Pitching jihad to America, North Carolina blogger is an Internet foot soldier for violent Islamists

News & Observer ^ | October 15, 2007 | Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet, The New York Times

[mykdsmom]

When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word."America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness," he wrote on his blog. "America is known to be a people of arrogance."

Unlike bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents' home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.

In recent days, he has featured "glad tidings" from a North African militant leader whose group slaughtered 31 Algerian troops. He posted a scholarly treatise arguing for violent jihad, translated into English. He listed hundreds of links to secret sites from which his readers could obtain the latest blood-drenched insurgent videos from Iraq.

His neatly organized site also includes a file called "United States of Losers," which showcased a recent news broadcast about a firefight in Afghanistan with this added commentary from Khan: "You can even see an American soldier hiding during the ambush like a baby!! AllahuAkbar! AllahuAkbar!"

Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Queens, N.Y., is an unlikely foot soldier in what al-Qaeda calls the "Islamic jihadi media." He has grown up in middle-class America and wrestles with his worried parents about his religious fervor. Yet he is stubborn. "I will do my best to speak the truth, and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached," Khan said in an interview.

While there is nothing to suggest that Khan is operating in concert with militant leaders, or breaking any laws, he is part of a growing constellation of apparently independent media operators who are broadcasting the message of al-Qaeda and other groups.

Terrorism experts at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., say there are as many as 100 English-language sites along with Khan's, which claims 500 regular readers. While their reach is difficult to assess, it is clear from a review of extremist material and interviews that militants are seeking to appeal to young American and European Muslims by playing on their anger over the war in Iraq and the image of Islam under attack.

Tedious Arabic screeds are reworked into flashy English productions. Grainy car-bombing tapes are turned into slick hip-hop videos and montage movies, all readily available on Western sites such as YouTube, the online video smorgasbord.

"It is as if you would watch a Hollywood movie," said Abu Saleh, a 21-year-old German devotee of al-Qaeda videos who visits Internet cafes in Berlin twice a week to get the latest releases. "The Internet has totally changed my view on things."

Message for the West

Al-Qaeda and its followers have used the Internet to communicate and rally support for years, but in the past several months the Western tilt of the message and the sophistication of the media have accelerated. So has the output. Since the beginning of the year, al-Qaeda's media operation, Al Sahab, has issued new videotapes as often as every three days. Even more come from Iraq, where insurgents are pumping them out daily.

Last spring, al-Qaeda made what analysts say was a bold attempt to tap potential supporters in the United States. In a videotaped interview, Ayman al-Zawahri, a bin Laden lieutenant, praised Malcolm X and urged American blacks and other minorities to see that "we are waging jihad to lift oppression from all of mankind."

Among those who posted a link to the YouTube version was Khan, the North Carolina blogger, who said he was struck by the simplicity in the messages of both al-Qaeda and Malcolm X.

"They are geniuses for having the ability to mold their ideology into simple yet influential messages that can reach the grass-roots level," he said.

Khan produces his blog anonymously but was identified by The Times through the e-mail account he used in previous online discussions. (Pictures he had posted online helped The Times distinguish him from another, unrelated North Carolina resident, about 10 years older, who has the same name. The Times did not reveal the blogger's hometown for fear of violence against him.) In an interview at a local mosque, Khan traced his increasing militancy.

His early postings, beginning in 2003, promoted strengthening Islam in North America through nonviolent confrontations. But with the escalating war in Iraq, bloodshed became a recurrent theme.

He described his favorite video from Iraq: a fiery suicide-bomber attack on an American outpost. "It was something that brought great happiness to me," he said.

Asked how he felt living among people who had sent soldiers to Iraq, Khan said: "Whatever happens to their sons and daughters is none of my concern. They are people of hellfire and I have no concern for them."

Conversion experience

Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Khan was 7 when his family moved to New York City. He mirrored his teenage peers, from their slang to their baggy pants, until August 2001 when, at age 15, he said, he attended a summer camp at a mosque in Queens, which was sponsored by a fundamentalist but nonviolent group now known as the Islamic Organization of North America.

"They were teaching things about religion and brotherhood that captivated me," Khan said.

He prayed more regularly. He dressed more modestly. He stopped listening to music except for Soldiers of Allah, a Los Angeles hip-hop group, now defunct, whose tunes like "Bring Islam Back" have worldwide appeal among militant youth.

After moving with his family to North Carolina in 2004, Khan said, he attended a community college for three years and earned money selling various products, including kitchen knives.

But he began spending chunks of his days on the blog he created in late 2005, "Inshallahshaheed," which translates as "a martyr soon if God wills."

If Khan's extreme rhetoric has won him an audience, it has caused him problems at home. Last year, his father tried to pull him back to the family's more moderate views by asking an imam to intervene.

From time to time, Khan said, his father also cut off his Internet access and, to placate him, Khan recently added a disclaimer to his blog disavowing responsibility for the views expressed on the site.

He has also been fending off citizen watchdogs who are working to knock sites likes his off the Internet. Twice in September his blog went dark when his service provider shut him down, citing complaints about the nature of his postings. His blog was offline again Sunday.

Khan has now moved his blog to a site called Muslimpad, whose American operators recently moved from Texas to Amman, Jordan. Their larger forum, Islamic Network, is the host of discussions among English-speaking Muslims. One of their former employees, Daniel Maldonado, was convicted this year in federal court of associating with terrorists at their training camps in Somalia.

Khan said that he has dreams about meeting bin Laden and that he would not rule out picking up a weapon himself one day. For now, he said, he is fulfilling his obligations by helping other Muslims understand their religion. Recently he posted a video of a news report from Somalia showing a grenade-wielding American who had joined the Islamists.

"He is an example of a Muslim who follows the Religion of Islam," Khan wrote.

[mykdsmom]

I started doing a bit of online research after reading this in my local Raleigh paper this am. I wanted to find out where in NC this POS lives and hoped it wasn't near me.

Turns out he's not in Raleigh but heads up Charlotte residents, he could be your next door neighbor. More info including a video here: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/189768.php

[DirtyPigpen]

Maybe we should pay the traitor a visit. I’m about an hour from Charlotte.

[sageb1]

I just read that at iht, I think.

Join David Horowitz and Robert Spencer in their efforts to create an awareness of and stop Islamofascism.

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/petitions/63/islamo-fascism-petition/

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/

[The KG9 Kid]

I thought that we were scooping up Muslime scum like this and throwing them in a bottomless pit. How come this guy is still broadcasting inside the USA?

Screw his free speech rights. He hasn't got any because he's a domestic enemy.

Just send over some G-Men and splatter him with bullets.

[Diogenesis]

Normally, this would be an intent to betray the United States
witnessed by many, as he provides aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States.

Now before Pres. Bush showed he did not care about treason,
treason was punished.

Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 1, of the Constitution of the United States:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them,
or, in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

The "aid and comfort" prong of treason has been interpreted
by SCOTUS as requiring proof of four elements:
1. an intent to betray the United States (which can be inferred from);
2. an overt act;
3. witnessed by two people; and
4. that provides aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States.

The result: He will probably be hired by the New York Times.

[sageb1]

If you haven’t seen this, it’s worth watching.

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamic-mein-kampf/

[Slapshot68]

“Maybe we should pay the traitor a visit. I’m about an hour from Charlotte.”

Like how he keeps to the darkness? Like all Muslim cowards. Won’t face their enemy in the open...have to shut themselves away in their parent’s basement blogging.

Actually some liberals do that too, come to think of it.

[metesky]

Strangely, in light of recent revelations about Islamic doctors and medical people being big into jihad, when one Googles "Khan + North Carolina", a whole list of doctors is the second hit.

[elpadre]

since the feds won’t (of course, they probably have an ongoing investigation), then is it possible for private citizens or groups of citizens to gather enough information to file charges??

I think people forget that citizens have quite a bit of constitutional power, but I don’t know how much in these matters.

[mykdsmom]

WOW!!! Thanks for posting the link, absolutely chilling.

[metesky]

Now before Pres. Bush showed he did not care about treason

Pretty bold statement. I always like it when you post those 9/11 pics because I believe, as you do, that we should be constantly reminded of that infamous day, but come on, man.

[mykdsmom]

...have to shut themselves away in their parent’s basement blogging. Actually some liberals do that too, come to think of it.

Sounds about like the average DUer to me.

[mdk1960]

This should be treated like Murder Incorporated, not a 1st Amendment issue. This is insightment to murder. If Charles Manson wanted to bring violent revolution and the murder of innocents to a broader public, would he be allowed to? Bin Laden, et al are no different than a modern day Manson outfit. How about making it a Federal crime to disseminate this death porn, with a mandatory sentence of 75 years if convicted.

[reagan_fanatic]

Someone needs a good ass-kicking.

[GOP_1900AD]

String him up.

[Constitution Day]

When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word."America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness," he wrote on his blog. "America is known to be a people of arrogance."

Unlike bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents' home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

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