The Islamists Hydra-Like Propaganda Effort

Fear not: radical Islam on the Internet is still alive and well.

Just days after positive signs emerged that the spread of radical Islamist hate speech on the web was to be curbed in part, the blocked content has made its way back online.

On Nov. 3, YouTube—the popular online video-sharing site—announced that it would begin pulling videos of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, spewing hateful rhetoric against the West and in support of violence. While this effort appeared promising on the surface, Google Inc.—YouTube's owner—has found it much more difficult to deliver than originally thought. Scores of videos by Awlaki, and others featuring the words of the radical cleric, still show up from a quick search on the website.

To combat the rapid proliferation of al-Qaida propaganda on its servers, YouTube has announced that it is hiring additional staff to vet posted videos.

But for now, the videos remain.

On another front, a New York-based radical Islamist group's website was pulled from cyberspace last week by its blog host after British authorities complained of a threat posted on the site's homepage implicitly suggesting Muslims kill British MPs.

Within days though, the group, RevolutionMuslim (RM), re-launched itself on another Google Blogger-hosted site, IslamPolicy.com. The site also redirects from revolutionmuslim.info, as well as RM's former blog [which previously hadn't been updated since April] revolutionmuslimdaily.blogspot.com.

RevolutionMuslim did not just arrive on the scene with last week's threat of British parliamentarians. Last year, the radical group posted a video on its site defaming American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) Executive Director M. Zuhdi Jasser as a "murtad"—or apostate—and defended the actions of Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan. The group has also maintained close ties to another New York-based Islamist group, the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS).

Recently, an IPT report revealed that members of both groups have made a notable shift from merely spewing hateful rhetoric on the pages of their websites to engaging in actual terror plots.

One such case is that of former RM leading member, Zachary Chesser, aka Abu Talhah al-Amreekee. Last month, Chesser—a longtime advocate for violent jihad against the West and those that allegedly disparage Islam—pled guilty in Alexandria, VA federal court to providing material support to Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist organization.

While Chesser and revolutionmuslim.com may now be out of commission, the radical Islamist PR campaign marches on unabated in cyberspace—and still, with many of the same players.

New al Shabaab Support Indictment in San Diego

Federal prosecutors in San Diego have charged a woman with providing material support to the Somali terrorist organization al Shabaab.

Nima Ali Yusuf was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and lying to federal investigators investigating the case. According to the indictment, Yusuf provided money and personnel to al Shabaab. When questioned by agents from the FBI and the Customs and Border Patrol, Yusuf reportedly denied having sent any money to Somalia in the past year.

Yusuf appeared in federal court Monday for an arraignment. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to determine whether she should be granted bail.

Yusuf's arrest is only the most recent in a string of prosecutions aimed at dismantling the U.S. support structure for al Shabaab. The militant group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on Feb. 26, 2008 for its use of "harassment and targeted assassinations of civilians, improvised explosive devices, rockets, mortars, automatic weapons, suicide bombings, and general tactics of intimidation and violence." Since that designation, the group has continued to carry out terrorist acts, most notably the July, 2010 suicide bombing during a World Cup viewing party that killed 74 people in Uganda.

The charges against Yusuf carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

'Isolated,' 'Parallel' Canadian Islamist Communities Could Breed Violence

Islamists are encouraging Muslims to live in isolated communities in Canada, a new intelligence report details. The de-classified report, produced by Canada's Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC), concludes that these groups, cut off from society, could create an environment which cultivates radicalization.

"Even if the use of violence is not outwardly expressed," the report reads, "the creation of isolated communities can spawn groups that are exclusivist and potentially open to messages in which violence is advocated." Radical messages inside these societies might "incubate and eventually become a catalyst for violence," the report predicts. "At a minimum, isolationism undermines a multicultural and democratic society."

According to the National Post, which obtained a copy of the report, this information was first distributed among Canadian officials last year after Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), a group dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, held a conference in Ontario. HuT is discussed in the Canadian assessment along with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been largely influenced by the late Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian thinker and source of inspiration to Osama bin Laden.

HuT held a conference in Chicago last year, in which a speaker advocated the superiority of Shariah over the American constitution.

Both HuT and the Muslim Brotherhood say publically that they do not support using violence as a means to achieve their objectives, though leaders in both groups have advocated violence in the past.

Views on violence shouldn't be the only topic of concern when it comes to Islamist groups, the report warns. It notes that Western governments have spent a disproportional amount of time studying Islamist groups' take on violence, while largely ignoring "Islamist social ideology." Yet, some of these movements "advocate a rejection of Western society" and "encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West."

The Canadian report was recently made public under Canada's Access to Information Act.

Army's Fort Hood Report Draws Criticism

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee are blasting an Army report into failures leading up to last year's Fort Hood shooting massacre by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. In a report issued Tuesday, the Army said it failed to properly identify the threat that existed before the shooting, the Washington Times reports.

While the report recommended greater education for troops on identifying "when individuals may commit violent acts or become radicalized," it did not mention Hasan by name, nor did it refer to the shooting as a terrorist attack, instead referencing the "tragedy."

Witnesses at a recent probable cause hearing described hearing him shout "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire inside a Fort Hood processing center.

A statement from Homeland Security committee spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said the report's findings "fall short of explaining why 13 Americans were killed over a year ago – namely that we are threatened by violent Islamist extremism and that an Army major who made public statements supportive of this murderous ideology was not stopped by his superiors. It is disappointing that these final reports fail to mention violent Islamist extremism and do not offer explicit policies or procedures to make sure that service members who become radicalized to violent Islamist extremism are identified, reported, and discharged."

Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking Republican Susan Collins of Maine promise their own report on the massacre and recommendations later this month. Collins issued a separate statement, in which she shared criticism at the absence of any reference to violent Islamist extremism in the Army report.

"This lack of guidance does not help service members distinguish the threatening and violent ideology of terrorists from the peaceful and protected expression of religious belief by Muslims, including the many dedicated and patriotic Muslims serving in our military," Collins said. "As a consequence, the Department of Defense risks either missing the next terrorist threat from within its ranks or focusing unwarranted investigative attention on innocent persons."

The report recommended enhancing information sharing on threats between the military and law enforcement, and the Pentagon will add to its representation in FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces. It also suggested troops be screened more closely for "behavioral indicators that a person may commit violent acts or become radicalized."

The Army report can be read here.

French Mosque Leader Targeted by Jihadi Plot

The arrests of four men and a woman by French police averted a plot at the "11^th hour" to kill Dalil Boubakeur rector of the main mosque in Paris, the London's Daily Mail reports.

Boubakeur, with a reputation as a moderate, has been under police protection since September, after a series of terrorist threats against France became public. The five people arrested this week are believed to have returned to France from training and fighting alongside the Taliban.

"All were linked to a major inquiry into jihadists returning from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and threatening to assassinate the rector of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur," said Bernard Squarcini, head of France's domestic intelligence agency, the DCRI.

The terrorist plots in France are believed to stem, in part, from the country's decision to ban Muslim women from wearing burqas, head-to-toe garments, as a response to rising extremism there. Boubakeur expressed concern over the policy when it was proposed, but has called the burqa a sign of "excess, a radicalization" among Muslims.

He expressed appreciation for the arrests, the Daily Mail reports.

Boubakeur welcomed the arrests saying : "Unfortunately men of peace are threatened all too often … Thanks to our system we can protect freedom of thought and freedom of expression and have the freedom to live together in this dangerous world."

Taxis Used in European Honor Violence

Taking a taxi can be a security risk for young immigrant women in Norway, Gunnar Svensson of the Oslo police told the Norwegian news agency NRK in a recent interview.

Svensson, who works to combat violence perpetrated in the name of family honor, said that many immigrant women are afraid to take a taxi, because of relatives who work in the taxi business. If these women are seen in the city alone, the news can be reported back to the family, which can lead to violence.

Svensson noted that in cases where women are already threatened by honor-related violence, it would be a "security risk" for them to take a taxi and they are advised not to do so. The Islamist Watch blog cited this earlier this month.

In August, the Guardian reported about a taxi driver living in Bradford who "would track down women and girls who had run away from home to escape a forced marriage" for £5,000.

Taxi drivers played a role in the infamous honor killing case of Pakistani-Danish woman Ghazala Khan in September, 2005. Khan was murdered by her brother after she married against the will of her family. Six members of her families were jailed in June, 2006, after they were all found guilty of playing a role in her murder. Some relatives, including Khan's father who ordered the killing, were taxi drivers. Khan and her husband were located with the help of taxi cabs hunting them down.

A report released this year by the UK-based Centre for Social Cohesion revealed that networks of taxi drivers are involved in tracking down and returning women who try to escape their families from honor killings or honor related violence.

"We have a huge problem with the taxi drivers here. We just can't trust them," said Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of the Karma Nirvana, a British organization that helps victims of forced marriage and honor based violence. "This can be a matter of life and death for these girls. If they get in the wrong taxi, they might just take them straight back home; straight back to the place that they've just escaped from."

An average of 10 to 12 women die in honor-related violence each year in the UK, the Social Cohesion report said.

D.C Metro Plotter Had Awlaki Hizb ut-Tahrir Materials

Federal agents who searched the home, car, work space and bank accounts of Farooque Ahmed, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen accused of plotting to bomb the Washington subway, found several laptop computers, six cell phones and the books and CDs featuring terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, search records released Tuesday show.

Ahmed, 34, was arrested Oct. 27 and accused of plotting to blow up Washington Metro stops and a Washington, D.C. hotel frequented by members of the military. Ahmed, of Ashburn, Va., was indicted on charges of attempting to provide material support for a terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in an attack on public transportation and attempting to provide material support for the bombings.

In Ahmed's home, agents reported they found six cell phones from at least four different carriers, .22 caliber and .44 caliber ammunition, a double-barreled shotgun, two laptop computers and literature for the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Agents also searched safe deposit boxes from two northern Virginia banks and four bank accounts at three separate banks in the area.

Ahmed first came to the attention of federal agents in January, after someone in the local Muslim community told officials that Ahmed was trying to go overseas to train and fight U.S. forces in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.

British Charities Underwrite Advocacy Group's Support for Awlaki

Some leading British charities underwrite an advocacy group led by former Guantanamo Bay detainees that has promoted al-Qaida recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Cageprisoners' website features some Awlaki videos and more than 20 articles about him, Telegraph Investigations Editor Jason Lewis reports. Some of those articles describe Awlaki as an "inspiration" and question his involvement in terrorism. The group invited Awlaki to speak at fundraisers in 2008 and 2009.

Despite this, the Joseph Rowntree Trust, the Roddick Foundation and other philanthropies continue supporting Cageprisoners. The two named groups have given £200,000 to Cageprisoners in the past three years, the newspaper reported. A spokesman for the Rowntree Trust, named for a chocolate maker and philanthropist, said he is confident Cageprisoners is "completely opposed to any form of the use of terrorism aimed at civilians."

How does he know? Because Cageprisoners told him.

The Telegraph investigation casts doubt on that, however, citing a separate posting about the death of a suspected Libyan terrorist. 'His death … may serve as the fertilizer that serves to revive the spirit of jihad in the Muslims of Britain," the Cageprisoners article said.

The group was founded by former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg. Apparently anticipating the Telegraph investigation, the Cageprisoners posted a release Friday claiming Awlaki's "status as someone well respected within the community was evidenced by his invitation" to meet with Pentagon officials after 9/11 and by a sermon he delivered on Capitol Hill.

Both of those events were disclosed only within the past few months.

In addition, the Cageprisoners release said scrutiny on its relationship with Awlaki has "helped to fuel and incite Islamaphobia particularly against Muslim organisations around the UK."

Cageprisoners claims it was unaware Awlaki advocated killing civilians until seeing him discuss the issue on Al Jazeera in 2009 and earlier this year. His sermons, however, have been referenced in terrorist plots dating back several years.

Awlaki vaulted to international infamy after it was discovered he served as an inspiration for the Foot Hood shooting massacre, the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing over Detroit, the failed Times Square bombing attempt and other terrorist plots.

Read the full Telegraph report here.

Update: Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens has more on the Cageprisoners embrace of Awlaki here.

DEA Hired Mumbai Plotter Despite Warning of Lashkar Ties

U.S. authorities sent American David Headley to work for them in Pakistan in the months following the 9/11 attacks, despite information he sympathized with terrorist groups in the region, the New York Times reported Monday. Headley started working as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant in the 1990s as part of the agency's efforts to bust an international drug smuggling ring in Pakistan that had connections to American dealers.

Headley scouted targets for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks under instructions from the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). He pleaded guilty to 12 federal terrorism charges that were brought against him, including conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder Americans and others in India, and to provide material support to the LeT. The Mumbai attacks killed 166 people, including six Americans. Headley has been cooperating with government authorities since his arrest in October 2009.

Headley was arrested on drug charges in 1987 and 1998. He admitted to distributing 15 kilograms of heroin but received lighter sentences after agreeing to serve as DEA informant. In a September 1998 letter submitted by prosecutors following an arrest, Headley was described as "reliable and forthcoming" and he was sent to Pakistan to "develop intelligence on Pakistani heroin traffickers."

"All I knew was the DEA wanted him in Pakistan as fast as possible because they were close to making some big cases," Headley's former probation officer Luis Caso told the Times. A senior American official claimed Headley was a DEA informant until at least 2003, around the time he was training in Lashkar camps.

American authorities had been tipped off by Headley's former wives that he was an active member of the LeT but the allegations were brushed off as trash talk from an ex-wife and dismissed because of insufficient proof. Headley was arrested briefly by the New York police on charges of domestic assault but later released on bond after officials established the information was inadequate to legally justify opening an investigation.

The failure to share Headley's radical ties by his handlers in the DEA with either the CIA or the FBI illustrates another example of a breakdown in communications and failure to connect the dots within the intelligence community.

Al-Qaida No. 2 Urges Revenge for Aafia Siddiqui

The United States will be attacked because of its prosecution of al-Qaida member Aafia Siddiqui, who is now serving an 86-year federal prison sentence, and Muslims must "take revenge" on those who imprisoned her, the No. 2 official of al-Qaida said in an Internet posting.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, said Muslims will fight the United States "until the Day of Judgment or until you stop your crimes."

Siddiqui was arrested in July 2008 for trying to kill U.S. troops and employees in Afghanistan. She was convicted in February in federal court in New York and sentenced to 86 years in September.

Because of its role in capturing, convicting and imprisoning Siddiqui, Zawahiri wrote that the United States risks retaliations. "So imprison whoever you wish, and kill whomever you wish, and bomb whomever you wish, and be as domineering as you wish, for the Ummah of Islam is behind you: bombing for bombing, and killing for killing, and destruction for destruction, and attacking equally."

Siddiqui is a former resident of the United States who obtained biology and neuroscience degrees from Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She moved back to Pakistan in 2002. Her second husband's uncle is Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Islamist groups in the U.S. championed Siddiqui's case, claiming her "conviction is seriously flawed and her kidnapping and detention is a grave violation of human rights and international law." The Muslim American Society (MAS), urged people to attend her sentencing hearing as a sign of support.

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