How a son’s handwritten note led to a rethink of terror law – Times Online

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

How a son’s handwritten note led to a rethink of terror law – Times Online

Sean O’Neill, Crime & Security Editor

Irfan Raja ran away from his family home in Ilford, East London, in February 2006, leaving behind a note that terrified his mother and father. In neat handwriting he told his parents that they would meet again in Paradise and urged them to “rejoice at the decision of their son”.

His parents had noted his religious strictness and feared that he planned to fight jihad overseas. He had gone no farther than Bradford, however, where he met four university students whom he had been in contact with over the internet.

Three days after he left home Mr Raja, 17, called his family and was persuaded to return. He was arrested by the anti-terrorist unit of Scotland Yard. Detectives also arrested the men they described as his co-conspirators — Aitzaz Zafar and Awaab Iqbal, from Rochdale, Usman Malik, from Wolverhampton, and Akbar Butt, from Southall, West London. (more…)

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Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian

Stephen Lunn and Richard Kerbaj | February 15, 2008CHILDREN should be raised to embrace violent jihad and Muslim wives should not discourage their husbands from becoming martyrs in the name of Allah, according to documents seized from an alleged Melbourne terror cell and cited in court yesterday.

(more…)

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Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian

Stephen Lunn and Richard Kerbaj | February 15, 2008CHILDREN should be raised to embrace violent jihad and Muslim wives should not discourage their husbands from becoming martyrs in the name of Allah, according to documents seized from an alleged Melbourne terror cell and cited in court yesterday.

(more…)

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Rechtspraak.nl – uitspraak hofstadzaak

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, ISIM/RU Research, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Rechtspraak.nl – uitspraak hofstadzaak
Hof: ‘Hofstadgroep’ geen terroristische organisatie

De strafkamer van het Gerechtshof ’s-Gravenhage heeft vandaag in hoger beroep uitspraak gedaan in de zogenoemde “Hofstadzaak”.

Het hof heeft – anders dan de Rechtbank in eerste aanleg -geoordeeld dat er bij de Hofstadgroep geen sprake is van een criminele en terroristische organisatie, omdat er geen duurzaam en gestructureerd samenwerkingsverband kon worden vastgesteld en evenmin een gemeenschappelijk gedeelde ideologie. Ook was er volgens het hof geen sprake van dat de verdachten als groep het oogmerk hadden geweldsfeiten of opruiingsdelicten te begaan. Alle verdachten zijn dan ook vrijgesproken van deelname aan een criminele en terroristische organisatie.

Jason W. is door het hof wel veroordeeld tot 15 jaar cel voor het gooien van een handgranaat naar leden van het arrestatieteam van de Politie Den Haag en het in zijn bezit hebben van meerdere handgranaten. Ismail A. is van het medeplegen van het gooien van de handgranaat vrijgesproken, maar wel tot 15 maanden gevangenisstraf veroordeeld voor het in zijn bezit hebben van handgranaten. Volgens het hof kan niet bewezen worden dat Ismail A. van tevoren een afspraak had gemaakt dat Jason W. de handgranaat zou gooien. Het hof vond niet bewezen dat Jason W. en Ismail A. de handgranaten in hun bezit hadden met de bedoeling daar terroristische daden mee te plegen. Ook het gooien van de handgranaat door Jason W. is volgens het hof geen terroristische daad geweest, omdat niet bewezen kan worden dat hij dat heeft gedaan met als doel de bevolking erge vrees aan te jagen.

Het openbaar ministerie (OM) eiste eerder veroordeling van de Hofstadverdachten voor deelname aan een criminele en terroristische organisatie tot celstraffen van 22 maanden tot 2 jaar. Tegen Jason W. en Ismail A. had het OM een celstraf van 18 jaar geëist voor deelname aan de Hofstadgroep en het gooien van de handgranaat als terroristische daad. In maart 2006 oordeelde de Rechtbank Rotterdam dat de Hofstadgroep wel een criminele en terroristische organisatie was en veroordeelde de verdachten tot celstraffen van één tot vijf jaar. Jason W. werd daarnaast ook veroordeeld voor het gooien van de handgranaat en het in zijn bezit hebben van handgranaten en kreeg 15 jaar celstraf. Ismail A. werd ook veroordeeld voor het medeplegen van het gooien van de handgranaat en het in het bezit hebben van handgranaten en kreeg 13 jaar celstraf.

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Protected: Nieuwsbrief 080122 – Bob de Graaff: Terrorismewetenschappers vertrouwen te veel op de ratio

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: AD.nl – Binnenland – ’Leven ex-terreurverdachte voorlopig helemaal kapot’

Posted on January 18th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: Vrijlating terreurverdachten Rotterdam – Telegraaf.nl

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: terreurverdachten Rotterdam – Telegraaf.nl

Posted on January 3rd, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism.

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Protected: Terreurverdachten opgepakt – DePers.nl

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism.

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NRC / Alexander Weissink: Jihad in verwarring

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Jihad in Verwarring door Alexander Weissink

Sayyid Imam, spijtoptant van de terreur

Een belangrijke ideoloog van de gewelddadige jihad verwerpt de activiteiten van Al-Qaeda en roept op tot een ‘eind aan het wereldwijde bloedbad’. Maar: is hij oprecht?

In de Tora-gevangenis in het zuiden van de Egyptische hoofdstad is de Egyptische emir Sayyid Imam Abdulaziz al-Sharif (57) op andere gedachten gekomen – of misschien: gebracht. Een belangrijke ideoloog van de internationale jihad roept op een einde te maken aan het wereldwijde bloedbad en verwerpt de activiteiten van Al-Qaeda. „Het is ons door god verboden agressie te begaan, zelfs als de vijanden van islam dat wel doen”, stelt Sayyid Imam in zijn herziening onder de titel Rationalisering van de jihad in Egypte en de wereld. „Vech t in godsnaam tegen degene die jou bevechten, maar overtreed de grens niet, want god houdt niet van overtreders.”

Het pleidooi voor vreedzaam verzet lijkt een spectaculaire ommekeer in de opvattingen van de man die direct na de aanslagen op New York en Washington op 11 september 2001 nog zei dat terrorisme een plicht is zolang de Verenigde Staten een land van ongelovigen zijn. Dagelijks verschijnt een passage uit het honderdenelf pagina’s tellende document van zijn nieuwe gedachtegoed in Masri al-Youm (Egypte Vandaag), de grootste onafhankelijke krant van Egypte.

Sayyid Imam, opgeleid als chirurg en ook bekend onder zijn nom de guerre Dr. Fadl (Edelmoedige Doctor), is de grondlegger van de Egyptische Islamitische Jihad, een islamitische terreurbeweging die dood en verderf zaaide in de jaren tachtig en negentig. De Islamitische Jihad was verantwoordelijk voor diverse bloedige aanslagen, waaronder de moord op president Anwar Sadat in 1981 en een mislukte aanslag op president Hosni Mubarak tijdens een bezoek aan Ethiopië in 1995.

Sayyid Imam was de eerste emir, ofwel de ideoloog, geestelijk leider en commandant van de Islamitische Jihad. Zijn theoretische beschouwing met de titel Basisprincipes in de voorbereiding op jihad werd wereldwijd het handboek voor gewelddadige jihadisten en dient tot de dag van vandaag als blauwdruk voor Al-Qaeda. In de gedachtewereld van deze extremisten is iedereen, moslim of niet, die het niet met hun fundamentalistische doctrine eens is, een ongelovige en verdient daarom de dood. De geestelijk leiders claimen het gezag over ‘takfir’, ofwel excommunicatie. (more…)

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Protected: HLN: België – Terreuralarm in Brussel na ontsnappingspoging Trabelsi (111745)

Posted on December 22nd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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AFP: Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism.

AFP: Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry
Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry

RIYADH (AFP) — Security forces in Saudi Arabia, the target of Islamist attacks since 2003, arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning a “terrorist act” during this week’s Muslim pilgrimage, the interior ministry said on Friday.

“The authorities have arrested a group which planned to carry out a terrorist act aimed at harming security and damaging the (hajj) pilgrimage,” General Mansur al-Turqi, a ministry spokesman, told AFP.

The spokesman said the attack planned by a “deviant group”, the Saudi term for militants linked to Al-Qaeda, did not however target Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca or the pilgrims.

Earlier, the Dubai-based television Al-Arabiya said Saudi authorities arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out attacks during the hajj, quoting Saudi security officials.

The Saudi sources said the arrests were made in several different cities of the oil-rich kingdom.

“The group aimed to trouble the security of the pilgrimage” which has this week attracted almost 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from around the world to Islam’s holiest sites in western Saudi Arabia, the television report said.

Members of the group, whose number was unknown, were arrested “three days before the start of the hajj season”, or at the end of last week, the sources told Al-Arabiya.

The reports emerged as the hajj was winding down on Friday.

The authorities were on high alert this year because of the participation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first president from the Islamic republic to take part in the hajj.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said in early December that his forces had foiled “more than 180 terrorist operations” since a wave of bombings and shootings by the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda broke out four years ago.

The conservative Muslim kingdom also said it arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants over the past few months plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer and exporter, announced in February 2006 that it had foiled an attempt to blow up the world’s largest oil processing plant, in Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

The militants, who are followers of Saudi-born Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, espouse the ideology of “takfeer” — branding other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimise violence against them.

The hajj, in which every Muslim is expected to take part at least once in a lifeterm if they have the means, has been hit by a series of disasters over the years, mostly caused by stampedes or fires.

There were no major incidents reported during this year’s hajj.

However, in December 1979, 151 people were killed and 560 wounded after Saudi security forces stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca to rescue pilgrims held hostage by Islamist militants for about two weeks.

And in July 1989, one person was killed and 16 wounded within the Grand Mosque sanctuary in a double attack blamed on 16 Kuwaiti Shiites who were executed later the same year.

Four hundred and two people were killed, including 275 Iranians, according to official Saudi figures, when security forces tried to break up an anti-US demonstration by Iranian pilgrims during the hajj in July 1987.

The last of this year’s pilgrims took part in the “stoning of Satan” ritual on Friday at Mina, east of Mecca. After throwing pebbles at pillars representing the Devil, they returned to the Grand Mosque before preparing to head home.

According to official Saudi figures, a total of 2,454,325 pilgrims from 181 nations, 1,707,814 of them from outside the Gulf state, performed this year’s pilgrimage.

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Associated Press of Pakistan – Darul Uloom issues fatwa denouncing terrorism

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Associated Press of Pakistan – Darul Uloom issues fatwa denouncing terrorism
NEW DELHI, Dec. 13 APP: Darul Uloom Deoband, a leading Islamic centre in India issued fatwa denouncing terrorism and said it was against Islamic principles. Media reports quoted Mufti-e-Azam Maulana Fazlurehman Hilal Usmani, a scholar of Darul Uloom as saying in Saharanpur “Jehad signifies a fight against evil while terrorism is aimed at killing of innocent people. The two are opposite each other.”

Terrorism is a henious crime against humanity and it should not be equated with jehad, he added.

According to Islamic principles, “killing of an innocent is equal to killing of the entire humanity. Some fanatics are bringing a bad name not only to Muslims but also to Islam on the pretext of waging jehad”, the scholar said.

“Jehad is the ultimate destination. There is no greed in jehad; the man sacrifices his life for a noble cause. Islam provides that even during war, places of worship, innocent people, hospitals and educational institutions should not be targeted,” Mufti-e-Azam said.

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MEMRI: Major Jihadi Cleric and Author of Al-Qaeda’s Shari’a Guide to Jihad: 9/11Was a Sin; A Shari’a Court Should Be Set Up to Hold Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri Accountable; There Are Only Two Kinds of People in Al-Qaeda – The Ignorant and Those Who Seek Worldly Gain

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

MEMRI: Major Jihadi Cleric and Author of Al-Qaeda’s Shari’a Guide to Jihad: 9/11Was a Sin; A Shari’a Court Should Be Set Up to Hold Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri Accountable; There Are Only Two Kinds of People in Al-Qaeda – The Ignorant and Those Who Seek Worldly Gain

Over the last few weeks, Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, one of the least public yet most important figures in the global jihad movement, has published a long-awaited new work, Wathiqat Tarshid Al-‘Aml Al-Jihadi fi Misr w’Al-‘Alam (“Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World”), in which he calls for a stop to jihad activities in the West and also to those against the ruling regimes in Muslim countries. The new book, which Imam wrote while serving a life sentence in Egypt, was published in serial form in two Arab dailies, the Kuwaiti Al-Jarida and the Egyptian Al-Masri Al-Yawm, and has been the subject of extensive discussion and polemic among Islamists and observers of Islamist movements. The document is at once a book and a formal initiative, and the majority of leaders and members of the Jihad organization in the Egyptian prisons have signed the document and promised to stop armed activities. This entire process was facilitated by the Egyptian authorities, and the document was reviewed by a commission of Al-Azhar scholars. [1]

The book has generated such interest due to its author’s standing and importance among radical Islamists. In addition to his given name, Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, he is also known as “Dr. Fadl” and “‘Abd Al-Qader Bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz.” His 1988 book on the laws of jihad, Al-‘Umda fi I’dad Al-‘Udda (“The Essentials of Making Ready [for Jihad]”),was used as a jihad manual in Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. [2] In addition, Sayyed Imam is one of Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s oldest associates.

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MEMRI: Major Jihadi Cleric and Author of Al-Qaeda's Shari'a Guide to Jihad: 9/11Was a Sin; A Shari'a Court Should Be Set Up to Hold Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri Accountable; There Are Only Two Kinds of People in Al-Qaeda – The Ignorant and Those Who Seek Worldly Gain

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

MEMRI: Major Jihadi Cleric and Author of Al-Qaeda’s Shari’a Guide to Jihad: 9/11Was a Sin; A Shari’a Court Should Be Set Up to Hold Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri Accountable; There Are Only Two Kinds of People in Al-Qaeda – The Ignorant and Those Who Seek Worldly Gain

Over the last few weeks, Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, one of the least public yet most important figures in the global jihad movement, has published a long-awaited new work, Wathiqat Tarshid Al-‘Aml Al-Jihadi fi Misr w’Al-‘Alam (“Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World”), in which he calls for a stop to jihad activities in the West and also to those against the ruling regimes in Muslim countries. The new book, which Imam wrote while serving a life sentence in Egypt, was published in serial form in two Arab dailies, the Kuwaiti Al-Jarida and the Egyptian Al-Masri Al-Yawm, and has been the subject of extensive discussion and polemic among Islamists and observers of Islamist movements. The document is at once a book and a formal initiative, and the majority of leaders and members of the Jihad organization in the Egyptian prisons have signed the document and promised to stop armed activities. This entire process was facilitated by the Egyptian authorities, and the document was reviewed by a commission of Al-Azhar scholars. [1]

The book has generated such interest due to its author’s standing and importance among radical Islamists. In addition to his given name, Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, he is also known as “Dr. Fadl” and “‘Abd Al-Qader Bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz.” His 1988 book on the laws of jihad, Al-‘Umda fi I’dad Al-‘Udda (“The Essentials of Making Ready [for Jihad]”),was used as a jihad manual in Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. [2] In addition, Sayyed Imam is one of Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s oldest associates.

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Terrorize your lyrics – Suspended sentence for Samina Malik

Posted on December 7th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, ISIM/RU Research, Public Islam, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Suspended sentence for the ‘lyrical terrorist’ – Independent Online Edition > Crime

The Crown Prosecution Service said: “Samina Malik was not prosecuted for writing poetry. She was convicted of collecting information, without reasonable excuse, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

“She claimed in her defence that she was ‘a lyrical terrorist’ who wrote poetry which ‘did not mean anything’, but this was rejected by the jury.”

Another blow for civil liberties

This case shows the increasing encroachment of the criminal law on civil liberties since 9/11 and 7/7.

Salima Malik’s conviction was secured under the widely drawn Terrorism Act 2000 which makes it an offence to be in possession of written material likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

But in describing her actions as on the margin of the criminal law the judge appeared to be signalling that Labour’s anti-terror laws trod a very fine line between protecting the public from terrorism and curbing the right to freedom of expression.

Her conviction has been seized on by civil libertarians, who have complained that Labour has brought in a number of offences that amount to a threat to the rights of free expression.

Liberty, the human rights group, says free speech is a victim of the war on terror, with offences of “encouragement” and “glorification” of terrorism threatening to make careless talk a crime.

Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Today several weblogs have the Samina Malik day in order to stand up for free speech in general and her case in particular. See here and here and also here for an earlier post of mine on this issue.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| wereld – Geweld is uit voor ideoloog van Al-Kaida

Posted on November 26th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| wereld – Geweld is uit voor ideoloog van Al-Kaida

Posted on November 26th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

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Protected: Bezorgdheid Nederlanders over terrorisme daalt verder, over radicalisering stijgt

Posted on November 22nd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Multiculti Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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How to Look at Homegrown Terror – TIME

Posted on November 21st, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, ISIM/RU Research, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

How to Look at Homegrown Terror – TIME

How to Look at Homegrown Terror
By Amanda Ripley

The most sophisticated government analysis of the homegrown terrorism threat to be made public in the United States came out this week, and it didn’t come from Washington — not from the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence or the Department of Homeland Security. It came from the New York City Police Department, and with any luck, its release will spur the federal government ostensibly leading the war on terror to show more faith in the general public’s ability to digest serious intelligence.

The report, entitled “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” makes several important and underappreciated points.

— There is no useful profile to predict who will become radicalized. Most would-be terrorists are “unremarkable men” living “unremarkable lives.” They don’t have criminal histories, and they don’t always gather at mosques.

— They do, however, follow remarkably similar behavior patterns. Participants in 11 anti-Western terrorism plots analyzed in the report all went through four stages on the path from unremarkable to violent: Pre-radicalization, Self-identification, Indoctrination and Jihadization.

The report isn’t perfect. The phrase “Jihadization” is problematic, and has already alienated some of the Muslim-American leaders who should be included in this conversation. Nor is it all new. Some of these points have been made before by respected counterterrorism scholars. But the fact that it came from a government organization, not a think tank, and that it struggles mightily not to dumb down its content, makes it exceptional.

“It’s remarkable to me that one of the first public reports on radicalization to get it right came from a police department,” says Chris Heffelfinger, a counterterrorism expert with the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. “Our preconception is that it should come from the top, from the White House, [but] I don’t think the CIA or any other analytic agency has better stuff than this.”

The authors, Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, of the NYPD’s intelligence division, spent months traveling the world and systematically analyzing the facts: who has participated in foiled and realized plots against the West? Where did they meet? What motivated them? And how did they go from being regular people, often citizens of Western nations, to radical violent extremists?

“This was a triumph of sensible men working very, very hard to get a good understanding of how this process works and determined, despite the risks, to get it out into the public,” says Brian Jenkins, a veteran counterterrorism expert at the RAND Corporation who was also a consultant on the report.

The NYPD has, since 9/11, built up one of the most impressive intelligence organizations in the world. The Department has officers based in the U.K., Israel and Europe, among other places. It also has hundreds of linguists who speak Farsi, Arabic and Urdu. Its intelligence division is led by David Cohen, who spent 35 years at the CIA.

In the past, the NYPD has been criticized for not sharing its intelligence widely, and it could have easily kept this report private and still reached its primary audience of law-enforcement officials. But it chose not to. “The NYPD knew it was going to draw some flak, as anything pertaining to domestic intelligence does and should. But we’d rather have the public debate, as noisy and rude as it may be, than have frightened acquiescence,” Jenkins says. “Too much of the message to the American people has been a message of fear, without explanation. In order to really get this, we have to educate, engage and enlist the citizens.”

Of course, doing that has its own dangers, and once the Department made its findings public — after a road show in Washington to the powers that be — it quickly became clear why this kind of thing doesn’t happen as often as it should. First, the broadcast media mischaracterized the report. Certain TV news shows defaulted to their usual “be afraid, be very afraid” script and claimed the report described two dozen active sleeper cells in the U.S. In fact, it did no such thing. If you read the 90-page report, you will see that it is a retrospective analysis of past plots, conducted with meticulous attention to detail. It is not the vague warnings of imminent doom we have heard from the federal government in the past. But the local CBS affiliate in New York City described it as “chilling,” perhaps out of habit.

At the press conference announcing the findings, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his counterterrorism team started out visibly proud of their report. But questions from the media forced Kelly to keep stressing the basics. Reporters wanted to know how many cells Kelly was watching in the New York area, and how frightened we should be. “That’s not what this is about,” he said.

By afternoon, American-Muslim organizations had issued press releases criticizing the report. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it cast suspicion on all U.S. Muslims, even though the report repeatedly stresses that there is no obvious way to profile would-be terrorists. The Muslim Public Affairs council says the report contradicts the findings of the federal National Intelligence Estimate declassified last month. But that’s an oversimplification. The National Intelligence Estimate did put more emphasis on the threat of al-Qaeda, but both reports stressed the danger of radical, self-generating cells. The federal Estimate is put together by people whose focus is overseas, says Frank Cilluffo at the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. The feds will never be as well-positioned as NYPD to understand the homegrown threat. “Ultimately, state and local authorities know their communities best.”

Perhaps one of the best things the report will do is create competitive pressure, Cilluffo suggests, spurring the feds and other police departments to greater feats of transparency and nuance. Historically, at the FBI and the Department of Justice in particular, intelligence is meant to be kept close, and the public is not to be trusted. Hopefully, the public and the NYPD will, eventually, prove them wrong.

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Protected: de Volkskrant – Binnenland – Zwaardere eisen tegen Hofstadgroep

Posted on November 15th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Poetic (in)justice?

Posted on November 10th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, ISIM/RU Research, Public Islam, Religious and Political Radicalization, Youth culture (as a practice).

Poetic Justice is a literary device which virtue or the good is ultimately rewarded and/or vice punished and is related to Aristotle’s Poetics. According to Aristotle poetry is superior to history in that it shows what should or must happen, rather than merely what does occur. Poetic justice is also used to describe how a work should inspire proper moral behavior in its audience by illustrating the triumph of good over evil.

In 2006 I received an email with a .pdf file that contained an article called Raising Mujahideen Children from a Moroccan-Dutch Muslim woman. Around the same time the article was posted on a Dutch webforum Marokko.nl by someone else which triggered a small discussion. The piece was originally written by Umm Musab al-Gharib; a nickname that I came across several times. Umm Musab al-Gharib aka LyricalTerrorist aka Bint al Shaheed aka Stranger awaiting Martyrdom posted several messages on different websites, mostly poems. Many of those were send to me by the woman I mentioned earlier.

Busy with other things I did not gave it much thought until I read an article at the BBC website about Samina Malik: (more…)

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Jihadism | The brains behind the bombs | Economist.com

Posted on November 3rd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

Jihadism | The brains behind the bombs | Economist.com

The most important contribution of Mr Lia’s book is the insight he offers into the personal and ideological rivalries in the jihadi world (though these may make hard going for a non-expert). It is plain that Mr al-Suri was not enamoured by his fellow militants. He disliked the “erratic actions” being taken by al-Qaeda, which he feared would undermine the Taliban experiment (he was right). He once accused Mr bin Laden of acting like a “pharaoh” and he had little regard for Saudi jihadists in general. Many, in his view, treated the jihadi training camps as an adventure playground or as a means of cleansing themselves after having “spent time with a whore in Bangkok”.

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Jihadism | The brains behind the bombs | Economist.com

Posted on November 3rd, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization, Religious Movements.

Jihadism | The brains behind the bombs | Economist.com

The most important contribution of Mr Lia’s book is the insight he offers into the personal and ideological rivalries in the jihadi world (though these may make hard going for a non-expert). It is plain that Mr al-Suri was not enamoured by his fellow militants. He disliked the “erratic actions” being taken by al-Qaeda, which he feared would undermine the Taliban experiment (he was right). He once accused Mr bin Laden of acting like a “pharaoh” and he had little regard for Saudi jihadists in general. Many, in his view, treated the jihadi training camps as an adventure playground or as a means of cleansing themselves after having “spent time with a whore in Bangkok”.

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Court delivers guilty verdict over Madrid train bombings | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Posted on November 1st, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism.

Court delivers guilty verdict over Madrid train bombings | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Paul Hamilos in Madrid, Mark Tran and agencies
Wednesday October 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Spanish judge today found 21 people guilty – but acquitted seven – of the Madrid train bombings that killed more than 190 people in one of Europe’s worst terrorist atrocities in recent years.

To the consternation of some survivors and relatives of the victims, one of the accused masterminds, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as “Mohamed the Egyptian”, was acquitted along with six others. He is in prison in Milan, Italy, after being convicted of belonging to an international terrorist group.

A representative from a victims’ association said he was unhappy that some of the accused were still walking free.

“It seems to us that only a few of them got a lot of years in prison. There aren’t many heavy sentences considering how many people were affected,” Eutiquio Gutierrez, whose 39-year-old daughter died in the bombings, told Reuters.

Three of the eight main suspects – Emilio Trashorras, a Spaniard, and Jamal Zougam and Othman el-Gnaoui, both Moroccans – received sentences of nearly 40,000 years each. Under Spanish law, however, they can only serve a maximum of 40 years.

Four other lead defendants – Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski, Abdulmajid Bouchar and Rafa Zouhier – were acquitted of murder but convicted of lesser charges including belonging to a terrorist group or trafficking in weapons. Fourteen other people were found guilty of lesser charges such as belonging to a terrorist group. (more…)

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