Miss Kelly

"The E-Mails Were Benign and Contained No Threat"

Fort Hood Sudden Jihadi/Traitor/Murderer Nidal Malik Hasan had an e-mail correspondence with radical imam Anwar Awlaki in Yemen:

"The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian at the Fort Hood Army post exchanged between 10 and 20 e-mails with a radical cleric in Yemen who calls for jihadism against the United States, senior government officials said Monday."

"Officials determined that the communications were benign and contained no threat."

Hmm, that's ringing a bell.  Local suburban aspiring jihadi Tarek Mehann is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Center.  His lawyer filed a motion for release on bail pending his trial earlier this week. 

"In the motion, Carney argues the evidence against Mehanna comes from Internet conversations and videos he shared with others. Investigators have said Mehanna allegedly used a blog to promote jihad and watched jihadist videos with associates."

From the motion (page 11):

"The case against Dr. Mehanna rests primarily on Internet-based text conversations he had with people...The Internet-based conversations contain absolutely no indication that Dr. Mehanna planned to harm others or conspired with others to inflict harm."

Sounds familiar: don't worry, nothing to worry about here!

Haven't we learned yet that there is nothing "benign" or harmless about jihadi ideology? 

 

Mehanna Hearing Postponed Til 11-12-09

A court hearing for Tarek Mehanna scheduled for today at the Moakley Federal Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, MA has been postponed, at the request of his defense attorney.  The hearing has been postponed until November 12.

The "Free Tarek" movement is well underway, including a Free Tarek website and Facebook page.  Victim of injustice, witch hunt against a Muslim, he was a pillar of the community, "tomorrow it may well be you, your family or a close one", blah blah blah.

The local Muslim American Society has been rather quiet on this case, compared to their exuberant support for earlier cases such as the Muhammed Masood, with rallies at Government Center and fund raisers.  The support is much more low-key for Mehanna, they issued a press release and sent out an e-mail alert about the hearing.  Could it be that there will be a good many MAS links as this case unfolds?

"Masood Played a Key Role in Shaping Abou Samra's turn..."

From the Patriot Ledger, where reporter Lane Lambert digs into the background of co-conspirator Ahmed Abousamra (in the Tarek Mehanna case) and his association with former Sharon imam Muhammed Masood:

"SHARON — Back around 1995, before the FBI says his interests turned to terrorist training, 14-year-old Ahmad Abou Samra cut a fairly conventional adolescent figure around the Islamic Center of New England’s Sharon mosque."

"An honor student at Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic high school in Westwood, and the son of a leading Islamic Center board member, 'he seemed like a regular kid,' a longtime mosque member recalled.' "

"That seems to have changed by the time he graduated in 1999 from Stoughton High, where he switched for his senior year."

"Within a year, according to government documents, he was talking about jihad. Not long after, he allegedly praised those behind the Sept. 11 attacks."

"Today, Abou Samra is a wanted man. While he has yet to be charged, federal authorities this week named him a co-conspirator with Tarek Mehanna, the Sudbury man accused of plotting to attack shopping malls and target U.S. politicians, and charged with conspiring to provide support for terrorists."

And from whence, pray tell, did the jihadist adulation apparently come from?

"Ahmad Abou Samra and Mehanna were either in middle school or high school when they met at the Sharon mosque, which opened in 1993, when Abou Samra was 13 and Mehanna was 12. They had no connections when the Islamic Center’s mosque was in Quincy. Abou Samra grew up in Stoughton, where he was an honor roll student, as he was in high school. He was later a dean’s list student at Northeastern University."

"Longtime mosque members – who didn’t want to be identified – aren’t sure how well Abou Samra and Mehanna knew each other back then. One said former Sharon Imam Muhammad Masood played a key role in shaping Abou Samra’s turn to conservative Muslim practices."

What Made Bilal Kaleem Change His Mind?

Here's what Bilal Kaleem, Executive Director of the Boston branch of the Muslim American Society (MAS) had to say about the Tarek Mehanna case on Friday, October 23, as reported in the MetroWest Daily News:

"Bilal Kaleem considers the terrorism-related charges facing Tarek Mehanna and is troubled for many reasons. Muslims are already feeling a backlash from the Sudbury man's arrest, says Kaleem, executive director of the Muslim American Society of Boston."

"In the wake of Mehanna's arrest, members of various congregations find themselves surrounded by media and placed under pressure and scrutiny, he says..... ' The media has to take on a harder task,'he said. 'We have to analyze it in more subtle and mature ways.' "

"He suggested the media should delve into whether Mehanna's case was another instance of a disaffected kid from the suburbs."

Pretty outrageous, Mr. Kaleem.  Most alienated suburban kids don't travel to Yemen looking to join terrorist training camps, no matter how much angst they're feeling.   What a nonsensical and frankly mendacious reaction to the Mehanna case.   We're not talking about Catcher in the Rye here, Bilal. 

But what a difference a day makes, twenty four little hours.  Yesterday, Kaleem was singing a different tune, per this Boston Herald article:

"Bay State Muslims should help 'root out' any radicals in their midst, a Massachusetts Islamic leader urged yesterday.

“ 'We call on Muslim leaders and organizations to root out any radical teachings they may find in Muslim communities,' said M. Bilal Kaleem, executive director of the Massachusetts Chapter Muslim American Society."

That's rich coming from MAS!  I don't share the enthusiasm of some of the commenters, who are pleased that a Muslim leader is finally calling for routing out radicalism in their midst.  It's about ten years too late. And it's no doubt a response to negative reaction to his "disaffected suburban youth" comment.  MAS is trying to cover their ass.  They're the very organization that controls the mosques and schools where Islamic fundamentalism is taught.  They're the very organization that brought people like Salah Soltan, Mahdi Bray and Siraj Wahaj to Boston.  MAS is going to rout out radicalism?? This I gotta see!

" 'If anybody senses imminent danger, they should alert the proper authorities,”'said Kaleem, when asked if Muslims should call the cops on hate groups."

This from the MAS which routinely advises Muslims not to talk to the FBI or police, but to call a lawyer first.   I eagerly await the next announcement from MAS about how they'll identify and rout out "radical teachings."  

P.S. Check out Rusty Shackleford's article at Pajames Media, Boston Terror Suspect: Just Another 'Typical American Kid' with Terror Aspirations.  It's an interesting look at the apparently comparmentalized life that Tarek Mehanna was living.  His friends express shock at his arrest, describing  Tarek as shy, polite and helpful.  But Rusty was well acquainted with the online Tarek, aka Abu Sayaba. Excerpts:

"But in Mehanna’s case there were warning signs. If his friends’ shock is real, then Tarek Mehanna was living a compartmentalized and double life. For the Tarek Mehanna I knew online was not the 'moderate' that his apologists portray him as. He was a fanatical Islamist, devoted to the same ideas as al-Qaeda. He spent countless hours translating Arabic texts into English in order to inspire others to become violent jihadists."

"Mehanna went by the handle 'Abu Sayaba' online.  In addition to frequently commenting at radical forums and online discussion groups, 'Abu Sayaba' also ran his own blog.  His Iskandari blog posted translations of Arabic texts. Typical of the writings he posted were calls for the establishment of an Islamic state and Islamic law. He also encouraged violent jihad as a means of attaining these two goals."

"Tarek Mehanna may seem to have been an unlikely terrorist candidate to some, but given his online support for violent jihad revealed through his 'Abu Sayaba”'persona, should it really come as a surprise that he would aspire to become a violent jihadist himself?"

"....The signs of terrorism are there, but you will not necessarily find them by searching for outwardly antisocial behavior. The common denominator to most would-be terrorists is a devotion to the jihad ideology. And ideologies are hard to detect."

Americans for Peace and Tolerance Fact Sheet on Abousamra

Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based interfaith group, has pulled together a fact sheet on Dr. Abdul Abousamra, the father of a co-conspirator Ahmed Abousamra named in the Tarek Mehanna complaint.  Here's the fact sheet reprinted in full:

Man accused in Boston terror plot is son of former Muslim American Society leader

Father moves out of town weeks after son questioned by the FBI

Media reports on the Boston terror arrest have named three individuals as conspirators in the plot to machine gun people in shopping malls and kill American officials.Two, Daniel Maldonado and Tareq Mehanna, are in custody. The third, however, Ahmad Abousamra, escaped to Syria after being questioned by the FBI in 2006.

• According to the complaint, it was Abousamra who introduced Maldonado and Mehanna to each other during an afternoon of watching “jihad videos” in which Islamic terrorists killed and mutilated American soldiers.

• Abousamra seems to be the most extremist of the three, as well as the one most educated in radical Islamist ideology. According to the criminal complaint:

“Abousamra expressed his belief that suicide bombings were permissible. … Abousamra found justification for his position in the religious writings of Muslim extremists.  Abousamra justified attacks on civilians, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks. Abousamra stated that civilians were not innocent because they paid taxes to support the government and because they were Kufar (non-believers). … Abousamra always justified their extremist views by citing Islamic teachings.”

Mehanna Timeline / Boston Globe Notices Abousamra

Two things:

1) The Christian Science Monitor has a good timeline on the Tarek Mehanna case. It's a bit difficult to follow that in the DOJ complaint and FBI affidavit, as they go switch back and forth in time. 

2) The Boston Globe has an interesting article today about Tarek's friend Ahmed Abousamra: "Details Emerge on Plot Suspects."  So Tarek and Ahmed met at the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, where Dr. Abousamra was president and/or on the Board of Directors for several years.  Where Muhammed Masood (brother of Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed of Pakistan) was imam, until Masood was "voluntarily" deported in October 2008 for lying to federal agents and visa violations.  It's a small world, a mighty small world. 

The Globe article overlooks the other associations that Dr. Abousamra had locally, including as director with the Muslim American Society, although that's no longer on the MAS website.  Dr. Abousamra was on the Board of Trustees of Al Noor Academy, an Islamic School in Mansfield, MA, with other MAS directors (ISB's Basyouny Nehela, ICNE's Ghazwan Ghazi).  He's also on the School Board of the Islamic Academy of New England (located on ICNE property) in Sharon MA.  A busy man!  You've got to hand it to those guys, they've planned their work, and they're working their plan.

Reading Between the Lines - FBI Affadavit on Tarek Mehenna

Local media coverage of Tarek Mehanna, the Sudbury, MA "wannabe" terrorist,was extensive yesterday, covered on radio, TV and news websites, but it was rather limited in scope.  The media stories focused on how shocked, shocked people were that an educated, affluent young Muslim was accused of planning to commit terrorist activities.  And especially Tarek Mehanna, that gentle soul, his neighors and classmates couldn't believe that he wanted to wage jihad and kill kufirs (non-believers).  The other angle frequently reported was that Tarek was an incompetent wannabe terrorist: he couldn't get his hands on good weapons,  he was turned away by terrorist groups, he was a "tinhorn terrorist."  The unspoken conclusion for many folks was that Mehanna probably never would have committed such a terrorist act.  People wouldn't be so smug though, if Tarek and co-conspirator Ahmed Abousamra had pulled off a Mumbai-type attack.  From the DOJ press release:

"Acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI - Boston Field Division, announced today that Tarek Mehanna, 27, of 6 Fairhaven Circle, Sudbury, Mass., was charged in a complaint with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists."

".... It is alleged that, among other things, that would prepare them for armed jihad against U.S. interests, including U.S.Mehanna and two of his associates traveled to the Middle East in February 2004, seeking military-type training at a terrorist training camp that would prepare them for armed jihad against U.S. interests, including U.S. and and allied forces in Iraq. The complaint also alleges that one of Mehanna's coconspirators made two similar trips to Pakistan in 2002."

"According to the complaint affidavit, Mehanna and the coconspirators had multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in a shopping mall, and that the conversations went so far as to discuss the logistics of a mall attack, including coordination, weapons needed and the possibility of attacking emergency responders."

There is much more that the media could be looking at in this case.  I'll start with reviewing FBI Special Agent Heidi L. Williams affadavit, and pulling out the elements that caught my eye:

• There's more info on this case than what the DOJ and FBI have revealed so far. The affidavit states that "it does not, however, include all the information known to me with respect to this investigation, but only that information which is necessary to establish the requisite probable cause." We'll have to wait for a trial to get more of the scoop.

• The affidavit supports the criminal complaint against Tarek Mehanna with conspiring with AHMED ABOUSAMRA ("ABOUSAMRA") and others to provide material support to terrorists. There's lots of background on Mehanna. I've not heard or read one single news story that tells us who Ahmed Abousamra is, not a one. Ahmed skipped the country in December 2006 after he was interviewed by the FBI, reportedly fleeing to Syria. Ahmed is the eldest son of Dr. Abdul Abousamra, an endocrinologist who was a Big Kahuna in the local Muslim community, now unfortunately so dominated by the Muslim American Society (MAS)/Muslim Brotherhood. Dr. Abousamra was the president of the Islamic Academy of New England and he hired Muhammed Masood at the IANE school (more on Masood here! ). The good doctor was also a MAS director , a "Free Imam" offerred to local Boston colleges, and on the Board of Directors of the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE) in Sharon, MA. We will come back to Abousamra in another blogpost, but isn't it worth looking at the background of the co-conspirator as well as Mehanna's background? Isn't it remarkable that the son of one of the leading Muslim "leaders" has been throroughly radicalized, and the father didn't notice? Like I said, more to come on Abousamra. The Dr. recently moved to Dearborn, MI, I'm told.