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The State Department announced today it was offering $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of American jihadists Omar Hammami and Jehad Mostafa, both of whom are involved with Al Shabab, Al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia.

For months now, it's been the worst-kept secret in the world that Hammami hangs out on Twitter, occasionally sparring with his fellow Shabab members, with whom he has fallen out, and more often talking to and joking around with American terrorism analysts and scholars, including myself and Clint Watts of Selected Wisdom, who has been banging out extensive analysis of Hammami's comments and Al Shabab's general state of disrepair. Even the State Department, which is sponsoring the reward, has been Twitterfighting with Hammami in Arabic.

All of this social interaction has resulted in a weird sort of camaraderie, which may be more like Stockholm Syndrome on Hammami's part, given his difficult situation. But when Rusty Shackleford of the hardcore Jawa Report says he's "fond" of you, it's a sign you you're doing terrorism terribly wrong... or maybe you're doing it exactly right... I don't know, it's all kind of confusing.

An FBI official told CNN the two American Shababis "had a persistent interest in targeting U.S. interests" and are "believed to be involved in planning attacks on U.S. persons or property," although Hammami's account on Twitter depicts a more modest daily regimen of buying tea and riding donkeys while hoping no one from Shabab shows up to kill him on any given day. While Hammami is a master of spin, as seen in his tweets and online autobiography, I suspect his account is pretty accurate.

My question about this reward is: Why now? Hammami has split from Al Shabab's leadership and is sowing a remarkable amount of discontent, particularly among other foreign fighters who have joined Shabab. He's even disavowed the jihadi raps previously attributed to him. I have little doubt that he would love to get back to scheming against America, but he doesn't seem to be a $5 million threat at the moment, and frankly, don't we want him over there there stirring up trouble? In fact, the person with the most capability and motivation to collect that reward is Abu Zubair, Shabab's current leader, who would like nothing better than to be rid of this meddlesome priest.

But the real lesson from all this? Sucks to be "Jehad Who?"

UPDATE: Omar responds to the news on Twitter:

As I'm a bit low on cash, how much is my left leg going for? I figure, shamil basayev did the one-leg jihad thing.

— abu m (@abumamerican) March 22, 2013

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Al-Shabab, American-Jihadists, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Bum Rap

A recent Al Shabab-friendly attack piece against Omar Hammami was mostly denied by Abu Muhammed, Hammami's online "spokesman." (Hey, Clark, I can't believe you just missed Superman again!) But Abu M did confirm one of the most shocking allegations in the document -- that Omar Hammami was not the author of the raps which made him something-like-famous. 

"Thank God the Shabab got those awful raps off my back," Abu M tweeted yesterday, slipping out of character for a moment. 

According to Abu M, Hammami only performed in the first video featuring Shabab raps, Ambush at Bardal. Not only were the raps written by another American jihadist (whom he referred to scornfully as Kid Rock), but everything following that, including the smash-hit Send me a Cruise, was performed by Kid Rock and not Hammami. 

In fairness, Al Shabab did apparently advertise the raps as featuring Hammami. But going back and listening to it, it's kind of obvious that the voice on "Send Me a Cruise" is not him. Which just goes to show, sometimes it pays to listen more closely.

I don't think I ever attributed the song to Hammami in anything more than a snarky tweet, which is just dumb luck probably, but if I did, consider it retracted. Hammami's got enough black marks in his book, we can at least cross off a couple of musical atrocities. 

Previously: #Unfollow: Why Kicking Terrorists Off Twitter is a Good Idea

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Al-Shabab, American-Jihadists, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Former friend rips U.S. jihadi Hammami in online post, calling him 'simple-minded,' says he stole credit for raps

An author using the name Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir today posted a devastating attack on American jihadist Omar Hammami, who fought with then turned on Somalia's Al Qaeda affiliate, Al Shabab.

In a slickly produced 17-page PDF, Al-Muhajir rippped into Hammami, whose vocal criticisms of Al Shabab include accusations that top Shabab leaders assassinated key Al Qaeda members in Somalia.

Al-Muhajir writes fluently in colloquial English and admits to a weak grasp of Arabic in the tract, suggesting the author may be another Western jihadi involved with Shabab. His spelling shows British traits in several places. However neither the author's identity nor the authenticity of the manuscript could be confirmed at this time of this writing.

Al-Muhajir says he waited in the hopes that Hammami would turn away from his public path of dissent, but finally had to speak because it had become "intolerable" to continue to refrain. Al-Muhajir accused Hammami of "childish petulance" and an out-of-control ego, calling him "vacuous" and "simple-minded," before proceeding with a detailed rebuttal of Hammami's tell-all online exposes and his online autobiography.

Al-Muhajir provides new details on how Hammami filmed several videos claming Shabab was planning to kill him and pleading for help from global jihadists. According to Al Muhajir, Hammami asked for technical help from a friend then went into a room and recorded the videos without telling his friend what they were.

The videos were filmed in a location linked to Minnesota Shabab recruit and prolific Facebooker Cabdulaahi Faarax, who used to post pictures of himself hanging out with Hammami, a practice that stopped soon after the videos went online. (And by the way, Cabdulaahi, you're not fooling anyone with that new pseudonymous profile.)

Some choice excerpts from Al-Muhajir:

Abu Mansur Al-Amriki’s vitriolic attacks on the leaders of the Mujahideen were not intended for a local audience; the austerities of the Nomadic way of life here in Somalia offer no chance of lending an ear to what has come to be known locally as the ‘unnecessary drivel’ of an Al-Shabaab poster boy. In the global village, however, and through an online presence, Abu Mansur found a captive audience and, crucially, the attention of the Western media - whose growing appetite for anything that is deemed even slightly detrimental to the furtherance of the burgeoning Jihadi ideology has become almost insatiable. ... 

It is worth noting from the onset that Abu Mansur’s actions are deliberate; neither is he physically immature nor known to have an acute mental disability that would absolve him of responsibility for his actions and he remains, undeniably, conscious of the terrible turn of events. At times, it is painfully embarrassing to watch a man whose alleged ideals of restoring the Islamic Khilāfa gradually debase to bickering about his meagre salary and publishing images of his donkey and his wife on the internet just to prove it. ...

It is inevitable that any attempt to expound on the Abu Mansur saga would necessitate divulging some information that would have otherwise been buried deeply under the carpet, but because that information is considered indispensible to understanding the complete story, it becomes imperative to unveil it so as to convey a more balanced insight into the grossly inaccurate picture of the Somali Jihad painted by Abu Mansur and also to allay the fears of the Mujahideen around the world in what has now been labelled the ‘Somali soap opera.’

Al-Muhajir also repeated a claim that had circulated on Twitter previously -- that Hammami's grievances were related to his loss of driving privileges when Al Shabab took his car away.

On Hammami's autobiography:

Despite the disorderly and inconsistent plot that renders the reader almost perplexed and the self-aggrandising teenage narrative interspersed with the odd ‘Haha’, the autobiography, much like all of his subsequent writings – whether in Arabic or English - reeks of the fetid odour of unabashed obsession with the self-image. 

On Hammami's personality:

Abu Mansur is often at the centre of his own universe -- a brittle mental construct of his own making -- and judging by the condescending attitude with which he treats the Ansari brothers, who often generously go out of their way to help him, he, more often than not, is the only person competent enough to manage the affairs of the Muslim Ummah. 

On Hammami's rap prowess or lack thereof:

Worth noting here also is that the Jihadi rap Nasheeds, ‘send me a cruise’ and ‘make Jihad with me’, that are often erroneously attributed to Abu Mansur are the work of another Muhajir,  - another American Mujahid - but, of course, Abu Mansur would never say otherwise since the Nasheeds ‘perfect’ and complement his projected self-image.

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Al-Shabab, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Omar Hammami and the Trolls of Jihad

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, CVE, Internet, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Signs of Life (Maybe) from Omar Hammami

Omar Hammami in a video posted online this morning.

A previously unseen video from Alabama-born jihadist Omar Hammami was posted to YouTube early this morning.

In the video, titled "An Urgent Message," Hammami speaks for three minutes in Arabic. He appears to be sitting in the same room and wearing the same clothes as he was in the last video he posted online from Somalia nearly seven months ago.

Update: Hammami alive, speaks with Current TV

According to Somali journalists, the video appears to expand on the plea for help Hammami posted in that video, which indicated Al Shabab wanted to kill him. According to their translations, the newly released video is addressed to Al Qaeda and senior jihadists to inform them that foreign fighters in Somalia are experiencing problems with Al Shabab. He also said Shabab is not ready to carry out jihad on an international level. Hammami also asks for help in leaving Somalia, they said.

The video's caption reads "Waiting around to see how things develop. Stay tuned!" The video was also posted without further comment on a Twitter account used by an individual claiming to be Hammami's "PR rep."

Hammami has not been heard from since May, when he abruptly stopped communicating due to African Union forces fighting the Al Qaeda-linked militia Al Shabab in his vicinity. His last direct communication was with Christof Putzel of CurrentTV. His "PR rep" stopped emailing me at the same time.

In an interview with me for Foreign Policy in May, Hammami's "PR rep" expanded on the American jihadist's complaints about al Shabaab and said the Somali militia had not yet killed Hammami because it was "too messy politically."

"Things can't be done in the open, and he hasn't given them any opportunities to create an 'accident'," he said. The interview took place around the time Hammami posted "part 1" of his text autobiography and an audio lecture on the political priorities of jihadist movements, which he believed was partially responsible for his troubles.
In early October, the Washington Post ran a story suggesting Hammami was "on the run," but the assertion was weakly sourced.

This post has been updated.

For more about American jihadists, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

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Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, Jihad-Joe, Omar-Hammami, Somalia

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What Is Al Qaeda, Part 3

This is the final batch of results from the "What is Al Qaeda" survey, conducted with major assistance from Clint Watts of SelectedWisdom.com.

Part 1: What is Al Qaeda (definition)

Part 2: Which groups are part of the U.S. war on Al Qaeda?

The third and final question in the survey asked about specific people and whether they are part of Al Qaeda. Click here to see the count for each category, or check out the percentages below.

Name	Yes	No	Don't know
Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi	29%	30%	41%
Anwar Awlaki	77%	6%	17%
Abdel Majid Zindani	13%	34%	53%
Ramzi Yousef	58%	20%	22%
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed	87%	6%	7%
Abu Zubaydah	69%	6%	24%
Omar Abdel Rahman	35%	36%	29%
Omar Hammami	29%	26%	45%
Abu Bakr Bashir	27%	34%	39%
Hambali	24%	25%	51%

The results for this section were very much influenced by lack of information. As with the previous results, I have broken out academic and government responders for closer scrutiny. Given below are the percentage of "yes" votes as compared to "no" votes only (i.e., "don't know" answers were not counted). Yellow blocks show votes with less than two-thirds consensus, red blocks highlight near 50-50 splits.

Name	Academics	Government
Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi	29%	59%
Anwar Awlaki	81%	96%
Abdel Majid Zindani	0%	22%
Ramzi Yousef	63%	64%
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed	90%	96%
Abu Zubaydah	88%	100%
Omar Abdel Rahman	26%	50%
Omar Hammami	20%	53%
Abu Bakr Bashir	20%	39%
Hambali	8%	60%

As you can see, government responders were much less likely to find consensus on these questions than academics, which is significant given that government employees are more directly responsible for implementing policies and making decisions about targeting. However, the sample size is so small (and the pool of government responders so diverse) that these figures should be used very cautiously when drawing conclusions of any kind.

That said, the results are quite interesting and rather confusing, often failing to apply the criteria for Al Qaeda affiliation outlined in Question One or specific groups identified in Question Two. So, for instance, the responses on Abu Zubaydah were quite strongly in favor of considering him part of Al Qaeda despite there being some confusion about this issue in the public record.

A majority of every professional group in the survey voted to include Ramzi Yousef in Al Qaeda, although the margins varied, with both government and academics failing to reach a two-thirds consensus. Relatively few people voted "don't know." While Yousef was known to have trained in Al Qaeda camps, the evidence that he acted at the direction of Al Qaeda is somewhat thin, and the evidence he was financed by Al Qaeda is significantly disputed. That said, there is enough evidence to make the argument and probably succeed in doing so, but it's hardly a slam dunk.

In contrast, the overall vote on Omar Abdel Rahman was sharply split and government voters went straight down the middle on the question. With some caveats, there is reasonably strong evidence that Rahman was signficantly financed by Osama bin Laden while he lived in America, and he effectively led the Al Kifah Center in Brooklyn, which was at least loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda, if not a full-blown "Al Qaeda outpost" as recent reports have mostly characterized it. You can find more on this in my book.

Here are a couple of charts showing a couple other interesting divergences in the data.





For both Omar Hammami and Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi, we saw wild swings in the data. I will probably try to assemble some thoughts on this later. For now, I just note it.

This is the final installment of the results. I am going to ponder these numbers for a while, trying not just to make sense of them but to draw some useful conclusions and talk about how they inform our national discussion about terrorism. In the meantime, feel free to drop in and discuss your thoughts with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Finally, many thanks again to Clint and SelectedWisdom.com for making the charts above and for making the overall survey happen. A lot of work went into both assembling the survey and making the results comprehensible, and it is much appreciated.

Check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Labels: Abdul-Majid-Zindani, Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Abu-Zubaydah, Al-Qaeda, Anwar-Awlaki, Omar-Abdel-Rahman, Omar-Hammami, Ramzi-Yousef, Survey

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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American Jihadist Omar Hammami Said To Be Killed in Unconfirmed Report

A Somali government claims that Abu Mansour Al Amriki, who was born as U.S. citizen Omar Hammami, was wounded or killed in recent fighting near Mogadishu (story).

False reports are copious in the war on terror. So far, jihadist forums have not confirmed the death of Hammami. Until they do, the report should be taken with a large grain of salt.

The story I linked states Hammami's "demise would be a serious blow to al-Shabaab and to its efforts to attract foreign fighters from the US and elsewhere." That's not strictly true. While Hammami is a significant and powerful figure among radicalized Americans, his death will only elevate his status.

In the long run, a live Hammami might work out to be a net gain over a dead Hammami, but that's not guaranteed, and in the short term, a "martyred" Hammami would generate a lot of light and heat in the world of online jihadists.

For more about Hammami and other American jihadists, pre-order "Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam," the first comprehensive look at the phenomenon of American jihadists from the 1970s to the present.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, Jihad-Joe, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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YouTube's War on Awlaki: So Far, So-So

One day after YouTube said it would ban videos by Anwar Awlaki that incite violence, a search of the site in Arabic showed dozens of videos still available.

A search of the Arabic version of YouTube for the name "Awlaki" yielded 429 hits. Two of the top three results were official media releases from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which were posted along with links to top jihadist forums.



A number of Awlaki audio lectures which do not directly advocate violence remain on both English and Arabic versions of YouTube.

Most of these audio recordings -- such as "The Journey of the Soul" -- were originally published commercially and may be covered by valid copyrights, despite their wide availability in pirated form online.

Others, which do not primarily relate to violent topics, nevertheless discuss and justify violence and violent conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims. For instance, in a series on "The Hereafter" which is still available on the English version of YouTube, Awlaki says:

The only justified war is jihad. Because that is the only fight that is happening for the sake of Allah Subhan Allah. Everything else is happening for the sake of dunya. [Non-Muslims] attack jihad in Islam, as if their wars are justified. What are they fighting for? Sometimes they would cover it. They would mask it with the goal of human rights. We’re fighting for human rights.

Hundreds of other radical videos remain on YouTube as well. A search for videos under the keyword "mujahideen" yielded 5,000 hits in Arabic and another 5,000 in English. Videos included propaganda from the late leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, known for his ultraviolence.

Footage also included Abu Mansour Al Amriki, aka Omar Hammami, an American citizen who has joined the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab insurgency in Somalia. In the video featured, Hammami directly encourages Muslims to join the fighting in Somalia.

A search under mujahideen also yields footage of overtly terrorist groups and activities in Algeria, Palestine and Chechnya, and footage of the war in Bosnia. Searching for "jihad" in Arabic produced videos of lectures by Osama bin Laden, London radical preacher Abu Hamza Al Masri, virulently anti-Semitic preacher Muhammad Hussein Yaqub and jihadist fighters in Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al Zawahiri was represented by more than 2,600 videos on the Arabic version of YouTube, including a substantial number of official Al Qaeda releases which should, in theory, be easily identified as objectionable material.

It's not clear what strategy YouTube is using to eliminate problematic videos, or whether they have a subject-matter expert working on the problem. While some content will certainly fall into a gray area, it doesn't look like they have eliminated the low-hanging fruit yet.

Searches were conducted Nov. 3-4, 2010.

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, Anwar-Awlaki, Ayman-Al-Zawahiri, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Abu Mansour Al Amriki

Abu Mansour Al Amriki is the newest American to show up in an Al Qaeda-linked organization, namely the Al Shabab militia, which was highlighted recently in a communique from Al Qaeda's nominal No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.



Abu Mansour Al Amriki

Abu Mansour is shown speaking in English and Arabic. Published reports suggest that he may have volunteered in Bosnia during the 1990s.

If you recognize this picture or have any information on this individual, please contact me.

He's characterized as a military trainer and is shown taking part in an ambush of of what was characterized as Ethiopian and Somali troops at a location the video calls "Bardal," or Bargaal.

Abu Masnor also delivers an after-action report on the attack. "Many of them were killed and injured," Abu Mansour said.

Masnour eulogized the two fallen fighters. One was singled out as a particular inspiration.

"We need more like him. If you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors and even your own to send people like him to this [indiscernable] it would be a great asset."

"Our main objective, one of the things that we seek for [indiscernible] is to die as martyrs," said Mansour. "So the fact that we got two martyrs is nothing more than a victory in itself."

Mansour has been featured before in Al Shahab videos, but his face has never been shown.

The video also features another English-speaking jihadist and a brief clip of Osama bin Laden from an older Al Qaeda video.

Fox News has identified Abu Mansour as Omar Hammami, a 25-year-old from Alabama. However, I've interviewed two different Bosnian mujahideen who stated with some certainty that the Abu Mansour pictured above was a mujahideen combatant during the war in Bosnia, when Hammami would have been 10 or 11 years old. I have also obtained a photograph that appears to be Abu Mansour in Bosnia. The investigation continues...

Labels: Abu-Mansour-Al-Amriki, American-Jihadists, Bosnia, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink