The Content and Context of Anwar Awlaki's E-mails with Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan

Probably the most difficult, bedeviling problem in combating terrorism through law enforcement is interpreting the words of suspects to divine their real intentions, then to build a case from that interpretation.

It seems to me that this issue is exemplified by the long-withheld e-mail exchange between the radical American cleric Anwar Awlaki and the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan.

My friend Daveed Gartenstein-Ross has a new entry over at Gunpowder and Lead, with Lauren Morgan, outlining the case for rating the e-mail exchange as a high threat and arguing that it should have prompted more aggressive investigative action. The post was prompted by a question from Charles Cameron.

I waited for this post before ringing in, because I wanted to see if I would be swayed by Daveed's argument, which he broadly telegraphed on Twitter last week. While we ultimately reach the same conclusion -- that the FBI and Defense Department should have investigated Hasan more aggressively -- we get there by a different path and with somewhat different areas of emphasis.

I'm not going to summarize the G&L post, which you should read before proceeding, precisely because it so thorough in its treatment of the question. But therein lies the rub. We're scrutinizing these emails and how they were handled. Why? Because we now know one person involved carried out a horrific act of terrorism and the other became a top Al Qaeda propagandist.

Nothing in Daveed's argument is wrong and it all falls within the scope of what he and Lauren set out to examine. There are clearly markers of concern in these e-mails, and the fact they involve an active duty military officer and a known radicalizer with links to September 11 is alone sufficient reason for the Washington Field Office to have escalated the case, at least to the point of an interview with Hasan and his immediate superiors.

But I think there are distractions lurking here, which move us away from what actually went wrong and what lessons we should learn.

I want to raise two key issues in this respect, because I think it's hard to really understand the case without them. This doesn't negate the points raised by Daveed and Lauren, but I feel that the context here is so important that it's misleading to consider the issue without acknowledging them.

The first issue has to do with the relationship between the FBI's San Diego and Washington Field Offices. If you read the more thorough Senate Homeland Security Committee report, the more telling Webster Commission Report, and records released by the 9/11 Commission, you don't have to squint very hard between the lines to see there were political tensions between the two offices, which I have also heard from multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

Much of this tension specifically revolved around Awlaki and long preceded the Hasan emails. The Awlaki investigation ping-ponged back and forth between the two offices like a hot potato since 2001. These tensions resulted in strained and often inadequate communication between the two branches, which creates inertia and resistance and obstacles to effective, objective functioning.

This doesn't excuse the handling of the case. If anything, an institutional management failure is more damnable than a simple oversight or misinterpretation. But the testy relationship between the offices, clearly illuminated in the Webster report, has little to do with the content of the investigation.

When we're looking for lessons learned, it's my opinion (based on what we know today) that the will to analyze may have been a larger issue than the approach to analysis.

The characterization of the e-mails by unnamed officials as "fairly benign," which Daveed rightly attacks, was an after-the-fact effort at spin. It deserves to be refuted but also points to the second issue.

Anyone who has spent time with raw intelligence knows that you have to triage leads. For every intercept that states "I've bought the fertilizer and I'm loading it in the truck tonight down by the lake," there are literally thousands and thousands that say "I hate America," "I love Al Qaeda," "I'd like to kill those bastards," "I swear to God it's time for action and not words," "If I was James Holmes, here's how I would have done it better," "You need to start mentally preparing now to kill your neighbors when the revolution comes," and "Would you consider someone like Hasan Akbar to be fighting jihad, and if he died would he be a martyr?" (All of the above are paraphrases of actual extremist content I've reviewed.)

The words of suspects -- whether recounted in e-mails, phone intercepts, informant reports, or online postings -- must be interpreted and prioritized relative to dozens or hundreds or thousands of other leads. This can be a science if you're a trained FBI profiler, but it's strictly an art if you're anyone else. Zach Chesser's online output, to the layman, was pretty alarming and seemed to indicate he might try to act out violently on U.S. soil, but he never did. And even profilers cannot read intent from most verbal and written content with absolute reliability.

Based on who Hasan was (a military officer), who he was talking to (a suspected 9/11 accomplice), and the fact he repeatedly tried to get Awlaki's attention using a variety of stratagems, the case should have been escalated and Hasan's superiors should have been informed.

But when you place the content of Hasan's messages alongside all the other raw intelligence that counterterrorism investigations generate, it's extremely hard to argue from a subjective, non-psychoanalytical reading that they represented a red flag.

Even putting aside the broad universe of raw intelligence, consider just the workload generated by the Awlaki Web site intercept and what we don't know about the nature of that content.

If you get 60 leads per day featuring people writing to Awlaki, are half asking what concrete steps they can take to participate in jihad? Are the other half are oblique in the same way Hasan was oblique? Which would you prioritize?

Hasan's e-mails didn't exist in a vacuum; they competed for attention with an unknown number of other e-mails featuring unknown content from Awlaki's Web site but also his email accounts as well as traffic from other investigations. The Webster report indicates that two San Diego analysts were processing an average of 65 to 70 electronic intercepts per day. Although it does not specify if all of those were related to Awlaki, other figures quoted in the report would be consistent with that conclusion. (H/T @emptywheel) The exact content distribution is unknown.

It's difficult to separate hindsight from our analysis. We approach these emails looking for evidence of Hasan's intentions, but we already know his actual intentions. If we read the thousands of e-mails generated during the period Hasan was corresponding with Awlaki, without any names attached, would we pick Hasan's messages as the most important? Would they even make the top 10 or the top 100? I suspect they would not.

It would be interesting to approach this subject from the perspective of a blind study, analyzing dozens of unlabeled intercepts -- some from people who went on to act violently, and some from people who did not. I'd bet serious money such an experiment would be a massive failure and would not reliably identify which subjects became violent and which did not.

Without such a study in hand (and if you have one, please send), we need to acknowledge the lack of hard data correlating different types of talk with physical action and the subjectivity of the exercise. The content certainly informs our understanding, but I don't think it leads to a "lesson learned" moment.

I don't disagree with the content markers noted by Daveed and Lauren, but I think it's a mistake to say those markers can be interpreted with much certainty without the benefit of hindsight. I'm not claiming this is their actual argument -- I think they're arguing to include context -- but I came away from reading the piece feeling that there was too much emphasis on the content and too much certainty about its significance.

It is, of course, important to understand and study content, but you can't point to a reference to Hasan Akbar in a vacuum and say it's significant, unless you've looked at a constellation of similar references and attempted to correlate them to action.

I don't think this particular example illustrates useful investigative triggers that are likely to result in improved screening, and I don't think it illustrates a systemic failure that requires correction. The "lesson learned" is that the context of the messages should have escalated the investigation (and prompted more attention to the content).

If the content of the Hasan e-mails represents a threshold for escalated investigative concern, we're going to need a whole lot more FBI agents. I see dozens of online postings and messages per day that are far more worrisome than these e-mails, yet it is extraordinarily rare for these posts to connect with terrorist acts in any way. We need more study of how talk correlates to action, but the art of textual interpretation is not simple and rarely leads to black-and-white answers.

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.


This post was updated at 1:47 p.m. 

Labels: American-Al-Qaeda, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Fort-Hood, Jihad-Joe, Nidal-Malik-Hasan

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Bail Denied for Remote-Control-Plane Jihadist Rezwan Ferdaus

A judge denied bail for Rezwan Ferdaus, the Massachusetts man who allegedly plotted to use remote control planes to attack the Capitol and Pentagon, according to a detention order filed today.

Read the order

The order provides a concise timeline of the allegations against Ferdaus and information about the government informant in the case, who has attracted controversy due to shoplifting and using heroin during the investigation.

"While the [informant's] character and credibility is questionable, at best, the fact remains that Ferdaus had multiple recorded meetings and communications with the [informant] during which he advocated blowing up federal buildings and killing persons inside those buildings and persons fleeing such buildings," the judge wrote.

Ferdaus was also recorded soliciting funding and support for the plot, and he believed that undercover agents later introduced into the case were members of Al Qaeda, the order says.

"Under the circumstances, the evidence against Ferdaus is strong," the judge wrote.

"Given Ferdaus’s views and seeming dedication to his cause, I find there are no conditions or combination of conditions that the Court could impose that would assure the safety of the community, if he were released," the judge said, ruling against bail or supervised release.


Related document: Affidavit in support of criminal complaint, Rezwan Ferdaus

For more about American jihadists such as Ferdaus, 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-Terrorists, Rezwan-Ferdaus

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

NYC pipe bomb suspect Pimentel posted on Revolution Muslim

Jose Pimentel, a devotee of American Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Awlaki arrested in New York this weekend for building a pipe bomb described in Al Qaeda's Inspire magazine, posted entries at least twice on Islam Policy, the radical Web site previously known as Revolution Muslim.

Pimentel was a prolific blogger and highly connected social media user. He ran his own Web site, TrueIslam1, and at least twice cross-posted material to Islam Policy.

Revolution Muslim, a pro-Al Qaeda website founded by American radicals, was suspended briefly after one of its writers threatened the creators of South Park for depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

But the site soon returned, voluntarily changing its name to Islam Policy. The current leader of Islam Policy, Younus Abdullah Mohammed, was recently arrested and is now facing charges in relation to those threats. Another American, Zachary Chesser, was arrested in July 2010 and subsequently convicted for the same threats.

Pimentel posted on Revolution Muslim as "M. Yusuf" at least twice, one on "Rape in the U.S. Army," and once on the Arab Spring. Both posts were made in April 2011 and linked back to TrueIslam1.

"I say to the brothers and sisters in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the rest of the Muslim world that establishing the Islamic laws is an obligation upon us that cannot be overlooked, the Day of Judgment is near, and Allah is quick in accountability and severe in punishment," Pimentel wrote.

Another post, also apparently by Pimentel, was titled "How Can I Train Myself For Jihad" and was later deleted from Islam Policy, but reposted to the Al Jahad extremist Web forum. The post was dated July 2011, but the content was dated 2008, suggesting Pimentel may not have written but simply reposted it.

The article encouraged firearms training and the use of U.S. military training materials available online to prepare for violent jihad.

"The majority of the time spent in Jihad is learning to cope with harsh, physically and mentally demanding living conditions. It is not about fighting glamorous battles for your pictures to appear on the Internet. Jihad is tough and difficult, which is why the rewards for it are so great," the post read.

In a section on firearms training, the post read: "Useful courses to learn are sniping, general shooting and other rifle courses. Handgun courses are useful but only after you have mastered rifles."

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.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

CTC Sentinel: Awlaki's 'Constants of Jihad'

Foreign Policy: Awlaki's Legacy

The Atlantic: Awlaki and September 11

Foreign Policy: The Awlaki Myth

Video: Lessons Learned, 10 Years After 9/11

INTELWIRE: Interview With An Online Jihadist

Book Review: Bin Laden's Legacy | Buy

Huffington Post: Is AQ's Inspire Uninspired?

INTELWIRE: The Five Ds of CVE

INTELWIRE: How Terrorists Use The Internet

INTELWIRE: Hyping the Terrorist Internet

The Atlantic: Why Johnny Jihad Doesn't Listen

Foreign Policy: The Zawahiri Era Begins

New York Daily News: Al Qaeda's Gun Fixation

Fox News: J.M. Berger seen in "Secrets of 9/11"

Video: 'Jihad Joe' book event at GWU

INTELWIRE: What is Al Qaeda? Survey Results

CTC Sentinel: Baltimore's Jamaat Al Muslimeen

INTELWIRE: Interview About Jihad With Controversial Cleric Bilal Philips

Video Clip: Sarajevo Ricochet

Potomac Books: Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam

Labels: American-Terrorists, Anwar-Aulaqi, Anwar-Awlaki, Inspire-Magazine, Islam-Policy, Jose-Pimentel, Revolution-Muslim, South-Park

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.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

CTC Sentinel: Awlaki's 'Constants of Jihad'

Foreign Policy: Awlaki's Legacy

The Atlantic: Awlaki and September 11

Foreign Policy: The Awlaki Myth

Video: Lessons Learned, 10 Years After 9/11

INTELWIRE: Interview With An Online Jihadist

Book Review: Bin Laden's Legacy | Buy

Huffington Post: Is AQ's Inspire Uninspired?

INTELWIRE: The Five Ds of CVE

INTELWIRE: How Terrorists Use The Internet

INTELWIRE: Hyping the Terrorist Internet

The Atlantic: Why Johnny Jihad Doesn't Listen

Foreign Policy: The Zawahiri Era Begins

New York Daily News: Al Qaeda's Gun Fixation

Fox News: J.M. Berger seen in "Secrets of 9/11"

Video: 'Jihad Joe' book event at GWU

INTELWIRE: What is Al Qaeda? Survey Results

CTC Sentinel: Baltimore's Jamaat Al Muslimeen

INTELWIRE: Interview About Jihad With Controversial Cleric Bilal Philips

Video Clip: Sarajevo Ricochet

Potomac Books: Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam

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

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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.

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Affidavit: Rezwan Ferdaus Allegedly Planned To Bomb Capitol, Pentagon With Homemade Drones

Ashland, Massachusetts, resident Rezwan Ferdaus was charged today with plotting to use homemade drones to bomb the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, as well as providing detonators to undercover agents which he believed were used to kill American soldiers in Iraq.

Click here for the affidavit

Below is a reconnaissance photo Ferdaus took at the Pentagon. Click image for larger version.


For more about American jihadists, including the long history of such activity in the Boston area, 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-Al-Qaeda, American-Terrorists, Boston, homegrown-terrorism, lone-wolf, Rezwan-Ferdaus

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Declassified State Department Cables On Al Qaeda-Linked Cell in California

State Department cables obtained by INTELWIRE describe Ayman Al Zawahiri's trip to California in 1995 and the activities of an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist cell in Northern California.

The general outline of the cell's activities has been previously reported in newspapers and in Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

The documents, obtained from the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act, detail the trial of a group of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operatives captured in Egypt and Albania, with the latter being deported to Egypt. Because of this, the trial became known as the "Returnees from Albania" case. One of those tried in the case was Khaled Abu El Dahab, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lived in California with the notorious Al Qaeda infiltrator Ali Mohamed. Dahab was arrested in Egypt.

Click here to read the full documents

According to the cables:

Zawahiri [who was at the time emir of Egyptian Islamic Jihad] visited the U.S. in early 1995 using a forged passport, primarily to collect contributions from Islamist circles. Abu ad-Dahhab placed Zawahiri at the Al-Nur mosque in Santa Clara, California. Three American citizens of Egyptian extraction who, per Abu ad-Dahhab, helped Zawahiri' s 1995 visit were Ali Abu al-Sa'ud Mustafa [Ali Mohamed] and two brothers, Ali and Hassan Zaki, all living in the San Franscisco area. Mustafa had served in the U.S. army for several years. [Egyptian newspaper] Al-Hayat of February 11 adds that Egyptian authorities may ask the U.S. to render Mustafa for trial in the "returnees" case, primarily for his EIJ fundraising. Mustafa apparently told Abu ad-Dahhab that the money that Mustafa had raised was used to plan the 1995 bomb attack on the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. Mustafa is also wanted for helping to train EIJ operatives in bomb-making techniques, per Al-Hayat.

Mohamed and Zawahiri were convicted in absentia during the trial, however Mohamed was by this point under indictment in New York for his role in the 1998 East African Embassy bombings. Dahab was convicted and sentenced to prison. His current status is unknown, although according to some accounts he died in prison.

Although the cell was initially organized under the banner of EIJ, testimony from both Mohamed and Dahab, as well as other witnesses, indicated that both men took orders directly from Osama bin Laden at times, and both took part in highly sensitive Al Qaeda activities, including communications, security and the planning of terrorist attacks. For most meaningful purposes, the cell is considered an Al Qaeda operation.

Also convicted in absentia during the "Returnees" trial was Mohammed Al Islambouli, the brother of Sadat assassin Khaled Al Islambouli, who recently returned to Egypt after the fall of Mubarak and was promptly arrested. The cables state that "some observers [in Cairo] believe Muhammad Islambouli is connected with the EIJ defendants through setting up terrorist training camps in the Balkans."

If you see any interesting tidbits in this material not covered here, feel free to discuss them with me on Twitter.

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: Ali-Mohamed, American-Al-Qaeda, American-Terrorists, Ayman-Al-Zawahiri, Egypt, Egyptian-Islamic-Jihad, Jihad-Joe, Khaled-Al-Dahab

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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Listening to Anwar Awlaki

I have a new piece in Foreign Policy on Anwar Awlaki:

On Tuesday, Aug. 9, Naser Abdo, an American soldier, was indicted for plotting a terrorist attack against soldiers stationed at Fort Hood -- just the latest in a series of U.S. citizens who have been inspired to violence by the words of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American imam who went rogue and today threatens the United States from his father's country of Yemen.

Awlaki is clearly a dangerous man. As a country, the United States spends a lot of time talking about, worrying about, and trying to kill him. Unfortunately, attention runs fast, but not deep.

On July 27, Salon's Glenn Greenwald argued that Awlaki represented "the face of moderate Islam" and "the opposite of [Osama] bin Laden" before Sept. 11, 2001. By Greenwald's account, Awlaki was subsequently radicalized by America's wars and foreign policies. This conclusion was based on exactly two sources -- an interview conducted with Awlaki in 2001 and another interview dated 2009.

On the same day, Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, discussed the threat posed by Awlaki. "He's a dual-passport holder who has lived in the United States," Olson said, "so he understands us much better than we understand him."

In reality, Awlaki has given us a shocking abundance of material with which we can judge and understand him. He has recorded more than 100 hours of audio lectures, more than bin Laden, almost all of them in colloquial English. He has also figured in a long trail of investigations, including FBI and 9/11 Commission documents that are available to the public. Taken together, these sources reveal a portrait of a conflicted man whose path to radicalization started in the 1990s and steadily progressed to his present-day status as a terrorist icon.

Click here for the full story

For more than 10,000 words of additional perspective on 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: American-Al-Qaeda, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Foreign-Policy, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Jihadist Who Wasn't

When the FBI arrested Joseph Brice of Clarkston, Wash., on explosives charges last month, it seemed like a familiar story. An American citizen drawn into jihadist talk online, a reader of Al Qaeda's English language magazine "Inspire," seeking to carry out acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.

But it wasn't quite so simple. Investigators now believe that Brice was not inspired by Inspire. In fact, it appears he isn't a Muslim at all.

When the FBI interviewed Brice after his arrest, "he denied being a Muslim and said that he didn't go to a mosque," said David Gomez, Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge for Counterterrorism at the Seattle Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Although Brice represented himself as a Muslim with extremist beliefs online, the approach was designed to find an audience for his explosives expertise.

Brice, 20, first came to the attention of authorities in April 2010, when a homemade bomb he had designed exploded prematurely, resulting in severe injuries to his legs. The device was sophisticated in design, but a flaw in the detonator caused it to go off before Brice could reach a safe distance.

Brice wasn't charged at the time. For most people, such an experience might lead to second thoughts about bombmaking as a hobby. Brice got back on the horse and allegedly began discussing bombs online.

Investigators rate his bomb-making skills as extremely high, despite the accident. (Even legendary explosives genious Ramzi Yousef nearly blinded himself during a misfire.)

At one point, Brice frequented white supremacist Web sites, according to Gomerz. But by late 2010, he was posting videos on YouTube under the name StrengthofAllah, along with comments that appeared to show an orientation toward anti-Semitism and a radical interpretation of Islam.

Brice progressed to exploring jihadist forums, where he began to reach out to other users. In some of those conversations, Brice claimed he had converted to Islam after his injury.

Eventually, he offered his explosives expertise to someone he believed was associated with an Islamic terrorist movement. In reality, he was talking to an undercover FBI agent.

After the death of Osama bin Laden, Brice's overtures were deemed too dangerous to continue, and he was arrested May 9 on charges related to the IED that nearly cost him his legs. This week, federal prosecutors added a charge of material support for terrorism, based on his offer of assistance to the undercover agent. The charge does not require contact with a named terrorist organization.

From a law enforcement perspective, Brice's actual religion was not an issue, "because it's immaterial to the filing of the charges," Gomez said. "The facts are the facts, he did what he did. Motivation doesn't really come into play. It's not a crime in which we have to show motive."

Gomez, who worked for five years as an FBI profiler, believes Brice fits the mold of a serial bomber.

"He's not thinking about committing a crime. He's thinking this is what really gets me excited, this is what really stimulates me," Gomez said.

Nevertheless, the case agent who interviewed Brice said he did show signs of anti-Semitic and anti-government beliefs, although no evidence has emerged that would link him to a domestic terrorist network.

Brice's online foray into the world of Muslim extremism likely came in pursuit of an audience for his work, Gomez said, as well as the possibility of financial gain (at one point he discussed using explosives in a bank robbery with an online associate).

"The Internet now is unique," Gomez said. "It allows people to assume multiple identities, to get up on board and to do any number of criminal activities, from child sexual exploitation to presenting yourself as a bomb-making expert and wanting to sell your expertise. ... You can be anything you want to be sitting in front of a computer screen."

Overlap among diverse extremist movements is nothing new, but such links have historically been weak and infrequent, and based on common goals rather than the pretense of common interests.

With the advent of online forums, extremists have an unprecedented ability to find like-minded people and cluster in exclusive communities. But a counterweight to such community exclusivity is the universality of information, particularly expertise in explosives and other violent tactics.

Al Qaeda and its affiliated movements are especially aggressive about pushing out non-ideological tactical information, including English-language texts on improvised explosive techniques and detailed how-to videos. Brice also used AQAP's Inspire magazine to hone his impersonation of a jihadist terrorist.

Such forum shopping may be particularly relevant to the Pacific Northwest. Gomez and his fellow counterterrorism agents in Washington have been busy breaking a diverse assortment of domestic terrorism cases in recent months.

In January, a backpack bomb was found in Spokane on the route of a Martin Luther King Day parade. The FBI arrested Kevin Harpham, of Colville, Wash., a former member of the white supremacist National Alliance, although Gomez said Harpham is belived to have acted alone.

Earlier this month, Briana Waters pleaded guilty in Tacoma to arson and explosives charges in a 10-year-old case of eco-terrorism at the University of Washington, cutting a plea deal to cooperate in ongoing investigations of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.

And on Thursday, FBI agents arrested two Muslim men in Seattle who are accused of planning a gun attack on a military enlistees' processing office.

Gomez said the Seattle area is also home to a significant anarchist movement, as well as both historical and modern white supremacist movements, such as the Northwest Migration, which envisions the Pacific Northwest as the site for a future white separatist homeland.

People in Washington and Seattle are "extremely tolerant of a number of divergent views," Gomez said. "People feel comfortable up here talking about all their radical politics," resulting in greater visibility and possibly creating an environment more conducive to action. While the terrorist networks observed in Seattle have branches all over the country, he said, they tend to operate more covertly in places like Baltimore or Washington.

For much more about the history of American jihadism and its current incarnation, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Jihad Joe was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Book Review.

Journalists interested in discussing American jihadists and terrorists can contact Berger here.

For reviews and additional information about the book, click here.

Labels: American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Jihadist-Forums, Joseph-Brice, white-supremacists

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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New "Jihad Joe" Cases Develop On Both Coasts, Melaku, Abdul-Latif And Mujahidh

The Justice Department revealed details of three new "Jihad Joe" suspects today in coast-to-coast court filings and press releases.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 33, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, 32, of Los Angeles, and Yonathan Melaku, 22, of Alexandria are all American citizens and all appear to fit the "individual jihad" terrorist model, acting independently and without contacting a formal terrorist network such as Al Qaeda.

Today's cases are notable as examples of radicalized American Muslims acting out with near total independence. Melaku in particular fits the lone wolf profile. In most of the previous "lone wolf" cases, foreign terrorists (or FBI agents posing as such) have played a significant role in motivating and training would-be attackers.

In both cases revealed today, firearms were an important part of the equation. There have been 17 deaths from clear cases of homegrown Islamic terrorism since September 11, and all of them were the result of gunfire.

In May, I wrote about this issue for the New York Daily News. Al Qaeda's English-language Inspire magazine has been focused on guns for some months, with articles encouraging lone shooters and tips on how to use and maintain assault rifles.

In June, American Al Qaeda member Adam Gadahn explicitly encouraged American Muslims to go buy weapons at gun shows and use them to shoot their fellow citizens, in an Al Qaeda video encouraging individual jihadists.

In the wake of bin Laden's death, federal authorities have closely monitored would-be individual jihadists who might carry out terrorist attacks without support from a formal terrorist network. Several American citizens have been arrested since May 1 for a variety of crimes related to Islamic extremism and terrorism.

For much more about American jihadists, check out my new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere. Journalists interested in discussing this issue can contact me here. For reviews and additional information about the book, click here.

ABDUL-LATIF AND MUJAHIDH

Arrested late last night in Seattle, Abdul-Latif is an African-American convert born Joseph Anthony Davis. Also arrested was Walli Mujahidh, born Frederick Domingue Jr., from Los Angeles.

Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh were charged with terrorism and firearms-related crimes today after they purchased machine guns and a grenade in an FBI undercover sting. The guns were rendered unusable before the sale.

The two men allegedly planned to use the weapons in an assault on a military processing facility in Seattle, after initially discussing an assault on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, on Puget Sound. Abdul-Latif, a felon previously convicted of robbery and assault, faces additional charges for illegal firearms possession.

A person in the community reported Abdul-Latif to Seattle police after being approached to help with the attack, according to a Justice Department press release and a criminal complaint filed today. The police brought the FBI into the case, and the person who made the tip became a paid informant. The informant also has previous felony convictions. In early June, the two men were allegedly recorded in video and audio surveillance discussing the planned assault.

The targeted building, where the military processes new enlistees, includes a daycare center and civilian personnel on the premises, although Abdul-Latify specified he wanted to kill military targets and not civilians. Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh discussed reconnaissance and practice runs for the attack. Abdul-Latif carried out the surveillance, noting the placement of security cameras and a guard, whom he said would be killed "first" in the attack, according to the criminal complaint.

Abdul-Latif said he wanted to die as a martyr in the attack, which he characterized as revenge for wrongdoing by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. He later introduced the informant to Mujahidh, according to the complaint. Abdul-Latif described his admiration for Osama Bin Laden (at this point it was after bin Laden's death), as well as his admiration for the 2009 Fort Hood killing spree by Army Major Nidal Hasan.

"We're not only trying to kill people, we're trying to send a message," Abdul-Latif said in one surveillance recording. "We're trying to get something that's gonna be on CNN and all over the world."

The two men are charged with conspiracy to kill federal government personnel and violations pertaining to the grenades and guns, charges carrying the potential of life in prison. They were scheduled to appear in court this afternoon in Seattle.

Although the investigation is still at an early stage, it was not clear whether Abdul-Latif or Mujahidh were directly influenced by Inspire magazine or the recent Adam Gadahn video, or whether their primary inspiration was, as described in the complaint, Nidal Hasan's shooting spree.

YONATHAN MELAKU

An Ethiopian-American and Marine reservist facing indictment for grand larceny in a separate case, Melaku was arrested last week after he was seen behaving suspiciously at Arlington National Cemetery after hours. According to an affidavit released today, Melaku was carrying a backpack containing four five-pound baggies of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer often employed in the construction of improvised explosives, such as the truck bomb used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Melaku was responsible for a series of shootings targeting military buildings last year. In at least one of those attacks, which only caused property damage, Melaku videotaped himself shouting "Allahu Akbar" while firing at the U.S. Marine Corps museum building. Forensics showed Melaku was carrying shell casings at the time of his arrest which are consistent with the other attacks.

A search revealed that Melaku's computer and at least one notebook contained extensive information on jihadist figures and procedures for building improvised explosives. Melaku had not been suspected in the attacks prior to his arrest last week.

The Defense Department initiated separation proceedings against Melaku on Tuesday.

Prior to 9/11, U.S. military personnel and military vets formed the backbone of the American jihadist movement, although that trend has significantly reversed in recent years.

However, while the overall trend has shifted toward a higher concentration of civilian jihadists, there are a number of examples of active and former military members who have been involved in jihadist terrorism, including Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, and Hasan Akbar, who killed two fellow soldiers while serving in Iraq in 2003. Abdul-Latif, arrested today, was also reportedly a military veteran who served in the Navy during the 1990s.

OTHER POST-BIN LADEN CASES

Hundreds of American citizens have been arrested in relation to jihadist terrorism over the last 30 years, with more than 180 of those cases taking place after September 11. Several significant arrests have taken place since the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1, including:

Younus Abdullah Muhammad, the American co-founder of the radical Web site Revolution Muslim, was arrested in Morocco for extradition to the United States for his role in publicizing threats against the creators of "South Park" for an episode dealing with the controversy over depicting images of the Prophet Mohammed. Zach Chesser of Virginia was previously convicted of writing the threats and attempting to join the Al Shabab jihadist movement in Somalia.

Joseph Brice, a 20-year-old from Clarkston, Wash., was a skilled builder of improvised explosives who volunteered his services on jihadist online forums and eventually to an undercover FBI agent representing himself as a jihadist. Investigators are not ocnvinced Brice was a Muslim or ideologically committed to Islamic terrorist causes, but believe he may better fit the profile of a serial bomber. INTELWIRE will have more details about the Brice case later this week.

Three American citizens in Florida were arrested May 14 for raising money on behalf of Tehrik-e Taliban, the Pakistani group behind the attempted bombing of Times Square by American citizen Faisal Shahzad, includinjg Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, imam of the Miami Masjid; Hafiz Khan's son, Irfan Khan, 37, also of Miami, imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla.; and another son, Izhar Khan, 24, of North Lauderdale, Fla.

THE POST-BIN LADEN WAVE

In May, I spoke at George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute (video) about Jihad Joe. In response to a question about the threat picture going forward, I said the period after bin Laden's death would represent a key test of the "individual" or "leaderless" jihad concept championed by American jihadist ideologues such as Anwar Awlaki and Adam Gadahn.

Despite the serious cases represented above, we have yet to see a numerically significant surge in actual or attempted attacks by lone wolves and individual jihadists. Melaku was actively pursuing individual jihad prior to bin Laden's death, and whatever Brice was up to, he was up to before bin Laden. The charges against Younus are also old. The Florida Taliban cell was active before bin Laden's death and at any rate does not qualify as a lone wolf operation.

The lack of activity so far is extremely encouraging , although I don't think we're quite out of the woods yet. While lone wolves often act with minimal preparation, they do tend to prepare. And the June Al Qaeda video release I mentioned above represents one of the most serious investments to date by Al Qaeda Central in the concept of individual jihad. The video release has already sparked some alarming conversations on the jihadist Internet forums. History does not offer any clear examples of terrorist attacks being conceived on the forums and graduating to execution, but there's a first time for everything.

For much more about the history of American jihadism and its current incarnation, check out my new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere. Journalists interested in discussing this issue can contact me here. For reviews and additional information about the book, click here.

Labels: Adam-Gadahn, American-Jihadists, American-Terrorists, Anwar-Awlaki, Guns, Jihad-Joe, Joseph-Brice, Nidal-Malik-Hasan, Yonathan-Melaku, Younus-Abdullah-Mohammed

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

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