Taliban Internet Recruiting Through The Eyes of a Detainee

The young Taliban detainee, shackled at the wrists, with his head covered with a black canvas bag, was chillingly clear about his life's mission: “The Taliban have only one objective: to continue killing the Americans.”

The tools this particular terrorist had adopted to accomplish that goal were not suicide bombs or sniper rifles, but laptop computers and other high-tech equipment. The purpose of his Taliban cell was to reach potential recruits online over the Internet.

In interviews spread over several hours, I was given a rare glimpse into the mind of this youthful insurgent.

As the sessions were occurring, back in the United States people were reading accounts of Jihad Jane and Jihad Jamie, American women who had allegedly been indoctrinated to attack their birth country through the Internet.

What I was hearing in the spare interview room would shed light on how the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan reached potential recruits around the world.

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Some Thoughts on Jihad Jamie and Jihad Jane

Judging by what we know them so far, both of the white American female converts to Islam who were recently taken into custody Jihad Jane in the U.S., Jihad Jamie in Ireland were lonely, troubled indiduals see here and here. What’s becoming clear is that international jihadists are redoubling their efforts to recruit disaffected U.S. citizens via the Internet.

If these outcast types are white females who don’t fit the typical terrorist profile and are capable of slipping detection in Western countries, even better. If the “Jihad Chicks” as a friend labeled them this weekend weren’t lured in by Islamic jihadists, they probably would have found another bizarre or dangerous outlet or cult among the endless array of choices presented in cyberspace.

Unfortunately, they and a growing number of others like them were seduced by the message of jihad–suckered in by online sweet talk and a sense of belonging, then quickly radicalized. And there appears to be no shortage of fresh–and unlikely–converts to the cause.

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Internet Aids Terrorist Recruiting, Radicalization, Pentagon says

Militant and terrorist groups are using the Internet to streamline their terrorist recruiting, radicalization, and training. The man who allegedly attempted to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day was contacted, recruited, and trained in just six weeks, officials say.

Militant groups can radicalize individuals and train them to carry out terrorist acts much more quickly today, in part thanks to the Internet, according to military and counter terrorism experts testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Militant groups and some individuals have “maximized” the use of technologies such as the Internet. Government officials say the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly attempted to blow up an American airliner in Detroit on Christmas Day, points to just how fast groups can radicalize an individual. Mr. Abdulmutallab was identified, contacted, recruited, and trained all within six weeks, according to a Pentagon counterterrorism official. That’s much faster than the two and a half years it took for Osama bin Laden to hatch the plan to attack the US nine years ago. While the two plans vary widely in scope, the faster time frame indicates how adaptive radicalized groups and individuals have become, say experts.

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Report Cites Radicalization of U.S. Prisoners

U.S. law enforcement authorities believe as many as three dozen Americans who converted to Islam in prison have traveled to Yemen, possibly to train with al-Qaida, according to a Senate report.

The “radicalization” of the individuals has alarmed U.S. officials even though no evidence has immediately tied them to terrorist activities.

Several of the individuals have “dropped off the radar” for weeks at a time and continue to carry U.S. passports, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press.

The assessment was written by staff working for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass.

“Al-Qaida's recruitment tactics also have changed,” Kerry wrote in an introduction to the report. “The group seeks to recruit American citizens to carry out terrorist attacks in the United States.”

Al-Qaida forces in Yemen have emerged in recent months as a pressing threat to U.S. security, with ties to the recent airline bombing plot and Fort Hood shooting.

via Newsmax – Report Cites ‘Radicalization’ of U.S. Prisoners.

Fear of Homegrown Terror In US Increases

A Chicago Tribune report states that the Obama administration, grappling with recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country is confronting a rising threat from homegrown extremism and is concerned with the growth of radicalization.

The warnings point to a threat more immediate than that posed by terrorism from overseas, because U.S.-based militants are frequently American citizens who are able to travel freely and strike at home or abroad.

The growing administration concern comes at a time when anti-terrorism officials and experts have pointed to signs of accelerated radicalization among some American Muslims, a trend driven by online propaganda and the influence of foreign networks.

Until recently, Europe has been the front line for Islamic terrorist activity, suffering successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm.

But the number, variety and seriousness of recent U.S. cases make 2009 seem the most dangerous year here since 2001, anti-terrorism officials and experts say.

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The Threat of Homegrown Terrrorism

Lydia Khalil, a former counterterrorism analyst for the New York Police Department, and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations looks at homegrown terrorism, recent plots and arrests and what they may signify.

The apprehension last week of Sudbury native Tarek Mehanna is the fifth terrorism-related arrest in the United States in as many months, putting homegrown radicalism back on the radar screen. But many question whether individuals like Mehanna are the “real deal.’’ Do they really pose a significant terrorist threat or are they acting out but lack the capability to inflict any real damage? How dangerous are homegrown radicals? Will the United States, like Europe, become more susceptible to native radicals rather than terrorist plots hatched abroad from organized groups like Al Qaeda?

Terrorism specialist Marc Sageman claims that we are facing a “leaderless jihad.’’ Al Qaeda central is not the driving force of terrorism as an operational machine but rather its ideology serves as an inspiration for self-organizing local groups to carry out their own attacks.

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Terrorism And Radicalization Going Viral On The Web

The Dallas News points out the danger thousands of websites may pose as they continue to spring up and spread a viral message of of radicalization and jihad.

Thousands of Web sites, most in Arabic but some in English, make it possible for Web surfers to soak up the tenets of violent Islamic terrorism. They can watch videos of jihadi rappers, meet like-minded radicals in chat rooms and, in one notorious case, even launch a rocket attack on U.S. troops in Iraq from anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse.

Last month’s arrest of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, the 19-year-old Jordanian accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, was an example of how a leaderless, virtual terror movement has become a worldwide phenomenon, counterterrorism experts say. FBI agents monitoring an Arabic Internet chat room discovered Smadi in March.

The top leaders of al-Qaeda may be living as hunted fugitives on the far edges of the world, but their ideology is available everywhere, said Yigal Carmon, a former Israeli army colonel who is president of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.

“They got from the developed world a tool, the tool of their life, to jump from their caves to the 21st century,” Carmon said.

Al-Qaeda sympathizers agree. In a column commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper wrote: “Al-Qaeda’s ideology is becoming a global ideology which is increasingly independent. Thanks to advanced media like the Internet, Facebook and YouTube, it can reach the widest audiences worldwide, attracting numerous supporters and recruits.”

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Fighting The Fight Against Homegrown Terrorism

Recently, numerous headlines related to domestic or homegrown terror plots have caught the public’s attention and raised awareness to the threat.
Authorities have stated that there is no evidence the plots are related, so what are the concerns? Is this an anomaly, or are these telling signs that radicalization and the threat of homegrown terrorism in the U.S. is on the rise?

The Boston Herald takes a look at what may be fueling this activity and where we may need to look to stop it.

Keeping A Lid On Homegrown Terror

Authorities in Illinois arrested Michael Finton, a 29-year-old convert to Islam in an alleged plot to blow up a federal building in Springfield. The next day a 19-year-old Jordanian national was arrested for allegedly hatching a similar plot against a Dallas skyscraper. Finally, in what has been called by authorities the most serious attempt to strike the US homeland since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorities indicted Najibullah Zazi, a longtime US resident of Afghan descent who had allegedly planned to carry out bombings with chemicals he had purchased in beauty supply stores. These events seem to confirm what authorities have been saying for the last few years: while the overwhelming majority of the American Muslim community abhors terrorism, a small segment is not impermeable to radicalization.

European authorities have long struggled with the same issue, as hundreds of European Muslims have been involved in terrorist activities. Over the last few years US authorities have questioned whether the emergence of large numbers of radicalized Muslims could also take place here.

via Keeping a lid on homegrown terror – The Boston Globe.