Emerson Begolly

Alleged Nazi Jihadist Blamed Pedophile Pastor For Hatred Of America

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 17, 2011, 8:54AM

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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.

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Northwest Flight 253

Flight 253 Intel: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 2:19PM

Later today President Obama is scheduled to talk about the latest details from the security review of the failed Flight 253 attack.

National Security Adviser James Jones is predicting that Americans will feel "a certain shock" by the results of the review.

But in the meantime, as Josh noted on the Editors Blog, we thought it would be worthwhile to compile what has been publicly reported about what U.S. government agencies knew about Abdulmutallab, including the supposed "warning signs" that were missed.

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Bush Administration

Maddow On 'The Incredible Magic Al Jazeera Scam' (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | December 22, 2009, 10:50AM

Rachel Maddow last night interviewed journalist Aram Roston about the finer points of the revelation, published in Playboy, that a December 2003 Orange terror alert was prompted by supposed decoding technology that revealed terrorist communications in Al Jazeera broadcasts.

Maddow plays some remarkable media reports from 2003, complete with scare quotes from Tom Ridge about catastrophic attacks "against the homeland."

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Bush Administration

Report: Bush Admin Raised Terror Alert Based On Con Man's Al Jazeera 'Decoding' Scam

Justin Elliott | December 21, 2009, 9:32AM

Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge making an announcement about the Code Orange terror alert in December 2003.

A self-styled Nevada codebreaker convinced the CIA he could decode secret terrorist targeting information sent through Al Jazeera broadcasts, prompting the Bush White House to raise the terror alert level to Orange (high) in December 2003, with Tom Ridge warning of "near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experience on September 11," according to a new report in Playboy.

The report deals another blow to the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security's color-coded terror alert system, and comes after Ridge's claim that the system was used as a political tool when he was DHS secretary.

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