Al Qaeda and the U.S. Military: Resources For Journalists

On Wednesday, a joint Congressional Homeland Security hearing will examine the threat of Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism to America's military on U.S. soil. This is a very large and complex topic. I wanted to share some resources for journalists looking to cover the hearings and the topic more broadly. Please note that I will be in Washington on Wednesday afternoon if you're looking to book someone to discuss the issue.

There are two components to the terrorist threat against the military at home: Internal and external. The current external threat is, in some ways, the simpler one to understand.

Al Qaeda-inspired homegrown terrorists have shown a sharp preference for targeting military facilities in recent years, including Khalid Abdul Latif in Seattle, Yonathan Melaku in Virginia, the Fort Dix Six, Antonio Martinez in Baltimore, and Nidal Hasan and Naser Abdo, both at Fort Hood in Texas.

What's interesting about this is the fact that many of them choose military targets because of explicit discomfort about the morality targeting civilians. I wrote about this dichotomy for The Atlantic.

The internal threat is more complicated and less covered by the media. There's a baseline issue with military personnel who turn against their own, as in the cases of Melaku, Hasan, Abdo and Sgt. Hasan Akbar, all of whom were -- to a greater or lesser extent -- operating independently. They were people serving in the military who allegedly became caught up in the tension between serving in the U.S. military and feeling that they were religiously or morally unable to kill fellow Muslims in theaters like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beyond these cases, which seem to be on the rise inasmuch as a such statements based on the very small sample size, the military has been the subject of deliberate and often very successful infiltration efforts by Al Qaeda and related groups.

These efforts go back to the 1980s. One of the earliest examples is the case of Ali Mohamed, a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad who later became a key operational terrorist planner, trainer and security chief in Al Qaeda.

Mohamed's resume also included the position of Staff Sgt. in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Bragg. Current Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri tasked Mohamed to infiltrate U.S. intelligence during the early 1980s on behalf of EIJ, the group Zawahiri led at the time (this was before Al Qaeda even existed). After an unsuccessful run at the CIA abroad, Mohamed moved to the United States, joined the Army and became a U.S. citizen. He was in the Army for four years, during which time he stole military manuals and sensitive information from Fort Bragg, took part in active fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and conducted training for jihadists and terrorists both abroad and in the New York City area. Some of his trainees took part in the World Trade Center bombing and a thwarted plot to bomb New York landmarks and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels.

Here are some INTELWIRE-exclusive resources on Mohamed:

Who Is Ali Mohamed?

Al Qaeda Spy Crafted 9/11 Network

New Link Between Ali Mohamed And 9/11

Who Masterminded 1993 WTC Bombing?

'Coleman Affidavit' on Ali Mohamed

Ali Mohamed Sourcebook

Nat Geo documentary, J.M. Berger Lead Researcher

Mohamed's case was not the only notable infiltration of the U.S. military by Al Qaeda. During the first Gulf War, an Al Qaeda operative named Tahir was part of a religious team dispatched to Riyadh by the Saudi government in a wildly successful effort to convert U.S. soldiers to Islam.

Tahir, a Vietnam vet who worked for Al Qaeda in Bosnia and Somalia, was one of several team members given wide-ranging access to U.S. personnel as part of an initiative presented by the Saudi government under the pretext of a cultural exchange. Another member of the team was Bilal Philips, an extremely controversial Islamic scholar who has been banned from entering Germany and the UK due to his preaching on such subjects as homosexuality and child marriage. At least hundreds of U.S. soldiers reportedly converted to Islam after the program.

After the war ended, Tahir and Philips attempted to recruit soldiers who had been exposed to the program as jihadist fighters in Bosnia. At least a dozen U.S. military vets went to Bosnia as "trainers" under this program and some stayed as fighters. The same program later recruited and trained the terrorists who attempted to carry out the Landmarks plot. The Bosnia program was funded by the Third World Relief Agency, an Al Qaeda-linked NGO which posed as a charity but in reality ran guns to Bosnia in defiance of a U.N. embargo and supported various terrorist causes.

As part of the recruiting program for trainers of the Bosnian mujahideen, Philips told me that he enlisted the help of Qaseem Uqdah, a vet then affiliated with the organization Muslim Military Matters, and for more than a decade after one of the key figures involved in certifying Muslim chaplains for the U.S. military. Uqdah refused repeated requests to discuss his involvement in the program with me.

For a very detailed account of this complex and nuanced program, which has never been fully exposed before, check out my new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

Labels: Al-Qaeda, Ali-Mohamed, Bilal-Philips, Bosnia, Egyptian-Islamic-Jihad, Fort-Hood, lone-wolf, Nasser-Abdo, Nidal-Malik-Hasan, Third-World-Relief-Agency, Yonathan-Melaku

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Bosnian Arms: UN Wartime Embargo Defied, Ignored By Multiple Nations

By ESAD HECIMOVIC
Special to INTELWIRE

Someone wrote at the top of the report: "The message to the operator on duty: do not read this story. And if you see anything accidentally forget it. Personally hand over this message to the President. "

What followed was a message from Bosnian deputy defense minister Hasan Cengic to President Alija Izetbegovic, undated but likely written some time around the fall of 1992.

"Mr. President, I send you a report on what has been done with the munitions delivered by boat in the last shipment."

The message gave details of funds, arms and ammunition smuggled into the country for use by "the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Foca and Gorazde. ... This commodity and one that will be loaded tomorrow, God willing, it is also destined for Foca and Gorazde, but it is intended primarily for the opening of Sarajevo and Mostar and the Neretva Valley”.

Newly available documents reveal that the provisioning of the Army of Bosnia in defiance of a UN arms embargo was coordinated through the official policy of neighboring countries and the international community. The policy was supported by a number of governments in Europe and beyond, through tacit consent or secret aid.

The author of the 1992 message for the President specified which weapons and ammunition would be transported to which cities and describes the purpose of the arms delivery. The signature reads: "Salam, Hassan".

Numerous clues remain in the documents, which show the money, names, places, dates on which the Army of BiH was armed and equipped during the bloody 1990s civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In one document, the specifications for the procurement of arms were printed on hotel bills in Istanbul.

In another, a hotel invoice from Vienna stated that then-Bosnian deputy defense minister Hasan Cengic was a guest "from the Sudanese Embassy" in Zagreb.

A third document was an official memorandum from Presidency of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

Interest in the story of how Bosnia was armed during the war has been renewed by the impending war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and the prospect of the imminent release from prison of Fikret Abdic, the Bosnian Muslim politician who was elected president of Bosnia in 1990 but stepped down for reasons unknown, allowing Alija Izetbegovic, the second-place finisher, to take office.

FROM CELJE TO VISOKO

In 1992, representatives of the Bosnian government bought arms directly from the Slovenian government on the basis of two agreements on military assistance, but also used Slovenian airports and ports to get the weapons into the country.

With the knowledge and help of the Slovenian authorities, weapons were transported by road across the territory of the Republic of Slovenia, under the label of “humanitarian assistance.”

One of the routes went toward Slovenian town of Celje, then to the port city of Koper, where the goods were loaded onto a ferry, then transported to the Croatian port of Pula, where it was loaded with the goods of aid groups.

From there, the weapons travelled to Split, Croatia, then finally unloaded in Ploce, where it was transported to the warehouse of a humanitarian organization in Metkovic, then transferred by truck across the Bosnian border to Jablanica, where it was finally transported by truck to Visoko.

Arms were not delivered only to Visoko: documents show that Zelko Knez, current military advisor to the Croatian member of BH Presidency Zeljko Komsic, in October 1992 in Zagreb received 400,000 marks from Hasan Cengic in October 1992 for the cost of procurement of weapons for the Tuzla region in Bosnia.

The value of the weapons to Tuzla exceeded the amount of 1 million DM on this occasion. The prices for the weapons were personally approved by Izetbegovic.

But this is just one example. An international investigation reconstructed a trail of money and weapons through Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia to internal delivery in Bosnia, with contacts at all levels of headquarters and units.

One document written in Arabic, a memorandum of the Bosnian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was signed by Dr. Haris Silajdzic on October 2, 1992.

Silajdzic, who in 2010 completed a term as the Bosnian member of the federation's presidency, stated that there were "signed contracts for the procurement of weapons, that we need for our emergency rescue, in the amount of $18 million and that the goods will be received in a Croatian port and paid after receipt and control."

The shipment of the weapons, which originated with the Slovenian government, was facilitated by "the Croatian Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Defense, which was agreed with the Government of BiH", according to a document attributed to the "Committee of Muslims in Croatia to help Muslims in Bosnia."

WHO REPRESENTS BOSNIA?

Disputes within the government, going all the way to the presidency, about who should represent Bosnia in its contacts with the Slovenian government directly influenced the flow of money and supplies of arms.

In May 1992, Hasan Cengic held a meeting with the President of Slovenia, Milan Kucan, and the Slovenian Ministers for Defence, Janez Jansa, and Interior, Igor Bavcar. At the time, Cengic was secretary of the SDA, the ruling political party.

In advance of the meeting, an order for weapons was sent from Sarajevo to Ljubljana, Slovenia, on May 29, 1992, from someone in the office of Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Slovenian defense minister.

The order requested automatic rifles, ammunition, anti-tank missiles and the like. Specifications were provided by a staff member of Committee of Muslims in Croatia to help Muslims in Bosnia and approved by Alija Izetbegovic.

Upon Izetbegovic's approval, the equipment was certified as being worth 1.85 million DM and would be paid for as soon as possible. A Bosnian helicopter based on an airstrip in Slovenia was offered as collateral.

ABDIC STILL SILENT

In June 1992, Slovenia began training 1,000 members of the Bosnian territorial defence force in the forests of Kocevski Rog. Most of the "recruits" on the Slovenian training course were from the Cazinska Krajina region of Bosnia and members of the Bosnian diaspora.

Starting in August of 1992, training was conducted in Svetli Potok, Slovenia, on the edge of Kocevje. The training was carried out by specially trained military members, the Slovenian military secret service and others.

A recent book by Matej Surc and Blaz Zgaga claimed "Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croatian nationals were trained by seasoned fighters from the Croatian battlefields. Fikret Abdic, a former member of the Presidency of BiH, visited the volunteers. The Government of Slovenia secured uniforms of East German origin, weapons, and ammunition and explosive devices for two groups of Bosnian volunteers. During the training of the other group, the Slovenian authorities, under international pressure, ordered that the volunteers had to leave the territory of Slovenia within 24 hours. The Slovenian Ministry of Defence asked Governement of BiH to pay some 1.2 million German marks for this training."

According to available documents, an agreement was signed on August 18, 1992,in Ljubljana between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The agreement was signed by Fikret Abdic, as an authorized representative of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Janez Jansa, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia. The agreement put a Bosnian helicopter up as collateral.

In September of 1992 there was a final meeting between Hasan Cengic and Jansa. Jusuf Pusina, then Minister of the Interior, and Bakir Alispahic, then Chief of the Center of Security Services for Sarajevo, were also present.

In a statement to reporters, Cengic said he tried to explain to Jansa that the Abdic policy was contrary to the policy of the Bosnian government, and that Abdic (who led an armed faction during the war) used weapons from Slovenia to equip his troops for a fratricidal war, but Jansa rejected his arguments and asked Cengić to pay Abdic's account. Cengic said he asked for additional documentation.

Sources close to Abdic, who is still in prison, declined to discuss these claims.

FROM KHARTOUM TO MARIBOR

Conflicts within the Slovenian authorities, including the conflict between Jansa and Cengic, led to a new scandal.

Newly available documents reveal the way of money and weapons from distant countries such as Sudan were transported moved to Slovenia.

In faxed messages sent in September 1992, a suspected arms broker reported to Dr. Fatih Hassanein that air lift between Khartoum and Maribor moved early on 15th September 1992.

Hassanein was head of the Third World Relief Agency, a purported charity that helped funnel millions of dollars from Saudi donors to the Bosnian government during the war. TWRA was also reportedly linked to Al Qaeda as a financial front. The agency's financial records indicate money was transferred to and from an associate of Osama bin Laden during the wartime period.

Records show funds from TWRA were used to arm the Bosnian military and were used to facilitate the travel of mujahideen fighters from abroad to fight on behalf of Bosnian Muslims. Several of the Bosnian mujahideen were connected to Al Qaeda.

A number of American military veterans were recruited to train and fight with the Bosnian mujahideen in program linked to Al Qaeda and funded by TWRA. The details of that program were first reported in Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

The arms broker requested that three containers weighing a total of 50 tons be made ready for shipping. The weapons were flown from Sudan to Maribor airport in Slovenia and then transported by helicopter to central Bosnia.

This operation was stopped after the beginning of the conflict between the Bosnian and Croatian armies. In January 1993, transport stopped altogether because of the war breaking out in central Bosnia.

On July 21, 1993 Slovenia discovered 120 tons of weapons at the airport in Maribor, labeled as humanitarian aid and awaiting transport to Bosnia. The shipment was stopped, but documentation of the incident helped expose the arms traffic.

REQUEST TO IRAN WAS REJECTED

The Hague tribunal convened for the Radovan Karadzic trial concluded that "the question of whether different countries were involved in smuggling weapons or were not familiar with this issue on which to decide what should or needs to be considered in this case."

But officials in May 2011 rejected a request to issue binding orders and subpoenas to Iran, one of the major suppliers of weapons to Bosnia during the war, because the information was judged irrelevant. Iranian authorities, in response to an initial query, said that "the alleged documents, if they ever existed, came from the distant past" and would require a length search.

Karadzic's defense team demanded Iranian documents (contracts and a record of arms deliveries) related to an alleged agreement between the Iranian government agencies and arms dealers, who operated under the name Matimco SPRL, for the sale and delivery of weapons to Pula, Croatia, from December 1994 until April 1995 .

Karadzic does not claim the documents contained any information about how ammunition was allegedly smuggled from Croatia to Bosnia, and specifically to Srebrenica, where Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. Karadzic is under indictment for that crime.

The majority of judges concluded that they continue to believe that only the Srebrenica shipments are relevant to Karadzic's case. They ruled that "the waybills for cargo from the Iranian aircraft apparently landed in Croatia between 1992 and 1994 were too much in terms of time away from the period relevant to this case."

Iranian officials have never wanted to speak publicly about the deliveries of weapons for the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, explaining that it was "the help which they felt as an obligation because of the suffering of Muslims in Bosnia," and not for profit.

There is little historical data on Iranian shipments, only estimates. As previously revealed by INTELWIRE, in September 1992, the Croatian government in Zagreb, at the request of the United States, seized an Iranian plane carrying weapons for Bosnia which had landed in Zagreb.

In the spring of 1994 President Bill Clinton's administration gave a "green light" to Croatia for Iranian weapons and other supplies to be shipped to the Army of BiH and the HVO, meaning that USA no longer objected to these delivery of arms to Bosnia.

Labels: Al-Qaeda, Alija-Izetbegovic, Bosnia, Hasan-Cengic, Iran, Third-World-Relief-Agency

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Al Qaeda in Bosnia: Exclusive State Department Cables

In light of this week's terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, INTELWIRE is publishing State Department cables related to Al Qaeda's presence in Bosnia.

The State Department cables linked below describe the U.S. government's investigation of the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), an Al Qaeda-linked charity based in the United States with a significant presence in Bosnia.

State Department cables on Benevolence International Foundation

American jihadists, including Arnaout, played a key role in supporting mujahideen during the Bosnia war. For never-before-revealed details of these links, check out J.M. Berger's new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.

Documents discovered at BIF's office in Sarajevo provided crucial intelligence on the founding of Al Qaeda. Some of those documents are reproduced in an INTELWIRE Sourcebook, and more are currently being prepared for publication.

Labels: Al-Qaeda, Benevolence-International-Foundation, Bosnia

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Jihad Joe, The New Book On American Jihadists, Now Available For Kindle

My new book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale at bookstores everywhere, is now available in a Kindle Edition. Buy it now!

Here's a look at some of the substantial critical acclaim Jihad Joe has received since its release:

"J. M. Berger's "Jihad Joe," a sober, factual account of the Americans who have been lured to the cause of religious violence, offers a useful reminder that this phenomenon is nothing new, long predating the Sept. 11 attacks. ... 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. ... It is a timely warning from an expert who has not lost his perspective."

Scott Shane, The New York Times | Full review

"Berger's work is detail-packed and focused, and a useful resource for that reason alone. But it is also and specifically the work of someone who has read and talked with and listened to the people he is writing about, and his work carries their voices embedded in his own commentary. It thus joins such works as Jessica Stern's Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill and Mark Juergensmeyer's similarly named and similarly excellent Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. ... Berger's is a book to read, certainly -- and more significantly perhaps, a book to admire."


"How these American jihadists became radicalized, recruited and trained, and the types of terrorist activities they conducted (and still engage in) whether abroad or in America, constitute the core of Mr. Berger’s important book. ... Mr. Berger’s comprehensive list - one of the most exhaustive I’ve found in any book on this subject... those who have fought the Soviet occupying forces in Afghanistan, been present at the founding of al Qaeda, and fought as jihadists in Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia and Yemen."


"Berger lifts the veil on the phenomenon of American jihadists in this timely and chilling examination. ... Drawing on detailed case studies of individual American jihadists, the author concludes that they are a diverse group and their "path to radicalization begins with a rock-solid belief that Muslims are a victim class. ... Berger's exposé painstakingly lays out the scope and character of the American jihadist movement and points the way to a national debate on solutions."


"The book's journalistic language makes it an easy read... the better choice for those seeking journalism that is more objective and somewhat broader and deeper in scope."



"A fascinating journey into the rise, expansion, and future of American jihadism. J. M. Berger goes beyond the Awlaki mania to investigate firsthand the changing nature of the terrorist threat to the United States."


"Jihad Joe is a hell of a book -- authoritatively reported, well sourced, and painstakingly researched. This is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the true nature of the terrorist threat that confronts us.


"What J.M. did exceedingly well is bring together not only the stories [of American jihadists], but also a little empirical research on all of the issues and phenomena we're tracking. And that's really important, really significant. It brings some of the art with the science. It's very comprehensively put together."



"J.M. Berger's Jihad Joe is a timely MUST READ. It provides the first comprehensive background and analysis on Americans joining the jihadi movement over the past thirty years. It adds to the growing body of literature on the jihadi phenomenon and offers new research that better contextualizes the current rise of American involvement in the jihadi movement. Most importantly, Jihad Joe, unlike many recent works, is non-partisan and non-political. The methodical research speaks for itself, which is reassuring in an over-politicized environment."


"A must-read insight into America's Muslim 'holy warriors.' ... Jihad Joe is meticulously researched and refreshingly free of rhetoric."

Labels: Bosnia

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Jihad Joe Featured On Front Page Of Toronto's National Post

Jihad Joe was featured recently in a story by Toronto's National Post on controversial Islamic preacher Bilal Philips.

When Bilal Philips turned up in Frankfurt in April to address a demonstration organized by a local Muslim leader, German immigration police quickly expelled him for advocating the killing of homosexuals.

“Which is nonsense,” the 64-year-old Canadian Muslim preacher said in an interview this week during a visit to Toronto. “I was not advocating or calling on Germans to rise up and kill homosexuals.”

"Jihad Joe" includes never-before-revealed details about an Al Qaeda-linked program to recruit American military veterans as an "A-Team" to train and assist Bosnian mujahideen fighters, including the U.S. military policy that led to an Al Qaeda operative preaching to U.S. soldiers about Islam on a U.S. base with the approval of Army commanders during the Gulf War.

Read the full story

Buy the book

Labels: American-Al-Qaeda, American-Jihadists, Bilal-Philips, Bosnia, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

A Conversation About Jihad With Controversial Preacher Bilal Philips

The Islamic preacher Bilal Philips has long been a lightning rod for controversy. Born in Jamaica and raised in Canada, he converted to Islam in 1972 and studied Islamic theology in Saudi Arabia and the UK, eventually earning a doctorate.

During the first Gulf War, Philips ran a sort of Islamic tent revival for U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, which claimed to have converted thousands of soldiers to Islam. Subsequently, he used contacts made during that program to help recruit U.S. military veterans as volunteer trainers in the war in Bosnia starting in 1992. That program is described in great detail in my forthcoming book, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, which hits bookstores on May 15.

Philips was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1995 prosecution U.S. v. Omar Abdel Rahman, in which almost a dozen people -- including Clement Hampton-El, an associate of Philips -- were convicted of conspiring to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York City, among other terrorism-related activities. Philips denies any wrongdoing in the case, blaming FBI informant Emad Salem for acting as an "agent provocateur" who actually instigated the plot and drew others into it. The extensive evidence in the case does not support this view.

Philips has not returned to the United States for some time, although he travels to his native Canada occasionally. In recent years, Philips has been banned from entering the UK and Australia on the basis of alleged links to terrorism (which he denies) and remarks at a UK mosque and elsewhere which appeared to say that it was Islamically acceptable for adult men to marry girls as young as the onset of puberty, or even younger. Philips spoke recently in Copenhagen, an appearance that was covered in advance with some apprehension by the local media, but which failed to deliver fireworks.

I contacted Philips during Ramadan last year primarily to discuss the Bosnia program. The results of that portion of the interview are detailed in the book. Afterward, we moved into a discussion of the evolution of the concept of jihad from the days when he was assisting Bosnian jihadists. The conversation took place late at night after a long day for both of us. I've edited the transcript significantly for readability, to remove verbal tics and trailing sentences from both participants, but I have not altered the views or content.

Whether or not one accepts Philips' statements at face value (and he tends to adjust his tone depending on his audience), his views shed an interesting light on one of the more difficult areas of Western-Muslim relations and one of the most challenging problems in counterradicalization -- preachers and opinion leaders in the Muslim world who clearly believe and preach in often stirring terms that Western civilization exists in sharp conflict with Islamic civilization, but who skirt, avoid, evade or simply stop short of openly endorsing violence.

Another example of this is Jama'at Al Muslimeen, a Baltimore-based Muslim organization I wrote about in February's CTC Sentinel (PDF).

Such people and organizations contribute to an environment that is a precursor to violent radicalization while engaging in self-protective qualifications, pitting Islam against the West in a scenario fraught with tension and extremes, while attempting to stop short of uttering the kind of rhetoric or taking part in physical acts which would lead to prosecution. For a long time, Anwar Awlaki was one such public figure, and his pre-radicalization rhetoric is likely more influential than what he has done since openly embracing terrorism.

The process of radicalization is not necessarily a sharp turn toward violence; it often begins in gray areas relating to ways of talking about the world and underlying assumptions about why people in both the West and the Muslim world do the things they do. In that spirit, I think there's a lot of food for thought in this interview. Comments are welcome on Twitter.

Q: How have attitudes about military jihad changed over the last 15 or 20 years? How do you determine what is a legitimate jihad?

Bilal Philips: In my view, much of what has been put under the general heading of jihad doesn't really comply with the shariah, or Islamic legal definitions. And many of the tactics which are being used, desperation-type tactics of suicide bombing, and these kinds of things, are illegitimate from the shariah perspective. So very few of the struggles that are going on are, from my perspective, really endorsable.

In some cases, like Chechnya, it went through certain stages. Afghanistan, in the earlier stages, when they were struggling against the Russians, then that was fine. But then what it evolved into, what it became, you know, is something that went awry.

And people began using techniques or tactics which are unacceptable, Islamically. So in terms of legitimate struggle around the world today, to me one is hard-pressed to identify. When people ask me, because of course, people ask me wherever I go, people may ask, you know, about something of that, "What about this struggle, what about that struggle?" and so on, I usually advise people that these things are confused.

You go there, you may have the best of intentions, but you don't really know what is going on, what is really behind the scenes, tactics and things we see that are not really legitimate, so I advise people to stay away from it. [I prefer] continuing to propagate the message of Islam, try to correct the media distortions, etc., help in that, if it's relief, medical, food, these kinds of things, ok. These can always benefit places, whether it's Chechnya, whether it's Afghanistan, whether it's anywhere.

So, you know, sending and supporting these kinds of things, fine. But to say, getting involved, on a military level, I think things have sort of deteriorated. The best of those struggles, that could come the closest to the definition of legitimate jihad, really have become corrupted. So, people are hard-pressed to find [just] causes, if that's the direction they would be involved in.

I think the effort now is a greater emphasis on community building, developing the kind of infrastructure to protect the Islamic faith, and to help it to grow in places like the U.S., Canada, U.K. Muslim schools have really come up in the last 20 or 25 years, there has been an explosion of Muslim schools. That people realize that this is the area that is really the big area that Muslims need to work on, in Western circumstances, to preserve the Islamic traditions, Islamic way of life, etc.

And it's just going farther and farther away from the military routes. Of course, those that are bent on that particular route, they are still there, trying to recruit people. And there are also agents, you know, causing people to be drawn into different circumstances. I know cases in the, in Canada where youths were drawn into ridiculous projects and ended up in jail.

But I think those are getting fewer and farther between. The overall leanings of the community is more towards community building than it is to going over and fighting, Islamically. This is my feeling in the communities that I have visited in the west.

Q: Have the conflicts changed? Or is it the people involved, who are steering the activity, that have changed? I guess the more direct would probably be, I listened to a lecture of yours from some years back, in which you said you believed in the "clash of civilizations," and that America was the enemy of Islam. Is the west at war with Islam in your view?

Yes, from the clash perspective, I mean, of course, Huntington's argument, and I'm not promoting his whole argument, just one element of it, which was this concept of globalized western civilization as portrayed in secular democracy, you know, being pushed down the throats of the rest of the world.

This is how I see it. Basically all societies have fallen to this. They've accepted it. In some cases it was better than what they had, and it was the best option they had to go with. You know, places like India, etc. But there is a clear conflict between the concept of secular democracy, and I have written a book on this, a book called, "The Clash of Western Civilization and the Islamic View." [...] Basically, it's identifying the elements of the clash, because of course, from a secular perspective, that secular outlook on life, is completely, completely opposite to the shariah perspective, where everything is looked at from the perspective of God and the law of God.

You have another perspective, which is, which is where God doesn't have any role to play in all of this. It's all looked at from humanist or human perspective, you know? Without God having any involvement, or shouldn't be involved. If you want to believe in God, that's your business, so and so. But it shouldn't come into public policy, and etc.

So that obviously is a foundational clash. It's a clash of concepts. I'm not necessarily saying it has to be a military clash, but it's a clash of concepts, right? And then the issue of democracy, you know, where the fundamental concept of human beings making laws for the whole society, in all aspects, again, in conflict with the shariah perspective, where that is the role of God.

That you may have a limited democratic principle, as we call it, shura, in Islamic law, where, you know, in areas that are not already prescribed by God. Through the Quran and through the Messenger, in those common, day-to-day areas, the people can come together and choose what they feel is most appropriate in their given circumstances.

So it this limited scope, which is acceptable. But this other approach, where it is, you know, you have to accept this, you know, "We are the most highly evolved civilization on the earth, and obviously if we are the most highly evolved, our systems must be the most highly evolved. So this is what, this is where mankind is headed, you know? And we need to help you get there. It's our duty to help you reach this point."

So, this attitude fuels the clash. I feel that with the rise in Muslim consciousness around the world, and awareness of the Islamic systems, and people looking to it now as alternatives away from the colonial heritage and legacy, I think that the powers-that-be sees this as the last frontier, the last major threat, the one to standing firm.

Even though governments have been undermined, and the Ottoman empire broken up, and replaced by British, German, French law, etc., still, with this consciousness in the scholarship, Muslim scholars around the world, it's not going away. It's the teachings and those teachings continue to be propagated, and it's reaching a wider and wider audience, in this last 10, 15, 20 years.

So with this heightened awareness, we see things in Algeria, we see things elsewhere, Sudan and elsewhere, where this consciousness is coming to a political arena, you know, even in Turkey, in Indonesia, in different parts of the Muslim world, you know, more and more we see this consciousness and awareness, taking a greater and greater role, a political role. So I feel that obviously, the forces that are behind this promotion of globalized secular democracy and western civilization naturally find this as their enemy.

I mean, America thrives on an enemy, you know, where you can identify the bad guys, and then you can mobilize the military industrialized complex, all this stuff, you know, it works for them.

Q: But does Islam thrive on enemies? I've read 20, 30 years of the Muslim World League's journal, month after month, article after article, about the enemies that are constantly circling, and trying to close in on Islam. Can't the same thing be said about not Islam, but the Islamic world, the Islamic nations, the Muslims?

No. I think you know, when you look at it from the Muslim perspective, it's defense. You know, the sharks are circling, beware. Hey, the sharks are out there, you need to preserve by education, being aware, setting up institutions, whatever. These kind of projects, and things like this, supporting Muslim communities, so they don't get overrun completely, lost in the sauce, as they say.

So it's more a defensive. It's not, you know, an offensive, "We need to go out and make America an Islamic state." This is not what you are going to be finding in those kind of readings, what you've read from there. This is more identifying the problems that the Muslim world face to day. Because we've got to understand that, they came under a concerted attack, which decimated the Muslim body.

The Ottoman empire was the last of the Islamic states, you could say, which had to least a large degree, had that Islamic spirit of unity, of, of territory, you know, the Muslim nation, concepts, where people interacted on the basis that there were Muslims in this area, non-Muslims functioned OK under it, to varying degrees. That unity, which is something found in the Islamic teachings, that Muslims should be one. The state of affairs where Muslims are split up into different countries, this is an unnatural state.

From the shariah perspective, this is unnatural. Because, you've got lines, borders which were drawn, where you have half of people on one hand, and half, like the Kurds, for example, right? You've got Kurds in Turkey, you've got Kurds in Iraq, you've got Kurds in Iran. I mean, who drew these lines?

You know, if this area is without borders and lines, then those people are people of that area, and they can function and move freely back and forth. When you draw, draw those lines and set countries, and nationalities and these kind of things, then this is a formula for disaster. It's a time bomb.

So, I would say that the Muslim World League and others, when speaking of these kind of issues, they're really addressing more this kind of approach, where the Muslim world need to come back together. We should be able to do things together, ultimately come back as one nation.


Q: When you look at Americans who have become radicalized to the point of terrorism, within the last ten years. I'm not talking about a situation like Bosnia or Afghanistan, where the morality and the motivation is more obvious. I'm talking about these, these kids who are getting on the Internet, and then get up to go to Somalia, or who get involved with trying to bomb something. And their narrative starts with, "There is this war on Islam that is being perpetrated by the United States."

Does the narrative precede acts of war? Do you think that the United States is at war? Do you think [radicalized individuals] are just responding to a factual state of affairs, or are they receiving a message from people who want to manipulate them?

Well, I think in their case, you know, most of that is manipulated. The situation of America, America basically being the leading nation in this Western civilization, this globalized role, is that they're the leading force. I mean, they are the force. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it.

To what degree it is a focused, I don't feel that it is focused probably across the nation, that this is our enemy, and we're gonna go fight this enemy, and this. No. But there are powers within the country who are looking at globalized interests from other perspectives, which have to do with economics.

It's not necessarily a religion thing, per se, but these economics are there. Whether it's oil, or it's you know, minerals, or whether it's whatever, they would like to remove whatever will hamper their ability to exploit the resources of the rest of the world.

So Islam, and I mean, we have no end of statements, you know, we can put it under the general heading of Islamophobia, but we have no end of statements by leading figures in the American establishment, from the military and from elsewhere, you know, where they very clearly identified Islam as the enemy.

You do have these things. I mean, I won't say it is on the news, 24-7, but definitely in some circles it is there, it pops out, it comes out from time to time, in individual statements, that perception is definitely there. What I feel, personally, is that the struggle is fundamentally an ideological struggle.

Which, from the Muslim perspective, that's where or how they need to tackle it. You could say, from a Western civilizational perspective, it is ideological also, but the issues of economics and politics play a greater role.

You know, people might go into Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, which were made up, as an excuse to go in. Bin Laden becomes an excuse for Afghanistan, to stop any trends of that nature. I mean, I have my own doubts, though I've heard about bin Laden's things, and what he's involved in, and no doubt he may be dedicated to what he perceives, how he sees it. But I wouldn't be surprised if 50 years from now, it came out that somehow he was connected with the CIA, FBI, whatever. Actually, he was a plant, and this was this. The way things go, I just wouldn't be surprised. I would not be shocked that, wow, that was the case.

Because really, I see him, when I look at his role, in terms of what happened with Afghanistan, he became a reason for the destruction of the Islamic state of Afghanistan. Which, initially, was something which was quite innocent, I felt. It was innocent Muslim people trying to bring that country back together after how many years of destruction, with what happened in the country. And there was a lot of positive, good things happening.

I feel maybe their knowledge, Islamic shariah knowledge base, you know, needed upgrading, whatever, but their intent was good. They were trying to do good things, and then this thing just turned into something else altogether. And it seemed to me that you know, bin Laden played the biggest role in turning it around. He had another agenda; their agenda was Afghanistan. Let's get this thing together, make an Islamic state here, run this country and benefit the country. Whereas his thing was, it's about America, we need to attack America. We need to hit them this way, that way and the other way.

However, when I look back at what happened with Emad Salem, you know, I just hear things like that in the background when I think of bin Laden. So, it may not be him. It may be those around him. Ayman Zawahiri or others, who were the ones that changed the direction. Maybe initially bin Laden wasn't in that direction. From what I heard, he really wasn't.

But that change took place, at the later point, when people from the former Ikhwan, the extremist Gamaat, Al Jihad and all this, came around him, and started to feed. So that changed his direction. So there's that element that does have a desire to want to bring about change immediately and by any means necessary. And by any military means necessary. That is really a very dangerous group which remains, and has its offshoots which continue to pick up innocent, ignorant young people who have no Islamic background.

This is why my philosophy, my encouragement is more in the area of education, because where people are properly educated, and they understand, the Islamic shariah as a totality, and understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, they're better able to resist those kinds of attempts to recruit them, and to draw them into these kinds of illegitimate conflicts.

But when they are ignorant, then they become susceptible. So this is why I have tried to, my focus is encouraging the establishment of formal education institutions which would spread knowledge about Islam on a wider scale in the Muslim community.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Bilal-Philips, Bosnia, J-M-Berger, Jihad-Joe

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Defining Our Interests

As Western forces rain down fire on the forces of Moammar Gadhafi, the Arab League has already come out with criticism of an intervention they virtually demanded just days ago.

There are two problems here. One is external -- the nations of the Middle East have for some time been playing a nasty double game which consists of letting the U.S. take the heat for problems they do not find politically expedient to solve on their own.

The other is internal -- the United States has for some time been playing a nasty double game in which it allows domestic political tides, the temperature of media coverage and simple, cynical expediency to dictate the direction of our foreign policy.

Both of these problems have been around for years, and the internal problem has been exacerbated by both Republican and Democratic administrations. The problem is that our foreign policy is almost always an ad hoc affair, cobbled together on the fly based on sometimes wildly inconsistent reasoning.

There are countless examples, such as our decades of support for Mubarak's police state based on the expediency of Egypt's strategic position, which we only abandoned when the torture and brutality came out of the closet; the invasion of Iraq based on constantly shifting rationales, nearly all of which could be applied to any number of other countries; our failure to define realistic goals and benchmarks in Afghanistan; our schizophrenic public stance toward Pakistan; and now our decisive action against Libya compared to relatively subdued public posturing on concurrent crackdowns by nominal U.S. allies Yemen and Bahrain.

While the brutality in Libya far outstrips what we've seen in other Middle Eastern countries roiled by protest, it's not surprising that our military action this week looks like score-settling to some in the Middle East. After Saddam Hussein, Gadhafi has been a thorn in the side of the United States for longer than anyone.

The reason that such imprecations about U.S. policy thrive is that we don't have consistent standards for our foreign policy decisions. For more than a decade, our interventions in the Arab and Muslim worlds have been driven more by politics and media optics than by principle.

It's been like this at least since Bosnia, when the media narrative about the war finally prompted a belated U.S. intervention. In 2008, I interviewed Charles Kupchan, director for European affairs at the National Security Council during the 1990s, who said the Clinton administration only acted in Bosnia when the "political calculation" became too painful to bear. I couldn't help but think of this statement when watching the Obama administration grope toward a position on the revolution in Egypt and subsequently try to reconcile that position with events in Libya.

Politicians in the Arab and Muslim world have their own reasons for sowing suspicion about American intentions abroad, and those reasons are often petty, expedient and political.

The problem is that we have no coherent response when they speak out against us, because we have no coherent doctrine that guides our foreign interventions. A consistent doctrine would also help undercut Al Qaeda and its affiliated movements, whose primary recruiting pitch exploits the ambiguity of our intentions in the world.

We have to stop predicating our involvement in world affairs on gut feelings and political calculations emanating from the White House. We must clearly define our national interest and the boundaries of what we are prepared to do in its service.

We don't have to be hidebound to this new doctrine. The world is an unpredictable place, now more than ever. We can make exceptions if we have to. But if the doctrine exists, then U.S. leaders who want to make exceptions will be forced to explain why in concrete terms. If we behave inconsistently, it will have to be accounted for.

A new U.S. foreign policy doctrine could take any number of forms. In an ideal world, it would be pragmatic enough to survive a change of party in Washington. But even small steps toward defining our national interest and the calculus that drives our interventions abroad will go a long way.

Every time a new crisis erupts, the media, the American people and the leaders of other nations are left wondering in the dark about how the United States will respond. If we want to exert leadership on the global stage, we should do so as a rational actor who lends stability to international affairs, rather than as a lightly dozing giant who only adds to volatility and uncertainty.

The new doctrine could be hawkish or dovish. It could be interventionist or isolationist. The problem is that we have never clearly articulated the arguments for either approach in a robust public debate that looks further than the top story of the hour. That debate is a necessary next step, but I fear that no one on either side of the political spectrum is interested in taking part.

Labels: Al-Qaeda, Bosnia, Egypt, Libya

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Declassified Cable From INTELWIRE Expands Wikileaks Revelation Of Iranian Arms Smuggling

One of the State Department cables released by Wikileaks this week claimed that the Iranian government has used the Red Crescent charity to smuggle arms to Hezbollah and the Balkans.

If you were wondering exactly what that means, you'll have to go beyond Wikileaks. A State Department cable obtained by INTELWIRE using the Freedom of Information Act describes an intercepted 1992 arms shipment from Iran to Bosnia in eye-popping detail.

According to the cable, the Croatian government intercepted a plane from Iran which was bound for Bosnia and inspected its contents. Croat President Franjo Tudjman called in his local U.S. consul for advice about what to do. The U.S. eventually advised him to send the flight back to Iran.

The plane was "fully loaded with arms," including a number of barrels believed to contain chemical or biological weapons. It was not the first Iranian shipment of arms to Bosnian Muslims either.

The Iranian and Bosnian governments had previously asked permission from Tudjman to ship arms through Zagreb. The last time, Tudjman had said no, so this time all the supplies in the plane was labeled as humanitarian aid from the Red Crescent.

The 20 to 40 mujahideen fighters on the plane were more difficult to conceal. It's important to note that these were probably not all (or even mostly) Iranians. Iranian nationals in Bosnia functioned more as trainers and intelligence agents, but Iran helped smuggle in fighters from around the Muslim world.

American military veterans were also flying into Bosnia to serve as trainers to the Bosnian mujahideen during the same period. Never-before-reported details of this program will be revealed in my forthcoming book on American jihadists, scheduled for release in spring 2011.

Read the whole cable

For thousands of pages of additional State Department cables, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, click here.

This document was obtained during the course of reporting Sarajevo Ricochet, a documentary about the Bosnia war, including new information about Srebrenica and about the activities of Islamic extremist networks in Bosnia during the war. For an excerpt from the documentary focused on illegal arms shipments from Iran to Bosnia, click here.

Labels: Bosnia, Iran, Red-Screscent, State-Department, Wikileaks

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Previously Classified Documents On Srebrenica Massacre And More

If you support government transparency, but don't support the indiscriminate release of classified information, forget Wikileaks and check out the documents below.

The PDF binder linked below contains 2,000 pages of previously classified State Department documents on the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, considered a turning point in the Bosnian civil war.

The documents include real-time descriptions of the chaos at Srebrenica and U.N. efforts to manage refugees from the town, where Serbian forces killed thousands of Bosnian Muslims. The cables also describe delicate behind-the-scenes diplomacy around the attack and other sensitive issues, including the attitudes of Bosnian government officials, the conduct of U.N. peacekeepers and the alleged killing of a U.N. peacekeeper by a Bosnian soldier around the time of the attack.

All documents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The PDF is massive. I recommend saving it locally rather than trying to open it in your browser.

INTELWIRE Srebrenica Dossier

These documents were obtained during the course of reporting Sarajevo Ricochet, a documentary about the Bosnia war, including new information about Srebrenica and about the activities of Islamic extremist networks in Bosnia during the war. For an excerpt from the documentary focused on illegal arms shipments from Iran to Bosnia, click here.

INTELWIRE hosts a large collection of declassified State Department cables on a variety of important subjects related to global security and the war on terrorism. INTELWIRE documents include:

Benazir Bhutto assassination

Terrorism financing

Al Qaeda history

The Siege of Mecca

The assassination of Anwar Sadat

General Islamic extremism

Extremism in Egypt

INTELWIRE also features the biggest collection of FBI documents and State Department documents on September 11 available on the Web including documents cited in the end notes of the 9/11 Commission report. September 11 documents can be found here, here, here and here

Labels: Bosnia, Srebrenica, State-Department

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Recently on INTELWIRE...

INTELWIRE Exclusives:

Flotilla Official Was Foreign Fighter in Bosnia

U.S. Gave Millions to Terror-Linked Yemeni Charity

Document Posts

Documents On Yemen Charity Funded by U.S.

Al Qaeda Financiers Arrested In New York

Robert Novak FBI files

INTELWIRE/MMG Seen on TV

National Geographic Explorer: Talibanistan

Fox News Reporting: Anwar Awlaki

Labels: Anwar-Awlaki, Bosnia, Charitable-Society-for-Social-Welfare, Gaza-Flotilla, IHH, INTELFILES, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, National-Geographic, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Taliban, Weblog

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Exclusive: Gaza Flotilla Official Was Foreign Fighter in Bosnia War

By Esad Hecimovic
SPECIAL TO INTELWIRE
A senior official with the Turkish activist group IHH who participated in the Gaza-bound flotilla boarded by the Israeli army last month served as a foreign fighter during the civil war in Bosnia.

Osman Atalay, a senior official with IHH, was on board the ship "Mavi Marmara," part of the controversial aid convoy to Gaza, which was boarded by Israeli commandos on May 31, according to published reports.

The initials IHH stand for the The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief in Turkish. The charity was created the mid-1990s, according to published reports, for the purpose of assisting Bosnian Muslims caught up in the three-way civil war between Muslims, Croats and Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. The war lasted from 1992 to 1995, leaving over 100,000 dead.

Several purported charities created to provide humanitarian assistance to Bosnian Muslims during the war were, in reality, funneling weapons and mujahideen fighters into the country, according to documents obtained during the making of the documentary "Sarajevo Ricochet", which debuts at the Kortfilmfestivalen (Short Film Festival) in Oslo, Norway, later this month.

Jihadist fighters frequently posed as employees of the charities in order to secure travel papers. Some mujahideen fighters were incorporated into the regular Bosnian army. A relatively small number of foreign volunteers bypassed the mujahideen and enlisted in the army directly.

Some IHH employees served as volunteer fighters with the Bosnian army, stationed in the town of Zenica, near the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, according to a Bosnian intelligence document obtained during research on the documentary.

The report by the Sarajevo Sector of the Bosnian National Security Service is dated November 19, 1995, and titled "Citizens, Organizations and Institutions from Afro-Asian Countries Who Reside and Operate in Our Area - A Sample of What We Have Learned and a Suggestion for Measures to be Taken."

Atalay was enlisted as a soldier of the Bosnian Army from 1992 to 1994, according to the document. After serving in the war, the document states, Atalay became head of the IHH office in Sarajevo.

A CIA report from the mid-1990s, obtained for the documentary, claims a director of IHH in Sarajevo was linked to Iranian government operatives, but does not name the person in question (read the document).

Efforts to reach Atalay for comment through IHH in Turkey were unsuccessful.

Another IHH employee, Hakan Bogoclu, was enlisted in the Bosnian army during the same period. According to the document, he served in the Seventh Muslim Brigade, a unit that included some mujahideen.

The document does not specify what unit Atalay served with, but it states both men served on the same dates, Sept. 1, 1992 through July 1, 1994.

In 1995, Bogoclu moved to IHH's Sarajevo office, where he was became deputy chief, according to the Bosnian intelligence document. Bogoclu still lives in Bosnia, where he is today an influential Sufi religious figure.

He declined to be interviewed at length, but denied any connections to terrorism and said he was an activist with IHH but not an employee.

A third IHH employee is named in the document as a director of IHH in Sarajevo but is not said to have been involved in the military.

A 2006 report written by terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann described a Turkish police raid on IHH headquarters in the late 1990s:

Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items, including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a "jihad flag." After analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that "detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya."

According to Kohlmann, IHH phone records also showed calls to the Islamic Cultural Institute, an Islamic center linked to Anwar Shaban in Milan. Another call was recorded between IHH and Abu Maali, the leader of the Bosnian mujahideen after Shaban's assassination in 1995. Both men are believed to be linked to Al Qaeda.

Some other figures named in the Bosnian intelligence document clearly illustrate the links between foreign fighters in Bosnia and terrorism.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the September 11 mastermind, lived and worked in Sarajevo in late 1995, according to the document, which says he was employed by a humanitarian organization called "Egipatska Pomoc" or "Egyptian Help," believed to be a reference to the Egyptian Humanitarian Relief Organization (EHRA).

Mohammed is described as a "Pakistani citizen, born on April 14, 1965, in Kuwait, temporarily residing at 11 Bjelave Street, engineer by profession, residing in Sarajevo since September 25, 1995."

Esad Hecimovic is a Bosnian investigative journalist. You can follow him on Twitter. INTELWIRE's J.M. Berger and "Sarajevo Ricochet" producer Ola Flyum contributed to this report. A version of this story was published in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

Labels: Anwar-Shaban, Bosnia, Esad-Hecimovic, Foreign-Fighters, Gaza-Flotilla, IHH, INTELWIRE-Exclusive, Mujahideen, Palestinian-Issues, Sarajevo-Ricochet

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

American Arrested in Raid on Bosnian Village

An American citizen was arrested during a police raid on a Bosnian village populated by Wahhabis, according to Balkans media outlets.

Enis Bosnic, of Jacksonville, Florida, was among several people arrested in "Operation Light," a sting operation conducted in Gornja Maoca, in northern Bosnia. The residents of Gornja Maoca live under Shariah law.

Some members of the community are believed to have relocated there after the Bosnian government shut down a notorious village of former mujahideen known as Donja Bocinja.

According to Bosnian news outlets, Edis Bosnic is a Bosnian national who became a naturalized American citizen. A person by that name was nominated to the board of directors of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida in 2004.

According to the Bosnian TV news magazine "60 Minutes" (no relation to CBS), Bosnic was in close contact with Adis Medunjanin, the Queens man arrested in the U.S. on suspicion of taking part in a bomb plot led by Afghan national Najibullah Zazi.

Bosnian journalist Bosnian journalist Esad Hecimovic contributed to this report.


Sources:

Glas Srpske

International Relations and Security Network

Washington Post

Labels: Adis-Medunjanin, American-Jihadists, Bosnia, Edis-Bosnic, Najibullah-Zazi, Sarajevo-Ricochet

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Abu Mansour Al Amriki

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



Abu Mansour Al Amriki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Reuters: Bosnians Arrested In Queens Raid

The item below is from Reuters. I am available for media interviews if anyone is looking for an expert on Al Qaeda in Bosnia to discuss this case. I am currently finishing work on "Sarajevo Ricochet," a television documentary being produced by Fenris Films, Oslo.

The documentary investigates U.S. policy and covert action toward Bosnia during the war. It also examines the activities and financing of foreign fighters in Bosnia. The documentary is scheduled for release in Spring 2009. I am featured in an on-camera interview and investigative role in both Bosnia and the United States.

NEW YORK: New York City police and the FBI raided homes in the borough of Queens early on Monday as part of an investigation that has tracked a man suspected of sympathising with al-Qaeda, officials said.

NYPD and FBI officials provided few details, calling it part of an ongoing investigation by a joint terrorism task force, but members of US Congress briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said there was no imminent danger.

Authorities raided the apartment when a suspect they had under surveillance met with people in Queens, the ethnically diverse borough across the East River from Manhattan.

Neighbours described an operation in which heavily armed FBI agents arrived in a phalanx of unmarked vehicles and stormed at least two apartment buildings in the early morning hours.

Four Bosnians — a couple and their two adult children — were arrested at an apartment they have shared for three years, said John Choe, an aide to City Councilman John Liu and a candidate for the seat in Queens that Liu is vacating.

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Third World Relief Agency

A story in the New York Times yesterday ("Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists" by Eric Lichtblau) focused on the Third World Relief Agency, a Bosnian "charity" with links to the Saudi government on one hand, and to Al Qaeda on the other.

For several months now, I've been studying the key document for that story as part of the documentary, Sarajevo Ricochet, a Norwegian TV production dealing with the war in Bosnia and its connection to terrorism.

I am available for media outlets looking for someone who can knowledgeably discuss this document, Third World and its connection to Al Qaeda. You can contact me through the Multifaceted Media Group Web site.

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Abu Mansour, American Fighting Jihad in Somalia

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



Abu Mansour Al Amriki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Date of Al Qaeda's Founding

Rob at Arabic Media Shack recently posted an item to the effect that Al Qaeda wasn't founded until February 1998 and offers as evidence of this assertion the fact that Osama bin Laden never mentioned it publicly until then.

I disagree. First, because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And second, because there is no real absence of evidence.

What bin Laden said in public has no particular bearing to whether the group existed or not, especially when there is a wealth of documentary evidence to show that it did. Terrorism is sometimes carried out by overt and well-known groups, but sometimes it's a secret enterprise.

First off, we have the actual minutes of Al Qaeda's founding (in both English and low-quality photocopies), including a preliminary discussion in August 1988 and the first official meeting in September 1988:

8/11/1988 to 9/10/1988 -- Minutes of Al Qaeda founding

These documents were seized by authorities in Bosnia who were searching the offices of an Al Qaeda-linked charity. The documents were provided to INTELWIRE by Motley Rice, the law firm representing the victims of 9/11.

I have reviewed hundreds of additional pages covering Al Qaeda's activities between 1988 and 1992, but these two are sufficient, I think, to show the organization existing under the name "Al Qaeda."

The account contained in these documents was separately confirmed to Lawrence Wright in "The Looming Tower" by the author of these documents, Mohamed Loay Bayazid, one of Al Qaeda's founders.

In addition to the documents and the corroborating testimony by Bayazid, two Al Qaeda informants testified to the same approximate dates during U.S. v. Bin Laden, which is required reading for anyone interested in Al Qaeda's history.

So that's three direct witnesses, plus corroborating documents -- and the two posted here are just the tip of a large iceberg of contemporaneous documents using the name Al Qaeda.

There's no real motivation for any of these witnesses to lie about this particular detail. The date of Al Qaeda's founding isn't pertinent to the charges in U.S. v. Bin Laden, and I see no reason why Bayazid would have lied about this particular item in talking to Wright.

I am not aware of any credibly documented and sourced narrative to suggest any other date. So this material, in addition to being very convincing on the face of it, is not refuted by comparable material.

In addition to these well-known accounts, I've been working on a quixotic quest for some time to figure out when the name "Al Qaeda" first appeared in a U.S. intelligence document. The earliest document discovered by the 9/11 Commission containing the name "Al Qaeda" was 1996. However, in 1992, Ali Mohamed told the FBI that Osama bin Laden was running an organization called "Al Qaeda" (source).

Mohamed's account is the earliest reference I can document. Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, told me in an interview that the CIA first learned the name "Al Kaida" in early 1993, so that came after.

However there might be earlier references still. A former U.S. military officer, who asked not to be identified, told me he had heard the name in Afghanistan in 1991. It's not clear if there is any paperwork to back that claim up, but I have no reason to doubt the source's account.

U.S. v. Bin Laden -- Complete Transcripts

Transcript Of Sentencing Hearing [PDF]

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed Death Phase Closing Arguments- 07/02/2001 [PDF]

Khalfan Khamis Mohamed Death Penalty Phase Opening Arguments [PDF] - 06/19/2001

al-'Owhali Death Phase Closing Arguments - 06/05/2001 [PDF]

Verdict Form - Part 1 [PDF]

Verdict Form - Part 2 [PDF]

Superseding Indictment - Part 1 [PDF]

Superseding Indictment - Part 2 [PDF]

Superseding Indictment - Part 3 [PDF]

CNN interview with Osama bin Laden - 02/21/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/31/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/08/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/07/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/03/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/02/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 05/01/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 04/23/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 03/19/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 03/07/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/27/01-02/28/01 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/28/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/27/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/14/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/07/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/06/2001 [PDF]

Trial Transcript - 02/05/2001 [PDF]

Indictment [PDF]

Jury Questionnaire [PDF]

Labels: Bosnia, Weblog

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Bosnia Veterans Sought For Interviews

INTELWIRE is seeking Bosnia veterans to interview on-camera in Boston, New York, or Washington, D.C. between the dates of October 19 and October 31. We're open to hearing about all types of wartime experience, but we're especially interested in discussing Operations DENY FLIGHT and SHARP GUARD. We'd also like to speak with people who worked with UNPROFOR, or who worked at NGOs in Bosnia and Croatia between 1992 and 1995. If we can't work out a schedule to film, we're happy to make contact via phone or e-mail as well. For more information on the documentary or to contact J.M. Berger, click here.

Labels: Bosnia, Weblog

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Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

The Origin of 'Bojinka'?

Detail-oriented students of terrorism have often contemplated a minor mystery concerning "Operation Bojinka," a 1994-1995 plot to bomb a dozen U.S.-bound airlines by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The mystery: What does the name mean?

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told U.S. interrogators that he had heard the word "Bojinka" while serving on or near the front lines in Bosnia and said it came from the Serbo-Croatian language (spoken by all three Bosnian peoples).

The problem is -- no one in Bosnia has ever heard of it.

However, I noticed a interesting possible explanation when I was in Bosnia this month doing interviews and research for "Sarajevo Richochet," a forthcoming documentary about the Bosnian mujahideen and their relationship to both al Qaeda and the U.S. intelligence community.

The Serbo-Croatian word for soldiers is vojnika (voy-nee-kah). Not particularly similar, of course. But if it's rendered in Cyrillic type (used by the Serbs), it looks like this:



KSM or some of his peers could easily have seen the word "soldiers" rendered in Cyrillic -- on a transport, document, barracks, etc. -- and simply read it off as it one might sound it out from its Latin-looking characters.

All this is highly speculative, of course. I haven't had it confirmed by a source ... yet. But it's the best explanation I've seen so far -- which isn't saying all that much, I grant you.

"Sarajevo Ricochet" is expected to be released in spring 2009.

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

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Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Latest American Al Qaeda Was Known To FBI For Years Before Arrest

When announcing the arrest and indictment of Christopher Paul, an alleged American al Qaeda member, Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, boasted of the investigation's great success.

"Our persistence and determination in the pursuit of this case should serve as a strong warning to any American who considers joining forces with our enemy," said Wainstein.

"This case exemplifies the necessity of cooperation in order to fight terrorism," said U.S. Attorney Gregory Lockhart. "The sharing of information was crucial to this effort."

What might have been missed amid all this backslapping is the fact that Paul has been known to the FBI for at least seven years and likely longer. But the investigation only began four years ago, and Paul is only now being charged.

According to the indictment, Abu Malek has been involved with al Qaeda since 1989. In the interim, numerous al Qaeda suspects and informants have been rolled up by the FBI -- and one of them identified Abu Malek as a black American member of al Qaeda in open court in the 2001 case of U.S. v. bin Laden (excerpt below).

Kherchtou is the witness described on page four of the indictment as "a former personal pilot for Usama bin Laden." Kherchtou began talking with the U.S. in the late 1990s and formally became a cooperating witness in 2000.

But the trail goes back even further. According to the indictment, Paul traveled to Croatia at least once in 1993, and in February 1993, he applied for a passport in Vienna claiming his had been lost or stolen.

Paul's travels correspond to trips to Vienna, Bosnia and Croatia in January and February 1993 by Clement Hampton-El, a member of the Brooklyn terrorist cell responsible for the World Trade Center bombing.

Hampton-El was carrying money to and from Bosnia, which was being funneled through al Qaeda-linked charities based in Austria.

The trips received some amount of scrutiny from the FBI at the time, but according to media reports, U.S. officials were generally warned off investigating charities sending aid to Bosnia by the Clinton administration, which wanted to provide off-the-books assistance to Muslims in Bosnia who were being slaughtered in ethnic cleansing campaigns during the 1990s.


Excerpt:


1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
2 ------------------------------x

3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

4 v. S(7) 98 Cr. 1023

5 USAMA BIN LADEN, et al.,

6 Defendants.

7 ------------------------------x

8
New York, N.Y.
9 February 26, 2001
9:50 a.m.
10

11



2 Q. What about, there were a number of black Americans who

3 were in Khartoum in those years, is that correct?

4 A. Americans?

5 Q. Some black Americans?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. One of them was Abu Malek?

8 A. No, he wasn't in Khartoum.

9 Q. He was not in Khartoum?

10 A. I don't know him.

11 Q. Was he in Afghanistan or Pakistan?

12 A. I knew a guy called Abdouh Malek, an American, but he was

13 in Pakistan and since then -- he didn't visit Sudan.

14 Q. Was he Al Qaeda?

15 A. I believe so.

16 Q. But you are not sure?

17 A. No.

18 Q. In fact, you told the agents when they asked you about Abu

19 Malek that you did not know whether he was an Al Qaeda member.

20 A. Abu Malek or Abdou Malek?

21 Q. I guess there might be two people. There is an Abu Malek?

22 A. Abu Malek, I don't know him.

23 Q. There is an Abdou Malek?

24 A. Abdou Malek yes.

25 Q. Did you tell the government when you first were talking


SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS (212) 805-0300
1378
12qkbin1
Kherchtou - cross

1 about different people who were members of the Al Qaeda, who

2 you did not think were members of Al Qaeda, who you did not

3 know were members of Al Qaeda, you said to the government that

4 you did not whether Abdou Malek was a member of Al Qaeda, is

5 that correct?

6 A. I don't remember that. If I said, that is correct.

7 Q. So you don't know if he was, is that correct?

8 A. Yes.

Labels: Bosnia, Sarajevo-Ricochet, Weblog

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