admit to their use and exhibit few if any signs of an inflated ego; except for short-term memory loss, it appears among the most harmless of drugs. On the other hand, “party boys” and those who “enjoy drinking” are usually heavy drinkers and often alcoholics. Since alcoholism causes an inflated ego and a need to wield power over others, resulting behaviors can include terrorism and despotism.
Dzhokhar’s behaviors clearly indicate polydrug addiction. Psychoactive drugs “potentiate” each other, where one dose of two different drugs packs a much more powerful punch than two doses of the same drug. While “party boys” likely drink plenty of booze to fuel egomania, anecdotal evidence suggests potentiation and worse behaviors may occur by combining marijuana and alcohol in those predisposed to alcoholism.
Evidence also suggests Dzhokhar’s alcohol and other-drug use may have recently ramped up. His college grades took a sharp downturn, with a number of F’s including (ironically) Principles of Modern Chemistry and Intro to American Politics. That’s hard to do, unless alcoholism-induced heavy partying began afterwards.
How could Dzhokhar appear to be such a nice guy and hide his malign intentions? Consider the portrayal of former FBI agent Robert Hanssen in the movie Breach (reviewed in issue # 31 of TAR, which is worth a re-read and re-watch). Hanssen sold far more secrets to the Soviets than any other U.S. traitor. The secrets were estimated to have been worth at minimum tens of millions of dollars and yet he sold them for a mere pittance—a few hundred thousand dollars. One of the arresting agents asked why anyone would have done it if not for the money. Hanssen replied, “It’s not so hard to guess, is it? Considering the human ego…can you imagine sitting in a room with a bunch of your colleagues…everybody trying to guess the identity of a mole? And all the while, it’s you they’re after…you they’re looking for. That must be very satisfying, don’t you think?” Dzhokhar may well have found his subterfuge equally exciting—his inordinately large sense of self-importance likely inflated knowing his friends didn’t have a clue he was about to become a murderer and terrorist.
And he may have had the perfect Keirseyan Temperament to pull it off. He loved literature, especially studies of his former homelands. His wrestling teammates say they looked up to him as a teacher and motivator. He believed in people. These describe an intuitive-feeler (NF), or David Keirsey’s “Idealist” who, due to an inborn psychological need to help people, frequently develop great communication skills. This compels them to become teachers, writers and actors—and they are the greatest of these. They also are people-pleasers, which is consistent with the idea he would do anything for his older brother, even becoming his accomplice in terrorism. The odds of acting on this were magnified by an alcoholism-damaged neocortex, reducing or eliminating impulse control and self-restraint. (For Myers-Briggs enthusiasts, Keirsey makes a compelling case that Adolf Hitler was an Idealist, specifically ENFJ; Dzhokhar may be INFP because of how intensely private he apparently was—even close friends had no idea whether he had a girlfriend.)
The older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, seemed very different. At 26, he was a community college dropout, married, a born-again Muslim and had sworn off drinking, apparently after being charged with assault of his then-girlfriend (who later became his wife). On the other hand, when he visited his father in Dagestan for six months in early 2012, a family friend noted he “slept a lot” and was frequently absent from helping in the mornings as his father struggled to ready a new business. When asked where his son was, his father would shrug and say he was still asleep. This strongly suggests psychotropic drug use—if not alcohol, then barbiturates, which are often required to offset the effects of amphetamines. And Tamerlan would not be the first or last addict to say one thing and do another. The fact that he said, “There are no values anymore” and worried that “people can’t control themselves,” is meaningless. Robert Hanssen told everyone who would listen that the FBI didn’t allow agents to drink yet almost certainly drank himself to oblivion every night.
When they were younger, the brothers were known for throwing loud parties, grilling and drinking until midnight or later. A neighbor reports screaming coming from the Tsarnaev brothers’ apartment at odd hours, “then a female voice wailing, or a baby wailing.” According to The Wall Street Journal, Tamerlan’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, feared that her elder son “was slipping into a life of marijuana, girls and alcohol” and may have been influential in converting her son to Islam. Yet she was arrested for shoplifting twice before returning to Dagestan; there is still an outstanding arrest warrant due to her failure to show for a court appearance relating to the more recent charges (nine dresses taken from a suburban Boston department store). Her hypocrisy and crimes suggest there may have been pills on board; keep in mind, substance addiction is genetic. If Tamerlan is an addict the odds are about 40% that at least one of his parents is as well; if the mother is an addict, the odds are the same 40% for each child.
Some might argue Tamerlan’s likely first drug of choice, alcohol, changed, to the “drug” of religion. Yet religion, correctly interpreted, serves to deflate the ego by recognizing a higher power, reducing if not eliminating a need to wield power over others. This leaves only two best explanations for Tamerlan’s megalomania: either the psychoactive drug may have changed, likely to amphetamines or, if he truly stopped using, he didn’t deflate his ego. In Tamerlan’s case, amphetamine use is the likeliest scenario. Adolf Hitler began using amphetamines by 1936 and, likely, barbiturates—alcohol in pill form for those predisposed to alcoholism—long before. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was an amphetamine addict. Yasir Arafat (TAR issue # 4) was clearly addicted to amphetamine-like drugs (just look at his pupil size in nearly every photo of him) and suicide bombers (TAR issue # 13) are likely given a cocktail of drugs including amphetamines and tranquilizers before committing atrocities*.
The other scenario is plausible because sobriety requires not just cessation of use, but also ego deflation. If Tamerlan stopped using all psychoactive drugs—doubtful though that may be—he certainly didn’t deflate his ego. Without ego deflation, resentment can become toxic. An uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, a corporate lawyer and executive in Montgomery Village, MD, explained: “Being losers, hatred [is felt for] those who were able to settle themselves” by which he means assimilate successfully as immigrants. Recovering addicts readily admit to having resented anyone and everyone when they were using, for whatever reason (which really never matters). It seems more likely that amphetamine use was the culprit in Tamerlan’s case—but time will tell if toxicology reports become public.
* Those interested in related pieces on terrorism and drug addiction might wish to re-read the Top Stories in TAR issues # 3 (Kim Jong Il, alcoholic), # 24 (a discussion of a potpourri of terrorists from Ivan the Terrible onward), # 42 (anthrax murderer Bruce Ivans, alcoholic) and # 53 (the role of khat in fomenting terrorism in and around Yemen), as well as the top stories on Arafat and suicide bombers.