WASHINGTON, June 15, 2009
Fears Rise Over Homegrown Jihadism
Recruiting Station Rampage Sparks Concerns About Rise Of Radicals Born And Bred In U.S.
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Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, pictured in a Little Rock, Ark., courtroom, charged with fatally shooting one soldier and wounding another at a recruting station. Born Carlos Bledsoe in Tennessee and later a convert to Islam, Muhammad said that the shootings were an "act for the sake of God," as well as revenge for claims that U.S. troops had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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National security officials have long feared the emergence of a new breed of American militants who would raise little suspicion as they move in and out of the country carrying out the aims of terrorist groups like al Qaeda.
"It's the manifestation of a problem that the counterterrorism community has been worried about all along," said CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate, a top counterterrorism official in the Bush administration. Their worries center on "a radicalized individual who decides to take matters into his own hands."
Abdulhakim Muhammad, who grew up in Memphis, Tenn., converted to the Islamic faith, changed his name from Bledsoe, and traveled to Yemen in 2007. He was later arrested for overstaying his visa and deported back to the U.S., where he slid quietly into life in Little Rock, Ark., apparently unnoticed by U.S. law enforcement.
Muhammad was charged with killing Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, of Conway, Ark., who had just completed basic training and was volunteering at the west Little Rock recruiting office before starting an assignment in South Korea. He was shot dead on June 1 while smoking a cigarette outside the building. A fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Ark., was wounded. And an FBI-Homeland Security intelligence assessment document suggested Muhammad may have considered targeting other locations, including Jewish and Christian sites in several eastern U.S. cities.
Muhammad, 23, told The Associated Press in a jail cell interview last week that the shootings were an "act for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military."
Former West Point researcher and jihadist expert Jarret Brachman calls the Arkansas killing a landmark case and "a giant step forward for the global jihadist movement." Brachman, who wrote a book on global jihad, said Muhammad's case proves that the U.S. can no longer pretend that violent jihadism is a foreign phenomenon.
"It is being born and bred here on American soil," he said. "The seeds have all been sown over the past few years, between Iraq and Afghanistan on our side, and the increased propaganda and increased jihadi education materials on their side."
While Western Europe has long grappled with homegrown terrorists, the U.S. has only recently begun to see instances of American-born-and-raised citizens acting on Islamic terrorist motivations. Counterterror officials say Muhammad succeeded where other homegrown militant plotters have largely failed.
Earlier this year four Muslim ex-convicts were arrested in New York for allegedly plotting to bomb synagogues and shoot down military planes. While federal authorities foiled the plan, the incident inflamed concerns about the spread of Islamic extremism in prisons.
That fear has been exacerbated in recent months by the debate over transferring suspected Islamic terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to U.S. prisons.
Muslim converts who bonded in prison were also linked to a 2005 plot to launch jihad-style attacks against Jewish and military targets in California. Law enforcement authorities investigating a string of gas station robberies uncovered the plan when they found a list of targets including three California National Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles and several synagogues.
In some ways, violence plotted or committed by a lone gunman poses a greater threat than the actions of a group of plotters because there are no conspirators to help expose or allow for infiltration of the plot, said Zarate, now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
At the same time, he said, an individual's attack may not have the same impact or widespread damage as one planned by a group against multiple, strategic targets.
(CBS)
"There are very few ways to prevent them ... short of assigning a police officer to every person in America," said the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok.
Counterterrorism officials warn that unless individuals attract attention either through criminal behavior or even threat-laced Internet postings, U.S.-born radicals - particularly those operating alone - could go unseen until they take action.
"One of the scariest things is that we don't have a profile for how someone becomes radicalized," said counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt. "It's different for everybody."
"It can happen on the Internet. It can happen in prison. It can happen in a mosque," said Levitt, who formerly worked with the FBI and Treasury Department. "There are different ways it manifests itself and that demonstrates how serious a problem it is."
Muhammad, in recent comments, denied he was radicalized in Yemen, a lawless, violence-wracked country where extremists are known to seek safe haven. In his interview with the AP, Muhammad said he acted out of revenge for claims that U.S. troops had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims.
Levitt, co-author of a recent study on radicalization by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the U.S. needs to ensure that agencies work to maintain positive relations with the Muslim community. He and others point to Britain's efforts to counter extremist messages with more moderate Islamic voices, particularly within those communities.
"We can create space for lots of multiple competing voices - religious voices, secular voices," said Levitt. "The more voices out there, the more there will be competition for people who may be upset or frustrated about something but need not necessarily express themselves in a violent nature."
By Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 174 Commentskill them all .. extremist like these are like a virus... just kill them all
Any citizen who wishes to destroy the US should be treated like former members of the Confederacy after the Civil War: can't own property, can't vote, can't own a gun, etc...
The exception should be NATURALIZED citizens. If we catch a naturalized citizen at a mosque or comunist rally or whatever screaming "death to America" we should consider that person's naturalization null and void. If you want the US to die then you obviously perjured yourself during your naturalization ceremony.
These people should be sent back to where they came WITHOUT the money and property they earned while living here under false pretences.
by stuart2012 June 15, 2009 6:54 PM PDT
I thought they only got paid if someone clicks...
In response to your last question: deen means religion. Can't recall
what sayfud is but want to say it means "star" or "star of"....my arabic is awfully rusty.
by sayfud-deen June 15, 2009 6:31 PM PDT
It isn't protection--IT'S EXPLOITATION! And it is a choice FORCED on nonmuslims by muslims. That's what is wrong with it--it's always FORCED. Those aren't God's rules, they're mohammed's and he is the one who is really the problem.
Any of you guys like this new format?
No but you miss the point...if it sucks people won't use it. CBS doesn't get any money out of forums like these.
by sayfud-deen June 15, 2009 5:31 PM PDT
Yes, and you're selling of your 10-year-old girls to pay off your debts! How much human trafficking is going through turkey or albania or malaysia?? How much drugs through afghanistan or morocco? How many failed states like somalia, afghanistan, yemen--all with 100% muslim populations....You point out the speck in you brother eye and miss the beam in yours!
-LOL
A CONSERVATIVE AND A REPUBLI''CON''
IN FACT, FIND SOME EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS A SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN A MUSLIM JIHADIST AND A CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL,
YOU ARE FULL OF IT WITH YOUR SELF RIGHTEOUS IDEATION
Posted by wallyj16 at 3:44 PM : Jun 15, 2009
No argument there. Anyone who has ever lived in THAT country knows tolerance saudi-style is a complete joke.
Worst of all, all the pilgrims who make the hajj or umrah get to listen to preaching from America-hating clerics. So you see, a lot of what is wrong with this world starts right there.
Posted by sayfud-deen at 4:57 PM : Jun 15, 2009
There was a spokeswoman from CAIR who made that exact claim numerous times after 9/11. I'm pretty sure she wasn't alone, but I'm certain I saw her on all the news channels making that exact claim.
Posted by sayfud-deen at 4:57 PM : Jun 15, 2009
The koran is not the sole source of teaching. If that were the case no one would be concerned with the hadith. And that is exactly the problem: everything centers on mohammed's cult of personality. So if he wrote it in the koran or not or if there is some doubt as to how we should interpret what is there we need to look at stories about mohammed or sayings that are supposed to originate from him (or his companions).
Here is how muslims force islam on others: by persecuting, even killing, those who might have been born into that faith and have since decided they want no part of it.
Look at the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, the threats against Ayan Hirsi Ali,
Or how about the centuries of bigotry and discrimination commited by both the arabs and the turks against nonmuslim dzimmi?
Posted by sayfud-deen at 4:57 PM
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Muslims seem to be doing a quite acceptable job of that themselves in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and now, Iran.
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