
In 2011 there was a "relatively low level of radicalization among Muslim-Americans" and that number has been continuously decreasing over the last couple of years, according to a report by a professor at the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The plot Rezwan Ferdaus allegedly developed to fly remote controlled planes carrying C-4 explosives into the Pentagon and the dome of the Capitol might have been far-fetched, but a federal judge has ruled he's still a danger to the community and agreed to the government's request to detain him.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)In an effort to stomp out anti-Muslim counterterrorism training at the the FBI, the bureau is calling in reinforcements.
Spencer Ackerman reports over at Wired that the FBI is turning to the Army's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, a request that "represents a frank admission from the FBI that it requires outside help to reform."
The bureau, Ackerman reports, reached out to Bill Braniff, a retired Army captain who directs Practitioner Education at West Point. He "spent much of October in meetings at Bureau Headquarters in Washington D.C. designing what a source familiar with the process describes as 'guidelines for objectionable material' to exclude from agent training." He continues:
In its eight-year history, the CTC has built a reputation as a non-ideological haven for rigorous, data-driven counterterrorism research. It compiled perhaps the most thorough profile ever of the foreign fighters that flocked to Iraq, based on captured military documents. Its monthly newsletter, the CTC Sentinel, is widely read in counterterrorism circles. Not only does CTC teach the Army's cadets at West Point, who will have to distinguish between Muslim civilians and insurgents in warzones, it consults for state and local police -- and the FBI.
An FBI official told TPM that the Army's role in the review is a bit "overstated." In a statement provided by the bureau, the FBI said a "core review team included FBI and non-FBI personnel with academic training in areas of Islamic studies and Arab history" which "established guidelines to provide concrete enterprise-wide guidance on the training of counterterrorism and countering violent extremism topics."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)An Arab-American leader who met with law enforcement officials earlier this month is optimistic that the FBI is taking the problem of anti-Muslim training materials seriously.
Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee attended a meeting that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division hosted with other law enforcement officials on Oct. 14. The meeting was mentioned in a letter the Justice Department sent to Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, who were concerned about federal funds flowing to local and state anti-Muslim terrorism training. Ayoub said that anti-Muslim training materials used by law enforcement were a major topic of discussion.
"I can't speak officially for the FBI, but what I can say is that I think they do understand the significance of what happend, they do understand the importance of getting this resolved and the impact on many members of the community," Ayoub told TPM. "They do understand that this needs to be resolved. I do have a sense that they understand the importance of this matter."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Justice Department has a message for the Senators worried that federal funds are flowing to anti-Muslim training programs: no worries, we've got this thing.
TPM obtained a copy of a letter DOJ sent to Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins nearly six months after the lawmakers first asked for answers about biased counterterrorism training sessions being funded by taxpayers.
Basically there are two ways that federal dollars from the Justice Department could potentially fund biased training. First, there's DOJ's State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program, which officials say they've got a pretty good handle on.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) just released a massive trove of FBI documents indicating that anti-Muslim training materials have spread pretty far and wide within the bureau over the past several years and that analysts have been targeting areas based on racial and ethnic demographics.
It's all part of the ACLU's new "Mapping the FBI" initiative, which "aims to expose misconduct and abuse of authority by the bureau." They say the documents show that the FBI "has been targeting American communities for investigation based on race, ethnicity, national origin and religion" and that analysts "across the country are associating criminal behaviors with certain racial and ethnic groups and then using U.S. census data and other demographic information to map where those communities are located to investigate them."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Attorney General Eric Holder is "firmly committed" to nixing anti-Muslim material from law enforcement training, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Dwight C. Holton said Wednesday.
Holton, who was U.S. Attorney when the FBI arrested the so-called Christmas tree bomber, said that he spoke specifically with Holder about the "egregiously false" training that took place at the FBI's training headquarters at Quantico and at a U.S. Attorney's office in Pennsylvania, which was first reported on by Wired.
Updated:Oct. 12, 12:42PM
Some breaking news from the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up an airplane with a bomb in his underwear plans to plead guilty, according to the Associated Press.
The development came on the second day of the trial. On Monday, witness Mike Zantow testified that he heard another passenger tell Abdulmatallab: "Hey, dude, your pants are on fire."
Jurors were supposed to hear from a flight attendant and other passengers on the December 2009 flight today.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the outcome proved that civilian courts could handle terrorism cases.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)FBI Director Robert Mueller told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday that the counterterrorism training sessions conducted by his bureau that claimed American-Muslims were likely to be terrorist sympathizers were isolated.
Mueller called the FBI training materials in question "inappropriate offensive content" but asserted they weren't commonplace, calling the incidents "an aberration."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Updated: 5:55PM
Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old Massachusetts resident was arrested in an FBI sting on Wednesday after allegedly plotting to use large remote controlled model airplanes packed with C-4 plastic explosives to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.
Ferdaus allegedly traveled to Washington, D.C. to take photos of his targets in May 2011, all while under FBI surveillance. The Northeastern University graduate allegedly began planning to commit "jihad" against the United States in early 2010 and obtained mobile phones that he modified to act as an electrical switch for an IED.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) aren't messing around when it comes to stopping federal dollars from flowing to anti-Muslim terrorism training. In a letter to Obama on Tuesday, the duo said that if the administration can't develop criteria to keep bigoted information out of counter-terrorism training, they'll "consider drafting a legislative mandate or even imposing standards by statute."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)An expert witness for the federal government in the case against alleged "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has constructed a version of the bomb the Nigerian 24-year-old allegedly tried to set off on a plane en route to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)A federal grand jury in Oregon indicted 24-year-old Cody Crawford on federal hate crime and arson charges for allegedly setting fire to a mosque. The fire followed the arrest of a Muslim man for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Pennsylvania 22-year-old Emerson Begolly pleaded guilty last week to soliciting others to engage in acts of terrorism and to attempting to use a firearm in an assault on FBI agents.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The FBI was telling new bureau recruits as recently as Jan. 2009 that Islam "transforms [a] country's culture into 7th Century Arabian ways" and recommending a book written by one of Norwegian terrorism suspect Anders Behring Breivik's favorite authors as well as the Complete Idiot's Guide To Understanding Islam.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)A Florida-based "anti-terror" group took to the Capitol on Monday to warn Americans about "fifth column" Muslims who it said are pulling the strings of mainstream Muslim organizations and trying to take over the United States.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Federal prosecutors have charged Emerson Begolly, the Nazi uniform wearing Pennsylvania man being held for allegedly biting an FBI agent who tried to question him about his activity on jihadist websites, with inciting violent attacks in the United States.
An indictment announced on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia charges that Begolly used an extremist web forum to solicited others to engage in acts of terrorism and disseminated instructions for making different kinds of explosives that could be used in terrorist attacks.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The two men the feds just charged with terrorism and firearms related charges for plotting to attack a military installation in Seattle allegedly worried they were "gonna look like fools" if they ran out of ammunition and used the password "OBL" (for Osama bin Laden) for picking up bus tickets.
FBI officials were monitoring 33-year-old Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif (aka Joseph Anthony Davis) of Seattle and 32-year-old Walli Mujahidh (aka Frederick Domingue) of Los Angeles when they took possession of machine guns they purchased and were planning to use to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) located on East Marginal Way, Seattle.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Images taken just hours after the special forces raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden capture the heavily fortified compound, as well as a downed U.S. helicopter.
The images, published by GeoEye, were collected by the IKONOS satellite while flying 423 miles above the ground.
A New York State Senator is taking a cue from Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and holding hearings on Muslim radicalization on Friday in New York City, featuring testimony by anti-Islam mainstay Frank Gaffney, and even King himself.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are requesting information on the federal funding of counterterrorism training programs following a report on trainers who espouse anti-Muslim views during training sessions for local cops.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) asked a representative of the group Muslim Advocates on Tuesday why the organization's website didn't specifically condemn violent rhetoric.
At the first Senate panel on the civil rights of Muslim-Americans, Kyl asked a representative of the group Muslim Advocates why their website didn't condemn rhetoric aimed at other religious groups.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) asked FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday whether the bureau had any outreach programs specifically for the Baptist or Catholic communities like it did with the Muslim community.
"How is your outreach going with the Baptists or the Catholics?" Gohmert inquired.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) said that it's unfair to criticize Rep. Peter King's (R-NY) hearings on Muslim radicalization for having a "singular focus," because the hearings are "looking at a specific problem and we're trying to deal with it" -- just like similar panels, he said, that dealt with neo-Nazis, the KKK, and militia groups.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Rep. Peter King (R-NY) hit back at criticism of his hearings on Muslim radicalization in his opening statement before the Homeland Security Committee on Thursday and said that the threat of neo-Nazis and lone mad men don't compare to the threat of al-Qaeda.
"I am well aware that the announcement of these hearings has generated considerable controversy and opposition," King said. "Some of this opposition such as my colleague and friend Mr. Pasqual has been measured and thoughtful. Other opposition from special interest groups and the media has ranged from disbelief to rage and hysteria."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) went after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) at the Homeland Security Committee's hearing on Muslim radicalization on Thursday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) was moved to tears today at Peter King's hearings on radicalization in the American Muslim community, when telling the story a Muslim first responder who lost his life on September 11th, 2001.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)There are basically two schools of thought on the hearings on Muslim radicalization that Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is holding tomorrow. One side sees the hearing as a witchhunt akin to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign of the 1950s that will result in the "demonization and scapegoating" of Muslim-Americans because of their religion. The other side sees King as an American hero who refuses to let political correctness get in the way of protecting national security.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said Tuesday that he plans to move forward with a series of hearings to examine the threat of Islamic radicalization, and said he "will not allow political correctness to obscure a real and dangerous threat to the safety and security of the citizens of the United States."
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) wrote a letter to King earlier this month asking him to expand the purpose of the hearings into "a broad-based examination of domestic extremist groups regardless of their ideological underpinnings."
But King said that the hearings will serve an important purpose, and that the committee "cannot ignore the fact that al Qaeda is actively attempting to recruit individuals living within the Muslim American community to commit acts of terror."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The American Muslim community knows that Islamic extremism is a threat -- and several panelists at a forum hosted by a Muslim-American group on Capitol Hill today said that a community policing approach in partnership with the intelligence community was the best way to counter radicalization.
"Law enforcement can neither go in alone or arrest its way out of this challenge," the Muslim Public Affairs Council's Alejandro J. Beutel said.
"Our heads aren't in the sand, the threat clearly exists," Beutel said. "The threat exists, but it is not a pandemic."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The number of U.S. Muslims accused in terror plots dropped by more than half in 2010, according to a new report by a professor with the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
The report notes that 20 American Muslims were suspects in terror plots last year, whereas 47 were suspects in 2009. The 2009 spike, as the Associated Press reports was due mainly to a large number of Somali-Americans who tried to join Somalia's al-Shabab militant movement.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Awais Younis, the 26-year-old Virginia man who federal authorities say threatened to set off bombs on the D.C. Metro system, sent threatening messages to a female acquaintance of his who was living in the New Orleans area at the time. The woman informed the FBI of the threats, and an agent reportedly took photos of the messages on what appears to be an iPhone.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Attorney General Eric Holder said the life sentence given to the first former Guantanamo inmate tried in a civilian courtroom today shows the ability of the American legal system to deal with terrorism cases.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), the former chairman of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said he is troubled by Rep. Peter King's (R-NY) plan to hold hearings on the radicalization of Muslim-Americans.
"I feel like my friend Peter has gone way beyond what is called for there, and I do intend to talk to him about it," Holt told TPM of King's plan.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Instant messaging conversations allegedly written by Emerson Begolly reveal him as anti-Semitic, extreme, armed and dangerous. But they also reveal what he claimed was the genesis of his extremist views: an interaction with a Christian pastor who was a registered sex offender.
Begolly's is a cautionary tale about the threat of homegrown terrorism: the radicalized 21-year-old college student reportedly obsessed over violence and martyrdom and said he was disgusted by a country where "homosexuality... abortion... assisted suicide, whores, and dru(g)s r all legal."
But it's also the strange story of a loner living on a farm in a small Pennsylvania town who had easy access to weapons and vented his frustrations with his family (a father who dressed him up in Nazi regalia and hit him as a child and an estranged mother with reported mental health issues of her own) in jihadist web forums.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Nobody was more surprised than 21-year-old Emerson Begolly when he cleared an Federal Bureau of Investigation background check and was allowed to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle last year. After all, he'd been a moderator and contributor on Islamic extremist web forums, posted songs praising suicide bombers, discussed his jihad fantasies in the open and even made an appearance in Newsweek under a pseudonym that his grandmother clipped and saved. He knew for a fact "the man" was onto him.
"i honestly think that the day the[y] ended the hold and sold me the gun someone at the FBI showed up to work drunk," Begolly wrote on a jihadist web forum under the name Abu Nancy (the name of his imaginary daughter), according to transcripts filed by the feds yesterday.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)In an attempt to secure the release of Emerson Begolly, the 21-year-old Nazi-dressing alleged jihad enthusiast who allegedly bit two FBI agents, his defense lawyer alleged in court documents Wednesday that one of the agents had a romantic relationship with the suspect's estranged, alcoholic mother.
But Special Agent William J. Crowley of the FBI's Pittsburgh office told TPM that the bureau "categorically denies" any romantic relationship between Special Agent Bradley Orsini and Begolly's mother Joan Kowalski.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The government doesn't want Emerson Begolly, the 21-year-old former Penn State student who allegedly bit two FBI agents in the parking lot of a Burger King when they tried to question him about apparent pro-jihad messages he posted online, released.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Emerson Begolly, a 21-year-old Penn State student who allegedly expressed pro-jihad and anti-Semitic sentiments, was arrested in the parking lot of a Burger King in Pennsylvania last week after he allegedly went for a gun in his pocket and then bit two FBI agents when they tried to question him about his online activities.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)A right-wing blog that tracks networks of Islamic extremists online says it was them, not Fox News, that brought a video of a woman the network later labeled "Terror Grandma" to the attention of authorities.
"Fox did not drop the dime, we did," writes blogger Howie on the Jawa Report. "Given the quick death of the video and its nature, which Ill elaborate on more later, we sent it along through the proper channels. Just to be sure." TPM was unable to independently verify Howie's claims.
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