U.S. Designates Abdullah Azzam Brigades

The State Department has designated the Abdullah Azzam Brigades [AAB], an Islamist terrorist organization with active branches in Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula, as a foreign terrorist organization. The group's strategy and aims match al-Qaida, but it has a longer reach to carry out attacks than any of the AQ franchise branches.

AAB was founded sometime after 2004 by Saudi citizen Saleh al-Qarawi, who had fought the American occupation in Iraq, according to the Long War Journal. Al-Qarawi claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, had ordered him to form the group to carry out attacks in the Levant region, encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

The organization successfully hit both Western interests in the Middle East, as well as Israeli border towns. In July 2010, the group's Yusuf al-'Uyayri Battalions branch carried out a suicide bombing of a Japanese-owned oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's key petroleum shipping routes. The Ziyad al-Jarrah Battalions branch, based in Lebanon and composed primarily of local Palestinians, have indiscriminately bombed Israel's northern border and threatened the fragile quiet there. Groups calling themselves AAB have also carried out attacks in Sinai and even Pakistan.

AAB takes its name from Osama bin Laden's predecessor and teacher, Abdullah Azzam, and its inspiration from bin Laden. Azzam was a Palestinian jihadi leader responsible for building much of the infrastructure and ideology for jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The designation allows authorities to freeze any domestic assets the brigades may have, and prohibits anyone from engaging in any transactions or other forms of support with it.

Texas Man Gets 20 Years for Aiding al-Qaida

A Texas man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terrorist group's Yemeni affiliate that is responsible for three failed attacks on the U.S. homeland.

Barry Walter Bujol, a former student at Prairie View A & M University, was convicted last November for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and aggravated identity theft.

"We do not take matters of potential national security lightly," U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson said in a Department of Justice press release announcing the sentencing. "This case and its successful resolution represents our commitment to making our communities a safer place to live."

Evidence presented at the trial showed Bujol communicated with Yemeni-American AQAP cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, for "guidance on jihad." Awlaki e-mailed him a document titled "42 Ways of Supporting Jihad." It "advocates armed struggle or 'jihad' and pronounces it the duty of all Muslims to travel to Muslim lands to participate in this armed struggle" referred to in the document as "hijrah," court records show. In a subsequent e-mail, Bujol sought Awlaki's advice on how to raise money for the "Mujahidden" (Muslim Holy Warriors) overseas. He also made inquiries about setting up a jihadi website that could not be traced back to him. Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last September.

A government informant who was in close communication with Bujol testified that each time he told Bujol he would be joining AQAP, Bujol responded saying "God willing" in Arabic. Bujol also expressed his desire to the travel to Yemen and the Middle East and support the efforts of his "brothers" engaged in violent jihad. Bujol also emailed the informant copies of U.S. military manuals that he suggested could be exploited by the AQAP to obstruct U.S. military efforts overseas. He conveyed to the informant information he obtained on the Internet on where Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) were manufactured or operated and suggested these locations be targeted for attack by AQAP.

Bujol was arrested in May 2010 aboard a ship at the Port of Houston. The informant led him to the ship, saying it was bound for Algeria. From there, Bujol could get to Yemen. He was carrying several items the informant gave him to deliver to AQAP, including two public access restricted military manuals, global positioning system receivers, pre-paid international calling cards, SIM cards, and around 2,000 Euros.

A laptop computer seized from Bujol's apartment contained a video montage that included images of Osama bin Laden, Najibullah Zazi, and armed mujahideen soldiers. Bujol recorded himself on the video, telling his wife he left her to pursue jihad and he would likely not see her until the afterlife.

New Jersey AG Validates NYPD Surveillance

New York police violated no laws when its officers traveled to New Jersey to conduct surveillance at mosques and Muslim businesses, New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has concluded after three months of review.

While the review continues, Chiesa was to meet with Muslim leaders Thursday to say he's seen no violation of state law. In addition, the NYPD's monitoring did not constitute racial profiling, an official in Chiesa's office said. Rather, the official told The Record newspaper chain serving northern New Jersey, NYPD followed "legitimate law enforcement leads, intelligence received from around the world, and its experience in counterterrorism."

Most of the NYPD's surveillance in New Jersey was done on public streets, but led to a listing of all mosques and Muslim businesses in Newark.

Disclosures about the cross-state surveillance angered Muslim activists and several prominent New Jersey politicians, including Gov. Chris Christie. While NYPD officials did notify their local counterparts, Christie was angry he didn't know about it. He backed Chiesa's findings, though, saying, "If that's what he determined, it's good enough for me."

Chiesa did issue a directive demanding that state police agencies immediately alert other agencies when they are notified about future outside law enforcement activities. A separate agreement with the NYPD requires monthly meetings to share information about counter-terrorism activities, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

Muslim activists had demanded a formal investigation by both states and the Justice Department, but thus far, none has been launched. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan praised the NYPD during an appearance at its headquarters last month, saying the department is "doing things consistent with the law, and it's something that again has been responsible for keeping this city safe over the past decade."

The White House later issued a statement saying Brennan's comments were unrelated to the surveillance program.

Chiesa's informal findings are likely to anger NYPD critics. One said groups might cut off any cooperation with police agencies.

Turkey to Indict Israeli Commanders Over Ship Raid

A Turkish prosecutor is preparing to indict four former Israeli commanders over Israel's May 2010 raid on ships violating the Gaza blockade. The move, first reported by Turkish newspaper Sabah and the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, is likely to further damage strained ties between the two former allies.

Istanbul state prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci drafted the 144-page indictment with heavy cooperation from several branches of the Turkish government, including "correspondence from the Turkish Prime Minister's office, the foreign and justice ministries, and the intelligence service." The file seeks life sentences for the four Israeli army commanders, including former Chief of the General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, but must still be approved by Istanbul's chief prosecutor.

Nine people on the Mavi Marmara were killed in the incident. The ship ignored repeated warnings to turn away from the blockaded area and passengers attacked Israeli commandos with clubs, knives and other weapons as the troops rappelled onto the ship.

No one was injured on five other ships which did not attack the troops.

The indictments are the latest Turkish move to push its version of the events aboard the blockade-running ships, despite a United Nations report which found Israel's Gaza blockade of the Hamas government in Gaza to be legal. Turkey previously drew up a list of 174 Israelis, including Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who it threatened to indict. The Sabah newspaper claimed that the list was prepared by Turkish intelligence agents operating in Israel.

Israel has refused to give into previous Turkish demands related to the incident, including a formal apology and paying compensation to Turks injured in the clashes. The U.S. had been trying to reconcile the two nations, urging them to cooperate on regional cooperation.

Ample evidence suggests that the diplomatic hullabaloo has more to do with the Islamist politics of Turkey's government, than with genuine Turkish grievances.

It already began to support Hamas against Israel, even before the flotilla incident. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the Jewish state of murder during Israel's January 2009 war to stop Hamas terrorists from firing rockets into Israeli towns. Israel's counterterrorism effort, he said, was "defying the world and mocking the world," before asking how the Jewish state dared "to enter the doors of the UN."

Huffington Post Hires Controversial British Islamist

The Huffington Post UK has hired Mehdi Hasan, a controversial Islamist and former senior editor of the leftist outlet The New Statesman, the Guardian reports.

It's a step-down, writes the Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo, perhaps due to Hasan's extremism and pro-Iran perspectives.

Kredo accuses Hasan of defending Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and of functioning as a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime. Hasan has also proposed a one-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict – one which would lead to a Jewish minority and blamed Israeli influence for the war in Iraq.

He also harbors extremist religious views. In an undated sermon posted to YouTube in 2009, Hasan states that Muslims must "keep the moral high-ground" over disbelievers. Otherwise, "we are no different from the rest of the non-Muslims; from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfill any desire." In a separate recording, he praises the notion of "disbelief [in Islam] as an infirmity, as an illness, as a disease of the human mind."

"There is the ongoing speculation around Westminster as to whether he was dropped due to the sheer scale of negative attention he brought to the New Statesman magazine," Raheem Kassam, editor of the conservative The Commentator, told the Free Beacon.

"Everyone knew that the status quo couldn't continue with Hasan," he added. "It was only a matter of time until he was rightly held to account for what became increasingly nonsensical journalism and a repeated refusal to comment on his extreme views as highlighted by the videos."

Yemeni Jewish Community Leader Murdered

A leader of the Yemeni Jewish community was stabbed to death in that nation's capital after a Muslim man accused him of witchcraft, the Jerusalem Post reports. The incident is the latest in a series of incidents around the Arab world which have threatened and uprooted the region's small remaining Jewish communities.

Yehya Zindani, the son of murdered leader Aharon Zindani, described the attacker as a "well-known person who says my father has ruined and bewitched him." The murderer, described by a Zindani family friend as a "member of al-Qaida," stabbed the Jewish leader 12 times before he was stopped by a group of local men.

Aharon Zindani had returned to Yemen after immigrating to Israel, rejoining the small Jewish community in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, which numbers around 80 people. Many of those living in the capital moved there from the Yemeni town of Raidah in December 2008, following threats from Islamist extremists and the murder of Jewish teacher Masha al-Nahari.

In the Arab world's largest remaining Jewish communities, in Morocco and Tunisia, the recent rise of Islamist politicians has awakened dormant anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic chants at a Tunisian rally, welcoming Hamas' prime minister, prompted Tunisian Islamist politician Rachid Ghannouchi to apologize to the concerned local Jews. He, like many Islamists, claims that Zionism is the problem not Jewry, even if the distinction is often blurred.

While the hate hasn't scattered the lingering remnants, it has raised the sense of alarm.

Ohio Man Gets Over Six Years for Hizballah Support

A Toledo man was sentenced to more than six years in prison for providing material support to Hizballah, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Hor Akl and his wife Amera Akl, who hold dual American and Lebanese citizenships, pleaded guilty last year to sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Lebanese terrorist group.

In August 2009, the Ohio couple was approached by an FBI informant to send money to Hizballah for him. The Akls agreed to transfer the money in exchange for a 30 percent commission if they transferred $1 million to the terrorist group. The Akls were arrested on June 3, 2010, after the informant delivered $200,000 to them at their home in Toledo.

Hor and Amera Akl plotted different schemes to transfer money to Hizballah overseas, including stashing $500,000 in cash in a 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer and shipping it to Lebanon in a container ship. In discussions with the informant, Amera Akl said that "she dreamed of dressing like Hizballah, carrying a gun, and dying as a martyr."

Amera Akl is currently serving a 40-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist organizations, and stopping the flow is a key component to choking off these organizations," U.S. Attorney Steven Dettlebach said in a Department of Justice press release announcing Hor Akl's sentence.

Shifting U.N. Language Threatens U.S. Free Speech

The body representing the world's Muslim nations, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), has shifted its strategy for limiting free speech about Islam before the United Nations Human Rights Council. A move away from language about limiting "defamation of religions" and toward preventing "religious hatred," has "easily duped" the West into adopting the OIC's agenda of limiting discussion about Islam, reports Ann Snyder for the Gatestone Institute.

The OIC pressed for "speech-restrictive" resolutions on religion in U.N. forums for more than a decade. Ratification of these U.N. resolutions would have internationalized anti-blasphemy laws found in Muslim-majority countries.

Western nations resisted such attempts, arguing that the laws criminalized free speech. The move could also result in international prosecution of Westerners for criticizing practices by some Islamists, just as similar laws have been used against Middle East Christians.

The OIC adjusted its strategy accordingly, but not its goal. It dropped calls to criminalize the "defamation of religions" and now relies on interpreting pre-existing language in the U.N.'s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR], Article 20(2). The United States Senate ratified the ICCPR in 1992 but with an explicit reservation against the article, which would have made "any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred…prohibited by law."

The new U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 "condemns any advocacy of religious hatred against individuals that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" using "print, audio-visual or electronic media or any other means." It "bears a striking resemblance" to new legal restrictions on "hate speech" in Europe that has been used to prosecute alleged offenders, writes Snyder, a senior fellow at the Middle East Forum's The Legal Project.

Despite the obvious similarities of language and implementation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "applauded" the compromise and described the efforts as beginning "to overcome the false divide that pits religious sensitivities against freedom of expression."

American Shabaab Leader Showing Signs of Life

Two months after a frenzied appearance on YouTube warning that his life was in danger at the hands of fellow jihadists, American-born designated terrorist Omar Hammami has launched a media blitz to prove he is indeed alive and well in Somalia. This, after various reports made their way around the web alleging that the American al-Shabaab leader, more commonly known as Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, was executed on April 4.

In his first public move since reports of his death surfaced, Hammami reportedly reached out to Vanguard/Current TV correspondent, Christof Putzel, three weeks ago for an exclusive interview. The interview was conducted from afar, and Hammami claims he is alone in hiding in Somalia. According to Current's report, Putzel was told that he was singled out for the interview because Hammami had recently seen his 2010 Vanguard documentary, "American Jihadi." The Daphne, Alabama native is the main subject of the film.

Then, late Wednesday, Hammami brought his message to a wider audience with the online release of his 127-page autobiography, entitled The Story of An American Jihaadi Part One. The document was posted on the hosting site Scribd.

In the memoir, Hammami not only explains his motivations for jihad, but also details al-Shabaab's formation and his insights about American Muslim organizations. His inclination towards violent jihad began in the 11^th grade, when the former Baptist became enamored of his father's religion, Islam.

But it was not long before Hammami strayed away from mainstream Islam, connected with a Salafi teacher in Alabama, and gradually became more extreme.

American terrorist Daniel Maldonado was another key figure in his journey to jihad, and reportedly the person who eventually introduced Hammami to the idea of making Hijrah [immigrate] to Somalia to join al-Qaida.

In his Story of An American Jihaadi, Hammami also sheds light on the 2006 emergence on an independent al-Shabaab organization, although he stops short of sharing sensitive, recent details. Typically thought of as the youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) government, Hammami says that factional disputes led to al-Shabaab's consolidation as a separate pro-al-Qaida movement.

It emerged during Somalia's chaos under the ICU government, with constantly reforming alliances and Somali tribal wariness of foreign fighters. At several points, Hammami asks himself what he is doing in the country, as war with Ethiopia exposes cracks in the Islamist alliance along religious and tribal fault lines.

Hammami also makes interesting observations about American Islamist organizations, as well as the evolution of Muslim American opinions on violent jihad. He remarks that his Salafi teacher in Alabama had once been attracted to jihad as well, "when it was still acceptable to the U.S." He asserts plainly that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has "ties to Hamas," even though he is critical of political Islamists, who don't move fast enough in trying to replace Western democracy with Islamic theocracies.

Treasury Designates Taliban and Haqqani Network Figures

Two men connected to the Haqqani Network, a key faction of the Afghan Taliban that operates in the troubled tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, were designated as terrorists Thursday by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Bakht Gul, a key communications official for the terrorist group, was designated for his work with the group's leaders, including Badruddin Haqqani, in supervising the movement of Haqqani insurgents, foreign fighters, and weapons.

Badruddin Haqqani was designated by the State Department in May 2011.

Gul operates as a "gatekeeper" for Badruddin, relaying operational orders from Badruddin to fighters in Afghanistan. He also communicates critical information from commanders in Afghanistan to the Haqqani Network leadership, Taliban media officials, and Afghani media outlets. Gul also delivered money to Haqqani Network fighters traveling into Afghanistan in late 2009.

The other individual designated, Abdul Baqi Bari, is a Taliban money launderer and financier. Bari set up businesses to channel money in support of Taliban and al-Qaida activity in Afghanistan. At one time, Bari carried out a $400,000 hawala transfer for Mullah Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed spiritual leader.

Omar is wanted under the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program since October 2001, for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida terrorists in the years preceding the 9/11 attacks.

The Taliban transferred $2.8 million from an account in Europe to Bari for fear its assets would be frozen by the incoming Afghan government subsequent to its fall from power. Bari kept the money in accounts outside of Afghanistan to keep it safe from the new Afghan government. The Taliban was able to obtain money from Bari when needed. Additionally, Bari helped procure weapons for the Taliban.

"By designating these individuals today, Treasury is taking another step to ensure all those who perpetuate ongoing violence and terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan will continue to be marginalized and cut off from the international financial system, and they will find it increasingly difficult to carry out their objectives," Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in U.S. Department of Treasury announcement.

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