What Zach Did...

Zach Chesser pleaded guilty this week to a variety of charges and also signed a cooperation deal, which bodes poorly for his friends at Revolution Muslim, who can likely expect to see Zach's smiling face in court one day soon.

The specific charges that Zach pleaded to are detailed in the document below. Anyone studying the online jihad will find this to be a fascinating document with a fairly detailed description of his online activities.

The charges which will form the basis for Zach's likely 20-year prison sentence include the threats against South Park and, notably, his posting to the Al-Ansar forum the names and contact information of several people who signed up for the "Everybody Draw Mohammed" Facebook page. The personally identifying information posted to the Al Qaeda-linked Web forum were "just a suggestion," Zach wrote.

Read the full criminal complaint which is incorporated into Chesser's guilty plea

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, Al-Shabab, Anwar-Awlaki, INTELFILES, Somalia, South-Park, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Zachary Adam Chesser aka Abu Talha Al Amrikee Indictment

Here's the full document:

Zachary Chesser Indicment

My favorite comment on the arrest so far comes from Revolution Muslim founder Yousef Al Khattab (no longer involved with the site), who described Abu Talha's output on his blog as "Tourette's Dawa."

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, Revolution-Muslim, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Abu Talha al-Amrikee aka Zachary Chesser Arrested, South Park Creators Can Rest Easy

Aficionados of this site and your finer American Jihadist propaganda will be pleased to hear that Abu Talha al-Amrikee, aka Zach Chesser, has been arrested and charged with material support for terrorism after being intercepted on his way to Somalia to join Al Shabab.

Chesser (who reads this site) was bringing his baby boy along for the ride as "cover," and -- fellow jihobbyists take note -- it looks like he is spilling his guts to the FBI.

Chesser was most notorious for threatening the creators of South Park in respect to their "likely" demise should they show an image of the Prophet Mohammed. For more of Zach's greatest hits, see the links below.

Interview with Abu Talha posted on Al Maktaba blog

Counter-counter-counter terrorism: The writings of Abu Talha

South Park Threats

More South Park Threats

Al Qaeda North America on Twitter?

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, Al-Shabab, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Revolution-Muslim, Somalia, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Inspire, Abu Talha and More...

A couple of short notes on recent buzz around the Web:

OVERESTIMATING INSPIRE

Coverage of AQAP's Inspire continues to disappoint, although it's improved since the full issue was posted. I continue to think this is not as much of a quantum leap forward as its reception might indicate. I suspect aspiring jihadists are more likely to burn down their moms' kitchens than create a successful bomb with the recipe provided in the magazine, and beyond that, there isn't much about Inspire that is groundbreaking.

The magazine's graphic design has been praised by various reporters and analysts. Personally, I found it rather busy and distracting, not to mention undercutting the alleged serious-mindedness of the content. One thing is certain -- all the rave reviews guarantee we'll be getting a second issue, which was far from certain given the fiasco around its release.

THE NEW BIN LADEN

Inspire has also kicked off a minor flurry of attention for Awlaki including some retreads of the premise that has been kicking around for a while: Is Awlaki the new bin Laden?

The answer to that is pretty easy. "No."

First off, Awlaki's never seen actual combat, and frankly, I don't think he's the type. Bin Laden's military exploits may be greatly exaggerated, but they do, in fact, exist. Unless and until Awlaki gets out there with a machine gun, he's not likely to become the leader of what is essentially a military organization. He can be the spiritual head or a senior advisor, up to a point, but he's not blind, so he has no excuse for not fighting.

Secondly, while everyone generally agrees Awlaki has become "operational," there is no evidence he has a head for operational details or tactics. Bin Laden is quite the opposite. He understands the value of planning, and he has been hands-on supervisor for some of Al Qaeda's greatest triumphs. He notoriously pointed out the weak points in the U.S. embassy in Nairobi during the planning of the East African Embassy bombings. Awlaki, so far, has directed a college student to set his pants on fire.

Thirdly, he's American. Whether due to the local angle or unconscious bias, the fact of his American citizenship automatically causes the media to inflate his dangerousness.

Of course, I am not saying Awlaki isn't dangerous or important. He's both of those things. But we need to keep him in perspective.

ABU TALHA SPEAKS

Speaking of people whose status benefits from media coverage, the always engrossing Al Maktaba blog has an interview with Abu Talha Al Amriki, aka Zach Chesser. Turns out the heat from the South Park death threat has driven the American jihad supporter into radio silence, at least as far as using his own name. When reading, keep in mind that Abu Talha has advised pro-jihad Muslims only to talk to us "counterterrorism analysts" in order to "feed them outright lies."

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, Anwar-Aulaqi, Anwar-Awlaki, AQAP, Inspire-Magazine, Osama-Bin-Laden, Revolution-Muslim, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Is Revolution Muslim Now Al Qaeda In North America? AQNA Says 'Nope'

UPDATE 4:10 p.m.: This is what poking the bear produced from Al Qaeda in North America's Twitter account:

This is not Revolution Muslim. This is probably the last tweet from here as well. 27 minutes ago via web

So for now, I'll take that at face value... However I did have a question, also delivered to AQNA via Twitter:

@AQNorthAmerica If you're not planning to tweet, why not call your account "The Centreville Elks Club" or something equally innocuous?

END UPDATE

---

I woke up this morning to find an interesting new entry among my latest Twitter followers.



Al Qaeda in North America is following three people, myself, Jarret Brachman and Evan Kohlmann. Where have we seen those three names grouped together before? Oh yes, now I remember. So if AQNA is not the very same thing as Revolution Muslim, its top Twitterer is clearly reading RM.

The Twitter account is also displaying the same version of the Al Qaeda flag which was used on the Anwar Awlaki audio-video presentation that Revolution Muslim insisted was not actively threatening the creators of South Park.

This doesn't seem like a particularly smart re-branding, but then...

I have a query in with my new follower. We'll see if we can get this confirmed or denied.

UPDATE: AQNA is following more CT outlets now, so it's more than just the three listed above, which were the only ones for several hours.

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, Al-Qaeda-In-North-America, Revolution-Muslim, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Counter-counter-counter-terrorism: The Positive Power of Dissent

Lost in the South Park Scuffle over Revolution Muslim last week was a little post by the cartoon-hating Abu Talha (aka Zachary Adam Chesser) on the subject of counter-counter terrorism. One part in a longer series about how to foil the forces of the West, this week's installment proposed turning terrorism researchers against each other, starting with Jarret Brachman, Evan Kohlman and myself.

...I have noticed that there are many polarizing figures and ideas in the movement that can be exploited to create divisions. My initial experiments pitted expert A against expert B, but this is not practical. However, by identifying areas of difference or strange theories we can exploit them and divide the movement in sha'a Allah.

Another thing I have learned is that you should not dialogue with these people unless you are going to feed them outright lies to mislead them. This is a permissible lie, because it is misleading the enemy. Simply put, they are better at analyzing us than we are at analyzing them. They do it full time, but we spend a large amount of our time learning other things and only spend a little time of CT officials.

Jarret Brachman, on his blog, gave an interesting and lengthy response. I will highlight what I think is his most important point:

In a nutshell, he thinks that turning CT researchers against each other is bad for us, good for them – just like he would view us turning jihadi ideologues against one another. The difference is that, whereas in their world this is called fitna and leads to all sorts of in-fighting, for us, this is called academic debate – even democracy. Our system is predicated on in-fighting (Madison anyone), which is why it works. Jihadis don’t seem to fully capture that, which is why Abu Talhah, a smart guy, advances a strategy that’s flawed from the start.

I would just add to this that sowing fitna among CT experts probably looks like a good counter-counter-terrorism idea to Abu Talha since the tactic has been employed so effectively against the jihadist community, not just by us but by governments in the Middle East. Counter-counter-terrorism suggests turning the tools of counter-terrorism back on the counter-terrorists. So this posting is a backhanded vote of confidence for the counter-terrorism strategy it seeks to emulate. He's seen it work against them, therefore, he figures it will work against us.

Fitna is the Achilles' heel of the Salafi/Jihadi mindset. Sayyid Qutb, one of the fathers of modern jihadist thought, wrote that fitna "must" be interpreted as "a signal pointing to the existence of a strange factor which is alien to [the Ummah's] nature and its faith. There must be a purpose or an ailment which prevents the first characteristic of the Muslim community [namely, unity] from taking root."

This heavy emphasis on unity is one lousy match with pretty much everything else in the jihadist movement, which combines fierce legalism with a non-existent centralized leadership. Its primary thinkers tend to be obsessed with details, and there is no methodology for resolving the inevitable conflicts between different ideologues. Each one is in business for himself, and half of them are willing to excommunicate those who disagree with them. The movement cannot tolerate dissent, and yet it cannot resolve dissent. It's a logic bomb in the heart of the jihad.

Conversely, our culture is (as Jarret Brachman points out) pretty much centered on fitna. We thrive on it, we think it's fun. We learn from it, and through the process of dissent, over time, the best ideas tend to rise to the top. This can take a long, long time, and a lot of garbage tends to flush through the system in the process, but it's essentially a peaceful and merit-based system. Well, at least I hope it is.

Finally, there's an interesting point to be made regarding Abu Talha's choice of experts for his case study. The "terrorism industry" is made up of counterterrorism analysts like Brachman and Kohlmann, people like myself who are more properly classified as journalists specializing in terrorism, and a large vocal army of pundits. Within this fairly large pool, there are many outsized personalities and egos, and many, many ideologues posing as subject-matter experts.

If you're looking to sow fitna, I think it would have been difficult to pick three less likely candidates. The posting of mine which Abu Talha selected as a possible fitna opportunity begins with the words "I don't like to get into politics." That should be a clue. If either Evan or Jarret called me up one day and told me I was wrong about something, I would certainly go back to the drawing board, re-examine my thesis and seek to learn from the criticism rather than come out swinging.

I won't help out the Revolution Muslim cause by suggesting alternative names. By all means, focus on us. But the choice betrays another vulnerability in the jihadist movement -- it's too much inside-baseball, elitist rather than populist. They're following the people who follow them, rather than looking for the biggest or most vulnerable targets. They have this problem in a lot of different fields, so it's not surprising that it would come up in this context.

Of course, the pot pointed out to the kettle, now I'm responding to them, because they're following us. Since the serious jihadists aren't likely to be lured into a debilitating bout of navel-gazing, all of this is a bit of a sideshow. But it does highlight a few interesting vulnerabilities which might be more fruitfully explored later.

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, American-Jihadists, Revolution-Muslim, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

More Threats Against South Park, This Time With The Authority of Anwar Awlaki

The folks at RevolutionMuslim are at it again. Anwar Awlaki is the star of the latest assault on South Park, the Comedy Central satire which last week spotlighted the controversy over depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

RM uploaded a video again condemning the the broadcast (earlier story), before it switches into a lecture by Yemeni-American cleric and U.S. target Anwar Awlaki, explaining a general religious justification for killing those who insult Mohammed, citing a hadith that states Mohammed ordered the murder of a Jew who wrote a poem mocking him.

"[H]arming Allah and his messenger is a reason to encourage Muslims to kill whoever does that," according to Awlaki.

During the lecture, photos of the South Park creators were shown, as well as images of Salman Rushdie and anti-Islam commentators Geert Wilders, Aayan Hirsi Ali and others. The video also repeats the image posted last week of the murdered corpse of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

The video is currently hosted on YouTube, despite that site's policy disallowing threats and intimidation.

The speech is not specific to South Park, nor is there any indication that it was recorded for this purpose. I didn't immediately recognize this story from among Awlaki's previous lectures. The story is cited in the Constants of Jihad, but the audio quality here is different and Awlaki is considerably more exercised in the RM post than he is during the Constants lecture series. If I find it later, I will update this post.

UPDATE: The Awlaki audio is from a 2008 recording titled "The Dust Will Never Settle Down."

Related posts:

INTELWIRE Exclusive: U.S. Granted Millions to Al Qaeda-Linked Charity

American Jihadists Warn South Park Creators Of 'Likely' Death

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, American-Jihadists, Revolution-Muslim, South-Park, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

American Jihadists 'Warn' South Park Creators Of Death For Offending Muslims

A Web site run by Americans who support Al Qaeda and other jihadist movements has "warned" South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that by airing a cartoon image of the Prophet Mohammed "they will probably end up like Theo Van Gogh," the Dutch filmmaker assassinated for offending Islam with a film critical of some Muslims' practices regarding women.

The site featured a photograph of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest. It also linked to information published elsewhere about where the television creators live.

South Park's 200th episode dealt with the Mohammed image taboo directly. It wasn't clear whether a caricature of Mohammed will appear in the next episode.

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show," wrote the site's blogger under the nom de guerre Abu Talha Al Amreekee. "This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

The site, RevolutionMuslim.com, frequently posts material supporting and celebrating terrorists and jihadists around the world including Yemeni-American cleric Anwar Awlaki and Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden.

Labels: Abu-Talha-Al-Amreeki, American-Jihadists, Cartoon-Controversy, Revolution-Muslim, South-Park, Theo-Van-Gogh, Zach-Chesser

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink