Jihadi Murder Trial Begins in Little Rock

The capital murder trial of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad - formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe - began Monday in Little Rock, Ark. Muhammad is charged with shooting to death Army Pvt. William Long and wounding Private Quinton Ezeagwula outside a military recruiting station there on June 1, 2009. Muhammad faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering Pvt. Long.

Muhammad's lawyers do not contest that he carried out the attack. Defense attorney Patrick Benca told prospective jurors in Pulaski County Circuit Court that his side would attempt to show Muhammad was innocent by reason of mental disease or defect. The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.

Carlos Bledsoe, a Memphis resident, converted from Baptism to Islam after enrolling at Tennessee State University in Nashville in the fall of 2003. He dropped out of school about a year after enrolling. According to his father Melvin, Carlos Bledsoe had planned to major in business and take over the family's tour business when his parents retired.

But Carlos/Abdulhakim had no interest in leaving the Muslim community in Nashville. Things spiraled downhill after he went to Yemen - a hotbed of Islamic radicalism -in 2007 for the stated purpose of teaching English. In November 2008, he was arrested for carrying a fake Somali passport and overstaying his visa. He said he planned to go to Somalia to fight a jihad against Jews and Americans.

In January 2009, Abdulhakim Muhammad was released from jail and - against his wishes - deported from Yemen back to the United States. His family tried to draw him away from radical Islam by sending him to Little Rock to run a new branch of the family business.

But Muhammad bought guns and ammunition, and in late May decided to strike. First, he drove from Memphis to Nashville and threw a Molotov cocktail at what he thought was a local rabbi's home. He then drove to Florence, Ky. and tried to attack an Army recruiting center but found it closed. Frustrated, Muhammad traveled to Little Rock on June 1 and opened fire on Long and Ezeagwula as they smoked cigarettes outside a recruiting station.

Muhammad has refused to cooperate with his attorneys. He wrote that he wants to plead guilty and is "affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula." Muhammad has also denied that the Little Rock attack was a crime, insisting it was justified "because U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and children."

Several newspapers are live-blogging Muhammad's trial, including the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which can be found here, and the Arkansas Times, which is here.

Homegrown Extremist Charged with Soliciting Terrorist Acts

A 22-year-old Pennsylvania man was indicted Thursday for allegedly soliciting others to engage in acts of terrorism and for disseminating instructions for making explosives for use in acts of terrorism on the Internet.

Emerson Winfield Begolly encouraged attacks within the United States last year on an extremist Islamic web forum, the Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF), the indictment says. Begolly, who served as a moderator on AMEF, posted links to a 101-page document called "The Explosives Course" by "The Martyred Sheikh Professor, Abu Khabbab al Misri," purportedly one of al Qaida's top biological and chemical weapons experts. The document, posted in December, includes instructions on how to set up a laboratory, conduct chemistry and manufacture explosives.

"Emerson Begolly is accused of repeatedly using the Internet to promote violent jihad against Americans," said Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. "These allegations demonstrate how young people in the United States can become influenced by – and eventually participate in – jihadist propaganda that is a serious threat to the safety of us all."

Begolly originally was arrested in January after he bit two FBI agents who approached him in hopes of interviewing him. He also allegedly tried to pull a loaded handgun from his jacket. Begolly, who has been in jail since, was charged with assaulting federal agents and other firearms-related charges. He could face life in prison if convicted on those charges in Pennsylvania.

In the newer case, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted, Begolly posted lengthy discussions on the AMEF site regarding the need for violent attacks in the United States, and suggested targets including police stations, synagogues, Jewish schools, post offices, military facilities, bridges, train lines and cell phone towers and plans. He also advocated taking and killing hostages.

"Peaceful protests do not work," he wrote last July. "The kuffar [non believer] see war as solution to their problems, so we must see war as the solution to our[s]. No peace. But bullets, bombs, and martyrdom operations."

He also urged others to commit "Real terrorism, but on a small scale. Attacks of civilians or police or government agents of military. Best as single shot, drive by, hit and run, beat down … It is best if targeting soldiers or police that they are off duty and out of uniform simply because they investigations will look usually for 'robbery gone wrong' or 'revenge' then as act of terrorism or revolt."

Al-Shabaab's Newest American Recruits

A new wave of Somali Americans has returned to the strife-torn African nation to join the jihad there, a Nairobi investigative reporter finds American law enforcement officials say they knew nothing about it.

Patrick Poole of Pajamas Media (PJM) highlights Nairobi Star reporter Fatuma Noor's series on the Somalis, which provide direct evidence of new recruits from Minnesota and Ohio traveling to Somalia to join al-Shabaab. In late 2007, more than 20 Somali-American men - most from the Twin Cities area - are believed to have joined the al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group.

Noor's story began with a call from Sophia Ahmed, a Minneapolis woman concerned that her 18-year-old son Nuno was planning to go to war-ravaged Mogadishu. Noor recently met Nuno Ahmed at a Nairobi restaurant, and he subsequently later introduced her to a group of nine other young men, ranging in age from 17 to 24, who left the United States and Europe to wage jihad.

They traveled through Nairobi and were directed to a secret location where arrangements would be made for their trip to Mogadishu.

"We came to Nairobi just like any other American citizen. None of the officials at the airport suspected anything," said another Somali-American jihadist, Abdirahman Gullet of Minnesota.

This was news to the FBI. "This is the first we're hearing about it," an FBI official told Poole.

The latest wave of departures "represents a complete and utter breakdown in our outreach to the Somali community," said another. "To have even more of these kids leave the country right under our noses without a word from the people we are working with who are supposed to be our eyes and ears means that all of this outreach over the past few years is a total failure….Everyone in the Muslim community who vilified [Rep.] Peter King and the House Homeland Security Committee who tried to look into this problem owed them a major apology."

Noor's stories chronicle the young men's journeys to radicalization.

Adan Hussein, a 24-year-old from Minneapolis, came to the United States after his father was killed in Mogadishu in 1993. While studying information technology at a private college near his home, Hussein began to hear from friends who had already gone to Somalia to join the jihad. He said they regaled him with stories about how al-Shabaab was "saving lives" in Somalia.

Hussein said he and his friends attended a mosque where one of the elders would travel to Somalia and return to describe how the United States "was helping Ethiopia to kill our families" still living in Somalia.

Hussein denied having been brainwashed by mosque elders. "The mosque is just a meeting place. Coming back to fight for our home is our own free world," he said. "We are protecting our religion and our reward is in heaven."

But elders paid the travel costs involved with getting to Somalia, he said.

Another Somali-American, Abikar Mohamed of Minneapolis, told Noor that another group of recruits was coming from California, Minnesota, Norway and Sweden.

Read Noor's series here, here, and here.

Turkish Police Break Up Ankara al-Qaida Attack

Turkish police detained 15 suspects Wednesda in connection with an al-Qaida-linked plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, the New York Times reported. The plot was the second al-Qaida attempt broken up in as many months in Turkey, which is experiencing a surge in movement-oriented and jihadist Islamism.

Ankara police seized more than 1,500 pounds of chemicals used to make bombs, as well as bombs and planning documents, according to a report by the state-run Anatolian News Agency. The arrests, conducted in Ankara and the religiously conservative towns of Yalova and Bursa in northwestern Turkey, followed six months of Turkish police investigation into a prime suspect.

Turkey's Interior Ministry confirmed reports about the capture of the militants, but refused to provide additional details.

Violent extremist groups that share al-Qaida's ideology have been active in Turkey for years, often targeting Americans and their interests. In June, Turkish police arrested 10 affiliated militants in the southern city of Adana, based on information that they were planning attacks on the American Incirlik Air Base. In 2008, an attack blamed on the group killed three policemen outside of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul.

Arrests have averted many attacks and picked up large numbers of militants. In January 2010, the BBC reported that Turkish police had arrested 120 al-Qaida suspects in pre-dawn raids across the country. The suspects were detained on suspicion that they were planning attacks on Turkish soldiers in Afghanistan or Turkish police. The BBC report noted that the country had "pockets of sympathy for jihadist Islam," numbering as many as 5,000 violent Salafists.

Al-Qaida-affiliated militants successfully carried out simultaneously suicide bombings of a British consulate, a local HSBC bank, and two synagogues in 2003. The attacks killed 58 people and shocked the nation. The PKK, which supports Kurdish independence through violent terrorism, has also carried out numerous attacks.

Non-violent Islamist ideology has also made advances in the country, with the Islamist Justice and Development Party seizing a strong majority in parliament. The party has attempted to change Turkey's traditionally secular laws and constitution, in an effort to remove state-enforced secularism in public institutions, and to stamp out regionalism and al-Qaida-linked terrorists. However, it has also shown support for groups like Hamas.

Reuters: Bin Laden Stayed Involved

U.S. counterterrorism officials have concluded that Osama bin Laden was aware of the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, but it was the last successful operation in which he played a prominent role, Reuters reports. While circumstantial information and government analysis suggests that bin Laden was in close contact with terrorist plotters abroad, data found in his Abbotabad compound does not show evidence of any new plots.

"Bin Laden was absolutely a detail guy. We have every reason to believe that he was aware of al Qaeda's major plots during the planning phase, including the airline plot in 2006 and the London '7-7' attacks," one of the U.S. officials told Reuters. "We believe he was aware of these plots ahead of time," one of the officials said.

Data seized after the raid which killed him shows that bin Laden was often aware of plots before they happened. The evidence firmly ties the al-Qaida mastermind to the 7/7 bombings for the first time and indicates that al-Qaida's senior leadership "supervised" Najibullah Zazi's 2009 attempt to bomb New York's subway. It also suggests that bin Laden was personally involved in a European plot last year, which sparked heightened terror alerts in Germany, France, and Britain.

Despite the involvement of al-Qaida's supreme leader, none of the attacks managed to get off the ground. Western intelligence sources interrupted the plots, all of which were large-scale attempts designed to maximize casualties. As a result, American al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and other leaders of the group have called for a campaign of small-scale and lone-wolf terrorist attacks.

Feds Review Policies Affecting Terrorist Travel

The Department of Homeland Security soon will complete its review of 1.6 million people who may have overstayed their visas in the United States, witnesses told members of a Senate committee during a hearing Wednesday.

"I'm expecting a report of the completion of this process" Thursday, DHS Coordinator for Counterterrorism Rand Beers told members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Committee members expressed concern over the high number of backlogged records searches, noting that several of the 9/11 hijackers had overstayed their visas.

Already, Beers said, DHS investigators have determined half of the suspected overstays have either left the country or have changed their status by submitting new paperwork. The remaining half is currently being run alongside other databases to identify potential threats.

"The number of 1.6 million will be down to 0 in a week or so," Assistant DHS Policy Secretary David Heyman assured the committee. Anyone who left the country in overstay status would not be allowed back into the country, Beers added.

Committee members and witnesses spent much of the Senate hearing, entitled "Preventing Terrorist Travel," discussing strengths and weaknesses of different programs which allow foreign nationals into the country, including the visa, refugee and asylum processes.

Security gaps drew attention in 2009, after a Nigerian man unsuccessfully tried to detonate a bomb in 2009 aboard a Detroit-bound airliner. It was the misspelling of attempted Christmas day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name by U.S. Embassy officials which prevented the State Department from realizing that he had received a valid visa. The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria sent the cable with the misspelled name to intelligence officials after Abdulmutallab's father identified him as being involved with Yemeni-based terrorists.

"That is so troubling to me," said Sen. Susan Collins, R.-Maine, referring to the case. "That he wasn't listed on the watch list…but also that his visa wasn't revoked."

But now, testified Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs, you can misspell a name and the State Department database will display hits on the name and others that come close. The system, which Jacobs said uses "fuzzy logic," is useful when Arabic names are spelled differently when transliterated into English.

Committee members also expressed concern over two Iraqi men living in Bowling Green, Ky. who were granted refugee status in 2009. It was later discovered that fingerprints belonging to one of those men, Waad Alwan, were found in 2005 on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Iraq positioned to target American troops.

Waad Alwan and Kentucky resident Mohanad Hammadi were indicted in May on charges that they aided insurgents fighting American troops in Iraq. The men received refugee status through the U.S.'s Iraqi refugee program, created in 2007.

DHS now is reviewing the 58,000 Iraqi refugees already in the U.S. who came in through the program, Heyman said.

Despite the recent breaches, the witnesses, all federal officials, said that they are closing security gaps.

More stringent screening policies for visa applicants have been put into place, Jacobs said, offering to provide senators details in a classified briefing.

"We have revoked over 1,000 visas since 2009," Jacobs said. And Heyman added that the TSA's secure flight program has stopped 25 people per month from boarding flights.

Terror Returns to Mumbai in Three Explosions

Three near-simultaneous explosions hit the Indian financial capital of Mumbai during rush-hour Wednesday evening. The blasts went off within minutes of each other, killing 21 people and wounding more than 100 others. The casualty count continues to rise as this is published.

Prithviraj Chavan, the top state official in the area, described the bombings as "an attack on the heart of India."

Targets of the attack included Zaveri Bazaar, an upscale jewelry market in South Mumbai, the Opera House business district, and the Dadar district.

The Zaveri Bazaar was earlier targeted in the 1993 serial blasts that killed 257 people and injured over 700 others. Mumbai police claim an improvised explosive device was placed inside an umbrella to carry out the attack there.

A National Investigative Agency (NIA) team has been flown into Mumbai from Delhi to investigate the attacks. Several metropolitan Indian cities, including Mumbai, have been placed on high alert.

The indigenous terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) is suspected to be behind the attacks. The IM has ties to the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Tayibba (LeT), which was behind the November 2008 terrorist strike on Mumbai that killed 166 people.

The date and time of the attack may have been a factor leading Indian investigators to suspect the IM. The IM has in the past followed a pattern when it comes to the date and time it launches its attacks. The group strikes on either the 13^th or 26^th of a month, the only significant departure being an attack in the city of Bangalore on July 25, 2008. The group is further known to launch attacks during evening hours.

Media reports also speculate that the attack came on the 24th birthday of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks.

The IM is alleged to be part of the "Karachi Project," an undertaking of Lashkar and members of Pakistani's powerful military spy agency, the ISI, to train Indian jihadis to wage attacks on major urban centers in India. The terrorist group has been responsible for a number of attacks on Indian metropolitan cities in recent years, including an attack last year in the Indian city of Pune that killed nine people, including two foreigners, and wounded several others.

David Headley, the American who confessed to helping plot the 2008 Mumbai attacks, also scouted targets for the attack in Pune. Headley reportedly told FBI interrogators about the Karachi Project.

Headley pleaded guilty in March 2010 and was the prosecution's star witness in the trial of Chicago businessman Tahawuur Rana whose immigration company provided cover to Headley to scout targets for attacks in Mumbai and other Indian cities.

Rana was found guilty on charges of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper and providing material support to Lashkar. He was acquitted, however, on the charge of conspiring to provide material support to the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

For live stream on Mumbai attacks, click here: http://www.ndtv.com/

Israel, Hizballah Commemorate Second Lebanon War

Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the second Lebanon War involving Israel and the Hizballah terror organization. On July 12, 2006, Hizballah fighters staged a cross-border raid into northern Israel using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, killing three Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers patrolling near the border. Two other IDF soldiers were kidnapped by Hizballah that day and later died in captivity.

Within several hours, five more Israeli soldiers had died in fighting the terrorists in southern Lebanon, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had decided to go to war against Hizballah. During the subsequent 34-day war, Israel launched punishing military strikes at Hizballah targets in Lebanon, and Hizballah launched more than 4,000 rockets at Haifa and other civilian targets throughout northern Israel.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the terms of the ceasefire, required "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon" including Hizballah. But the Iranian-backed Shiite group has ignored that requirement. The IDF estimates that Hizballah now has tripled the size of its missile arsenal since 2006, and has weapons with heavier payloads that may be able to cover all of Israel.

Many in Lebanon believe another war is inevitable and that the 2006 conflict left Israel with a weakened deterrence posture. Hizballah commemorated the fifth anniversary of the war by warning Israel that it would pay a huge price if it attacked Iran or Lebanon.

"We will definitely smash Israel if this occupying and corrupt regime wants to commit another mistake and wage another attack on Lebanon," said Abdullah Safieddin, Hizballah's envoy to Iran.

The IDF on Tuesday paid tribute to Captain Yoni Roth, who was seriously wounded during the battle of Bint Jbeil, a Lebanese village located last than two miles from the border with Israel that was the scene fierce fighting.

Roth (at the time a sergeant) was shot in the back three times, with one of the Hizballah bullets puncturing his lung. His recovery has been slow and difficult. At first, he was confined to a wheelchair. He eventually learned to walk again and now runs in "half marathons."

Fourteen Israeli soldiers died in the battle of Bint Jbeil – a town referred to as "Hizballah's capital" in Southern Lebanon - and 31 others were wounded in the fighting.

Read more about IDF heroism in that battle here and here. Read the IDF tribute to Roth here.

Islamist Raed Salah Arrested in the UK

A glitch in the UK's border security system allowed a radical Islamist preacher to get into the country despite being on a list of banned people, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Raed Salah, leader of the Northern Islamic Movement in Israel, was arrested June 28, days after entering the country in late June and has been jailed since due to a ban placed on him by the Home Office.

Salah's name was on a database of banned people, but the information was routed to an incorrect terminal at Heathrow Airport. The information wasn't sent electronically, but on slips of paper. "There's no joined up IT thinking, we're living in the Dark Ages," an anonymous source at the UK Border Agency explained.

Before being arrested, Salah spoke at a meeting in central London, sponsored by the UK Islamist media group Middle East Monitor and the radical Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He also scheduled to participate in a speaking tour with Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood figure Ahmed Nofal, Viva Palestina leader George Galloway and other radicals. He was also slated to speak at a meeting at the UK Parliament alongside British MPs.

Charities run by Salah's Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement were shut down by Israel in the 1990s for transferring funds to Hamas in the West Bank. Salah also was jailed in 2005 for funneling money to the terrorist group. The Islamic Movement has been described by an Israeli terrorism expert as "a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood organization."

Two indictments were filed against Salah last month in Israel, on charges of inciting racism and violence and obstructing a police officer. The charges relate to a fiery blood libel speech that Salah delivered to a crowd of one thousand in Jerusalem in February, 2007. "We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children's blood," Salah declared. And, "whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread."

On Friday, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that Salah wrote that Jews were warned not to come to work on 9/11:

"Was it a coincidence that 4,000 Jewish employees were absent from work, or what? On the other hand, this warning did not reach the 2,000 Muslims who worked at the World Trade Center. Consequently, there were hundreds of Muslim victims."

Such statements likely contributed to the British ban, which was imposed because his presence would be "not conducive to the public good," the BBC reported.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned the UK for Salah's arrest, calling him a "messenger of freedom, respect and human rights." Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) activists demonstrated in front of the British Cultural Centre in Gaza. One senior PIJ figure accused the British government of capitulating to the "Jewish lobby," and committing another crime after having "given the Jews a 'national homeland' in Palestine."

Salah is appealing the British government ban in court.

Al-Qaida's Use of Encryption

Since 2007, al-Qaida has incorporated sophisticated encryption technology into its arsenal, according to a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The development was prompted by numerous security breaches of the group's online activities by Western government agencies, including cracking emails by al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to "tens of thousands" of his supporters.

The report traces the history of al-Qaida's encryption technology, "from basic software first used by a few high ranking members to mass online distribution available to major Al-Qaeda-affiliated websites and chat rooms." The issue recently made news when it was revealed that bin Laden had stored massive amounts of encrypted data on hard drives and storage devices in his compound.

On Jan. 1, 2007, the al-Qaida linked media organization Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) announced the release of a simple encryption program called "Mujahideen Secrets." The promotional material for the program stated that it was "the first Islamic computer program for secure exchange [of information] on the Internet," and claimed that it provided "the five best encryption algorithms" and "data compression [tools]."

About a year later, the Al-Ekhlas forum announced an upgraded version called "Mujahideen Secrets 2," featuring "the highest level of technical multicast encryption." The new program also was intended to function as a support for mujahideen on the battlefield in general and al-Qaida's Iraqi branch in particular. For less tech-savvy users, GIMF produced a January 2009 video showing how to download and use its software.

A September 2009 post on jihadi site hanein.info, announced that the newly formed 'Technical Research and Study Center' would "specialize in researching technical matters in the fields of information, communication, and electronics." The group created "Mobile Secret" software for cell phones and PDAs, posting the data on numerous jihadi web forums.

Jihadi magazines, particularly from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP], also provided details on how to use the technology and its importance. The October 2009 issue of AQAP's Sada al-Malahim magazine featured an article from the group's leader Nasir al-Wuheishi, promising to "make contact with anyone who wants to wage jihad with us." Similar articles have appeared in each issue of AQAP's English-language Inspire magazine.

American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been an avid promoter and user of such technology. A Wikileaks document released in March showed American officials had cracked encryption codes to reveal intelligence about Awlaki's contacts in the West. Since then, Inspire magazine and Awlaki have promoted "Asrar al-Mujahideen," the latest generation of the group's intelligence.

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