Mr. Bennett teaches the "Hidden Pursuit" escape and evasion class to college seniors who have forgone the wet T-shirt contests and beer bongs of Cancun, Mexico, and Fort Lauderdale, for the chance to dodge simulated gunshots and cannon explosions at Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Amherst, Va.
So-called survival and wilderness schools where students learn team-building and leadership skills through building fires and foraging for food have been around for decades, but Mr. Bennett's course is one of a handful of new offerings around the country that feature a more extreme kind of challenge. For fees that range from a few hundred dollars for a two-day class to a few thousand for adventures that can be four weeks long, those willing can pay to be pursued by make-believe assailants, survive hypothetical plane crashes and car accidents, and hunt down guerrillas.
This sounds remarkably like a terror training camp.
Do you think al-Qaeda could get away with setting up training camps in Western democracies, so long as they sell them as entertainment?
