The LWOT: American indicted for terrorist incitement

American indicted for terrorist incitement

A federal grand jury in Virginia on July 14 indicted Emerson Begolly (available here), the moderator of a popular jihadist Internet forum, on charges that he incited others to violence and posted links to bombmaking instructions (DOJ, CNN, WSJ, AP). Begolly, who was already in custody after allegedly biting and attempting to pull a gun on two federal agents, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The L.A. Times reports that Carlos Bledsoe, a Muslim convert and admitted radical who allegedly shot and killed an American soldier and wounded another outside of a recruitment office in Arkansas in 2009, will be tried in a state court on criminal charges instead of facing federal terrorism charges (LAT). Bledsoe could receive the death penalty if convicted, which would make him the first person executed in the United States for an act of terrorism since 9/11.

A federal judge in Florida denied bail July 12 for elderly Pakistani imam Hafiz Khan, who is charged with providing support to the Pakistani Taliban (Miami Herald). The judge delayed deciding on the bail request of Khan’s son Izhar, also accused of supporting the Pakistani Taliban (Miami Herald). And the Post this week has a lengthy profile of Somali-American activist Abdirizak Bihi, and his dedication to confronting radicalization in Minnesota’s Somali community (Post).

Senators push back on civilian terrorism trials

A group of 23 Republican senators wrote a letter to U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta on July 12 protesting the government’s decision to bring alleged Somali terrorist Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame to the United States for trial, out of concern that terrorism suspects could be acquitted or receive short sentences in American courts (AP, Bloomberg, WSJ, Politico). They also asked for more detail on the administration’s detention policy for terrorism suspects, including the possibility of sending detainees to Guantánamo Bay. And AFP last week noted that the government is preparing for media coverage of the upcoming Guantánamo trials of the 9/11 plotters (AFP).

The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill reported July 12 that the CIA is in effect operating a secret prison in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, training Somali counterterrorism personnel who run the facility and interrogating suspects along with French intelligence agents (Nation). The article also alleges that the CIA provided information to Kenyan authorities that led to the rendering of terrorism suspect Ahmed Abdullahi Hassan back to Somalia. Hassan’s lawyers are reportedly planning to file a habeas petition on his behalf in U.S. courts (Lawfare Blog, Lawfare Blog). Anonymous government officials denied the report of a secret prison, but have acknowledged that CIA officers have flown to Somalia to interrogate suspected militants (CNN, ABC).

A report released this week by the organization Human Rights Watch calls on the American and foreign governments to investigate senior George W. Bush administration officials, including the former president himself, in relation to the administration’s rendition, detention, and interrogation practices (Guardian, Post, National Journal).

Finally, the AP reports that federal investigators are looking closely at a former CIA official who oversaw a "ghost" detention program at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and pushed for the use of aggressive tactics in the interrogation of an Iraqi man, Manadel al-Jamadi, who eventually died in CIA custody (AP).

United Kingdom releases new terrorism strategy

The United Kingdom on July 12 released its new terrorism strategy, which focuses extensively on the threat posed by Internet radicalization, and the use of the Internet as part of terrorist plots (Guardian, BBC, FT, Independent, Tel). The document also warns that the threat from terrorism in Northern Ireland is increasing (BBC).

The British government this week reduced its terrorism alert level from "severe" to "substantial, as the country’s parliamentary intelligence and security committee issued a report demanding more oversight authority over Britain’s intelligence agencies (Tel, Guardian, Guardian). And Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that secret evidence could not be used in terrorism cases in order to hide allegations of detainee abuse at Guantánamo and other foreign prisons (Guardian, Guardian).

Also this week, British anti-terrorism police arrested a Birmingham man on charges that he was spreading jihadist materials online (BBC, Guardian).

Bin Laden planned 9/11 anniversary attack

The Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman reports today that according to documents recovered from his Abbottabad compound, Osama bin Laden was in the initial stages of planning an attack for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with his "operations chief" Attiyah Abd al-Rahman (WSJ). Gorman also reports that analysts who sifted through the trove of data recovered from the compound have found little actionable intelligence, though officials said the seized information revealed that bin Laden was aware of the 7/7 London transportation bombings, as well as a foiled 2006 plot to blow up passenger aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean (Tel, Reuters).

The CIA admitted this week to having used a hepatitis vaccination program in Abbottabad as cover to try and obtain DNA from bin Laden’s children, in order to confirm his presence in the city (CNN, Guardian, Guardian, NYT, AP, BBC).

Defense secretary Panetta told reporters while on his way to Afghanistan this weekend that the United States was "within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda" and that the elimination of 10-20 leaders in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and North Africa could disable the organization (NYT, CBS, Post, LAT).

The CIA took the unusual step this week of classifying the identity of "John" the formerly non-covert CIA analyst whose key role in tracking bin Laden was first revealed by the AP (Post). And Pakistan has reportedly offered to deport top al-Qaeda-linked terrorist Umar Patek, arrested in Abbottabad in January, to the Philippines (AP).

Trials and Tribulations  

•  U.S. drones and aircraft reportedly targeted suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen July 14, killing a number of fighters but also possibly civilians ((NYT, CNN).  White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan met with Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh this week (CNN).   
• Indian authorities are searching for clues in the near-simultaneous triple bombing of crowded areas of Mumbai July 13, attacks that killed 21 people (NYT, Reuters, AP, WSJ, Post, LAT). 
• Turkish police arrested 15 alleged al-Qaeda members on July 14, and reportedly seized nearly 1,500 pounds of chemicals that could be used to manufacture explosives (NYT, WSJ, AP, ABC).   
• Norway this week indicted the radical Iraqi cleric Mullah Krekar, the founder of the militant group Ansar al-Islam, for making death threats against Norwegian officials (AP).  
• A Pakistani court on July 14 freed on bail a leader of the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Malik Ishaq, after 14 years in prison (Tel, AP). Ishaq is suspected of having masterminded a 2009 attack against Sri Lanka’s cricket team while it was touring Pakistan.  
• The European Commission on July 13 presented a plan to track terrorist financing in Europe, creating a parallel tracking system to the United States’ that would conform more closely to European privacy rules for bank data (Reuters, NYT).  
• Indonesian police raided an Islamic school on Monday, seizing "jihadist materials," weapons and explosives (CNN). And Malaysian authorities this week deported Indonesian terror suspect Agus Salim (AFP).   
• Filipino authorities suspect Muslim militants are responsible for the kidnapping of two Americans this week in the country’s  south (AP).