Copyright (c) 2009 Derek Clontz/Your World Report. All rights reserved.

You can tell if neighbors, friends, family members and co-workers are “lone wolf” terrorists like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh or loony tunes mail-bomb maniac Ted Kaczynski by looking for the Top 10 warning signs developed by the FBI.

The threat, says the agency, is chilling – and real.

TED KACYNSKI: The ultimate lone wolf terrorist.

In a hair-raising intelligence bulletin issued just days ago, the agency warned local law enforcement agencies nationwide to be alert to serious threats from “weird Harold extremists” who act on their own and are not closely tied to al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad or any of dozens of equally vicious domestic terror groups that flank America’s ultra right and left wings.

Those threats often stymie cops and intelligence agencies because they emerge without warning and are almost impossible to track.

It took years to capture, convict and imprison Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, a wimpy, scared-of-girls college professor who posted high-powered mail bombs to computer experts and businessmen in several states.

And McVeigh, who was executed in connection with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, probably never would have been caught if he hadn’t tried to make his escape in a car with no license plates.

“Lone extremists represent an ongoing terrorist threat in the United States,” says the FBI bulletin. Adds a highly placed agency source, “The possibility that you know one of these ‘ticking time bombs’ is greater than you might think.

“It’s estimated that one in every 10 Americans over the age of 18 fits the social and psychological profile of a ‘lone wolf’.

“A friend, a family member, even someone as seemingly innocuous as a pastor, a shoe salesman, or a teacher in your child’s school or even an elderly neighbor could be working behind the scenes to launch a terrorist attack.”

Here, from FBI profilers and psychologists, are the Top 10 warning signs that suggest a person is a lone extremist now – or could “snap” and become one in the near future. Lone wolf terrorists:

1. Smoke like chimneys and/or knock back a drink or more daily to calm jittery nerves and ease guilt associated with planning or even just thinking about conducting a terrorist operation that could kill hundreds or even thousands of innocent people.

“Lone wolves who smoke are almost certainly upsetting co-workers who don’t smoke because they take so many breaks during the workday,“ says the FBI source. “Drinkers aren’t necessarily drunks, but you can rest assured they’re hard pressed to go too long without taking a ’nip’.”

2. Make “fashion errors” most people avoid like the plague. For example, male lone wolves might show up for a game of tennis in heavy leather “clod hoppers” or scuffed up wingtips.

Women might strut around with their slips hanging out or wearing stretched-or ill-fitting panty house. Missing blouse buttons that allow for breast exposure are another “bad sign.”

“Lone wolves are too withdrawn and preoccupied to see how odd their behavior might look to other people,” the source says.

3. Know it all – or think they do.

While most people are “team players” and work hard to get along with others, lone wolves with terror on their minds are often high-handed and preachy know-it-alls who have little or no time to hear what other people might think.

“I call them ‘finger waggers‘,” says the source. “These are the men and women who not only know more than you know, they point and wag their fingers when they’re dressing you down for being so stupid.“

4. Are afraid of, and awkward around, the opposite sex.

Males are ‘afraid of women’ and their dating experience is apt to be quite limited, even if they overcame their fears with one woman and got married,“ says the source.

“Female lone wolves will often complain about ’good men’ being hard to find, and condemn all men as chauvinists in order to hide their own insecurities and fear of their own sexuality.”

5. Are loners – even in a crowd.

“Lone wolves will spend an inordinate time alone, reading, writing, even pretending to watch TV like a couch potato while they secretly daydream about a terror operation,” says the source.

6. Are “nerdy” and “geeky”.

Says the source: “Anyone who spends two hours or more a day on a computer or has multiple e-mail accounts is suspect. Normal people with normal interests have better things to do.

They prefer the company of other people to ‘fantasy friends‘ on the Web.“

7. Offend others with an unsophisticated, juvenile or strange sense of humor. “Lone extremists quite often have a crude and off-color sense of humor that they express at inappropriate times,” says the source.

“For example, they might tell a ‘doo-doo joke’ at the boss’s fancy dinner party.

“Or they might make incredibly crude sexual comments or repeat bawdy limericks, such as ‘There was a girl from Nantucket . . .‘ around a preacher’s wife without realizing that such filth is better left to the locker room.“

8. Have a foul or strange body odor or breath that they try to mask with strong perfumes, after-shave lotions and mouthwashes.

“They don’t bathe as often as most people – every other day, or every three days at most,” says Read the rest of this entry »