Top U.S. Spy Chief: Returning Jihadists Pose No Threat To Americans

The Hill: Spy chief: No threat from Americans who aided militants in Syria

The few dozen Americans who have gone to join militant groups fighting in Syria and then come back home don’t pose a threat to the U.S., according to the nation’s top intelligence official.

About “40 or so” Americans have left to fight with the groups and then come home, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday.

While the U.S. is concerned about people leaving to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), none of those who have returned have shown “nefarious” intentions, he claimed.

WNU Editor: After Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made the above remark .... the wire services posted this story .... IS says US suicide bomber carried out Iraq attack (AFP). If U.S. citizens are willing to launch suicide attacks in Iraq .... it dos not take much of a stretch to realize that they may also decide to launch such attacks on the homeland .... after-all .... quoting former U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton .... what difference does it make.

FBI Says It Has Identified 'Jihadi John' Seen In ISIS Execution Videos

BREAKING NEWS: FBI Says It Has Identified 'Jihadi John' Seen In ISIS Execution Videos But Will Not Reveal His Identity Or Nationality -- Daily Mail

* FBI Director James Comey would not reveal the man's identity
* Did not address whether U.S. believes man actually carried out the killings
* Said the FBI believes that ISIS is 'looking to try to do something in the U.S.'
* The executioner is one of four British jihadis known as the 'Beatles'
* Comey said he was 'not confident at all' the threat from Khorasan militant group was thwarted by this week's airstrikes
* Comey also told reporters that he hadn't heard of the subway plot

The FBI has identified the ISIS executioner who appears in the beheading videos of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker John Haines.

Agency director James Comey told reporters today that he knew who the militant was but would not be releasing his identity or nationality to the media.

The executioner, who has a British accent and has been dubbed Jihadi John, is one of four British jihadis known as the 'Beatles' holding hostages in Syria.

Read more ....

More News On The FBI Saying That It Has Identified 'Jihadi John' Seen In ISIS Execution Videos

Militant in Syria beheading videos identified: FBI -- Reuters
FBI believes it has identified IS hostage executioner -- AFP
US has identified masked man in beheading videos -- AP
FBI: US identifies masked militant in beheading videos -- BBC
FBI director: U.S. has identified the killer of two beheaded American journalists -- Washington Post
FBI says it has identified Islamic State jihadist in beheading videos -- The Guardian

Al-Nustra Front In Syria Releases Another Video Of The First American Suicide Bomber In Syria

Video Shows American Suicide Bomber In Syria -- Al Jazeera

Al-Nusra Front claims Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who grew up in Florida, carried out attack on army positions in Idlib.

An al-Qaeda-linked group fighting in Syria has released video of the first American to carry out a suicide attack in the country's civil war, showing him smiling and saying he looked forward to going to heaven.

Al-Nusra Front released the new video on Friday showing American citizen Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, 22, with other fighters before the May 25 attack that targeted several army positions in the government-held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.

It said two of the other three suicide attackers were from foreign countries, including one who was identified as being from the Maldives.

Abu-Salha appears smiling in the video and speaks in broken Arabic.

"I want to rest in the afterlife, in heaven. There is nothing here and the heart is not resting," Abu-Salha says.

"Heaven is better. When people die they either go to heaven or hell. There is happiness beyond explanation.''

The video, released by al-Nusra Front's media arm, al-Manara al-Baydha, was posted on self-proclaimed jihadi websites.

Read more ....

My Comment: The poster child for what a "useful idiot" looks like.

U.S. Intelligence: Americans Are Fighting In Iraq For ISIS

Minnesota militant: Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, the family man turned jihadist in a picture posted by him on Facebook and tweeted by journalist Mukhtar Ibrahim with whom he recently communicated. Now believed to be in Syria Muhumed told Mr Ibrahim that he is 'happy' to be considered a terrorist

'Jihad Cool': The Young Americans Lured To Fight For ISIS Militants With Rap Videos, Adventurism And First Hand Accounts Of The 'Fun' Of Guerrilla War -- Daily Mail

* Extremists in Syria and Iraq targeting new generation of young American jihadists
* The FBI are investigating up to 15 Somali-American men believed to have traveled from Minneapolis-St Paul, MN to follow the ISIS call to jihad
* As many as 50 American jihadists believed to be fighting in the Middle East
* 'Outgoing party-lover' from Minneapolis and father of nine Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, confirmed among them
* Security experts blame social media for 'blurring lines' and encouraging people to see themselves as part of jihadist movement

AK-47 aloft, his right hand raised and pointing to the sky, Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, stands on a Syrian hillside and stares defiantly into the camera.

Six months ago the father of nine from Minnesota was shooting hoops in Uptown Minneapolis. He was neither overtly religious nor politically vocal.

Today he is one of as many as 15 young Somali -Americans from the Twin Cities currently under investigation by the FBI for having travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Read more ....

Update: Intel Official: Americans Have Joined Militant Group ISIS -- CBS/AP

My Comment: I guess for Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29 .... fighting for Jihad is more preferable than staying home and taking care of his 9 kids?!?!?! I would love to know how that family supports itself.

From University Of Texas Student To Al Qaeda Operative

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, dozens of U.S. citizens have been accused of participating in terrorism activities - best known is Adam Gadahn, pictured

My Son The Terrorist: One Mother’s Grief At How Her Privately-Educated American Son Met A Violent End In Pakistan’s Al Qaeda Badlands -- Daily Mail

* Salam's mother, Hasna Shaheen Salam, tried to teach her son interfaith harmony and religious tolerance
* Of her son's death she said: 'There are things that we don't want to happen but we have to accept, things that we don't want to know but we have to learn, and a loved one we can't live without but have to let go'

The mother of Moeed Abdul Salam tried to teach her son about religious tolerance and infaith harmony as he grew up in their well-off Texas household.

Salam certainly didn't descend into radical Islam for lack of other options. His mother Hasna Shaheen Salam ensured he attended a pricey boarding school and graduated from one of the state's most respected universities.

Read more ....

My Comment: Makes you wonder if some people are just born bad.

The Fort Hood Killer's Connection To 9/11 Terrorists

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole suspect in the
massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas Photo: GETTY

Fort Hood Shooting: Texas Army Killer Linked To September 11 Terrorists -- The Telegraph

Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.

Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

Read more ....

My Comment: The American media is not touching this story with a ten foot pole. Radical Islam and its hatred of the West is not a template that fits into what the American mainstream media (and it's political class) have been trying to portray when it comes to events like the Fort Hood massacre this past Thursday.

Kudos to the British paper The Telegraph for covering and exposing this story.

US Moves On Domestic Jihadis: A List Of Arrests

From The Long War Journal:

In recent months, the US has experienced an alarming rise in jihadist activity. In the last two months alone, five terror plots have been foiled by the FBI, and there have been dozens of other arrests for various related crimes, such as providing material support for terrorists. The plots have been directed at targets at home and abroad, both civilian and military. The arrests clearly demonstrate the potential for al Qaeda and other extremist groups to recruit and carry out attacks in the US.

Read more ....

My Comment: The list of incidents and close calls is disturbing to say the least. I cannot help but feel that one day our luck is going to run out.

Smaller-Scale Terrorism Plots Pose New and Worrisome Threats, Officials Say

Photo: Al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri. Photo AFP

From New York Times:

WASHINGTON — After disrupting two recent terrorism plots, American intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that extremist groups in Pakistan linked to Al Qaeda are planning smaller operations in the United States that are harder to detect but more likely to succeed than the spectacular attacks they once emphasized, senior counterterrorism officials say.

The two cases — one involving two Chicago men accused this week of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the prophet Mohammad, the other a 24-year-old Denver shuttle bus driver indicted in a plot to use improvised explosives — are among the most serious in years, the officials said.

Read more ....

My Comment: All that you would need is a small cell of a few terrorists (3-5 men), experts in explosives, a small but not significant amount of cash (a few hundred thousand dollars), and the willingness to explode a car bomb in an American city every few days.

Such a terrorism strike will paralyze America's major cities, and produce a media circus that will preempt all other news and government priorities .... in short .... it will paralyze the country.

Thank God our police forces and intelligence agencies have been successful in stopping the more determined members of these groups .... but the fear is real .... and the realization that it will only be a matter of time before such a terror action does occur on U.S. soil can only give us cold comfort that for the moment we are only playing for time.

An Enemy Within: The Making of Najibullah Zazi

In this photo released by the New York City Police Department, Najibullah Zazi, center, is escorted off an NYPD helicopter by U.S Marshals after being extradited from Denver, Colo., Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. Zazi was sent to New York to face charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in a plot law enforcement has said was focused on blowing up commuter trains. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department) Credit: AP

From Time Magazine:

You'd think Najibullah Zazi would stand out on the high, dry plains southeast of Denver, where the earth is as flat as a starched shirt and mere wrinkles count as topography. But if heartland suburbs were ever enclaves of uniformity, that day is long gone. Aurora, Colo., is a city of people from somewhere else, a low-slung municipality of 315,000 that includes extremes of both poverty and prosperity. Aurora is vast — nearly 154 sq. mi. (400 sq km) — and dense, with a high concentration of multifamily housing units, apartment buildings, townhouses and condominiums. Those homes contain a patchwork of races, ethnicities and tribes: Aurora is 23% Hispanic; 13% black; 15% Asian, Native American and other. Nearly 100 languages are spoken by students in the Aurora public schools. It is, in short, an excellent place for a young man with a laptop and a recipe for bombs to hide in plain sight.

Read more ....

More News On America's Terror Plots

FBI chief sees no imminent threat from Zazi case -- Reuters
Officials: NY men being watched in terror probe -- AP
FBI to senators: Terror case wasn't damaged -- AP
Afghan immigrant pleads not guilty to bombing conspiracy -- L.A. Times
Terror on the Prairie: Zazi's Life in Colorado -- Time Magazine
Rush for Clues Before Charges in Terror Case -- New York Times
Zazi case: How far should FBI go in tracking Muslims? -- Christian Science Monitor
Homecoming -- Newsweek

American Al Qaeda Hold Rare 'Press Conference'

Screenshot of the "American," a man law enforcement officials identify as Abu Mansur al-Amriki. FNC/Provided by memrijttm.org

From FOX News:

Two young Americans who left their homes to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia held a rare “press conference” in southern Somalia on Sunday, saying they want to be killed "for the sake of God," according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a report posted on a Somali news Web site.

For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am curious to know how many copycats this will produce.

Man Claims In Video To Be US Jihadist In Somalia

In this undated image provided Friday April 3, 2009, by IntelCenter, a man who calls himself an American appears on a video, recently posted on a web site of the Islamic militant group in Somalia, the Global Islamic Media Front, with an English language subtitle bar across the screen. al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups have posted messages and videos in the past on this web site. The man gives his fighting name as "Abu Mansour al-Amriki," or "the American," and is thought to have possibly held a senior role advising members of Somalia's al-Shabab, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. (AP Photo / IntelCenter)

From Breitbart/AP:

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A man who calls himself an American promotes holy war in Somalia in a video posted this week on an Islamic militant Web site.

A U.S. government contractor who tracks extremist propaganda says the footage is the first to show what may be an American with a senior role in al-Shabab, a Somali group the State Department considers a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida.

Read more ....

My Comment: Only one American? Sigh .... we have found the enemy .... and some of them are us.