The Attack Is Coming From Home
Recruiting Swells The Number of Terrorists in North America
Sep 3, 2009
The Department of Homeland Security continues to maintain the elevated threat level, although the threat to airlines is in the orange, the second highest alert status.
According to GlobalSecurity.org this means that there continues to be a significant risk for a terrorist attack.
Barry Rubin of the Centre for Global Research in International Affairs says the threat is, “Probably less than in pre-9/11 days but still enough to be on guard.”
What many Americans and Canadians don’t know is that the most dangerous threat is here at home.
A Homegrown Problem
The NEFA foundation was started to uncover the reason behind the 9/11 attacks. Their website reported on January 13, 2009 that young Somali-born Seattle, Washington resident Ruben Shumpert joined a jihad movement. Shumpert changed his name to Amir Abdul Muhaimeen, and made a video about his conversion. NEFA published his story.
A week later, Newsweek reported that 20 young Somali-born Minneapolis, Minnesota men were recruited by Minneapolis area imams and later turned up in Somalia fighting foreign troops inside the country.
The number of recruits continues to grow, despite an August 12, 2009 story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that says the number of recruits is declining.
Steven Emerson is the Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and his group reported on the August arrest of Daniel Patrick Boyd, a North Carolina native who joined the jihad cause. At the time of his arrest while driving, Boyd’s car was full of weapons, military manuals, militant jihadi literature and a number of articles on the 9/11 attacks.
Mr. Emerson adds that, “Much of what Muslims are doing in the U. S. is legal.”
Yet, which Muslim groups are organizing and doing the recruiting? Mr. Emerson supplies the answer.
“In terms of what I call the stealth jihad—the secret (and mostly legal) efforts inside the country by radical Muslim groups to infiltrate the government, Congress, media and intelligentsia—it is definitely the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The recruiting isn't limited to the United States. Canada's National Post reports that the British Muslim known in Islamic circles as "the terrorist Mr. Fix-It", Aabid Hussein Khan, travelled frequently to Canada to recruit for Al-Qaeda. Once the recruits agreed, the men were sent to Pakistan for training.
One of Mr. Khan's recruits was Saad Khalid, one of the Toronto 18 convicted on September 3 for his part in the 2006 plot to allegedly bomb several locations around Toronto.
The Method
The news of recruiting successes raises the question of how an Al-Qaeda or Muslim Brotherhood operative sells a potential candidate on jihad.
Robert Spencer is a scholar on Islam and terrorism and is the publisher of the Jihad Watch web site, and he says it’s largely due to the method, “They’re appealed to through an Islam that doesn’t exist. The recruiter appeals to the young men knowing that the American likely doesn’t know much about Islam.”
“They say this is a religion that wants peace and they don’t tell the young man about the violence," Mr. Spencer said. “The approach taken by the recruiter is that the recruiter does a ‘bait and switch’ gradualism that eventually leads to the violent teachings of Islam.”
Once the hook is set, the Muslim Brotherhood representative turns to the emotions, “In some cases the imams tell them that they have to do jihad. They appeal to them as posing as the authentic representatives of true Islam.”
“It’s important to remember that the appeals are not emotional appeals at first. They use a logical, reasoned appeal based on the Qur’an, the Hadiths and the words of Muhammad.”
Even with the success of homegrown recruiting, radical Islamic operatives are allegedly using illegal immigration to their advantage.
The Problem from Next Door
Lebanese born terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel is a former news anchor for Middle Eastern television and founder of the terrorism awareness group ACT for America. She says smuggling is a major part of the plan, “The Latin American Gang MS 13 is actively working with terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda to smuggle terrorists into our country.”
Ms. Gabriel adds that the operation is profitable for MS-13, “Al-Qaeda is paying between $25,000 and $50,000 per terrorist to be smuggled through the Mexican border. Hezbollah and Hamas are paying about $10,000 per head.”
“Sources in the FBI believe these terrorists are here in America raising funds and working on logistics, waiting for the opportunity to strike within the United States. Many of them have received training in Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Ms. Gabriel said.
Ms. Gabriel says there is a major reason the United States is failing to deal with the issue, “The problem is so bad, that because of political correctness we are even afraid to call them by name. Our government now calls them OTMs, Other Than Mexicans, so we do not call them Muslim Arabs and offend someone.”
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