Eric Harroun, Indictment and Affidavit in Support of Complaint

American Eric Harroun, who fought alongside jihadists in Syria, was indicted yesterday for material support of Jabhat al-Nusrah and conspiring to use explosives devices overseas.

Indictment

Affidavit in support of criminal complaint

For more about American jihadists, buy J.M. Berger's book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam

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Labels: American-Jihadists, Eric-Harroun, Foreign-Fighters, Internet, Jabhat-Al-Nusrah, Jihad-Joe, Social-Media, Syria

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Best-Liked on the Most-Wanted

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.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

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.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

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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Exclusive: Omar Hammami on why Al Shabab wants to kill him

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

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Anwar Awlaki E-Mail Exchange With Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

I listened to a lecture that made a parallel between Iblis and the People of the book and was wondering if it was consistent with what the Quran teaches. He basically stated that Allah (SWT) speaks the truth and should always be obeyed. He told the story of how Allah (SWT) told Adam (AS) to take Shaitan as an enemy and toldy him to stay away from the tree. Shaitan told Adam that he was his well wisher and the only reason the tree was denied him because it would make him an angel or live forever. So Adam listened to Shaitan and neglected the heedings of his lord. He goes on to say that Allah (SWT) warns us not to take the people of the book as protecting friends (aulia) and the lecturer stated that if we ignore Allah (SWT) like Adam we will have no exuse if we end up in hell fire because of the advice given by the people of the book. He explains that some of the people of the book are sincere in their advice but are ignorant and if you listen to sincere ignorant advice over Allah (SWT) you fall at your own peril. V/R Nidal


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: Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Fort-Hood, lone-wolf, Nidal-Malik-Hasan

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Two E-Mails From Anwar Awlaki

The following two letters from Anwar Awlaki were read aloud in court during the trial of British Airways worker Rajib Karim, who wrote to Awlaki seeking to join him as a fighter in Yemen. Awlaki wrote back in the two emails below encouraging Karim to abandon his plans to emigrate to Yemen and instead plot terrorism against airlines from his position in the U.K. (See previous INTELWIRE story.)

Fox News obtained transcripts from Karim's trial as part of a special report airing tonight on Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter.  The e-mails were read aloud in court and transcribed by a stenographer without Arabic language skills. As a result, while the emails below are nearly verbatim, some Arabic words were transcribed incomprehensibly. Many thanks to Aaron Zelin of Jihadology.net and Humera Khan of Muflehun for deciphering some of the terms. Notes for phonetic and indiscernible are sprinkled throughout.

The letters offer a fascinating look at Awlaki's priorities and tactics in dealing with a new recruit.

• Can you please specify your role in the airline industry?
• How much access do you have to airports?
• What information do you have on the limitations and cracks in present airport security systems?
• What procedure would travellers from the newly listed countries have to go through?
• What procedure would a person on a watch list have to go through?
• Can they prevent a national from a certain country to travelling to this country and like a Brit going back to Britain?
• What ways can you help us based on what you know of your job and our objective?

Brother Muta







For more about Awlaki and other 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: Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, Anwar-Awlaki

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

The Boy Who Cried 'Lone Wolf'

I had two recent pieces on "Jihad Joes" in Foreign Policy:

THE BOY WHO CRIED 'LONE WOLF'

Friday's arrest of a would-be suicide bomber in Washington, D.C. led to a fresh paroxysm of analysis in the media on the ominous threat of lone wolf terrorism on U.S. soil.

The problem is that Amine El-Khalifi wasn't alone. He was in contact with men he believed were part of Al Qaeda, and those men handed him a complete (but inert) suicide vest and an automatic weapon to carry out his attack. The fact those men were FBI undercover agents is beside the point. If someone claiming to work for Al Qaeda hands you a fully assembled bomb for your attack, you're not a lone wolf.

Read more by J.M. Berger at Foreign Policy

AL QAEDA'S YOUNG AMERICANS

Hundreds of Somalis gathered on the outskirts of Mogadishu on Feb. 13 to celebrate the union of al Qaeda with its Somali cousin, the insurgent-terrorist group al-Shabab. But the mainstream media hasn't quite figured out what to make of the news, first announced last week, that the two groups had officially merged.

Many reporters were already accustomed to thinking of them as the same group. Others grasped at straws to fit the news into the "al Qaeda is losing" narrative -- dominant ever since Osama bin Laden was killed last May.

They might have done better with a simple headline: "Dozens of Americans Join al Qaeda."

Read more by J.M. Berger at Foreign Policy

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: Al-Shabab, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Amine-El-Khalifi, Foreign-Policy, individual-jihad, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Oops, My Facebook Friend Just Joined AQ

Some Facebook friends of Al Qaeda member Cabdulaahi Faarax (click for larger image)

Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax has a lot of friends on Facebook. More than 400 in fact. So what will those friends -- many of whom live in the United States -- do now that Al Shabab, the Somali militant organization to which Faarax belongs -- has officially merged with Al Qaeda?

It's not like they shouldn't have known already. Al Shabab is, after all, a designated terrorist entity and dozens of Americans have been indicted for various activities on Shabab's behalf. And the organization's leaders already publicly swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden and after him, Ayman Al Zawahiri.

But for all that the brand name has suffered, there is still something special about being a member of "Al Qaeda." And thus, something special about being Facebook friends with an official, no-bones-about-it Al Qaeda member.

Especially if you are, say, one of Faarax's 47 friends living in Minneapolis who list their schools or employers on their Facebook pages, names like Wells Fargo Insurance, IBI Carrier LLC, afrodeli.com, Hennepin County Library, HTI Co., Sheridan College, Country Financial, Manchester Unlimited, Normandale Community College, St. Mary's University, Minnesota State, Edison Senior High School, or Roosevelt Senior High School.

And those are just in Minneapolis.

If employers are scouring Facebook pages for pictures of employees doing beer bongs during long-ago college days, it makes you wonder what they would think of an employee who is friends with an Al Qaeda member.

Not to mention companies -- like Facebook and Twitter -- that are currently providing a platform for these newly minted Al Qaeda members. Time to do some weeding, folks.

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: Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Cabdulaahi-Ahmed-Faarax, Somalia

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Omar Hammami Is Trying Very Hard To Step Into Anwar Awlaki's Shoes

Omar Hammami would like you to think he's the next Anwar Awlaki. In fact, he would like it so much that he's aping Awlaki in a pre-release audio obtained by INTELWIRE.

Hammami's new work, "In Defense of the Khilafah (Caliphate)," uses one of Awlaki's favorite tactics -- quoting a RAND Corp. study -- as a jumping off point for comments about the inevitability of a new Islamic caliphate. Anwar Awlaki used a similar tactic, quoting a different RAND study at length in his most influential audio lecture, "Constants on the Path of Jihad" and in a follow-up recording, "The Battle for Hearts and Minds."

The recording is par for the course for Hammami, a lot of highfalutin vocabulary in the service of fairly basic comments, with the occasional incongruously lowbrow aside, such as when he refers to "notoriously dumb Americans" and a claim that "the reality of the Khilafah is actually quite different from some hillbilly story about seeing Bigfoot."

The person who posted the audio argued that it proved Hammami was the same person as Abu Jihaad Al Shaami, the nom de guerre of a jihadist ideologue who has posted some written articles over the last year. Abu Jihaad, notably, titled one of his works, "The War of Hearts and Minds," another shout-out to Awlaki.

The idea that Hammami is aspiring to be the next Awlaki was recently articulated by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens in a recent article for the CTC Sentinel. The new audio is the strongest evidence yet that Hammami is deliberately trying to step into his fellow American's large shoes. Unfortunately for Hammami, he doesn't have the spoken-word chops to pull it off, although his works look better when you read a transcript and don't have to sit through his delivery.

The audio was not released in its entirety, and it was not released through the normal channels used by jihadists to assure authenticity, but it certainly sounds like Hammami. I expect to see it released officially in the days to come.

Many thanks to Aaron Zelin of Jihadology for spotting the audio. For more about Hammami, check out Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the RAND study quoted by Hammami as the same one quoted by Awlaki. They quoted two different studies. Thanks to Charles Cameron for the catch.

Labels: Al-Shabab, American-Jihadists, Anwar-Awlaki, Omar-Hammami

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Ex-Marine Yonathan Melaku Pleads Guilty, Jihadist Videos Released

Yonathan Melaku, a former U.S. Marine, pled guilty today to shooting at U.S. military buildings. He was arrested in June just before he could deface Arlington National Cemetery. Below are jihadi-style videos Melaku recorded of him firing shots out of his car window. As you can see, Melaku will not be picking up the academy award for short jihadi agitprop feature any time soon.

Labels: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Jihad-Joe, Yonathan-Melaku

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Florida Jihadist Planned Norway-Style Synchronized Lone Attack

Sami Osmakac

An American jihadist from Pinellas Park, Florida, was arrested in the midst of planning a coordinated solo bomb and firearms attack reminiscent of the July 2011 Norway massacre carried out by anti-Muslim crusader Anders Breivik.

Sami Osmakac, 25, is accused of attempting to purchase assault rifles and components for bombs to use in an attack on Florida nightclubs. He intended to detonate a car bomb outside a club in Ybor City and/or outside the local sheriff's office, then take hostages in another club using a suicide bomb belt or vest.

According to an affidavit filed to support the arrest, Osmakac first considered a military target, but changed his mind because "their bases are so locked up."

A tipster in the Muslim community alerted authorities to Osmakac's radical leanings, and an undercover FBI agent sold him what Osmakac thought were a functioning bombs and firearms.

Read the affidavit

A naturalized American citizen born in Kosovo, Osmakac was a well-known presence online, the star of numerous radical videos berating Christians, Jews and atheists and demanding that they convert to Islam. Contrary to traditional Islamic teaching, he characterized Christians as "pagans" with "evil beliefs."

"What kind of god would come out of a vagina," he asked. "What kind of god would have a penis? What jind of god would get circumcised? ... What kind of god would use the restroom number 1? ... What kind of god would take a piss? What kind of god would defecate number 2 in the bathroom, sitting down and then wiping himself with toilet paper? What kind of god? Are you sick? Where's your intellect?"

In a separate story, a U.S. military vet was charged today in Maryland with attempting to join Al Shabab, the Al Qaeda-linked militia currently fighting an insurgency in Somalia.

American-born Craig Baxam served in the U.S. Army from 2007 to July 2011. Previously non-religious, he converted to Islam during his final days in the Army. In December, he tried to travel to Somalia via Kenya, but was arrested by Kenyan authorities on December 23. He stated he was attempting to make hijra to Somalia to defend the Sharia government Al Shabab has been attempting to institute.

Read the criminal complaint

Links to the Osmakac videos were provided by a Twitter user with a private account. A link to the Baxam complaint was posted to Twitter by @khanserai.

For much 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: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Craig-Baxam, Internet, lone-wolf, Sami-Osmakac

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

What Tarek Mehanna Isn't

American citizen Tarek Mehanna's lawyers managed to convince many in the media that his prosecution as a terrorist was all about the First Amendment and U.S. attitudes toward Muslims.

A Boston jury did not agree, on Tuesday convicting Mehanna of material support to Al Qaeda and lying to federal investigators.

One can forgive the defense team for thinking that First Amendment martyrdom was the smart approach. Faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence as to Mehanna's words and actions, they decided the only way to do their job was to undermine the fundamental nature of the charges. The strategy failed, but that doesn't mean they had any better options.

The phrase "budding Islamic scholar" has now become ubiquitous in media descriptions of Mehanna, a phrase the defense used in an effort to normalize Mehanna's indisputably radical beliefs and actions as a normal, even respected part of Islam.

If Glenn Beck put forth the idea that Islamic scholarship included praising the 9/11 hijackers, gloating and laughing at Ground Zero, and celebrating the immolation of American soldiers as "Texas barbecue," he would rightfully be lambasted by sensible people.

But when Mehanna himself advances that argument, through his defense team, people who say they have the best interests of American Muslims at heart should take a deep breath and think about whether they want to co-sign that assertion.

It's one thing to advocate for the First Amendment and the protection of objectionable speech. It's quite another thing to defend an extremist by trying to normalize his behavior within a community that already has enough perception problems.

People of good conscience might differ on whether Mehanna should be considered a criminal, although I personally agree with the jury that his actions in total surpassed the scope of the First Amendment.

But the evidence submitted in court clearly shows that Mehanna was, by almost any interpretation, a hateful person who gloried violence. Defend his legal position if you must, but don't call him a "budding Islamic scholar" and don't allow him to wrap himself in the mantle of "ordinary American Muslim." He is not.

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

Labels: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Jihad-Joe, Tarek-Mehanna

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Nasser Al-Awlaki Blasts U.S. For Killing of Son and Grandson

The father of Anwar Al-Awlaki blasted the United States in an audio message "to the Muslims of Britain" posted online today.

"When the United States assassinated my beloved son, Anwar, using drone Hellfire missiles, he was far from any battlefield," Nassar Al-Awlaki said.

Anwar Awlaki was killed in September by a U.S. drone strike. He was born in the Los Cruces, New Mexico, where his father, Nassar, was studying as an agronomist. The audio appears to have been tied to a protest outside the U.S. embassy in London by the banned group, Muslims Against Crusades.

"Anwar was assassinated because of his teachings," Nassar Al-Awlaki said, complaining that no evidence was ever presented against Anwar Awlaki and "no evidence ever will be."

Awlaki also said that his 16-year-old grandson, killed in a drone strike in October, was a noncombatant who was with teenage friends at the time he was killed.

"They knew that Imam Anwar Awlaki carried an effective message that was simple and straightforward. Its target was the Muslims in the West. They consider an affluent convincing Muslim preacher as a threat. So they tried everything to silence him," Awlaki said.

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

Labels: Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Jihad-Joe, Muslims-Against-Crusades, Nasser-Awlaki

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

The Value Of Exposing Collaborators

Daniel Maldanado, an American convert to Islam who went to fight alongside Islamists in Somalia, was once a big hit on the jihadi Internet forums. Arrested in 2007, he wrote craven, apologetic letters to the judge considering his sentence even as he wrote grandiose accounts of his jihad experiences to correspondents on the forums. One such letter described his grand adventures on the lam in the African wild with a group of fellow fighters:

For two weeks we did not eat at all except for one time at the very beginning of our wanderings. One day we came out to a Savannah area; it looked like something out of Lion King! We were careful, as helicopters were still in the sky and we were obviously being hunted by them. We would stay along the edge of the jungle area until we felt it was safe to actually go out into the long-grassed Savanna.

Suddenly one of the brothers caught a baby gazelle that seemed to just stand there, waiting for us. A brother took out a simple razor from his pocket. He pointed the animal towards the Qibla (direction towards Makkah) and we slaughtered it according to the noble shareeah (Islamic Law).

This missive became rather popular online, and Maldonado was seen as someone who had been living the dream. Less publicized were his court letters which laid out more bluntly the unpleasantness of his experience, including feeling awkward about being the only white guy in his group and general ineptitude.

Read Maldonado's letters to the court

The court letters didn't get much attention from jihobbyists at the time, but Maldonado is now getting plenty of negative attention from his former friends, thanks to his testimony this week implicating his former friend and fellow Boston-area jihadist Tarek Mehanna.

The former hero is now decidedly the goat. A thread on the hardcore Islamic Awakening forum concerning Maldonad's testimony sprouted 62 posts in just about one day (it was spun off by moderators from a thread on the Mehanna trial). A sampling of the responses:

"Make sure when you see [your children after an early release for cooperating] you sit them in your lap and tell them that this time together is thanks to lies and stabbing a Muslim in the back."

"I read an interview of Maldonado's earlier and in it he mentions his wife [who died of malaria in Africa] extensively. Perhaps one of the reasons Allah took his wife so early was so she could be spared of what her husband has become."

"Didn't Daniel M. know when setting off to a war zone, that he might be imprisoned and not see his children or wife again?! If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, he should have gone to work in a kindergarten instead of somalia. I think the children excuse is just that, an excuse, and the guy just wants to get out even by the cost of our brother Tarek's freedom."

"This is much more evil for Muslims than benefit. Think about it, this gives more of a chance for outspoken Muslims to go to jail. This also destroys the fabric of society in the Muslim community because everyone is back stabbing each other so raising your children in this type of environment wont be beneficial. As well this will raise children to think it is okay to back stab Muslims."

"Daniel wasn't even tortured, conditions even in supermax are bearable (but may Allah protect all Muslims from such trials), so I find his excuses laughable, if it were not so sad."

"we may understand why they betrayed, but that is no excuse for betrayal. i cant see one example where we honor a betrayer because "he chose the lesser of two evils" with this type of thinking, surely the mujahideen and any soldier outfit would fall apart at the seams."

There were also those who defended Maldonado, somewhat tepidly, and many who suggested they should not be the judges. Many sharp words, accusations and condemnations were exchanged. In short, it was exactly the kind of thing that ordinary people and counterterrorism officials would like to see on these forums -- fitna, dissent and division.

U.S. officials should make cooperators and collaborators more visible. Since 9/11, many a convicted jihadist has fulfilled the conditions of a plea in total secrecy, never emerging to testify in court, sometimes even being released from prison early without anyone ever knowing what sort of cooperation they provided.

Disclosing this cooperation has multiple positive effects. First, it creates the divisions seen above. Secondly, it discredits jihadist narratives. Maldonado's letter to the forums about his adventures in Somalia will not be so warmly received in the future. It reinforces an existing meme among would-be jihadists that you can't trust anyone, no matter how credible they look. And finally, it hedges against convicted terrorists who play a double game of cooperating and then recanting, whether in letters from prison or after their release. If Maldonado succeeds in getting an early release thanks to his testimony against Mehanna, he won't receive a warm reception among his radical former friends.

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: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, CVE, Daniel-Maldonado, Jihadist-Forums, Tarek-Mehanna

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

New from J.M. Berger: The Enduring Legacy of Awlaki's 'Constants on the Path of Jihad'

I have a new piece in The Sentinel, the journal published by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.

A U.S. drone killed Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi on Sept. 30, 2011, but his greatest contribution to Al Qaeda's cause lives on. Awlaki's six-hour audio lecture "Constants on the Path of Jihad" may be the single most influential work of jihadist incitement in the English language.

"Constants" is not Awlaki's original work. The jihadist tract was written in Arabic after September 11 by ideologue Yusuf al-Uyayri, a veteran of the jihad against the Soviet Union who joined al-Qa'ida and later founded al-Qai'da in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Uyayri was the author of several influential works on jihad that have been widely distributed online before he was killed by Saudi security forces in 2003. However, Awlaki's translation of "Constants" into English has become a classic of radicalization in the West, not just because of Awlaki's formidable language skills, but also his creative interpretation of the original text with expanded religious stories and real-life examples.

Read the full article at the CTC Sentinel

For more about Awlaki and other 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: Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda-In-The-Arabian-Peninsula, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

The Mullah Krekar Show

I have a piece at Foreign Policy on Mullah Krekar, the Oslo-based jihadist cleric who was indicted just last week for threatening Norwegian politicians with death. Here's a backgrounder on Krekar's long and tortured history with the Norwegian government.

Read the full article at Foreign Policy

Earlier this week, I had a piece for The Atlantic on homegrown jihadists and why they can't seem to follow Al Qaeda's directions.

Read the full article at The Atlantic

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: Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Jihad-Joe, Mullah-Krekar, Oslo

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Al Shabab's Recruiting Pipeline From Minnesota To Somalia Detailed In New Filing

A trial brief filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota for accused Al Shabab collaborator Omer Adbi Mohamed revealed new details about just how Al Shabab's recruitment practices work in Minneapolis.

I've hacked the file up into a highly condensed excerpt below, or you can read the whole document. Journalists, I edited what's below heavily so quote the document proper if you are quoting.

Starting in or about September 2007, the defendant and his conspirators formed a secretive plan in which ethnic Somali men residing in Minneapolis would return to Somalia to conduct jihad alongside Islamic extremists against the Ethiopian military present in Somalia to assist the internationally-supported Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (“TFG”).

In or about September 2007, the defendant Omer Abdi Mohamed and his conspirators, to include Khalid Abshir (“Abshir”), Dahir Gure (“Gure”), Ahmed Ali Omar (“Omar”), and Shirwa Ahmed (“Shirwa Ahmed”) ... began to raise funds and planned to join Abshir’s relative in Somalia, a senior member of al Shabaab.

Throughout the fall of 2007, the defendant and his conspirators secretly began to mobilize groups of men to depart for Somalia. The group met at mosques, restaurants, and private restaurants to plan the logistics of the trip. ... The group also conferred with one man who had recently returned from Somalia and stated that the men would engage in a “good jihad.”

To raise money, the group solicited donations from unsuspecting members of the Somali community under false pretenses. The defendant and his conspirators went to local malls and apartment buildings to ask for money, claiming it would be used to build a mosque or to assist with relief efforts in Somalia. In fact, the money was to pay for the airfare and travel expenses of the group of men to join in the conspiracy.

They challenged members of the conspiracy who had planned to travel, questioning their commitment, dedication, and knowledge of both the religion and events in Somalia, before ultimately assisting them with the trip.

When the time came to buy tickets, the defendant relied on a contact he had at Amana Travel to assist with booking the tickets. The defendant contacted Amana Travel, accompanied men to the travel agency, and paid for the tickets. The defendant and his conspirators acquired and provided to [local recruit Kamal] Hassan a fraudulent itinerary reflecting that Hassan would be traveling to Saudi Arabia for purpose of misleading Hassan’s family about his destination.

[S]even men who had left from Minneapolis in the fall of 2007 reunited at a safe-house in Southern Somalia. They were provided weapons training and met with senior leaders of al Shabaab. At a different safe-house, the men from Minneapolis, along with other members of al Shabaab, were issued AK-47s and ammunition.

When they arrived at the camp, the men were divided into groups and began to construct the camp. Under the supervision of the leaders, they began cutting down trees and clearing brush. Salah Ahmed and Isse left the camp after several weeks and began making their way back to the United States. Shirwa Ahmed also left the camp to assist a friend, but was persuaded to return to the camp by his conspirators in Somalia.

The remaining men from Minneapolis along with other recruits were provided weapons training, religious instruction and anti-Western propaganda. The camp received visits from senior members of al Shabaab. An al Shabaab “media” crew arrived to film a propaganda video that depicted recruits training and featured an English-language recruiting appeal made by a man from Minneapolis. Robow and Nabhan appear in the video.

In mid-July 2008, after graduating from the training camp, the men from Minneapolis were assigned to a group of foreign fighters and dispatched to conduct an ambush of Ethiopian troops traveling along a road in Somalia. The preparations and ambush were filmed by a member of the conspiracy and produced as an al Shabaab propaganda video. Senior members of al Shabaab narrate the video and a man from Minneapolis makes a speech to the camera in which he encourages more men to join them in Somalia.

[O]n October 29, 2008, five coordinated vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (“IED”) exploded in the Somali territories of Puntland and Somaliland. The bombings resulted in the death of the suicide bombers, including [Minneapolis recruit] Shirwa Ahmed, as well as approximately 22 persons.

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.

Related posts:

Dealing With Radicalization In America

Omar Hammami Falls Short In OBL Eulogy

Labels: Al-Shabab, American-Jihadists, Jihad-Joe, Omar-Hammami, Omer-Abdi-Mohamed, Somalia

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Jihad Joe Reading And Signing At Porter Square Books in Cambridge

I'll be appearing at my local, Porter Square Bookstore, in Cambridge to do a reading from Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam on Tuesday, July 12, at 7 p.m. Click here to RSVP through Facebook, or just come on down. I hope to see you!

Labels: American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, J-M-Berger, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Terrorist acts, terrorist thoughts

By J.M. Berger

On a recent Friday, in Washington, D.C., the New America Foundation issued a report on "Countering Domestic Radicalization." A few hours later, the Bipartisan Policy Commission released a report on "Preventing Violent Radicalization in America." A week later, Google hosted an extravagant "Summit Against Violent Extremism" in Dublin.

You can expect to hear a lot more of this in the days and weeks to come. Ten years after September 11, the conversation has shifted away from traditional counterterrorism and toward "countering violent extremism," known as CVE.

The reasoning behind CVE is fairly easy to understand. Advocates say it's better, for both budgetary and social reasons, to prevent people from becoming terrorists in the first place than to arrest them after they have committed a crime. It's the triumph of Doctor Phil over Jack Bauer.

Traditional counterterrorism targets people who are already taking active steps in pursuit of illegal activities, regardless of their religion, and arrests them before they can do harm.

In contrast, CVE seeks to prevent violent thoughts from taking root in the minds of ordinary people who are not actively pursuing illegal activities. And by ordinary people, everyone taking part in this conversation means Muslims.

This summer's think tank reports are not the worst examples of this kind of approach. Each contains a combination of astute insights and well-intentioned policy recommendations.

Many of those recommendations are oriented toward engaging Muslims rather than alienating them by singling them out for enforcement.

But both reports drive this point home in an unfortunate way, by talking exclusively about Muslim radicalization and not, for instance, white supremacy or the sovereign citizen movement.

Allowing for imperfect data, the percentage of Muslims who have a favorable view of Al Qaeda appears to be no larger than the number of white Americans who characterize themselves as racist.

Yet no one has ever once asked my opinion about how to keep young people from sliding into Odinism, or neo-Nazi beliefs, even though incidents of racist and anti-Semitic violence far outnumber incidents of jihadist terrorism in the United States.

If the first step in making Muslims feel less alienated is to single them out for remedial social engineering, then we have a problem before we even start.

Once you get past this inherent contradiction, the next question is whether government and policymakers have a track record that suggests they can successfully navigate the waters of Muslim politics, ideology and belief in order to discourage radicalism and encourage moderation.

During the Gulf War, U.S. military commanders allowed the Saudi government to run a "cultural exchange program" on base with American soldiers near Riyadh. In reality, the program set out to convert those soldiers to Islam, reportedly with great success.

Leading the charge was a Canadian Muslim named Bilal Philips, who has since become an international pariah, banned from traveling to the U.K. and Germany over controversial interpretations of Islamic law on such issues as homosexuality and child brides.

In my new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, I reveal for the first time that another preacher given full access to U.S. soldiers in Riyadh, an American Muslim known as Tahir, was later discovered to be a member of Al Qaeda.

From the 1990s through 2003, both Republican and Democratic politicians embraced Abdurrahman Alamoudi, then-leader of the American Muslim Council, who was chosen as a partner in a number of government programs, from Muslim military chaplains to State Department goodwill efforts. Alamoudi is today serving a prison sentence for trying to assassinate the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon even hosted Anwar Awlaki as a luncheon speaker on Islam soon after September 11, according to documents recently uncovered by Fox News. Today, American drones are scouring Yemen in an effort to kill Awlaki, whose preaching has inspired dozens of terrorist attempts by Western Muslims.

Unfortunately, there are not many success stories to offset these spectacular failures. The government has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to parse and evaluate Muslim thought and to identify moderate people and trends.

These failures aren't just embarrassments. When we elevate hucksters like Alamoudi, it dismays and discourages those moderate Muslims who know better, and when we subsequently have to prosecute the hucksters, it alienates other Muslims who feel that the U.S. government is trying to silence the community's most prominent voices.

Even when you move past such large-scale disasters, government efforts to engage American Muslims have fallen flat. Consider the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an occasional partner in the government's efforts to engage the Muslim community over the years.

CAIR has been largely pushed out of those programs over the last couple of years due to its historical links to Hamas, its often unhelpful narrative about the perceived victimization of Muslims in America and its tendency to approach the issue of radicalization with a mix of denial and rationalization.

While it has largely failed to satisfy its government constituents, CAIR also lacks credibility among radical-leaning Muslims, who routinely blast the organization as a snitch, a sellout and a passive collaborator in U.S. anti-Muslim policies.

Similar complications apply for many other American Muslim leadership organizations of the moment. The best-funded (and thus most prominent) organizations get significant money and theological guidance from overseas. They aren't populist and do not offer a particularly comfortable space for less-religious Muslims to participate.

Many of these groups also advance a watered-down version of the "war on Islam" narrative that is most important to violent radicalization, and not many can pass the white-glove test imposed by critics and watchdogs in political and media circles.

But at the same time, these groups are too assimilated and conciliatory to possess credibility with the segments of the Muslim community most vulnerable to violent radicalization.

There are other considerations as well, but all are variations on a single theme: Tackling extremism at the thought level is a complex endeavor with far more pitfalls than payoffs.

So where do we go from here?

Unlike racist radicals, Muslim extremists tend to focus on mass casualty attacks, rather than individual hate crimes. For that reason and others, the government will not let this issue go untended. But history suggests the CVE approach is ineffective at best, harmful at worst.

In contrast, consider the following statistic. More than 180 homegrown extremists have tried to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since September 11. Only four have succeeded, thanks to old-fashioned counterterrorism. Many of those cases were cracked thanks to cooperation between American Muslims and law enforcement.

That's an impressive track record, and our policy investments should be informed by that success.

The vast majority of American Muslims oppose the acts of violence and terrorism carried out in their name by a handful of self-styled religious zealots who embrace the ideology of Al Qaeda. But the diversity of America's Muslim community makes it a challenge to develop critical mass for a legitimate grassroots movement that has both the credibility and will to fight radicalization directly.

I'm an optimist. I believe that such a movement can and will develop, if Muslims are given space to process this issue from within. When Americans are asked by an indigenous, populist Muslim movement for help counteracting the poison of radicalization, we should give it.

Until then, we should stay out of the way.

J.M. Berger is author of the new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

Labels: Abdurrahman-Alamoudi, Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, Anwar-Awlaki, Bilal-Philips, CVE, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Sunday Reading: The New York Times Review of 'Jihad Joe'

The New York Times has a review of my new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, by national security reporter Scott Shane. You can read the whole thing here. The money quote follows:

At a time when some politicians and pundits blur the line between Islam and terrorism, Berger, who knows this subject far better than the demagogues, sharply cautions against vilifying Muslim Americans. "Extreme and indiscriminate anti-Muslim rhetoric helps to validate the worldview of our enemies -- the premise that America's wars are indeed wars against Islam," Berger writes. "You cannot tell someone, 'You are my enemy,' and then blame them for believing you."

It is a timely warning from an expert who has not lost his ­perspective.

Check out the full review

Buy the book

Labels: American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, J-M-Berger, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink