Recently in American jihadis Category

My son the jihad terrorist. "Alabama Man Joins Jihad In Somalia," by Joe Millitzer for Fox2Now, June 7:

DAPHNE, ALABAMA — While others enjoy the approaching summer, barbeques and baseball, one American family scours the internet looking for clues to whether their son is alive.

U.S. authorities also want to find him but not to secure a happy family reunion.

Their son, Omar Hammami, is a wanted Islamist terrorist fighting — or barely surviving — in Somalia with a $5 million bounty on his head.

Now after an apparent assassination attempt on their son, the family opens up in an exclusive CNN interview about how their son grew up to be a terrorist, how their lives are changed forever and how their joint faith has seen them survive burdens that could have destroyed other families.

Shafik Hammami opens the door to his Daphne home wearing a University of Alabama football t-shirt. He was born in Syria, but after more than 40 years in the United States, he’s as much a homegrown Alabama football fan as any other local resident. I ask him if he thinks ‘Bama’ will win the National Title again this year. He holds up his hands and proudly smiles: “Roll Tide.”

He’s not what I had expected him to be. He’s an older man with a mild-mannered nature — a stark contrast from what I knew of his son, whose personality had won him recognition from a young age. But somehow the boy living the American dream grew up to be a propagandist for al Qaeda-backed militants looking to wage global jihad.

Born and raised in Daphne, a quintessential Southern town nestled along Mobile Bay, lined with strip malls, subdivisions, and churches, Omar now goes by the name of Abu Monsour Al-Amriki, or The American. Western and Somali authorities have named him as a leading member of Al Shabaab, a group known for its ruthlessness in the fight for an Islamic Caliphate in Somalia.

His mother Debra, a retired school teacher, had explained earlier by phone how hard it was for her husband to talk about their son. He has quit talking to the media, she says, because it hurts too much.

“Darlin’, we have been through hills and valleys,” she said in a genteel southern accent. “All I know is that I ask everyone I meet, ‘Do you go to church?’ and if they say yes, I ask them, ‘Please put us on your prayer list.”

In Daphne, a community of roughly 22,000, everyone we meet seems to know Omar Hammami. Or if they don’t know him, they know of him as, “that terrorist from here.”

Debra Hammami, who comes across as bubbly and friendly, says she knows that some people judge the family because of the son’s choices.

“But, darlin’, I’m lucky to live in a community with such wonderful friends,” she says.

Just the other day, she says, a friend of hers met someone who said, “Just what kind of parents could raise a child like that? They must have been terrible parents for him to turn out that way.”

“You hush your mouth,” her friend said in response, Debra Hammami recounts. “I know that family. And his mother is a good Christian woman, so you be quiet about something you know nothing about.”

She says that even though she is a Christian and her husband is a Muslim, that throughout this seemingly never-ending ordeal, it is that individualized faith, and a shared belief in God that has seen them through the toughest of moments.

After what seems like hours of pained silence, but is probably merely a matter of several uncomfortable minutes, Shafik Hammami agrees ever so tentatively to talk about his son.

“Omar was a very sweet, intelligent child, very bright and inquisitive about everything,” he says. “He excelled at education, sports, just about everything he attempted. I always had high hopes for him. I would have loved for him to be engineer or a doctor but that wasn’t in the cards.

“As a parent I would like for him to follow my instructions. But in life that doesn’t always happen, especially with a strong-willed child. And of course I tried my best, and so did my wife, to raise him the best we could. He chose the path he did, and I do not approve of it. But there is nothing I can do to change it.”

“But surely there were clues?” I ask him.

“No, not at all. There were no alarms or anything that I could see,” he recalls. “As a matter of fact, when he was in college, he was the President of the Muslim Student Association, and he had several media interviews, and he condemned the attacks of 9/11 and saw that those actions were un-Islamic, so there was nothing for me to worry about.”

The MSA is a Muslim Brotherhood group. That ought to have raised alarm bells.

But that would change and soon there would be a lot to worry about.

Despite his gifted intellect, Omar dropped out of college at the University of South Alabama and moved to Toronto, Canada, where he met and married a Somali woman. Soon after, the couple moved to Egypt, where Omar hoped to deepen his study of Islam.

Shafik Hammami remembers the last time he saw his son. He and Debra had traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, to visit with Omar, his wife, and their new grandchild.

“We went to spend a couple of weeks with him,” Hammami says. “And there was no inkling of anything that we could see, feel, anything that had changed.

“But shortly after we left we got a call from his wife, and she told us she thinks he is in Somalia, and that’s when I realized that things are not normal.”

“I was furious,” he adds. “And I tried to contact him to find out what was going on.”

Omar’s wife said he had gone to Somalia to visit her relatives. But when Hammami finally reached his son, Omar told him someone had stolen his passport, and that he couldn’t leave the country.

At the time, 2006, Somalia was in the grips of an Islamic insurgency.

Frantic and shocked by his son’s news, Hammami says he urged his son to go to the police, an embassy, anyone who could help him. Thinking that Omar was stranded in a dangerous place, and desperate to help their son, the Hammamis contacted the FBI, their local congressman, and the U.S. State Department, hoping to get Omar a new passport, and a way out of the war-ravaged country.

But Hammami says he was told there was absolutely nothing they could do.

Soon after, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia and the country fell deeper into chaos. The Hammamis say they lost all contact with their son and were living a parent’s nightmare.

The next time Hammami saw his son was almost a year later — on television as an Islamist propagandist.

His message partly blamed the U.S. for Somalia’s desperate situation and he said America should pay attention to Somalia.

He no longer called himself Omar Hammami, but Abu Monsour Al-Amriki, or “the American.”

The effect was complete and utter heartbreak.

“When I first saw the interview on TV, I knew that was the end of life as we knew it. I knew we would never be the same again. It’s devastating for both of us. He is our only son. We only have one son. And now, we have none,” Shafik Hammami says.

“It hurts me very much. It hurts to hear your son called a terrorist,” he adds, his voice breaking with emotion.

Hammami, a retired civil engineer, says he now spends his days scouring the internet for news of his son. These days what he finds is more troubling than ever.

Omar is on the FBI’s most wanted list facing multiple counts of supporting terrorism, and the possibility of multiple life sentences if he ever returns home.

Hammami says there also appears to be internal fighting among Al Shabaab and the split has put Omar in the firing line of other jihadists.

Hammami, who calls Al Shabaab “a bunch of thugs,” says the hostilities have put his son at odds with Al Shabaab’s top leadership.

Hammami says he learns this from Omar’s Twitter posts. Some of the most recent are ominous. Omar has posted pictures of himself, blood oozing from his neck, after what he says was a failed assassination attempt.

While he does not agree with his son’s choices, Hammami, like any parent, still tries to see the best in his son, despite the worst of circumstances.

He says the thugs are after his son because his son objects to their decision to take money from the poor to support a lavish lifestyle, target innocent civilians in their fight, and conduct suicide bombings as part of their mission.

Hammami, his voice with the slightest hint of hope, says: “Omar is against these things. He told the Shabaab leader that these actions are against the Islamic ideals and he told him to correct his ways. And that is why the leader is trying to kill him.”

Others are not so optimistic in their assessment of Omar’s split with the leadership. In jihadist online forums, some say his need for attention and self-seeking actions are the reasons for the infighting.

A 127-page autobiography, reportedly penned by Omar and circulating online in jihadi forums, could be pointed to as evidence supporting that claim. In the document, Omar meticulously describes his path from a child who dreamed of becoming a doctor to an American jihadi and alludes to his desire to stand out:

“I just came to the conclusion that helping the Ummah (Muslim World) is not simply a matter of adding another doctor to the list. I figured we had enough doctors,” the autobiography reads. “One charismatic leader could theoretically ‘make’ more money for the Ummah in a few charity drives than one doctor could ever make in a lifetime.”

The U.S. government offers a more damning assessment that goes beyond mere narcissism, saying it has classified evidence that Omar himself is responsible for masterminding at least one suicide attack in Somalia that killed innocent civilians.

And in that same autobiography, Omar offers his own opinion about why Americans are afraid of him:

“The real fear that the Americans feel when they see an American in Somalia talking about Jihad, is not how skillful he is at sneaking back across the borders with nuclear weapons. The Americans fear that their cultural barrier has been broken and now Jihad has become a normal career choice for any youthful American Muslim. Trying to show them how serious I am about slaughtering Disbelievers is the side of me they would like to capitalize on to estrange the Muslims from our cause,” it reads.

It’s these kinds of inflammatory statements from their son, that leave the Hammami’s struggling to find reason for events unfolding halfway around the globe.

“When you see those pictures, and read those reports, how do you cope?” I ask.

For Hammami, like his wife, the answer is simple. Faith.

“I accept God’s ordain for him and for me,” Hammami explains. “If I don’t accept it as a matter of faith, I cannot endure it. It is the only thing that keeps me from going crazy.”

He pauses for a moment and continues: “If God chose for him to die anywhere on earth, that’s God’s decision, and I accept it.”

He adds: “I wish he could [turn his life around] but he has no good options left. He has no way of tracking back, even if he wants to.”

It has been more than six years since the Hammamis first learned that Omar had fled to Somalia to wage jihad....

And she also apparently thought that essential to being a Muslim was to take up arms against those perceived as Islam's enemies. Where did she get this idea? Is anyone investigating what is taught in her mosque in Michigan, and what they're saying about Sharia in the U.S.? Almost certainly not -- after all, it's a Religion of Peace. But this complacency will almost certainly come back to bite us, just as Nicole Lynn Mansfield's commitment to "the best way of life" came back to bite her.

"Yank died for Syria," from the New York Post, June 1:

The horrors of the Syrian civil war were brought home to a Michigan family when a 33-year-old mother from Flint — raised as a Baptist but who converted to Islam — was gunned down by government troops in a rebel city.

Nicole Lynn Mansfield — labeled a terrorist by the brutal Assad regime — was an unlikely candidate to be the first American among the 70,000 fatalities in the 2-year-old bloodbath.

Mansfield grew up in Flint, the daughter of a General Motors production chief, in what relatives called a “true-blooded American” upbringing. She worked for about 10 years in hospices and group homes as a health-care aide.

For reasons her relatives can’t explain, she converted to Islam about five years ago and in 2008 married an Arab whom she met at a local mosque. She never introduced him to her family.

They divorced soon after he obtained a green card, but she continued to wear a Muslim head scarf. She believed “the best way of life was to be a Muslim,” said her grandmother, Carole Mansfield.

Nicole Mansfield last saw her relatives in December, and gave little hint of her plans. Her aunt, Monica Mansfield-Speelman, thought she was in South Africa.

“We didn’t know she was gone, but Nicole, she was known to take off like that,” Mansfield-Speelman said. “She was a traveler, I guess you could say. She didn’t stay in one place.”

Her 18-year-old daughter Triana Jones knew where she was.

“I know that she was talking to people online, and that they told her about the project in Syria,” she told CNN.

The “project” was “to help free the Syrians from the Syrian government,” she said.

Relatives said Mansfield had no idea what she was getting into.

That's almost certainly true.

Nicole Mansfield “had a heart of gold, but she was weak-minded,” her grandmother told the Detroit Free Press. “I think she could have been brainwashed.”

Jones agreed: “She was interested in going over there to help. And she didn’t think it would be fighting; she told me there wouldn’t be no guns or anything. She would never be involved in that.”

But state-run Syrian TV showed Mansfield’s body in a bullet-riddled car, with a flag of the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra rebel group, in the town of Idlib near the Turkish border. The FBI confirmed her death to family members on Thursday....

Yet another convert to Islam somehow gets the idea that jihad involves hot warfare. Yet no mainstream Muslim organization in the U.S., despite their stated opposition to what they claim is al-Qaeda's twisting and hijacking of true Islamic teaching, has any program designed to teach Muslims (and converts to Islam) to avoid this understanding of Islam. And authorities seem completely indifferent to and clueless as to the implications of that fact.

"Michigan woman dies in Syria fighting for opposition," from Reuters, May 31 (thanks to Anne Crockett):

A 33-year-old Michigan woman and convert to Islam has been killed in Syria while fighting with opposition forces against the government of President Bashar Assad in the country's civil war, her family said on Thursday.

The woman's aunt told Reuters that the FBI had informed her on Thursday afternoon of the death of her niece, Nicole Mansfield of Flint, but said she did not have the details of how she died.

"I'm just devastated," said the aunt, Monica Mansfield Speelman. "Evidently, she was fighting with opposition forces."

Speelman said Mansfield, a single mother of an 18-year-old daughter, had converted to Islam about five years ago but that she did not know when her niece had traveled to Syria.

"I didn't think she would stoop that low to go over there and try to harm anybody," Speelman said of her niece, who she said had worked at a group home....

Yet more American Muslims get the crazy idea that Islam calls for violence -- and still no Muslim group has any program to teach against this view of Islam that they supposedly reject. "Two New Jersey Men With Al Qaeda Links Sentenced to Prison," from Reuters, April 15 (thanks to Lookmann):

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Two New Jersey men were sentenced in federal court on Monday to spend at least two decades in prison for conspiring to join the al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab and wage a holy war against non-Muslims.

Mohamed Alessa, 23, and Carlos Almonte, 27, were arrested in June 2010 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as they were trying to board flights to Egypt, authorities said.

The two men had traveled to Jordan in 2007 to inquire about joining the organization, saved thousands of dollars, practiced tactical maneuvers with paintball guns and acquired knives and night vision equipment, federal prosecutors said.

They bought airline tickets to Egypt, with the intent of traveling on to join the group in Somalia, prosecutors said.

The U.S. State Department considers al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation got a tip about the two men in 2006, and their conversations were secretly recorded the New York Police Department, prosecutors said.

They pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder persons outside the United States on behalf of al Shabaab. Almonte is from Elmwood Park, New Jersey, and Alessa is from North Bergen, New Jersey.

U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise in Newark sentenced Alessa to 22 years in federal prison and Almonte to 20 years in an all-day hearing in Newark.

At the sentencing, a woman sobbed and shouted, "It is not fair. No justice in this country."

As court officials threatened to remove her, she shouted: "It's not your son!"...

When Curly went wrong

Yet another convert to Islam gets the idea that jihad has something to do with killing Infidels. Yet again the Muslim community in the U.S. is not called to account by anyone for failing to institute even a single program to teach against this understanding of Islam that they supposedly reject.

"Accused Alabama terrorist to plead guilty to federal criminal charge," by Brendan Kirby | bkirby@al.com By Brendan Kirby for AL.com, April 10 (thanks to Patrick Poole):

MOBILE, Alabama – An accused terrorist with ties to Birmingham has announced he will plead guilty to the federal charge.

Dom Soto, an attorney for Randy “Rasheed” Wilson, told a judge at a pretrial conference this week that his client will plead guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. A hearing has been scheduled for April 19 before U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose.

A plea agreement has not been filed yet, but Soto said prosecutors have indicated they intend to seek a sentence of 15 years in prison.

“We’re free to argue for less,” he said. “It’s pretty disheartening.”

Wilson, converted to Islam along with his mother after she married an Egyptian man, attended the Birmingham Islamic Society as a young boy and was living in Mobile when a grand jury indicted him last year, had planned to fight the charges. Soto had urged DuBose to dismiss the charges on grounds that they were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. She rejected those arguments last month.

Soto said his client had a change of heart.

“He just wanted to plead guilty and get it over with,” he said.

Prosecutors allege that Wilson conspired with Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, a Syracuse, New York, native he met online in 2010 and who later moved from Egypt to Mobile. Authorities secretly recorded hours of conversations between the two and others in which they discussed committing violent acts in the name of violent jihad, according to the FBI.

Federal agents arrested Wilson in December as he and his family were about to get on a plane in Atlanta bound for Morocco. He planned to rendezvous there with Abukhdair and, according to the allegations, move to another African country where they could insinuate themselves in a jihadist struggle.

According to testimony from an FBI agent at a detention hearing in December, Wilson and Abuhkdair discussed committing violent crimes in Mobile in order to raise money to pay for their travel expenses. Those conversations, which took place in December 2011 and January 2010, focused on robbery.

One idea, according to the testimony, was to target the owners of local businesses for home invasion robberies.

Soto said Wilson was not confident that a jury selected in Mobile would be able to look past some of those inflammatory conversations from two years ago and put them in context.

“Some of the things that he’s said on the tapes are pretty bad,” Soto said....

The pious Reshad Riddle

He quoted the Qur'an after the murder, saying, according to a police officer, that he had "served his purpose." Apparently that purpose had to do with the Qur'an's command to "slay the idolaters wherever ye find them" (9:5).

"Easter Sunday Ashtabula murder case bound over to grand jury," by Shelley Terry for the Star Beacon, April 10:

ASHTABULA — The make of the gun, knives and the terror felt by Easter Sunday church-goers the day Reshad Riddle is accused of killing his father surfaced at his preliminary hearing Tuesday in Municipal Court.

City Solicitor Michael Franklin called three city police officers to the witness stand to share their recollections of what occurred after Riddle allegedly shot Richard Riddle at point blank range outside of Hiawatha Church of God in Christ. Riddle has been charged with aggravated murder, having weapons under disability and carrying a concealed weapon.

After 45 minutes of testimony, Judge Albert Camplese said there was probable cause to send the case over to the Ashtabula County grand jury.

Riddle, 28, who appeared in shackles, an orange jail jumpsuit and a bullet-proof vest, sat at the defense table flanked by public defender Joseph Humpolick.

The first witness, Patrolman Jay Janek said when he arrived on the scene, the elder Riddle was on the ground bleeding profusely, with an obvious gunshot wound to the head.

“He was deceased,” Janek said.

Police found Reshad Riddle inside the church, standing at the podium, he said.

“He had the gun in the air,” Janek said. “He had several knives on him ... we later discovered the Koran on the podium.”

The second witness, Patrolman Thomas Clemens, said he was called to the church Easter Sunday for “a subject in the church waving a handgun.”

Upon arrival, he saw several people running from the church and several people crawling out the narrow windows.

“I pulled two children out of a window,” he said.

As Clemens sat on the witness stand describing the frantic church scene, Riddle calmly stroked his beard and smiled at a child sitting behind him in the courtroom. When Clemens was asked to identify the Easter Sunday shooter, Riddle gave Clemens a little wave.

Clemens testified that once officers transported Riddle to the city jail, they performed a Gunshot Residue Test on his hands.

“He admitted he used a Smith and Wesson .38 Special,” Clemens said. “He referred to the Koran and Allah, quoting passages.”

Upon cross-examination, Humpolick pushed for more details on Riddle’s statements.

Clemens said he wasn’t familiar with the Koran, but remembered Riddle had said he had “served his purpose.”

A third witness for the prosecution, Detective William Felt, said he was called into work at about 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Easter Sunday. His job was to interview Riddle at the Justice Center, he said.

“Riddle told me he shot his father with a Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver,” he said. “He said he wasn’t being respected by his father.”

Felt also said Riddle spoke about religious passages in the Koran.

Humpolick again pressed for details.

“He found solace in his religion after he shot his father,” Felt said....

Of course he did. Allah promises solace to the mujahedin: "Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people and remove the fury in the believers' hearts." (Qur'an 9:14-15)

How did a convert to Islam in Alabama get the idea that his new religion had something to do with waging war? Authorities persist in ignoring this question, and yet it is the key question -- there will be many more Rasheed Wilsons as long as it remains unexamined and shrouded in politically correct fictions.

"Judge refuses defense request to dismiss charges in Alabama terrorism case," by Brendan Kirby for AL.com, March 27 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

MOBILE, Alabama – A federal judge has declined to throw out terrorism-related charges against a man accused of conspiring to wage violent jihad in a foreign country.

Dom Soto, an attorney for Randy “Rasheed” Wilson, had sought the dismissal of charges on grounds that the charges were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. But U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose ruled Tuesday that the charges are neither.

Federal prosecutors allege that Wilson, who was born in Mobile and spent time in Birmingham as an adolescent, struck up a friendship online with Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and then planned to go to Africa and find a terrorist organization to join.

The issue, DuBose wrote, is whether the law adequately describes the outlawed conduct.

“Any ordinary person can understand that it is a crime to conspire to provide your own services, intending that your services be used to carry out a conspiracy to murder, maim or damage property in a foreign country,” the judge wrote. “This is what the government alleges happened in this case.”

DuBose wrote that Soto’s constitutional challenge essentially boils down to a disagreement over the evidence. The defense maintains that Wilson’s actions never amounted to more than constitutionally protected conduct, such as the right to free speech and the right to travel. Prosecutors cited secretly recorded conversations among Wilson, Abukhdair and an undercover agent in arguing that the defendant expressed a very real intent to commit violent acts....

"On the Facebook page, Harroun also stated that 'the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist...'" How did this Muslim from the United States -- where we are constantly told that no Muslims, none, hold the view of Islam put forward by al-Qaeda and groups like it -- come to misunderstand his tolerant, peaceful religion so spectacularly? I ask the question yet again because it exposes the falsity of the view of mainstream media and government view of Islam. Yet no one in authority would dare call U.S. Muslim groups to account.

"Army vet charged with fighting with al-Qaida," by Matthew Barakat for The Associated Press, March 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction — specifically, a rocket propelled grenade launcher — outside the U.S.

According to an FBI affidavit, Harroun, who served three years in the Army before being medically discharged, was engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government, from January to March of this year.

Harroun told FBI investigators that he traveled to Turkey in November hoping to join the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group. In January, he crossed the border and made contact with the Free Syrian Army, which outfitted him two Russian rifles, according to the affidavit.

Within days, Harroun participated in an attack on a Syrian army encampment that was carried out jointly by the Free Syrian Army and the al-Nusrah Front, commonly known as “al-Qaida in Iraq” and designated a terrorist group by the U.S., according to the affidavit.

After that battle, Harroun retreated in the back of an al-Nusrah truck. Harroun told the FBI that at the al-Nusrah camp, he was initially treated like a prisoner but was later accepted by the other members and participated in several attacks with them, according to the affidavit.

Harroun said al-Nusrah fighters would ask him why the U.S. had designated them as terrorists, according to the affidavit.

Harroun used RPG launchers in the attacks and once, on his Facebook page, claimed credit for downing a Syrian helicopter. According to the affidavit, Harroun told the FBI that he shot an estimated 10 people in his various battles, though he was unsure if he had ever killed anyone.

On the Facebook page, Harroun also stated that “the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist” and that he intended to travel to the Palestinian territory because of Israeli atrocities there, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that Harroun served in the Army from 2000 to 2003, when he received a medical discharge after he was injured in a car accident....

Hamas-linked CAIR insists that those who try to join self-described jihad groups are actually misunderstanding Islam and jihad. Yet what are they doing to prevent other young Muslims from misunderstanding Islam in the same way? Why, nothing. "Former Staten Islander convicted of lying to conceal attempts to join jihadist groups," by Frank Donnelly for the Staten Island Advance, March 25 (thanks to Virginia):

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Staten Island resident, who wanted to die as a "martyr" fighting against his native United States, was convicted Monday of lying to the FBI regarding a trip to Pakistan in which he tried to join terrorists, said federal prosecutors.

Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, 23, was found guilty of making false statements in a matter involving international terrorism, said a spokesman for Loretta E. Lynch, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Shehadeh, more recently a resident of Hawaii, faces up to 21 years in prison when sentenced by District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano, a Staten Island resident. A date has not been set.

Shehadeh was charged with three counts of making false statements to the FBI regarding a trip to Pakistan during which he allegedly attempted to join the Taliban or al Qaeda. Shehadeh tried to cover his tracks by telling federal agents he was journeying abroad to visit a university, said Ms. Lynch's spokesman.

A one-time Tottenville High School student, Shehadeh so wanted to join a jihadist group that he flew on a one-way ticket to Islamabad, Pakistan in June 2008, but Pakistani officials turned him away. The U.S. citizen also tried, unsuccessfully, that year to enlist in the U.S. Army at the Times Square recruiting station in Manhattan. Prosecutors said he hoped to deploy to Iraq, where he intended to commit "treason" and kill U.S. soldiers.

Undeterred, Shehadeh, in June 2009, bought an airline ticket from Hawaii to Dubai, but was intercepted by FBI agents who told him he was on a "no fly" list, said prosecutors.

In subsequent interviews, he allegedly admitted he had hoped to join the Taliban and receive training in "guerrilla warfare" and "bomb-making," according to court records.

Shehadeh wanted to die as a "martyr," waging war against his native United States, said prosecutors. He believed he would receive 72 virgins as a reward for giving his life for the jihadist cause, federal court documents said.

Shehadeh was arrested in October 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii, by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force, which had been investigating him and several others concerning a plot to travel overseas and wage violent jihad against the United States and other coalition military forces, according to the criminal complaint against Shehadeh.

After Shehadeh's capture, his former landlord on Seguine Avenue in Prince's Bay told the Advance the defendant never struck him as an extremist. The landlord said Shehadeh, who had lived there with his parents and four brothers, seemed like a typical American teenager, interested in basketball and video games.

However, prosecutors said that wasn't the case.

It isn't actually an either/or.

"Time and again, Shehadeh sought to travel overseas to wage violent jihad against U.S. military forces, going so far as to attempt to infiltrate the U.S. Army," said Ms. Lynch in a statement. "When confronted with his attempts to join a terrorist group and kill American soldiers, he repeatedly lied about his actions and his intentions. Due to the tireless work of our law enforcement partners, the defendant did not succeed in his jihadist goals."...

Hey, he just wanted to study Islam

But he was apparently planning not to stay in Morocco, but to go on to Mauritania, where the Islam is served straight and undiluted, slavery is legal, and it's just a short trip to the hot jihad waging in Mali.

"Alabama Muslim arrested for attempting to flee to Morocco," from RT.com, December 27:

A 25-year-old resident of Mobile, Alabama says he was not trying to plot with terrorists overseas when he bought a plane ticket for him and his family to visit Morocco.

Randy Lamar “Rasheed” Wilson was denied bail over the weekend, and on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges of providing support to international terrorists.

Federal investigators say Wilson, who grew up in the United States, intended on meeting up with fellow Muslims in Morocco in order to plot an act of terror against the United States. His attorneys are adamant about having the charges dropped, however, since they say they are based off of testimonies provided to undercover informants and contain no proof that Wilson intended on committing an act of terror. For the meantime, though, it is likely to be an uphill battle since the government is opposed to unsealing their alleged evidence against Wilson, claiming doing such would endanger national security.

"We are going to fight this all the way," lawyer Domingo Soto told the Associated Press. "We are going to fight the detention, the indictment and the protective order."

In response to his plea, US Magistrate Judge Katherine Nelson has set a tentative trial date of March 3, but cautions that it could be a long ordeal given the unusual circumstances of the case.

"This is obviously the first one of these cases I've handled and maybe the first we've had here in this district," Nelson on Wednesday.

But it probably won't be the last.

The government says Wilson has ties to Omar Hammami, who also at one point resided near Mobile, but later moved to Somalia to join forces with alleged terrorists al-Shabab.

In Mobile on Wednesday, Wilson’s attorney said his client only wanted to take his family to Morocco so that they could study Muslim [sic] in a country where Islam is the dominant religion.

This argument could only possibly fly with those who are ignorant of Islamic teaching regarding jihad.

The noble Rasheed

And he didn't mean getting in his exercise despite a busy schedule, either. "Alabama terror case could hinge on relationships," by Jay Reeves and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel for the Associated Press, December 23:

MOBILE, Ala. — The terrorism case against an Alabama man accused of planning to wage violent jihad in Africa may hinge on just how well he knew a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Randy Wilson as an Islamic radical who wanted to reunite with Omar Hammami, an American who also grew up in Alabama but has since become one of the most well-known jihadists in Somalia. Wilson and another American who lived in Alabama for the last year, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, are accused of plotting to leave the country to join Islamic radicals fighting in North Africa.

The two men were arrested separately about two weeks ago in Georgia. Abukhdair was taken into custody at a bus station; Wilson was arrested as he was about to board a flight to Morocco.

Wilson's attorney has described his client as a devout Muslim who was taking his family to Mauritania to study Islam, not wage jihad. Public defender Domingo Soto also said Wilson didn't live with Hammami, 28, about a decade ago, as the FBI has said, and the attorney questioned how well the two knew each other....

Wilson, 25, has a wife and two young children. He was known around his neighborhood in Mobile, along the Alabama coast, for his big yard sales. He was friendly and outgoing, neighbors said.

Court documents, interviews with acquaintances and a sworn statement by an FBI investigator paint a picture of Wilson's troubled childhood.

Debra Lynn Weaver and Randy Lamar Wilson married in Mobile in 1986 and had Randy Jr. nine months later. Wilson's father was arrested on drug charges in the first of a string of scrapes with the law, and his mother filed for divorce four months later, when he was 1.

Wilson's mother remarried an Egyptian man when he was 5. She converted to Islam with the marriage, and her son eventually became Muslim, too.

Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, remembered first meeting Wilson when he was attending an Islamic school.

"I knew him as a Muslim as a young boy," said Taufique. "He went by Randy and Rasheed."

Soto said Wilson has never been in trouble. While attending a Muslim school in Birmingham, he was offered prestigious scholarships to study abroad at places including Saudi Arabia, Soto said.

Hammami was the president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of South Alabama, the FBI said.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he was quoted in a campus newspaper talking about the attacks.

"Everyone was really shocked. Even now it's difficult to believe a Muslim could have done this," he told The Vanguard.

Yep, it's virtually inconceivable that a Muslim would try to "slay the pagans wherever you find them" (Qur'an 9:5) or "strike terror" into the hearts of the unbelievers (3:151).

Hammami later wrote in an online autobiography that he already had turned toward radicalism by that time and privately praised Allah for the attacks....

Agents already were watching Abukhdair and Wilson by then. The FBI said Abukhdair moved in with Wilson's family and gave the Friday sermon at a mosque in Mobile about a year ago.

Leaders at the mosque didn't return telephone calls seeking comment, and a worker shooed away a reporter who visited.

The FBI said it kept tabs on the pair through an undercover operative. Wilson "described Hammami as a friend and showed the (undercover operative) an al-Qaeda video on his laptop praising jihad and the downfall of the West," the FBI said.

Wilson and Abukhdair began concocting ways to travel to Africa to join in jihad, an agent wrote.

Wilson, the FBI said, believed he would receive "special treatment" in Somalia because of his connection with Hammami.

"In addition to travel plans, they discussed their joy that Omar Hammami is now on the FBI 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list, and were excited that he is now even more famous," said the FBI statement.

Wilson lived next door to Tom Rothaar for two years. Rothaar said he was a friendly neighbor and who would have frequent yard sales with items he bought in bulk from big-box retail stores.

Rothaar said he was "staggered" by Wilson's arrest and tried to make sense of it during a 5-mile run.

"I couldn't," Rothaar said. "The only thing I can think is all the typical clichés about how I cannot believe he was living next door and seemed so normal."

Another decent fellow.

Yet still no Islamic organization in the U.S. offers any strategy to prevent "radicalization" of converts. Now, why is that? "2 of 4 Calif. Terror Suspects Were New Islamic Converts," by Gillian Flaccus for the Associated Press, November 21:

(UPLAND, Calif.) — Three of the young men swept up in a federal terrorism probe grew up in the Southern California suburbs where they played pick-up basketball, ran for homecoming court and sparred in video games with neighborhood kids — a far cry from the wannabe terrorists described by the FBI.

Two of the men converted to Islam less than two years ago and the third, an American-born Vietnamese Muslim, drifted into the orbit of the alleged terror cell as recently as September after a game of paintball. He also is an unemployed high school dropout and new father.

The rapid evolution from suburban teen to aspiring jihadist alleged in court documents blindsided family members, but experts who study homegrown terrorism said the case highlights the susceptibility of new converts to radicalization, particularly among the young.

Conversion to Islam requires just a single statement of faith, but the newly faithful must then choose among a universe of competing interpretations of Islam, many overtly political and easily available on the Internet.

“To convert to Islam you just have to make one statement of faith: ‘There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger.’ But these people did that and then they feel they are Muslim,” said Muhamad Ali, an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, and an expert in Islamic studies.

They don't just "feel" they are Muslim. If they say the shahada in front of a Muslim male witness, then they are Muslim, by every definition of Islam.

“They might pray five times a day, they might fast, but they don’t see Islam in a comprehensive way. Education and understanding are critical and one of the challenges in the United States is to make sure that these converts are in the right hands.”

What are the "right hands"? What is a "comprehensive way"? In any case, in reality, no mosque or Islamic school in the U.S. offers any program to keep converts away from the al-Qaeda understanding of Islam.

According to court documents, the four men arrested late last week in what the FBI called a homegrown terror cell weren’t in the right hands.

Two of the men, Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 21, and Ralph Deleon, 23, converted after meeting 34-year-old Sohiel Omar Kabir in an Ontario, Calif., hookah bar. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan introduced them to the radical Islamist doctrine of the U.S.-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed last year in an American airstrike in Yemen, according to court files unsealed this week.

Kabir later returned to Afghanistan but continued to talk with the Southern California men on Skype. He was taken into custody last weekend.

The fourth defendant, 21-year-old Arifeen David Gojali, joined the group in September after they played paintball together to sharpen their skills, according to court documents.

The father of a baby girl had moved out of his parents’ home two months ago and drifted away as he fell under the sway of Deleon, who was a charismatic and popular worshipper at the mosque the two attended, Gojali’s younger sister told The Associated Press....

All four men are facing charges of providing material support to terrorists, which can carry a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

Authorities won’t say how the investigation began, but at least two members of the group shared their beliefs on Facebook and held Skype phone calls with Kabir — all of which was recorded by an FBI informant or captured by agents monitoring their activity.

Covert FBI agents had conversations with Santana online, where he expressed his support of jihad and desire to join al-Qaida, authorities said....

“The imams should reach out. They have to make the mosques interesting and attractive to young generations and try to understand their psychology, try to address their concerns and have a dialogue,” said Ali, the UC Riverside professor.

“They cannot just say ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ and do nothing. To me, this is a really a challenge for imams, to really address the issue,” he said. “They cannot deny it’s happening, even though it’s a very small minority.”

Indeed. But they will not be doing anything by making mosques "interesting and attractive to young generations." They would have to undertake a radical reinterpretation of the passages of the Qur'an and Hadith that enjoin violence against unbelievers, and a rejection of the mainstream Islamic understanding of those passages. And that is not going to happen.

And oddly enough, while there he somehow never imbibed the True, Peaceful Teachings of Islam. "Terrorism Arrests: Mosque’s members, neighbors react," by David Olson for the Press Enterprise, November 21:

A man who prayed at the same mosque as one of the Inland terrorism suspects arrested last week said he hoped Arifeen David Gojali is sent to jail if he really was plotting to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“Muslim or not Muslim, he should go to jail” if he is guilty, said Gamal Atia, who has worshipped at Masjid al-Sabireen Cham American Muslim Community in downtown Pomona for 11 years.

Atia, 55, of Pomona, said he regularly saw Gojali pray at the mosque with his parents and brother.

“He's a good person,” Atia said. “They're nice people. I'd see him on Friday and in the evenings sometimes.”...

If Gojali is guilty, “I'm very, very sorry,” Atia said. “This is not our religion. Islam is a religion of peace.”

Atia said people shouldn't blame Islam for the actions of a small number of extremists, just as all Christians shouldn't be blamed for the actions of Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 and injuring more than 600. McVeigh was raised Catholic but before he was executed in 2001 identified as agnostic, according to news reports.

This is the usual boilerplate. It never discusses the fact that jihadis use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence, in a way that no one uses the texts and teachings of Christianity.

Atia said that if Gojali is guilty, people should focus on him as an individual, not as a Muslim.

“It's not the religion,” he said. “It's the people who are crazy.”

His comments echoed those by Inland Islamic leaders on Tuesday, who said they worried that the arrests of the four suspected terrorists would increase fear of Muslims. They condemned terrorist acts and said that if the men are guilty, they weren't following Islamic teaching.

The men — Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, a former Pomona resident who had moved to Afghanistan; Ralph Deleon, 23, of Ontario; Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 21, of Upland; and Gojali — were arrested last week after an FBI investigation found they had been plotting to join the Taliban and al-Qaida and wanted to attack U.S. bases in Afghanistan....

The imam of the mosque, who Atia said he knows only as Imam Kassem, is from Cambodia or Vietnam. He's been gone for about three weeks, apparently for a trip to Southeast Asia, Atia said....

The tan-and-cream-colored building does not have a sign identifying it as a mosque. The only indications it is an Islamic center are a parking lot sign that says, “For Imam Parking Only” in front of a space near the entrance doors, and Arabic writing in a side window.

Melkus has been in the neighborhood almost every weekday morning over the past four years to auction properties at the nearby Los Angeles County courthouse.

He said he's never noticed anyone enter or leave the building.

Mike Bee, who also works at the courthouse almost every weekday morning and parks near the mosque, said the arrest of Gojali worries him.

“I'll probably be more cautious,” said Bee, 47, of Los Angeles. “There could be terrorists in there. This just gives me a reason to believe there are more of them out there, for sure.”

Maria Gonzalez, whose morning walk takes her past the mosque every day , said she typically sees about eight people milling about before or after the dawn prayers.

Gonazalez [sic], 58, said in Spanish that she and her neighbors had long been nervous of seeing men in Islamic skullcaps at the mosque.

“We were afraid,” she said. “I thought they might be terrorists.”

Now that she knows a mosque worshipper was arrested on terrorism, she's even more nervous.

“You can't tell who it is who wants to kill people,” she said....

Stephanie Reyes, 24, who lives about two blocks from the mosque, said she was never worried about extremists at the Islamic center — until now.

Until now!

This kind of thing is common, and yet witless mainstream media reporters still swallow uncritically what smoothly deceitful Islamic supremacist spokesmen tell them about jihad.

More on this story. "California terrorist suspects talked of 'violent jihad,' FBI says," from the Los Angeles Times, November 20:

California men charged with plotting to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban discussed "committing violent jihad," according to the criminal complaint in the terrorist case released Monday.

In all, four men with Southern California ties were charged in the international terrorist plot that authorities say stretched from the Inland Empire to Afghanistan.

Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, a former Pomona resident, allegedly left the United States last year and traveled to Afghanistan in July to set up terrorist training with Al Qaeda and Taliban members, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday in federal court.

Kabir is accused of converting Ontario resident Ralph Deleon, 23, and Upland resident Alejandro Santana, 21, to "radical and violent Islamic doctrine," according to the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside. The men allegedly sought to target Americans.

Santana and Kabir allegedly posted terrorist audio and video files on the Facebook pages and communicated via Skype when Kabir was overseas, federal authorities said in the complaint.

Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2001, according to court records filed with the complaint. The records did not specify why Kabir spent only a year in the service....

"At various times," the complaint alleged, "Santana and Deleon discussed their preferred roles in committing violent jihad," according to the complaint. Santana allegedly said he wanted to be a sniper, and Deleon said he wanted to be on the "front lines."

The men allegedly went to shooting ranges, where they practiced firing semiautomatic weapons, according to the complaint.

In September, Santana and DeLeon recruited Riverside resident Arifeen David Gojali, 23, to travel overseas with them and join Kabir for terrorist training, according to federal authorities. Gojali is a U.S. citizen....

Raheem and Gojali: still more misunderstanders of Islam

"Evidence in this case demonstrates that the defendants used the word “jihad” to refer to armed combat." These guys must be greasy Islamophobes. Don't they know that jihad is just about paying your taxes and getting the kids to school? Ahmed Rehab, call your office!

"FBI: Four Local Men Arrested in Terrorist Plot to Kill Americans," from KTLA News, November 19 (thanks to J.M.):

RIVERSIDE -- Four Southern California men have been charged with plotting to join Al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan in order to kill Americans.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, the defendants conspired to provide material support to terrorists in preparation for or in carrying out: conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons and damage property in a foreign country, killing and attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States, killing nationals of the United States, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States; and bombing places of public use and government facilities.

The defendants, listed below, are also known by alias identities listed in the criminal complaint.

Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, a former resident of Pomona and naturalized United States citizen, born in Afghanistan.

• Ralph Deleon, 23, of Ontario, a lawful permanent resident alien, born in the Philippines.

• Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales (further described herein and in the criminal complaint as “Santana”), 21, of Upland, a lawful permanent resident, born in Mexico and whose application for citizenship is pending in the United States.

• Arifeen David Gojali, 21, of Riverside, a United States citizen.

The complaint, which was unsealed today during the defendants’ initial appearance in U.S. District Court, alleges that in 2010, Kabir introduced Deleon and Santana to radical and violent Islamic doctrine and various extremist material, including essays and lectures by now-deceased Al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula leader, Anwar Al-Awlaqi.

Kabir traveled overseas in December 2011 and later to Afghanistan in July 2012, where he continued to communicate with Santana and DeLeon to arrange for their travel to join him in Afghanistan, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that Kabir told Santana and Deleon that he had made contacts with individuals who have connections to terrorist organizations.

Kabir further said that he would wait for their arrival before departing to a training location in Afghanistan and that, when they arrived, they would meet “the students” and “the professors.”

According to the complaint, the term “students” referred to the Taliban and the term “professors” referred to Al-Qa’ida.

The complaint alleges that Santana and Deleon told a confidential source working for the FBI, identified in the complaint as the “CS,” that they planned to travel to Afghanistan to engage in “violent jihad.”

In addition, the defendants described potential targets for violent attacks, including overseas American military personnel and bases, according to the complaint.

Evidence in this case demonstrates that the defendants used the word “jihad” to refer to armed combat, according to the complaint....

For example, Santana stated that he had experience with firearms and that he wanted to become a sniper. Deleon stated he wanted to be on the front lines with a second choice of explosives. Both men also indicated they were willing to kill an enemy.

In September 2012, Deleon and Santana recruited defendant Gojali to join them and to travel overseas to commit violent jihad, as alleged in the complaint.

The complaint further alleges that defendants Santana, Deleon and Gojali made plans to join Kabir in Afghanistan to attend terrorist training, and that they arranged travel logistics, including flight arrangements and required documentation.

The complaint details the defendants’ activity in raising funds for their travel to Afghanistan and their discussion of various cover stories and code words they could use to conceal their true intentions when traveling abroad.

The complaint further alleges that Santana, Deleon, and Gojali conducted preliminary training in southern California at firearms and paintball facilities to prepare for terrorist training overseas.

Defendants Santana, Deleon and Gojali were apprehended on Friday without incident by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and had their initial appearance before a federal magistrate this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Riverside, California....

John Walker Lindh, Adam Gadahn, Omar Hammami -- three ordinary American boys who ended up misunderstanding the Religion of Peace and become jihad terrorists. And yet Muslim groups in the U.S. are doing nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to prevent other young Muslims from misunderstanding Islam in the same way. Now, what does that tell you?

"Alabama native is on FBI's 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list," by Deborah Pugatch for ABC 3340, November 14:

An Alabama man believed to be operating with terrorists in Somalia has been added to the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorist" list.

In 2010, the Justice Department said Omar Shafik Hammami had become a top recruiter for al-shabab, an Islamic militant group with ties to al-Qaeda. The FBI now says Hammami is a senior leader in the terror group.

Officials say Hammami, who grew up in Daphne and is a former South Alabama student, lives in Somalia.

In 2007, Hammami was indicted originally in the Southern District of Alabama on terrorism violations. A superseding indictment was returned against Hammami in 2009 on terrorism violations for leaving the United States to join the Somalia-based terrorist organization, al-Shabaab.

Hammami is alleged to have provided material support to terrorists as early as 2006.

On December 13, 2007, a federal warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Southern District of Alabama, for Hammami's arrest.

In September 2009, ABC 33/40 wrote a story about Hammami being indicted by a grand jury in Mobile on charges of providing material support to terrorists.

Just recently, the FBI added Hammami to its list of "Most Wanted Terrorists."

How did this "US man" come to misunderstand Islam so spectacularly? What is Honest Ibe Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR and his gang of thugs doing to keep other US men from misunderstanding Islam in a way that will keep them from joining al-Qaeda in Yemen?

"US man suspected of links to al-Qaeda arrested in Yemen," from the BBC, October 9 (thanks to S.B.):

A US citizen suspected of having links to al-Qaeda has been arrested in Yemen, officials have told the BBC.

The man was detained in Ataq, in the province of Shabwa, the scene of an ongoing conflict between Islamist militants and Yemen's armed forces.

He was then transferred by military plane to the capital, Sanaa, where he was being investigated by the security services, the officials said.

The arrest took place on Monday. No details were given about his identity.

The man was wearing Arab clothes when he was arrested in the Sharqa Hotel in Ataq, according to a report on the privately-owned Yemeni news website, Yemen Fox, which quoted a local official.

The suspect spoke English, said he was a Muslim, and had three passports - two US and one German - in his possession, another official was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Southern Yemen is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed in 2009 by a merger between two regional offshoots of the Islamist militant network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency said AQAP, which has mounted several plots against the US, had "emerged as the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad".

In May, the US backed a Yemeni military offensive to recapture areas of Shabwa and the neighbouring province of Abyan, where militants linked to AQAP had established an "Islamic emirate".

How did an imam come to misunderstand the supposedly peaceful religion that he had dedicated his life to studying and teaching, so as to get the amazing notion that it had something to do with the murder of unbelievers? Why does no one in the mainstream media think it anything other than "Islamophobic" even to ask such a question? Are there other imams of this kind in the U.S.? Does anyone in authority know or care?

More on this story. "WFTV obtains new documents in case of Imam, man facing charges in anti-terrorism investigation," from WFTV.com, August 27 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — On Monday night, WFTV learned more about what federal agents say a central Florida Imam and another local man, who are facing charges in an FBI anti-terrorism investigation, were planning.

WFTV's Kathi Belich obtained new documents in the top secret case, which show they might have been plotting with others to kill high-ranking Americans in the military overseas.

New court documents show a central Florida Imam is suspected of being involved in a travel network to send people overseas to commit violent jihad or holy war.

WFTV first reported about the arrest of Imam Abu Taubah last year on a weapons charge just days before the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He's a former prayer leader of the Masjid Al-Ihsaan mosque in East Orange County. Federal agents said the Imam is really convicted felon Marcus Dwayne Robertson.

New documents allege Robertson was training Jonathan Paul Jimenez, who had moved to central Florida from New York, in skills necessary to "participate in violent jihad overseas," skills like martial arts, firearms and knife training.

Federal prosecutors said in June 2011, Jimenez, with the help of Robertson and others, was making plans to travel overseas.

According to documents, during a recorded call, Jimenez told a confidential government source that Robertson told him "it was permissible or obligatory to kill members of the armed forces, specifically generals" and that Robertson showed him what a general's stars look like.

Jimenez also was recorded saying Robertson told him suicide bombings were "permissible," according to documents....

Of course: Qur'an 9:111 promises Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah.

Note that while this report does mention "jihad" by name, it never actually gets around to specifying what kind of "religious instruction" was tied to Jimenez's terror training. If Jimenez had been a "Christian extremist" plotting a similar attack (assuming that such a plotter can be found outside of the movies), the media reports would not have been remotely so circumspect regarding the source of his motivations. "Man accused of terrorist aspirations pleads guilty to federal charges," from WFTV.com, August 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

An Orange County man suspected by the FBI of trying to hatch a terrorist plot to kill members of the U.S. military serving overseas has pleaded guilty to two federal charges in connection with the alleged plot.

Jonathan Jimenez, 28, was polite in an Orlando Federal courtroom Tuesday morning, where he admitted to tax fraud and lying to the FBI.

Jimenez admitted to a federal magistrate judge that he did talk about waging violent jihad, or holy war, against high-ranking military members overseas.  But he said the talk was just "chest-thumping," to make himself look important. And he said that he lied to the FBI about it.

"I know that I have made false statements to the FBI," said Jimenez.

The judge asked what he lied about and Jimenez responded "terrorist acts."

Hey, at least he was polite.

Federal prosecutors said Jimenez's secretly recorded phone call with a confidential government source indicated that he had received terrorist training from convicted felon Marcus Robertson, the former imam of an east Orange County mosque. Agents said the training included martial arts, firearm and knife training.

Jimenez said he wanted to die on the battlefield as a martyr, according to documents obtained by WFTV.

According to those documents Jimenez said Robertson tied the training into religious instruction, allegedly telling him it was permissible to kill U.S. military generals, and that suicide bombings were also permissible.

Jimenez claimed in court that he never intended to carry out the terrorist acts, and that he did not believe Robertson was planning to go through with any plans either.

Jimenez admitted to getting a fraudulent $5,000 tax refund, with Robertson's help, which the FBI said he was planning to use for his overseas travel expenses in the terrorist plot....

Boyd is yet another convert to Islam who misunderstood his new, peaceful religion. Yet no Muslim group in the U.S. has any program in place to try to keep converts from misunderstanding Islam in this way. How odd!

"Leader of Triangle terror cell, associate sentenced to prison," from WRAL, August 24 (thanks to David):

NEW BERN, N.C. — More than three years after their arrests, the Johnston County leader of a local terrorist cell and one of the cell members were sentenced Friday to federal prison for plotting to wage jihad on targets they saw as enemies of Islam.

Daniel Patrick Boyd, who pleaded guilty about 18 months ago to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. Since then, he has cooperated with the government to convict his followers, received an 18-year sentence.

Anes Subasic, who was the last member of the group convicted when a jury found him guilty in June of the same charges, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

They were among eight men who federal investigators say raised money, stockpiled weapons and trained in preparation for jihadist attacks against American military and foreign targets. Seven of them were arrested in July 2009.

The eighth member of the group, Jude Kenan Mohammad, has never been arrested. Authorities said they believe he is in Pakistan, although some people have suggested he is dead.

Boyd was apologetic upon hearing his sentence, which also included a $3,000 fine, in the federal courtroom in New Bern.

"That was not me. That was something I allowed myself to become. Please, everyone, as best you can, forgive me," he said.

The 42-year-old said he grew up in a home where his father often criticized the U.S., and he said the stress from family and health issues later allowed him to fall into extremism.

"That very American spirit inside of me pushed me to do what is correct," he said of his cooperation with prosecutors. "There is never a wrong time to do the right thing."

Subasic, 36, of Holly Springs, took the opposite tack, erupting in the courtroom when his sentence was announced.

The Bosnian native represented himself in the case, presented 200 pages of objections during a four-hour hearing and screamed at Senior U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan and federal prosecutors.

"I'm not guilty. I'm not a terrorist. I'm not Muslim. I can't repent for something I didn't do," he said, arguing that he was convicted by witnesses who lied and flimsy government evidence.

"I have nothing to do with it. This is stupid and retarded," he said.

When prosecutors suggested a life sentence for Subasic, he yelled, "How about two life sentences?"

Flanagan called Subasic a "bully" with a "grandiose sense of self-importance." In addition to his prison sentence, she fined him $1,000 and ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation while behind bars.

Last September, Subasic also was found guilty of two counts of unlawful procurement of citizenship.

Boyd's two sons, Dylan and Zakariya, pleaded guilty last summer and were sentenced to eight and nine years in prison, respectively.

Hysen Sherifi, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan and Ziyad Yaghi were convicted in a trial last fall. Sherifi, whose charges included plotting an attack on the Marine base in Quantico, Va., received a 45-year prison sentence, while Yaghi was sentenced to more than 31 years in prison and Hassan received a 15-year sentence.