Call him Inshallah-Indicted, perhaps. An update on this story. “Jihadist blogger thought to be creator of Al Qaeda website could be indicted on terrorism charges,” by Meena Hartenstein for the New York Daily News, August 18:
A jihadist blogger accused of running an online how-to guide for Al Qaeda could be charged with terrorism very soon, sources say.
A federal grand jury has started reviewing evidence against Samir Khan, a 24-year-old who ran a militant Islamic website out of his parents’ basement, and is now suspected of being behind the Al Qaeda magazine Inspire, NPR reports.
Inspire, a 67-page mag published online in June, slapped snappy titles on terrorist advice columns like “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” and ran items like a packing guide for what to take on a jihad trip.
It instantly attracted FBI attention, and intelligence agents noted eerie similarities between Inspire and Khan’s own blog, “Inshallahshaheed” which translates to “A martyr if God wills.”
“There were choices in content and how it was created that echoed what Samir Khan had done with his blog several years back,” a federal source said when the site surfaced.
Khan, who neighbors haven’t seen in months, is said to have flown to Yemen in October. Last summer he told people at his local mosque that he was moving to teach English and learn Arabic, NPR reports.
Shortly after he left, Inspire popped up.
Authorities are now investigating if Khan actually left to join a terrorist group targeting Americans. They think he was recruited by Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical cleric who has been connected to the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a plane headed to Detroit.
Intelligence officials believe Khan accepted an invitation from al-Awlaki to come to Yemen.
The grand jury is now deliberating whether there is enough evidence to charge Khan with “material support to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder overseas,” sources close to the case told NPR….