The Rejected Jihadist

[buglerbilly]

From The Sunday Times

February 21, 2010

The wannabe British jihadist who said no to Al-Qaeda

Kasim wanted martyrdom but being urged to attack Britain was a step too far

It took months to get to the man I must call “Kasim”. I’d heard about a wannabe British jihadist who had been injured in a US drone attack in Waziristan, Pakistan, but he was not easy to find, and, once found, he was clearly uneasy. With good reason. There are probably many people far scarier than me who would like to meet him.

We met in Blackpool on a filthy day, in the pouring rain, when the sky was as dark as the sea. I guessed he was in his mid-twenties. He wore a baseball cap pulled well down over his eyes as we walked between the great iron gantries of the pier and talked.

Like many young Muslims who embrace extreme Islam, Kasim — who was born in Britain — didn’t come from a deprived area or a poor family. His parents were middle-class Pakistanis. Kasim rebelled, dated girls, went clubbing, drank alcohol and smoked cannabis — but never told his parents. Had they known, they would probably have placed him under curfew.

Nonetheless, he was essentially a typical British teenager — until 9/11 changed everything. “It was the catalyst. It gave me the hunger to learn more about Islam,” he says. His journey to jihad began with sampling different mosques in search of the “peacefulness” he believed would guarantee his path to paradise. “I realised that there were 73 different sects in Islam — only one was going to paradise and the rest were going to hellfire.”

Kasim wanted the right ticket. He found what he was looking for at a Saudi Wahhabi mosque, and as a result fell under the influence of the charismatic extremist preacher Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal and spent hours listening to tapes of his sermons. Faisal’s message was not lost on Kasim. He became fascinated by the notion of martyrdom.

The London bombings of 7/7 made him even more pro-jihad. “Afterwards there was so much negative publicity about Muslims. If everyone is attacking you, you become stronger and you probably do things you wouldn’t think of doing before.”

He decided he had had enough of living in the UK and wanted to move to a Muslim country. “I was engrossed in my faith and wanted to bring up my kids in an environment where they were more influenced by Islam than the normal life of British teenagers.”

But Faisal’s message of martyrdom burnt inside him. He says that “by chance” he met someone who offered him safe passage to the tribal areas of Pakistan. He told his wife and children he was off on a business trip and wasn’t sure when he would be back.

His contact was true to his word: Kasim was introduced to a group of Pakistani jihadists. “They were all active. They would cross the border regularly and carry out attacks,” he says.

During discussions about jihad with his new friends, he was surprised to find that their views went way beyond those he was forming himself. “My philosophy was to fight what I believed jihad meant — against those who were invading the Muslim land.” They had greater ambitions. “Their ultimate goal was to take over Pakistan and other Muslim countries and establish an Islamic caliphate. Afghanistan was the beginning of their long-term plan.”

Then one night, the house where he was staying was hit by a missile from a US drone. “The house had collapsed. When I opened my eyes, there was blood everywhere.”

Around a dozen jihadists were killed. Covered in blood, Kasim was taken to a hospital where he spent months recovering from his injuries. He missed his family. And he now had plenty of time to think about jihad.

Word of a British jihadist in hospital got out to Arab Al-Qaeda leaders in Waziristan. He was told they would like to meet him, so on his discharge he went north. They told him they didn’t need volunteers to fight in Afghanistan as they had plenty and said he should team up with other “foreigners” who were in the area and carry out operations in Britain and Europe. Kasim assumed the “foreigners” were British.

This wasn’t the kind of jihad Kasim had in mind and he said so. “I felt it was the wrong thing to do morally and religiously. Killing women and children was against the principles of Islam.” He was told to stay and spend some time thinking about it. He did and the answer was still a nervous “no”.

At this stage you might have expected Kasim to get a bullet in his head, but he didn’t. Al-Qaeda let him go home, perhaps thinking he might be useful further down the line.

At first I thought this was unlikely but then remembered that the IRA often let its members leave. Kasim decided that despite all he had thought about living in England, it was preferable to living in a Muslim country.

He now realises he took the wrong path. His story shows de-radicalisation is possible, although not every jihadist has the wake-up call of a missile to prompt it. “I’ve now changed my views about Islam. I got influenced by the wrong people.”

I ask Kasim if he thinks he will now go to paradise. “I hope so,” he says.

[buglerbilly]

Along somewhat similar lines, the son of HAMAS' founder was a long-term spy for Israel..............

'I saved Shimon Peres from plot' says son of Hamas founder

Israel's president Shimon Peres is among the many who owe their lives to the son of a founder of Hamas, according to a dramatic account to be published this week.

By Philip Sherwell in New York and Nick Allen in San Diego

Published: 9:00PM GMT 27 Feb 2010



Mosab Hassan Yousef was a top Israeli agent codenamed the 'Green Prince' The full story of how Mosab Hassan Yousef became an informant for Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security service, will reveal the heroic risks he took during a decade as a spy for Israel - and the extraordinary impact he has had on the course of history in the Middle East.

He describes his remarkable double life as a top Israeli agent codenamed the "Green Prince", his conversion to Christianity and how he swapped the West Bank for the West Coast in his book, Son of Hamas.

The disclosure that among his activities he thwarted a 2001 plot to blow up Mr Peres, then foreign minister and now the Israeli head of state, will also heighten the risk he now faces himself from potential assassins.

According to Mr Yousef's account - confirmed by his Shin Bet handler to Haaretz newspaper - he was serving as aide and driver to his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, when he visited one of Hamas' top terrorists, a deadly bomb-maker called Abdhullah Barghouti.

The Hamas leader, a relative moderate by the movement's standards, urged Barghouti to rein in his campaign of killing after two major attacks that summer in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, because he feared Israel would invade the West Bank in retaliation.

But Barghouti revealed that he had already dispatched four devices to blow up the car of Mr Peres. He agreed to make a call to the men now in charge of the bombs and the younger Yousef was sent to buy a new mobile phone that would be destroyed after the conversation so it could not be traced.

The "Green Prince", as he was codenamed, immediately passed the number to Shin Bet which eavesdropped on the call, allowing it to foil the operation. It was one of dozens of suicide-bombing attempts and assassination plots that he helped prevent - including a plan to kill one of Israel's most important religious figures, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the conservative Shas party.

He was also responsible for the capture of several top Islamic terrorists, including the bomb-maker Barghouti. He even turned in his own father, who remains in an Israeli jail, in return for a promise that he would not be assassinated.

"The kid saved his dad," his handler, who used the codename Capt Loai, told Haaretz. The Shin Bet officer praised Mr Yousef for saving countless lives by supplying almost daily intelligence. "So many people owe him their lives and don't even know it," he said.

"The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money. He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."

Mr Yousef said he was not paid but his motivation was ideological and religious. He grew up steeped in the violence of the West Bank and was jailed and badly beaten by Israeli forces aged 18 when he was an Islamic student leader.

But in prison, he was appalled to see how Hamas tortured suspected collaborators and decided to accept a Shin Bet approach to become an informant. And in 1999, he turned to Christianity after a chance encounter with a British pilgrim who met him in Jerusalem's old town and invited him to a bible class.

Although there is a sizeable Palestinian Christian community, for the son of a Hamas founder to abandon Islam was unthinkable and he kept his religious conversion as secret as his role with Shin Bet.

But two years ago he left for America, applying for political asylum and moving to San Diego, from where he had met some Christians while in Jerusalem. Soon, he started attending a new evangelical church, was given accommodation by fellow worshippers, baptised in the waters of the nearby Pacific and even joined its surfer outreach programme.

Mr Yousef told The Sunday Telegraph that he had revealed his secret past in an attempt to hold Arab and Israeli leaders to account “so we can find better solutions for my people and for the Middle East.

“Whether in negotiations or war, they have to be accountable with every move they make…People on both sides have to know what their leaders are really doing.”

He said he did not fear reprisals. “I have no reason to hide. I need to work harder than at any time in the past for peace.”

Mr Yousef discussed his love for his father. “He has been and is still my hero. I admire him and hope that he will take a brave stand against violence. This man can bring peace to his people.”

He revealed that he had saved the lives of many Palestinian leaders – not just his father – by insisting in his dealings with the Israelis that he would not agree to their assassination.

He also insisted that one day he would return home. “I live in peace. America is a great country, but there is no place like home and I miss home. One day I will go back.”

In ther US he finally shared the secret of his background with the pastor, Matt Smith, and some fellow church-goers at services held in a hired hall near the ocean in an affluent ocean community on a stretch of curving coastline surrounded by bluffs and beaches.

"I met Joseph by chance in a café at a gym," Mr Smith, a former athlete who had been a hopeful for the US Olympic rowing team before founding the church, told The Sunday Telegraph.

In the first public comments by any of Mr Yousef's newly-made American friends and confidants, Mr Smith added: "I was learning Hebrew and we talked about the Hebrew language. He obviously had a secret on his mind. I think he was struggling a bit."

Mr Yousef joined church activities which included giving personal training exercise sessions to people in a nearby park and early morning surfing sessions spread the Christian message on the beaches of southern California. He visited a local mosque, speaking to worshippers in Arabic about Christianity.

In the summer of 2008, soon after he joined the church, Mr Smith became one of the first people Mr Yousef trusted with the full story of his life. "For a couple of weeks he tried to tell me who he was but I had a lot of people to talk to," he said. "Finally he told me. I cancelled all my appointments that day and we talked. It was a pretty scary moment.

"I told him we would be behind him if he wanted to go forward and tell his story. It's a great demonstration to Americans that we don't need to fear terrorism. We became a family for him and we took care of him."

He also recounted how Mr Yousef's first attempt to surf almost ended in tragedy. "He got sucked out to sea. He had just told me the whole story and I was panicking and thinking I can't let anything happen to him," he said.

"I went out to rescue him and saw what I thought was him, but it was some seaweed. We were going to call the National Guard but then I found him on the shore."

Soon after Mr Smith learned his secret, they shared the details with a core group of church members. "Their jaws hit the floor when we told them," Mr Smith said. "They laid hands on him and said 'We are with you'. They were sworn to silence until Mr Yousef decided to reveal his story publicly."

He added: "We consider him family. He's someone who has done something very important and we are really proud of him."

Mr Yousef, who is unmarried, is still a member of the church but is not currently living in San Diego. His whereabouts are being kept secret because of fears for his safety after his remarkable revelations.

[buglerbilly]

Not rejected but the Feminine approach..............

JihadJane, an American woman, faces terrorism charges


Colleen Renee LaRose (Courtesy of San Angelo, Tex., Police Department)

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A petite, blond-haired, blue-eyed high school dropout who allegedly used the nickname JihadJane was identified Tuesday as an alleged terrorist intent on recruiting others to her cause, as federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges that could send her to prison for life.

Colleen Renee LaRose, 46, has been quietly held in U.S. custody since October on suspicions that she provided material support to terrorists and traveled to Sweden to launch an attack, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is continuing to unfold.

LaRose, who lived in suburban Philadelphia, allegedly recruited men and women in the United States, Europe and South Asia to "wage violent jihad," according to an indictment issued in Pennsylvania. She fueled her interests on the Internet over the past few years and used Web sites such as YouTube to post increasingly agitated messages, the court papers said.

As an American citizen whose appearance and passport allowed her to blend into Western society, LaRose represents one of the worst fears of intelligence and FBI analysts focused on identifying terrorist threats. She is one of only a handful of women to be charged with terrorism offenses in the United States, national security experts said.

Across the ocean Tuesday, Irish police conducted morning raids in Cork and Waterford, arresting four men and three women who had been under electronic surveillance by U.S. and Swedish authorities. The seven were suspected of plotting with LaRose to attack a Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, whose 2007 drawing of the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog enraged Muslims, according to Irish news accounts.

Justice Department officials declined to comment on the arrests in Ireland or on whether Vilks was a target of LaRose's.

David Kris, assistant attorney general for the national security division, said the prospect that a suburban American woman had conspired to support terrorists and traveled overseas to advance a plot "underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face."

Mark Wilson, a lawyer for LaRose at the Federal Community Defender Office in Philadelphia, declined to comment. LaRose has not yet been scheduled for an arraignment on the charges, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy.

JihadJane, Fatima LaRose

The path that LaRose, who is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs barely more than 100 pounds, may have taken to jihad remains murky.

She has been married at least twice and, over several years since the mid-1980s, had been arrested in South Texas for writing bad checks and driving while intoxicated, according to court records obtained by The Washington Post.

Investigators suggest that she turned to the Internet a few years ago, using the names JihadJane and Fatima LaRose.

In a December 2007 Internet posting located by The Post, "Fatima LaRose," who said she lived in Pennsylvania, asked for advice about how to bring an Egyptian boyfriend with whom she had been corresponding for more than a year to the United States for Christmas.

Months later, the indictment said, "JihadJane" described herself in a June 2008 YouTube posting as "desperate to do something somehow to help" suffering Muslims.

LaRose allegedly went on to recruit others, asking whether the prospects were European citizens who could travel freely. She looked for recruits whose physical appearance would "blend in with many people" and go undetected in Europe and the United States. She allegedly agreed to marry one co-conspirator in an effort to ease his path to Europe, according to e-mails cited in the indictment.

By March 2009, LaRose had reached out to the Swedish Embassy for information about how to acquire permanent residency in Sweden. The man identified as her potential fiance sent her instructions to "go to sweden . . . find location of" the target and "kill him . . . this is what i say to u."

LaRose allegedly responded, "i agree that it is good i blend in."

An FBI interview

FBI agents interviewed LaRose in July 2009 in Pennsylvania, where she told them that she had not solicited money for terrorism or posted on a terrorist Web site, according to the indictment, nor used the handle "JihadJane."

In August, LaRose removed and hid the hard drive from her home computer, authorities said. The same day, she traveled to Sweden "with the intent to live and train with jihadists, and to find and kill" her target, the indictment said. LaRose took with her the U.S. passport of a man identified only as "K.G.," with whom she lived, to give it to "the brothers," the indictment said.

In September, she performed online searches to find her target, joined an electronic community that he hosted and journeyed to his artists' enclave in Sweden, the indictment said. By Sept. 30, LaRose e-mailed the man identified as her fiance, saying it would be "an honour & great pleasure to die or kill for" him and asserting that "only death will stop me here that i am so close to the target!"

LaRose ultimately returned to the United States, where she was charged in October in a criminal complaint with helping transfer a U.S. passport belonging to K.G. She appeared in court in Pennsylvania on Oct. 16, where she was appointed a public defender, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney and a representative in the public defender's office.

Authorities declined to address Tuesday why the grand jury indictment of LaRose remained under seal for so long and whether she may have helped law enforcement during her months-long incarceration.

But the Justice Department has used such a strategy in several cases to glean more intelligence information on suspects and plots before making their investigations public, veterans of the department said. Spokesman Dean Boyd said "there were investigative activities we had to protect, and had the case been made public . . . those activities could have been jeopardized."

J. Patrick Rowan, former chief of the Justice Department's national security division, said the LaRose indictment is "another indication of how the threats come from all directions."

"If nothing else, it's another reminder to the FBI of the obligation to run down every lead and every threat, because they can't be too far-fetched," Rowan said.

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu and staff researchers Alice Crites and Julie Tate contributed to this report.