'Pakistan 5' Will Be Deported To U.S.

An update from Bloomberg:

"It's quite clear that the next step for these men is to be deported to their home country, America, but we will do so only after a full investigation is complete," Punjab province Home Minister Rana Sanaullah said today in a telephone interview from Lahore, the provincial capital.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Jaish-E-Muhammad, Ramy-Zamzam, Waqar-Khan

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Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Americans in Pakistan: A Classic Case

On CNN's Situation Room, CNN correspondent Arwa Damon said Pakistani officials told her the five Americans arrested there this week "were not motivated by Islam" but were instead traveling to a combat zone to defend Muslims against "ongoing atrocities." The report also stated that they said attacking a Muslim anywhere in the world was the same attacking all Muslims.

I have no doubt this is an accurate quote of what Damon was told, but it's a tremendous misdirection to say that these young men were not motivated by Islam. The narrative of Muslim victimization -- and Muslim solidarity against victimization -- is the dominant theme of jihadi recruitment, and an important recurring theme in Islam generally and in jihadist thought specifically.

It's also one of the most important factors which leads Americans to jihad, as I will discuss at more length in my forthcoming book. Americans are especially responsive to the Muslim victimization theme, for a number of reasons including media consumption, American political dialogue and cultural principles.

If these young men said what is attributed to them (and I'm quite certain they did) that places squarely in the center of Islamic jihadist thought, and the American Jihadist theme -- not off to one side as this report suggests.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Jaish-E-Muhammad, Ramy-Zamzam, Waqar-Khan

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Five Americans In Pakistan Linked to Al Qaeda, Pak Officials Say

This from the Wall Street Journal:

Five young Americans detained in eastern Pakistan had developed contacts with al Qaeda operatives through the Internet and were on their way to North Waziristan to join a militant training camp, said a senior Pakistani intelligence official.

The story cited intelligence from the men's laptops.

Scores of radical Muslims from the West are believed to have received training in al Qaeda camps in recent years and have now been fighting on both sides of the border Afghanistan and Pakistan border. In September, Pakistani security forces arrested Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali, a Swedish national and a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, who was trying to go to Waziristan to join al Qaeda.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Jaish-E-Muhammad, Ramy-Zamzam, Waqar-Khan

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Would-Be American Jihadists Held in Pakistan

Five young men from Virginia were arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of trying to connect with jihadist groups there. According to a Pakistani newspaper and The Investigative Project on Terrorism, the five are named Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Khan, Eman Hassan, Ramy Zamzam and Yasir (last name unknown).

The five were arrested just a couple weeks after leaving the U.S., at the home of Khalid Farooqi, a member of Jaish-e-Muhammad, according to the Pakistani paper. JEM is a jihadist group focused mainly on Kashmir. It's also connected to Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which has attracted American Jihadists in the past, and both groups are suspected of playing a role in the murder of Daniel Pearl by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

One of the group left behind a video which appeared to be expressing jihadist sentiments, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which held a press conference today to say it was assisting the investigation. In light of recent threats against American Muslim organizations by an Al Qaeda-linked forum, it will be interesting to see how the jihadists react to CAIR's collaborative role with law enforcement in this case.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Jaish-E-Muhammad, Ramy-Zamzam, Waqar-Khan

Views expressed on INTELWIRE are those of the author alone.

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink