Brilliant Student, Doctor – and Now a Terror Suspect

Physicians worldwide have long shared the motto, “First, do no harm.” Reports suggesting that the suspects in failed car bombings throughout the UK are physicians from the Middle East, Australia and India are unsettling – and make the job of combating terrorism all that more difficult. Analysts have long assumed that soft-power tools, education and economic development, take time, but worked better than hard-power security measures for decreasing terrorism in societies or individuals over the long term. The arrest of physicians – whose career requires long hours, dedication, a love of science and problem-solving, commanding respect in any society – upends such presumptions. About 20 percent of doctors in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations are foreign born, and the UK recently tightened immigration restrictions for doctors educated outside the nation. Analysts and international law-enforcement officials will undoubtedly scrutinize the backgrounds of the suspects, trying to unearth the reasons why talented physicians would involve themselves in attacks that could have killed or wounded hundreds. – YaleGlobal