Armies of Liberation

That would work out, no? They are both Americans, Jaber Elbaneh of the Lackawanna Seven cell from Buffalo. Sharif Mobley’s trial was delayed again due to the lack of a translator, again. See Yemen Post. Also as much as Mobley’s lawyer is insisting that he is not an al Qaeda operative, and he is only charged with the murder of the guard in the hospital, the brothers are making Dua for him, along with a variety of other al Qaeda prisoners globally, in the latest issue of Inspire. Where is Elbaneh anyway? Still home in Ibb?

Their new plan– to bore us all to death, although the jihaddi paparazzi always gets pretty excited. Adam Gadhan’s 46 minutes snoozer of a video was released yesterday. Today its Anwar, al Qaeda’s Paris Hilton. Last week it was Inspire. Then there was Qasim al Reimi’s audio, rebranding AQAP as a 12,000 man Aden Abyan Islamic Army, which I assure you exists only in his qat addled head. At least now we know what they are scared of–the Mardin Declaration: The scholars meeting in Mardin issued what they dubbed as “The New Mardin Declaration” in which they declared the fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah unsuitable for our times and should not be used by “extremists to justify violence”. Those are educated Islamic scholars and trained recognized clerics. Adam Gadhan and Anwar Awlaki are neither clerics nor scholars, just megalomaniac psychotic weasels.

Update: One and a half minutes? Not produced by al Malahim? hmmmm…. Where’s your webmaster Anwar? Xinhuanet: “The responsibility lying on the shoulder of the Muslim nation is heavy. The nation needs to be guided under dark circumstances in which the Muslims are exposed to fateful dangers,” Awlaki said in a message criticizing what he dubbed “the Yemeni corrupt religious scholars who are run by the government or political opposition parties.” The one and a half minutes video was not produced by Al-Malahim Foundation, the official media arm of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

CNN Yemeni-American cleric and militant Anwar al-Awlaki appeared in a new video message Saturday, saying that Islam is in “severe need for guidance in these dark situations” and that the religion is “exposed to fateful dangers.”

In the limited portion of the video that was immediately available to CNN, al-Awlaki called on Muslim scholars to help address the situation.

I didn’t know that Adnan is half Yemeni. This guy has been on everybody’s sidebar for years already. A report from NPR via WBUR:

The man in the video is Adnan Shukrijumah, thought to be the highest-ranking American in al-Qaida. Intelligence officials believe he is 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s successor, and since he left Florida in the spring of 2001, has made it his life’s work to attack America…

Shukrijumah registered under the name Jumah El-Chukri and enrolled in chemistry, computer science and English language classes. Armstrong says he was a pretty good student. And until a couple of months ago, few had put together that Jumah El-Chukri, the community college chemistry major, and Adnan Shukrijumah, the al-Qaida operative, were one and the same….

Now, all Shukrijumah leaves in his wake are terrorism plots. Officials say he was behind the 2004 foiled plot against financial targets in New York and New Jersey. He was tangentially tied to the plot to try to ignite fuel lines at John F. Kennedy airport in 2007. And then he resurfaced in last year’s subway plot.

He has been indicted in the Zazi case, and the U.S. government has placed a $5 million bounty on his head. Officials believe he has set his sights on one goal: to launch a successful attack against the country where he once lived. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio

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Atlantic City Press has an update on Jersey boy, Sharif Mobley, who apparently is not charged with any terrorism related offenses but murder in Yemen:

A former Buena man jailed in Yemen on murder charges did associate with one of America’s most-wanted terror suspects, but he is no terrorist, his lawyer says. Sharif Mobley, 26, is awaiting trial after he allegedly shot two hospital security guards during an escape attempt while in Yemeni custody in March.
(Read on …)

they’re not sure, its complicated… BTW, he’s not a cleric, just a lunatic. In related news, Farouk the Nigerian fired his lawyers and wants to represent himself in court.

Boston.com WASHINGTON –The Obama administration is considering filing the first criminal charges against radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in case the CIA fails to kill him and he is captured alive in Yemen. The decision continues the White House’s strategy of fighting terrorism both in court and on the battlefield.

Al-Awlaki, a U.S. and Yemeni citizen born in New Mexico, has inspired a wave of attempted attacks against the U.S. and has become al-Qaida’s leading English-speaking voice for recruiting and motivating terrorists. Counterterrorism officials said al-Awlaki, since mid-2009, has become a key operational figure who selects targets and gives orders. (Read on …)

Earlier reports here and here.

HST FBI charges against US citizens follow report from Bipartisan Policy Center

Additional charges, unveiled Tuesday, of aiding al Qaeda against two American citizens added fuel to a recent report that US domestic terrorism remains on the rise as terrorists seek to recruit American foot-soldiers.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed the charges against Wesam El-Hanafi and Sabirhan Hasanoff for providing material support to al Qaeda, including money and computer assistance. US District Judge Kimba Wood will arraign the suspects on Thursday morning. (Read on …)

I’m dubious and I hope its an inaccurate assessment.

Al Qaeda-trained Americans Washington Times: The FBI is working to track down several hundred American Muslims who traveled to Yemen in recent months and received training there at the hands of the al Qaeda terrorist group, according to U.S. government officials.

Intelligence reports from Yemen indicated that as many as 300 of the U.S. Islamist trainees had been given terrorist training and that many had converted to Islam while in U.S. prisons. It is not known specifically when the American al Qaeda trainees made the journey to Yemen, or — more significantly — how many of them returned to the United States, said officials familiar with U.S. counterterrorism intelligence and operations. (Read on …)

The US never brought “incitement to violence” charges against American citizens and jihaddist bloggers Anwar Awlaki, Samir Khan, Jesse Morton, Zach Chessler, and Yousef al Kattab. Meanwhile former federal stooge, racist blogger Hal Turner was convicted–after 14 months and three trials–of incitement to violence for a blog post saying he believed three judges were worthy of execution for a ruling against handguns. Turner was under a gag order while the freds were leaking his file to the Star Ledger. He was denied bail and wound up sharing a cell with an Aryan Nation murder after it was known Turner was a federal rat on the skinheads. Meanwhile Awlaki’s blog was online for years and hosted in the US. While the site may have had some intel value, it was never followed up on. Condolences to the Fort Hood families.

Later the US determined Anwar was operational in AQAP. Awlaki still hasn’t been indicted for incitement to violence, even after numerous persons said they were inspired to violence by Awlaki, including the two latest in Alaska. Awlaki himself claimed the mass murderer Nidal Hassan as his student as well as the would be killer Farouk Abdulmattalab. Anwar also ruled (as if he’s an actual cleric or something) that all Americans should be killed because they pay taxes and have the opportunity to vote. This is one of the issues the ACLU is bringing up- there’s no charges against Awlaki, just a capture or kill order.

Samir Khan ran the Inshallahshahid blog openly calling for jihad against Americans. Sami went to Yemen, apparently not on the no-fly list, and hooked up with AQAP. He is now thought to be the designer of the fanatics’ latest magazine, the English language Inspire. US authorities are just now wondering if Sami is guilty of anything and convened a grand jury to contemplate the question. They are considering if there is enough evidence to support a material support charge and conspiracy to murder, but not apparently incitement to violence. Yousef al Kattab, the Revolution Muslim blog founder, is now in Tetouan, Morocco. Apparently he was also not on no-fly list.

Joey was never charged with incitement to violence, although the RM blog is among the foremost English language proponents of violence under the banner of Islam and he posted specific death threats. Jesse Morton (Younis Abduallah) is another Revolution Muslim flunky, whereabouts unknown, uncharged. Zach Chesser called for the death of the South Park creators and posted their home addresses along with a picture of Theo Van Gogh dead with a knife in his chest. Zachy wasn’t charged with incitement to violence. Zachy became a RM administrator and was only pinched when he tried to go join al Shabab–bringing his infant son as cover. The only one is custody, indicted for material support, Zach flipped in a day and began cooperating with authorities. So the post-racial Obama administration brings a clearly malicious prosecution against a racist blogger but gives a pass to all the jihaddist bloggers. The DOJ, for the first time in a long time, has an overt political agenda in many areas. This is just one instance of selective application of the law. However, others have a more optimistic view.

GPB: One of the jihadi world’s most famous bloggers could be brought up on U.S. terrorism charges soon, NPR has learned. A federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., convened to consider evidence against Samir Khan, a 24-year-old North Carolina man who is thought to be the editor of Inspire, a new al-Qaida online magazine….Sources close to the case tell NPR the grand jury convened Tuesday to see if there was evidence enough to charge Khan with terrorism offenses. Among the charges people close to the case said the grand jury is considering: material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder overseas. The FBI, for its part, declined to confirm or deny there is an investigation. And the grand jury is unlikely to come out with any decision in the case for weeks. Grand jury deliberations are secret until indictments are announced….Intelligence officials now say they believe Khan’s al-Qaida patron was Anwar al-Awlaki, the same U.S.-born radical cleric linked to the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. They say he invited Khan to Yemen and Khan packed his bags and went.

Anthony Shaffer is of course the agent who got totally screwed by DIA after trying to point out that the 9/11 commission skipped any inquiry into Able Danger’s (ignored) warnings two weeks prior to the USS Cole bombing in Aden. Although the Yemen hub was under close scrutiny prior to (and after) the attack, no warnings were generated from that intelligence either.

ABC: Anthony Shaffer is a CIA trained intelligence officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve with more than 25 years experience in the intelligence community. He doesn’t have any sympathy for Anwar al Awlaki’s activities or his alleged terrorist connections, but he does think the US cleric is due what he calls “due process”.

“I think the best answer is to capture him and bring him back and have him stand trial,” he says. And he’s made another intriguing point. He believes Anwar Al Awlaki wants to be martyred. “He would become the Elvis of Al Qaeda if we kill him and so I think there’s a great downside to that,” he said. The lawyers who are now acting for Anwar al Awlaki’s father don’t know how far their legal case will get. But it’s certainly going to create a very awkward situation for the Obama administration.

Press Conference: State.gov,

Our coordinator of the office of counterterrorism here at the Department of State, Ambassador Dan Benjamin…Let me turn to Yemen. We recognize that al-Qaida has taken advantage of insecurity in various regions of Yemen that have been worsened by internal conflicts. We also know that Yemen is grappling with serious poverty and is the poorest country in the Arab world. The lack of resources inhibits good governance, the delivery of services and the effectiveness of the security provision that is needed to deal with terrorism. So to have any chance of success, U.S. counterterrorism policy has to be conceived in strategic and not merely tactical terms. That’s why the Administration has adopted a two-pronged strategy for Yemen: helping the government confront the immediate security concern of al-Qaida and mitigating the serious political, economic, and governance issues that the country faces over the long term.

US State Department Report on Terrorism 2009:

(11) The attempted December 25 bombing provided a further reminder that un- or under-governed spaces can serve as an incubator for extremism and underscored that we cannot expect al-Qa‘ida affiliates to be focused solely on the near enemy – the governments in their own countries and regions – or American facilities in their immediate surroundings.

(115) After the failed December 25 attempt on NWA Flight #253, in which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had trained in Yemen with al-Qa‘ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), attempted to detonate explosives over the continental United States, the international community intensified its focus on Yemen‘s security situation, which continued to deteriorate in 2009. The Yemeni government‘s response to the terrorist threat improved dramatically in December, exemplified by the heightened pace of counterterrorism operations. Still, the government‘s focus on other internal security challenges, including the ―Sixth War‖ of the Houthi rebellion in the northern Sa‘ada governorate, which began in August and had not ceased by year‘s end, often diverted it from broader counterterrorism activities. (Read on …)

CNN:
Washington (CNN) — Federal authorities Wednesday granted two civil liberties groups a license they need in challenging the government’s authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens designated as terrorists. (Read on …)

Really.

MSNBC: Two civil rights groups today sued the US government, seeking the legal authority to challenge the Obama administration’s targeting of a radical cleric in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki — who may now be America’s most wanted terrorist.

The government says al-Awlaki has become one of the dominant recruiters of Americans for violent attacks on the homeland. He’s said to have communicated with Major Nidal Hasan before last year’s shootings at Ft. Hood and with Faisal Shahzad, who planted a car bomb in Times Square earlier this year. In addition, the FBI says he played a key role in the Christmas Day airline bomb plot. Intelligence sources say he has been the target of several unmanned drone attacks.

Now, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights say they’ve been asked by al-Awlaki’s father to challenge the government’s targeting of al-Awlaki, who is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico. The groups say the government has improperly “asserted authority to use lethal force against U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.” (Read on …)

Losers!!!

NYDNA slick new Al Qaeda magazine written in English to lure U.S. jihadists may be the work of a former New Yorker with an eye for graphics – and a lust for American blood. Intelligence officials see chilling similarities between a militant blog Samir Khan produced and the Internet-based magazine Inspire. Khan landed on intelligence radar in 2007, when he was 21, after posting an Osama Bin Laden screed to the blog he maintained from his parents’ basement.

The blog boasted crisp graphics, an easy familiarity with American culture and attitudes, and a pipeline to hard-core rhetoric. Fast forward to last month, when Al Qaeda put out Inspire, with the message that U.S. military action in the Arab world must be avenged. The packaging spooked experts with its potential for recruiting Western youth. It also seemed familiar to those who track militants, like the Jawa Report blog…

Khan has been in Yemen since October – and the mag was posted by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen branch with ties to American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki uses English to get his message out in the West.

(Read on …)

They plead guilty to lying about a hit list. Below is the State Department’s notice about Awlaki addition to the UN’s 1267 terrorism sanctions list. The list is meaningless in Yemen; Sheik Zindani is on it and his assets were not seized and in fact he traveled with President Saleh to Saudi Arabia a few years ago. Update: Zach Chesser, arrested after admitting to trying to join al Shabab, is another Awlaki drone.

NWCN: ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Alaska couple accused in a domestic terrorism plot is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to federal charges of lying about creating a hit list of possible targets. (Read on …)

Two entirely unrelated stories, 1) US freezes Anwar Awlaki’s assets and criminalizes providing material support to him; 2) After February truce agreement and May’s amnesty announcement, there’s still over 400 rebels in jail and dozens of southerners. In theory, Saleh agreed to release them but we’ve heard it dozens of times before. He uses the prisoners as a bargaining chip against the opposition and the general public.

Gulf Times: Yemen’s government has agreed to free more than 400 people, mostly northern rebels, as the Arab state tries to launch a dialogue with opposition groups, an opposition leader said yesterday.

An opposition coalition and the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party signed an agreement yesterday to set up a joint body for a national dialogue, state media reported.

The government is trying to halt conflict in the northern province of Saada with Shia rebels as well as with secessionists in the south.

“As demanded by the opposition in order to sign the agreement, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has issued a directive to free 27 from the southern movement and 400 with links to the fighting in Saada,” the opposition figure, who declined to be named, told Reuters. (Read on …)

CNN Yemen has detained a dozen Americans among a larger group of foreign students reportedly being held for security reasons, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Citing “privacy issues,” P.J. Crowley would not provide details about the detentions nor would he confirm other media reports that the students may have had connections with the terror group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

“We have great cooperation with the government of Yemen,” Crowley said when pressed on the issue. “Together, we are doing our best to help Yemen, you know, reduce the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That’s a threat to Yemen. It’s a threat to the United States.”

Earlier media reports indicated the arrests of as many as 50 students suspected of having connections with the Yemeni-based terror organization were made last week. CNN has been unable to confirm those reports.

WSJ: Federal authorities arrested and filed terror-related charges against an American man who they say received advice from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and attempted to provide money and materials to an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

Barry Walter Bujol, 29 years old, was arrested Sunday in a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting after he used fake documents supplied by an undercover informant to board a ship in Houston he thought was bound for the Middle East, the Justice Department said Thursday…. (Read on …)

The defendants, identified as Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, were arrested at JFK International Airport. They conspired within the US to commit murder outside the US, which is illegal, unlike in Yemen where it is encouraged. They were arrested boarding a plane to Egypt, with the ultimate destination Somalia where they were looking to hook-up with al Shabab. Yemen reiterated today that if captured, Awlaki will not be extradited but instead tried in Yemeni courts for his offenses within Yemen.

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“8. On December 20, 2009, in New Jersey, the DEFENDANTS listened to a recording of Anwar al Awlaki promoting violent jihad and martyrdom”.

“22. On May 25, 2010 in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, ALMONTE played for ALESSA a video-recorded interview of Awlaki, during which Awlaki justified the killing of civilians in the course of waging violent jihad.”

Sure took them long enough

SANAA, May 6 (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have begun questioning a U.S. citizen suspected of being an al Qaeda militant who is accused of killing a guard as he tried to escape a hospital, a state-run website said on Thursday.

Sharif Mobley, arrested in March along with 10 al Qaeda suspects, was handed over to a court in the capital Sanaa. He also faces charges of wounding another guard as he tried to shoot his way out of the hospital where he was being treated, the Yemeni Defence Ministry website said. (Read on …)

Update: The WSJ clarifies:

U.S. officials said that Mr. Shahzad didn’t appear to have communicated with Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical U.S.-born cleric who exchanged dozens of emails with suspected Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan in the run-up to the November assault that left 13 soldiers dead.

But the officials said Mr. Shahzad told his interrogators that he read Mr. Awlaki’s English-language writings calling for holy war against Western targets and was moved to action, at least in part, by the cleric’s exhortations.

(Read on …)