Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

218 • GUARDIANS OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONDifferent psychological devices and fallacies come into play in thegroupthink syndrome. These include:Cognitive Bolstering: The group or chief decision maker marshalsall of the evidence supporting the predetermined decision but excludesany contrary evidence.Defensive Avoidance: The group avoids hearing or examiningevidence questioning the wisdom of their decision, or by refusing tomake a decision that would reverse their course of action, they committhemselves to continue the same course by default.Entrapment, or the “Sunk-Cost Syndrome”: Once the decidedcourse of action is undertaken, the group refuses to contemplatebacking down or not carrying out their threats, usually on the pleathat one or more of their comrades lost their life in the action andthat therefore changing their decision would mean that the comradehad died in vain.Stereotyping: An essential part of the groupthink syndrome is thestereotyping of the enemy as being stupid, evil, and incompetent.The terrorists in the grip of groupthink refuse to assess realisticallythe ability of the targeted state to defend itself, thwart the group’sintended actions, or even defeat them.GUARDIANS OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION. Name underwhich credit was taken for the 7 July 1980 bombings of the Romeoffices of Snia-Technit Corporation and for the 2 October 1987 assassinationof an émigré Iranian dissident and his son in London.The group is ostensibly a pro-Iranian Shi’ite terrorist group and isbelieved to be responsible for the murders in 1988 of a former ministerof the shah’s government and of a German banker close to theIraqi war effort.It is entirely possible that, rather than being merely a nonstategroup enjoying Iranian state sponsorship, this group is actually anextension of Iranian state terror and active measures beyond itsborders, using Iranian intelligence and military personnel, rather thanan independent organization. In the case of the actual organizationHezbollah, the group took care to prevent other people or groupsfrom falsely claiming credit in its nom de guerre of Islamic Jihadby issuing its communiqués only to certain news outlets, usually accompaniedby some recent photographs of their hostages, thus provingtheir identity.