FIRST ON CNN: Bounty on two Americans tied to Somali terror group
By Elise Labott March 20th, 2013
The State Department has put a multimillion-dollar bounty on the heads of two Americans who the United States claims belong to an al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, CNN has learned.
Posters and matchbooks in Somali and English emblazoned with the names and pictures of Omar Shafik Hammami and Jehad Serwan Mostafa tout rewards up to $5 million each for information leading to their arrest or conviction. Both men are on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List.
The rewards are being offered through the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program.
Hammami and Mostafa are members of Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, and "have made significant contributions to this terrorist organization's media and military activities," according to a State Department statement on the rewards, obtained by CNN. They are both are believed to be in Somalia and speak English, Arabic and Somali.
A senior FBI official said the United States has information that both men "had a persistent interest in targeting U.S. interests" and are "believed to be involved in planning attacks on U.S. persons or property." But it is unclear what specific attacks against Americans, even ones that have been thwarted, these men have taken part in. Officials said that information is classified.
Hammami, a 29-year-old Alabama native, moved to Somalia in 2006. The State Department claims he joined Al-Shabaab there and received training from Islamic militants, rising through the organization's ranks to command a contingent of foreign fighters. Officials say he was also a "propagandist" for the group, helping to recruit English-speaking youth through writings, rap songs and video statements.
An Alabama court indicted him in 2009 on charges of providing support to a terrorist group.
n July 2011, the Treasury Department placed him on a blacklist prohibiting Americans from doing business with individuals and groups threatening stability in Somalia.
Hammami has been engaged in a public rift with Al-Shabaab over the past year. Last March, he first expressed concern about his safety in an extraordinary Web video. He has since criticized the group's leaders for corruption and living extravagant lifestyles with money fighters collect from Somali residents, and for fighting only in Somalia while ignoring global jihad.
Hammami's family has said they fear for his life.
But the senior FBI official told CNN that Hammami's current status with the group is "immaterial" and that the reward is based on the actions he has already taken to threaten U.S. interests.
"We still believe he is an individual of great significance to the activities that are going on in Somalia with Al-Shabaab," the official said.
Mostafa is believed to be either 27 or 32. He was born in Wisconsin before moving California, where he attended college. He traveled to Somalia in 2005, where officials say he led foreign fighters for Al-Shabaab and served as a media expert and recruiter. He was indicted in California on charges of providing material support to Al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab was labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in 2008. The group was responsible for the July 2010 suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, that killed more than 70 people, including a U.S. citizen, gathering to watch a World Cup final soccer match. Al-Shabaab is also believed to be responsible for numerous other attacks in Somalia that have killed international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers.
In February 2012 the group's leader, Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed and al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video announcing the alliance of the two organizations. The Rewards for Justice Program is already offering up to $7 million for information on seven other Al-Shabaab leaders.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the rewards before leaving office. Officials said they hope the rewards will generate new leads from both Somalia and in Somali-American communities in the United States. In addition to the posters and matchbooks, U.S. officials will be talking with local media in Somalia to reach people that may have information about the men's whereabouts.
It is rare for the United States to offer a reward for an American citizen. The most notable previous reward offered for an American was $1 million for Adam Gadahn, who has served as senior operative and spokesman for the core al Qaeda organization.
Officials said that in addition to their leadership roles with a terrorist group, the men are of great interest because of their work trying to recruit other English-speaking youth.
"Anytime we have U.S. citizens who are trying to affiliate with groups to obtain experience and training and have the opportunity to bring back that lethal experience back to the United States, it's a concern," a State Department diplomatic security official said. "There is no question the cases against these two guys are based on their activities to date. However, we have a continuing interest in terrorist activates in Somalia right up to now. And these men serve as very powerful images for radicalization and recruitment."
The new bounties raise the question of what the United States will do with the men once they find them. The Obama administration drew fire from Congress and human rights groups for killing two Americans who belonged to the al Qaeda branch in Yemen. In September 2011, U.S. drone strikes killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a firebrand preacher from New Mexico who began running propaganda for al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula and rose to become a senior operative in the group, and Samir Khan from North Carolina, who created an English-language Internet magazine for the group
Both officials said the Rewards for Justice Program - administered by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security - is not involved in drone programs and the intent of the reward is to obtain information that will lead to the men's apprehension and prosecution.
"The purpose of the program is to gather information to bring these guys back lawfully," the senior FBI official said. "We want to bring these people before a court."
The Rewards for Justice Program pays large sums of money for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits or attempts international terrorist acts. Earlier this year, President Obama expanded the program to include payments for information about people involved in transnational organized crime or foreign nationals wanted by any international criminal tribunal for war crimes or genocide.
The program has a track record of gaining actionable intelligence. Since its inception in 1984, the program has paid more than $125 million to more than 80 people who provided information that put terrorists behind bars or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide. The program was central to the capture of Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai; Ramzi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and others.
Under the Rewards for Justice Program, a $25 million reward was offered for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
Omar Hammami at a press conference in Mogadishu. Photo: Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP
04.04.13
Omar Hammami, the most prominent American jihadi left alive, probably should be running. When Hammami came to Somalia for jihad in 2006, he never anticipated that al-Qaida’s local affiliate would pledge to kill its former propaganda asset. And last month, the U.S. government put a $5 million bounty on the head of the 28-year-old Alabama native. These could be the last moments of Hammami’s life.
But Hammami tells Danger Room in an extremely rare and exclusive interview that he’s staying put. From an undisclosed location in Somalia, he grows vegetables, helps his wives around the house, and trolls his one-time colleagues in al-Shebab on Twitter, his newfound passion. As @abumamerican, he’s tweeting his ongoing jihad in 140-character installments, and is happy to debate it with U.S. national security professionals. Uniquely among jihadis, Hammami shoots the breeze with the people whose job it is to study and even hunt people like him.
That’s caused a cognitive and emotional dissonance within U.S. counterterrorism circles. Several openly say they like the charismatic Hammami, who’s quick with a joke and a touch of irony. Their Twitter interactions with him have led to a worry about his well-being, and a dim hope that maybe, just maybe, they can convince Hammami to give up a path that seems to promise a violent and imminent end. “It’s just a process of talking about what it is he believes and trying to understand it,” says J.M. Berger, Hammami’s main interlocutor, “and seeing if there’s an escape hatch for him from this life.”
That natural, human affection for Hammami risks obscuring something basic: Hammami isn’t looking for an escape hatch. He’s broken with al-Shebab, not jihad. “I believe in attacking u.s. Interests everywhere,” he tells me, through Twitter’s direct message function, the only means through which he consented to a week-long running interview. “No 2nd thoughts and no turning back.” Sentiments like that make it likely that Hammami will be the next American killed in a U.S. drone strike.
Hammami is a complex figure. He’s never attacked his fellow Americans. He reflects on his time in America with fondness. He jokes about porn and barbecue on Twitter with his unlikely buddies. And he’s chipping away at the legitimacy of America’s top adversary in east Africa one Tweet at the time, all while sunnily proclaiming his undying antagonism for his homeland. “A walking contradiction from massively different backgrounds” is how Hammami once described himself, “who is seriously passionate about what he believes in, but feels he has to go about doing it while laughing at almost everything along the way.”
From Alabama to al-Shebab
Omar Hammami grew up in the deep south, in a town called Daphne, near Mobile. Born in 1984 to a Syrian Muslim immigrant father and a white Protestant mother, he was raised as a Christian, and described himself in his 2012 online autobiography as “a social butterfly” and “the most popular guy in school.”
Hammami began to feel culturally adrift as a teenager, especially as he began to explore his Islamic heritage, a process outlined in a riveting 2010 New York Times Magazine piece. By the time he was in tenth grade, a kid who used to dress like a suburban skater “began to feel that I was being flung into an ocean and being asked not to get wet,” he would later write.
Increasingly a religious Muslim and an academic achiever, he skipped his senior year of high school to enroll in the University of South Alabama, “a breath of fresh air,” as he could wear his Islamic clothes in class and pray at the nearby masjid. But that new religious fervor led him to drop out, acting on the belief that “one charismatic leader” could do more for Muslims worldwide than another white-collar professional could — but not before he had already gotten certified as a Java programmer, and not before the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Counterintuitively, 9/11 wasn’t a big deal for Hammami. Sure, his neighbors “acted as if they would not fix my car unless I denounced bin Laden and praised George Bush,” he wrote, but it didn’t flip any intellectual switches for him. “9/11 simply made me more politically [conscious], not knee jerk tho,” he DMs. “Terror” was never “my ultimate goal. jihad was my obligation and the nwo” — that is, the New World Order — “my enemy.”
If the Order was his enemy, Hammami doesn’t have the same harshness for the people who live in its clutches. He doesn’t dwell on the non-Muslims who taunted him. A post-collegiate move to Canada was “a blast,” as a smart-assed Hammami would crack on passersby: “How ’bout that hockey eh? Wanna have a coffee at Tim Horten’s [sic] or should I get ya a Fresca?”
None of that stopped Hammami from linking up with al-Shebab in Somalia in 2006.
“This is a guy who doesn’t have to die stupidly.”
Go Read the WHOLE thing, it's mandatory... more photos, more twitter..more story.. YOUTUBES..Spencer has done a fine job and Omar I believe has been honest and sincere! ....and of course, Sincerely WRONG. such a darn shame!..;( ..at times youth takes us into illegal and/always/mostly devastating lives, I repeat, What a Shame! I wish him and all of us safe! too much to ask for I'm afriad, and he's made humorous vids about dying by drone .. etc.. .seems like they all have .. well, when you can find humor any humor in these circumstances ...you deserve to be heard, imo, only, of course And Spencer Ackerman! Thanks Mr. Ackerman! .. . . http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/omar-hammami/all/
Chechen commander forms 'Army of Emigrants,' integrates Syrian groups
By Bill RoggioMarch 28, 2013
A commander from the Russian Caucasus known as Abu Omar al Chechen has formed Jaish al-Muhajireen wa Ansar, or Army of the Emigrants and Helpers, and integrated several Syrian fighting units into the ranks. Abu Omar was the commander of the Muhajireen Brigade, which fights alongside al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, the Al Nusrah Front.
The creation of the Army of the Emigrants and Helpers was announced on March 26 by Kavkaz Center .. http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/03/26/17520.shtml , a propaganda arm of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Russia's Caucasus.
"In March 2013, a unit of Mujahideen of Kataeb al Muhajieen, or Brigade of Emigrants, under the command of Abu Omar al Chechen was joined by several brigades of Syrian Mujahideen, including Kataeb Khattab, or the Brigade of Khattab, and Jaish Muhammad, or the Army of Muhammad, after which it was decided to reorganize the structure of Kataeb," Kavkaz Center reported.
"As a result, Jaish al Muhajireen wa Ansar, or the Army of Emigrants and Helpers, was created," Kavkaz Center continued.
The Army of Emigrants and Helpers "is fighting primarily in the province of Aleppo." Kavkaz Center describes the group as "one of the most prominent groups in the Syrian Jihad."
Kavkaz Center claimed that the Army of Emigrants "has more than 1,000 Mujahideen, Muslim volunteers from different countries, including the Caucasus Emirate," who "are fighting under its banner." The claim appears to be true; just one week ago, a Swedish fighter known as Abu Kamal As Swedee was reported to have been killed while fighting with the Muhajireen Brigade .. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/03/swedish_jihadist_kil.php .
A video showing Syrian jihadists swearing an oath of loyalty to Abu Omar al Chechen, who is seen in the background, was also published on YouTube. Hundreds of jihadists are seen in the video, and some are flying al Qaeda's flag.
In the video, another commander, who is identified as "Emir Saifullah" said, "We came here to establish God's law .... We have a purpose: to establish sharia [Islamic law], God's law."
Saifullah also said that no distinctions should be made between the different theaters of the jihadists' war.
"To us, there is no difference between Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Caucasus, any place," he said.
Another video shows the takeover of a military base in Handara in Aleppo. Again, al Qaeda's banner is shown flying in the background.
Chechen jihadists in Syria
Abu Omar al Chechen first appeared in a videotape that was released by Kavkaz Center on Feb. 7 [see LWJ report, Chechen commander leads Muhajireen Brigade in Syria] .. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/02/chechen_commander_le.php . He was seen surrounded by 19 heavily armed fighters and seated behind al Qaeda's flag.
"Chechen fighters," often described as fighters from the Caucasus and southern Russia, have been spotted on the Syrian battlefield for months. In October 2012, a group of "Chechen emigrants" is known to have fought, along with an element from the Free Syrian Army unit, under the command of the Al Nusrah Front to take control of a key Syrian air defense and Scud missile base in Aleppo. The Long war Journal speculated at the time that the group included members of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate [see LWJ report, Al Nusrah Front commanded Free Syrian Army unit, 'Chechen emigrants,' in assault on Syrian air defense base] .. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_nusrah_front_comm.php .
The Muhajireen Brigade is known to have participated in two other major assaults against Syrian military bases since the October operation in Aleppo.
And in mid-February, the Al Nusrah Front, together with the Tawhid Brigade and the Muhajireen Brigade, stormed the base of the Syrian military's 80th Regiment (or Brigade) .. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/02/al_nusrah_front_fore.php , which is situated near the main airport in Aleppo in eastern Syria.
Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, has praised the "mujahideen" in Syria as well as the fighters from the Caucasus. In November 2012, Umarov released a speech on the Kavkaz Center website .. http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2012/11/13/16964.shtml .. that addressed the jihad in Syria.
"I appeal to the brothers, and I want to stress that we, the Mujahideen of the Caucasus, pray for you, make Dua [supplication to Allah], ask Allah to help you with His angels, that Allah helps you in every way,' he said.
In the speech, Umarov warned the Syrian jihadists not to "replace the regime of Bashar al-Assad, using Turkish, or Saudi, or Egyptian, or American, or English money, with another idol under the guise of democracy."
"Hammami concluded that his Salafi mentors had been “hiding many parts of the religion that have a direct relationship to jihad and politics,” he wrote. He began searching for guidance on the Internet, Culveyhouse says, discovering a documentary about the life of Amir Khattab, a legendary jihadist who fought in Chechnya. The documentary traces Khattab’s evolution as a promising Saudi student who gave up a life that “any young man would desire” to embrace a higher purpose. Hammami was mesmerized, Culveyhouse recalls.
“Once you’ve made that step, it’s a gateway,” Culveyhouse says. “Once you’ve legitimized the jihad in Chechnya, you’re compelled to legitimize the jihad in other places as well.”"
one who could be one of the luckiest people about today is the one who spent some 30 minutes in the car with the the two brothers .. 'if from Chechnya they are from a long line of vicious terrorist groups' .. many of whom recruited by the West fought in Afghanistan against the Russians .. an expert just now interviewed here .. http://livewire.wcvb.com/Event/117th_Running_of_Boston_Marathon .. is suggesting 'terrorism with some of these people is almost genetic' .. sorry, i missed the expert's name ..
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