Category Archives: Homegrown Jihad

ADL: 50% Increase in U.S. Homegrown Jihadi Arrests

by Christopher W. Holton

Before we explain this report, we should mention that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) did not use the term Jihadi in their report. We inserted that term because it is the proper term that everyone should use to describe Islamic terrorism.

For some time now we have heard over and over that the biggest domestic terror threat in the U.S. is from “white nationalists” or “white supremacists.”

The ADL report would seem to indicate that there is still an active Jihadi network in the U.S. plotting terrorist attacks and providing material support for terrorist organizations.

Read more at The Jerusalem Post…

https://www.jpost.com/international/adl-50-percent-increase-in-us-arrests-linked-to-domestic-islamist-extremism-628526

Justice Dept Seeks Lengthy Sentences for Two Convicted Illinois Jihadis

posted by Christopher W. Holton

Federal prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence for Edward Schimenti and a 17-year prison sentence for Joseph D. Jones, two Zion, Illinois men convicted in June 2019 on terrorism charges, including conspiracy for provide material support for the Islamic State (ISIS).

Read about the details at the Chicago Sun-Times…

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/3/20/21188436/feds-seek-prison-time-zion-men-convicted-terrorism

Gokmen Tanis convicted by Dutch court in jihad attack

posted by Christopher W. Holton

A Dutch court convicted 38-year old Gokmen Tanis on Friday, 20 March in the 18 March 2019 murder of 4 people on a train.

The Dutch man of Turkish descent was sentenced to life in prison.

Tanis boarded the tram, and drew a pistol with which he, while shouting “Allah,” shot innocent passengers in cold blood. He used a pistol equipped with a silencer to shoot the passengers and then jumped off of the tram and shot a driver sitting behind the wheel of a car.

Three people on the train died as did the man in the car.

The attack, which happened just days after the massacre at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand received very little news coverage at the time…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dutch-court-convicts-tram-shooter-of-deadly-terror-attack/ar-BB11sJJ0

Pakistani doctor who worked at Mayo Clinic Arrested in Minneapolis trying to join the Islamic State

posted by Christopher W. Holton

Muhammad Masood, a Pakistani physician, who at one time had been a Mayo Clinic research coordinator, was arrested on Thursday 19 March in Minneapolis on a terrorism charge, after he told FBI informants that he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and intended to carry out individual jihad attacks here in the United States.

This certainly is yet another case that flies in the face of the discredited theory that terrorists are driven to jihad by poverty and lack of opportunity…

This is also certainly not the first case of a physician actively joining a Jihadist organization. After all, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is a physician by trade and a former medical school professor. Additionally on 30 June 2007, Bilal Abdullah, a British-born Muslim doctor took part in the failed attack on Glasgow airport, for which he was sent to prison for no less than 32 years.

Read more on this latest arrest…

https://www.twincities.com/2020/03/19/pakistani-doctor-working-in-rochester-accused-of-trying-to-join-isis/

France Says it Prevented a “September 11-type” Terrorist Plot

posted by Christopher W. Holton

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced this week that a Jihadi (our word, not his) had been arrested for plotting an attack on France inspired by the September 11th terrorist attacks on America.

Castaner shared an ominous statistic: there have been 61 attempted or actual terrorist attacks in France since 2013. That’s nearly one per month.

Reuters reports that since the November 2015 attacks in Paris, 230 people have been killed in France by terrorists.

An unknown number of French jihadis were held in detention camps in Syria until recently when those camps were disrupted by the Turkish incursion into northwestern Syria. It is now feared that those jihadis will work their way back to France where they will pose a threat to carry out more terrorist attacks.

Islamic State Supporter Amer Alhaggagi Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

posted by Christopher W. Holton

This is yet another example of the inadequacy of the U.S. criminal justice system for dealing with Jihad.

Amer Alhaggagi of California was an admitted Islamic State “supporter.” He set up Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus/Gmail accounts for other Islamic State supporters and posted terroristic threats online.

He even identified targets for an Islamic State member who turned out to be an undercover federal agent.

In the process of all this, he also ran an identity theft operation.

For all this he has been sentenced to just over 15 years in prison. Alhaggagi is 23 years old. When his assigned sentence ends, he will be 38 years old. But the reality is that he will be released sooner than 15 years if he behaves himself in prison.

So we have to HOPE that when he does get out of prison, he will have turned into a peaceful, patriotic American. Excuse me for being skeptical. Given the level of Jihadi activity in America’s prisons, it is just as likely that Alhaggagi will emerge from prison even more devout.

This is part of a wider pattern. According to the George Washington University Program on Extremism, 123 Islamic State members or supporters in America have been convicted of various crimes over the past few years.

The average sentence for these convicts was 13.5 years. And it is highly likely that these people will NOT serve their entire sentences.

America needs to overhaul its sentences for terrorist-related offenses and it desperately needs a terrorist offender registry modeled after the sex offender registry that has worked successfully for decades.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-isis-supporter-who-bragged-of-bomb-plots-gets-more-than-15-years-in-prison

Some Reminders of the Enemies Within

by Christopher W. Holton

For a few reasons, the American public is often in a state of complacency when it comes to the threat from Jihad.

One reason is simply that Americans are busy, hard-working people who focus on their own lives and don’t obsess over threats and bad news on a daily basis.

But the other reason is that our national news media often fails to report on terrorism-related news stories because they are too obsessed with the fantasy of Russian collusion and American pop culture.

But the threat of Jihadist terrorism is still with us and local media around the country still report the threat. Here are some examples that you may not be aware of from just the past couple of weeks…

On 29 January, Abdullah Ali Yusef, aka Damon Joseph, was indicted on federal terrorism charges in Ohio after being arrested in December in a plot to attack a synagogue:

https://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/2019/01/ohio-man-indicted-accused-of-plotting-attack-on-synagogue-in-support-of-isis.html?fbclid=IwAR2S66aPzWe6bN2KZM6rpsvy26ynUuRhga6QRuL1Jjgt17ETMtyBh4l5-_k

On 30 January, Islamic State supporter Charlton LaChase of Fort Pierce, Florida, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervision, for making terroristic threats. (Just an aside: 18 months seems to be a ridiculously light sentence for an Islamic State supporter who made terroristic threats.) Fort Pierce clearly has a problem; the Orlando Pulse Nightclub Jihadi shooter, Omar Mateen, was from Fort Pierce and attended a mosque in Fort Pierce where his father, an avowed Taliban supporter, was a prominent congregant.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/st-lucie-county/2019/01/30/fort-pierce-man-sentenced-threatening-mass-murder-isis/2726075002/?fbclid=IwAR2Z9N8EH_vS5fZZ1646zBJ0KpXYgA51Lm-W-7co4_reP6U3ph-yIxlPpsU

On 8 February, Wesley Dallas Ayers of Anderson, South Carolina, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for building and placing improvised explosive devices in South Carolina and making threats to wage Jihad. Ayers is a convert to Islam who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State…

https://www.independentmail.com/story/news/2019/02/08/anderson-man-who-warned-jihad-sentenced-30-years-using-homemade-explosives/2811963002/?fbclid=IwAR3Gu3Q6UIyCGdrKMoQmWdEEYvBZd0y2dQ_D9YCFokNHjfOBmANV_95CTUA

Also on 8 February in Arlington, Texas, Michael Kyle Sewell was charged with conspiracy to provide material support for a terrorist organization after recruiting on behalf of Lashkar e Taiba (LeT), the Jihadist terrorist organization responsible for the horrific attack on Mumbai, India in 2008.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2019/02/08/arlington-teenager-online-recruiter-pakistani-terrorist-group-feds-say?fbclid=IwAR1Y4DpcRaYXbrLwnhbw6cCDKeqZG7cWbzQMNzXTCV4AMlxYHXIiEvFD_Mg

On the same day, Jesus Wilfredo Encarnacion, of New York City, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight bound for Pakistan so that he could join LeT and join the Jihad. He was also a convert to Islam who expressed a desire to behead people…

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/29-year-old-american-man-on-way-to-pakistan-to-join-let-arrested-at-us-airport/story-zFX4OFPAk14yMTtkIT53wN.html?fbclid=IwAR25QPkzHhcl72Jk9_8cj1UeqgPiJahO_i4NTpapBrQVl_GNdYc2Gsdr5NE

If you were not aware of these stories it’s not your fault. None of them received significant national news coverage here in the U.S. Only media in the localities where these men were arrested and sentenced covered the stories, with the exception of the story involving the LeT recruit in New York—that one was covered by news organizations in India, but you wouldn’t have seen much about it on CNN.

GERMANY: Protecting the Privacy of Convicted Terrorists

by Christopher W. Holton

One of the most disheartening aspects of the war against Jihad is the parade of self-defeating and truly idiotic policies that Western nations have concocted while our heroic warriors and first responders attempt to defeat our enemies and defend us against their attacks.

Here we have a prime example.

A 37-year old German national who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan from 2013 until February of this year, when he was captured by US and German special forces, has been convicted by a German court for being a member of a terrorist organization.

So far so good, but it gets bad from here.

First of all, the Jihadi was sentenced to…6 years in prison. SIX YEARS IN PRISON. He fought for the Taliban for 5 years, yet he only gets a 6 year prison sentence…

Here are some of his activities while he was in Afghanistan for 5 years:

prosecutors said he prepared explosives, got ready for a suicide attack and worked on a propaganda video aimed at German radicals. He also allegedly had himself filmed participating in a failed mortar attack on an Afghan army base

For this he gets 6 years in prison.

And here’s another outrage:

The terrorist has only been identified as “Thomas K.”

Why?

German privacy laws forbid his full name being disclosed.

GOOD GRIEF.

In 6 years (or possibly even sooner) “Thomas K” will be released from prison and no one outside of German intelligence and criminal justice will have any idea who he is.

Finally, note also that Thomas K has resorted to what recently has become the favored deflection for Jihadis who have been captured. He’s pulling the “Crazy Card,” claiming he was schizophrenic and depressed…

https://www.dw.com/en/düsseldorf-court-jails-german-fighter-for-afghan-taliban/a-46665763

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-man-fought-taliban-convicted-terrorism-59728925

Human Trafficking, Child Jihad and Terrorism Training in New Mexico–with a Major Twist

posted by Christopher Holton

This story should be the biggest news story of the day, but, other than Fox News, the TV networks are either ignoring it or purposely omitting key facts in their reporting.

Late last week, a bold sheriff in Alamia, New Mexico, decided not to wait on the FBI to get out of its own way when he raided a compound in his jurisdiction, uncovering an Islamic terrorist training facility and human trafficking ring all rolled up into one…

The FBI was monitoring the site for two months but never searched it because they did not have an arrest warrant, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said on Monday.

On Friday, however, the sheriff’s office intercepted a message that was written either by one of the children or by one of their mothers which read: ‘We are starving and we need food and water.’

Authorities will not say how the message was delivered or who gave it to them but Sheriff Hogrefe said it meant he could not wait any longer for federal authorities to move in on the site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6031379/11-children-New-Mexico-compound-living-extremist-Muslims-months.html

How long the FBI would have waited to move on the compound is anyone’s guess, but it’s a good thing that Sheriff Hogrefe decided to move when he did.

It turns out that the compound was being used to hold women and children against their will in horrible conditions and it was also allegedly being used to train Muslim children to conduct jihadi attacks on schools here in America.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/08/man-arrested-at-new-mexico-compound-was-training-kids-to-commit-school-shootings-court-documents-say.html

But here’s the really important part: the mastermind of this facility was none other than 39 year old Siraj Ibn Wahhaj.

“Who he?,” you ask?

He is the son of Brooklyn, New York Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a man with a checkered past, but also one that has been coddled by US politicians for years, despite his clear ties to bad actors.

The elder Wahajj has been quick to distance himself from his son, releasing a statement through his “Muslim Alliance of North America” (MANA):

MANA STATEMENT ON THE ARREST OF SIRAJ IBN WAHHAJ

Today news stories have surfaced reporting the arrest in New Mexico of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj – son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, our beloved imam. The same stories cite the finding of several other adults and children, reportedly living in squalid conditions in what has been described as a “ramshackle bunker”, made from a partially buried house trailer.

Last December, Georgia police authorities issued an alert for a missing child, identified as three-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, a grandson of Imam Siraj. The little boy was described as suffering from a medical condition from birth, requiring medication to prevent emergency treatment. In conversation with fellow officials of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), imam Siraj verified this, and expressed his further concern for the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of some of his other family members – including his son Siraj Ibn Wahhaj (the boy’s father).

Law enforcement authorities stated at that time, that no criminal charges were pending against the child’s father. Their concern was the well-being of Abdul-Ghani’s health. Today however they stated that the child is still missing, and his father has been charged with abduction.

We at MANA have no greater details at this time . Considering a police force claim that several guns were found at the scene of the arrest of Ibn Wahhaj and another man, Lucas Morten, we are grateful to Allah that no violence occurred. We credit the arresting officers for their professionalism in a sensitive operation, even as we continue to pray for Abdul-Ghani and all of the members of the Wahhaj family. We encourage all people of good will to do the same.

This statement might be somewhat believable but for Imam Wahhaj’s past, about which much has been documented. That past makes this whole New Mexico facility and affair very suspicious indeed. Here’s a brief rundown of Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s past:

• Wahhaj was born a Baptist but converted to Islam while in college.

• He started as a member of Louis “Calypso Louie” Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam sect.

• Wahhaj became a Nation of Islam minister and preached a black separatist ideology that termed all white people as devils.

• Evidently, the Nation of Islam wasn’t what Wahhaj was really looking for because he left Nation of Islam and became a “mainstream” Sunni Muslim and, in 1978, traveled to Saudi Arabia to study Islam and especially Shariah. By 1981 he had returned to America and opened his first mosque. It was as Imam of his mosque that Wahhaj repeatedly invited Omar Abdel-Rahman (the Blind Sheik) to speak and fundraise.

Abdel-Rahman was a notorious terrorist who eventually died in prison.

Wahhaj had completely snowed the US government over the years and in 1991 became the first Imam to deliver the invocation at the US House of Representatives.

Wahhaj’s close ties to Jihad and Jihadists first became most clear when he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing:

In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, “I’m not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I’m honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list.”

Since that designation, Wahhaj’s extensive ties to known Jihadists and Jihadi organizations have been revealed, as detailed by Discover The Networks:

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=716

Now we are asked to believe that Imam Siraj Wahhaj had nothing to do with his son running a terrorism training and human trafficking camp…NOT BUYING IT…

Another Day of Jihad in America…and the National TV Yawns

posted by Christopher Holton

Don’t bother checking the television news networks for these two stories. You won’t find them.

The stories must not fit the narratives that the various 24/7 TV news networks are pushing. Or maybe they just won’t attract large audiences for ratings.

At any rate, yesterday two unrelated stories emerged in Utah and New Jersey that indicate that acts of individual Jihad continue to pose a significant threat to our public safety.

In St. George (YES, we noted the irony too), Utah, an unidentified high school student showed up to school with a backpack-borne Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Fortunately he did not detonate the bomb, which police indicated had the potential to cause a great deal of destruction and casualties.

The police went to the student/bomber’s home and found lots of bomb-making material as well as information on the Islamic State, which evidently the kid was promoting online.

Further investigation uncovered that the junior jihadi had taken down the American flag and replaced it with the black standard often associated with the Islamic State. He also admitted to spray painting ISIS graffiti on the school.

There is an old saying about the modern news media: “if it bleeds it leads.” Because this bomb did not detonate, the national news media is essentially ignoring this story.

For more details, check out this article from a local TV station in Utah:

http://kutv.com/news/local/juvenile-arrested-admits-to-replacing-us-flag-with-isis-flag-at-hurricane-school

Meanwhile, 2,000+ miles to the east, a little known jihadi attack case resurfaced in court yesterday. Thirty-four year old Ali Muhammad Brown pled guilty in court to murdering 19-year-old Brendan Tevlin in late June 2014 near Newark.

Readers may recall when the murder occurred that authorities and the news media both played down the jihadi angle.

In court yesterday, not only did Brown admit that it was an act of jihad, he also confessed killing three other people as acts of jihad in Washington state.

Two of the victims in Washington state were leaving a gay night club, making this the second known act of jihad directed against gay Americans, along with the horrific Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. For some reason, the mainstream news media is ignoring the fact that jihadists continue to attack homosexuals around the world.

More details are available at this link from the Associated Press:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-accused-terrorism-pleads-guilty-killing-student-171225105.html