Posted on 02/18/2010 4:35:57 PM PST by BIOCHEMKY
12/10/2009 - Five young Muslim American men were arrested in Pakistan yesterday after police raided a house with alleged ties to Islamic militants, according to various media reports. Their discovery in Pakistan yesterday is one more piece of evidence that radicalized American Muslims are traveling overseas for training in their desire to wage jihad.
The men, ranging in age from their late teens to their mid 20s, vanished from their Northern Virginia suburbs in late November. When they arrived in Pakistan, according to The New York Times, the five men went searching for extremist contacts in an effort to reach Afghanistan and fight U.S.-led forces.
After touching down in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, the men tried to join an extremist Islamic school near Karachi and approached another extremist organization, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in the eastern city of Lahore, the officials said.
They were rebuffed in both places because of their Western demeanor and the fact that they did not speak the national language, Urdu, an investigator said. They then came here, to Sargodha, a city in the north of Punjab Province, en route to North Waziristan, said the police chief of Sargodha, Usman Anwar.
The men were arrested at the home of an uncle of the eldest of the group, Umer Farooq, 25. Farooq's parents were also in the house during the raid and his father, Khalid, was also arrested. He is alleged to have ties with Jaish-e-Mohammed, an outlawed militant group fighting for the disputed territory of Kashmir with India, and also knew his son was wanted by the FBI, reports the Times.
The men's plans were ultimately broken up by their families in the United States, who reported that their sons may have traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad after one family found a farewell video message with bloody scenes of war and a declaration that Muslims had to be defended, reports The Associated Press. The families sought the counsel of the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim-American advocacy group, which in turn put the families in contact with the FBI.
CNN.com reports that a law enforcement officer said none of the five men were on law enforcement's radar before their families came forward. This may be another indicator that al Qaeda and likeminded jihadists are trying to recruit "clean skins"—men with no criminal records or ties to terrorism that are comfortable in Western settings—as al Qaeda expert Peter Bergen has argued.
The young men's radicalization process seems to have one common similarity with other cases of Westernized Muslims turned jihadists: the Internet. Sargodha's police chief, Usman Anwar, described the group's online activities to the Times.
The five men bonded together in the jihadi cause, watching jihadist video clips on YouTube that showed attacks by the Taliban on allied forces in Afghanistan, he said. The group also maintained a common e-mail address, Chief Anwar said. Employing a technique widely used among militants, they left their comments in the “draft” box of the e-mail address so that they could all easily read the comments.
The men appeared to have come to the attention of “Saifullah” — an Islamic militant with links to Al Qaeda — through their YouTube activities, the police chief said.
The arrests come just days after the Department of Justice brought additional charges against David C. Headley, 49, a Chicago businessman who federal authorities say helped plot the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Headley was already in custody for planning to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Other recent cases have also ratcheted up the concern that Muslim Americans are increasingly open to jihadist radicalization. In September, Najibullah Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle bus driver, was arrested for plotting to strike the United States, probably New York City, with homemade hydrogen-peroxide-based bombs. Zazi had traveled to Pakistan for explosives training, according to the FBI.
Federal law enforcement is also concerned about radicalization within the Somali community of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where approximately 20 young men have been recruited to fight for an Islamist militia that is trying to wrestle control of the country away from a weak U.N.-backed central government. In October 2008, Minneapolis resident Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in a terrorist attack in Somalia. He is considered the first American suicide bomber in history.
The rash of these cases has led counterterrorism experts to reexamine their belief that American Muslims are more immune to jihadist radicalization than European Muslims, reports The Wall Street Journal.
5 U.S. Men Arrested in Pakistan Said to Plan Jihad
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/asia/11inquire.html?_r=2&hp
...The case has renewed concerns that American citizens, some with ethnic ties to Pakistan and other Muslim countries, are increasingly at the center of terrorist plots against the United States and other nations.
The youths, from Virginia, may end up being at least the fourth case prosecuted this year in which Muslim Americans traveled to Pakistan to link up with what remains a sprawling network of militant groups in the country.
Earlier this week, an American citizen of Pakistani background, David Coleman Headley, was charged in Chicago with helping plot the 2008 rampage in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160 people.
In September, F.B.I. agents and police detectives arrested Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Denver airport shuttle bus driver and former coffee-cart vendor, who prosecutors say had traveled to Pakistan for explosives training with two friends from New York. In January, Bryant Neal Vinas, a convert to Islam with family roots in South America, pleaded guilty to receiving training from Al Qaeda after traveling to Pakistan in 2008.
I wonder if any of these are ones that are reported to have “disappeared” in the US. Wasn’t there an entire compound that seems to have emptied out?
You cant call them American, even if they did leave from here. They never had any loyalties to America, only to what riches they could extract. All these muslims need to be rounded up and shipped out. The sooner the better.
I posted this thread because according to CBN News the 5 AMERICAN muslim men arrested in Pakistan may be related to the Fort Jackson food Poisoning incident that occurred at about the same time in December and is presently still under investigation.
It’s really surprising to read that CAIR had the family get in touch with the FBI.
Guess a broken clock is right twice a day.
Watching youtube and flying to Karachi does not a terrorist make. The terrorist’s have higher standards than some bonehead, youtube watching, goofballs with money for a plane ticket, that wonder around asking ISF agents where they can jihad-down....apparently.
Let’s not jump to conclusions...
Look at the date on this. There have been dozens of threads on these guys.
If so, why is it on breaking news on TV today?
What is breaking news today is the situation at Fort Jackson. This was posted because supposedly the people at Fort Jackson were in contact with the five guys who were arrested in Pakistan in December. This post was not very clear, was it?
Wow, I guess I'm getting my groups of 5 muslim terrorists mixed up. But, of course, we shouldn't connect any dots or jump to any conclusions. /s
BTW, I wonder if CAIR has released any statements yet...they're always good for a lie or two.
These fellows are good for suicide bombing operations.
PROGRAM here
GET ‘YER PROGRAM here
CAN’T TELL ONE TERRORIST FROM ANOTHER WITHOUT ‘YER PROGRAM
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