One thing that characterizes nations with a great deal of terrorism, or function as a base for terrorists, is a high crime rate. It will surprise most people that the United States is no longer a high crime nation. Currently, the rate of crimes per 100,000 population for major industrial nations is; Japan-1,446, Australia-3,563, US-5,660, France-6,659, Canada-13,296, UK- 30,406. As high as some of these are, many nations with ongoing civil wars are much higher. A high level of criminal activity makes it easier for terrorists to buy weapons and protection from capture. The high rate in Britain is the result of a number of factors. For one, most British police are unarmed, and a higher proportion of increasingly fearless criminals are. Britain also has had a much more tolerant policy on political asylum, and a number of violent terrorist organizations have set up shop there. Canada, despite armed police and gun control laws about as strict as Britain's, also lets a lot of questionable "political refugees" into the country. Both Britain and Canada have begun to crack down on the terrorists in their midst, but this takes time and the terror groups dig themselves deeper underground in the meantime. The United States has reduced it's crime rate considerably in the past decade, and has been hammering organized criminal organizations for the last two decades. Japan has a low crime rate partly because their policing system is very intrusive (your local cops tend to know you, what you do and what you're up to.) But terror groups composed of native Japanese are another matter, as they can avoid police surveillance, while non-Japanese individuals stand out.  Some nations have such high rates that even terrorists can't survive. Two examples are Nigeria (where it's estimated to be over 50,000 crimes per 100,000 population) and Somalia (where it's too dangerous to take a survey). In these nations are more likely to get ripped off themselves. However, this may change in northern Nigeria, where majority Moslem states have imposed strict Islamic law. The crime rate has come down and many