U.S. citizen held in Yemen

U.S. citizen held in Yemen after shootout with hospital guards

By Geoff Mulvihill and Wayne Parry
Friday, March 12, 2010; A07

Yemeni counterterrorism authorities captured a U.S. citizen of Somali origin after he shot his way out of a hospital in the Middle Eastern country, where he was being held after a mass arrest of al-Qaeda members, authorities said Thursday.

Yemeni officials were holding Sharif Mobley, 26. He was being treated at Republican Hospital in Sanaa when he got into a shootout with guards, killing one, as he tried to escape, said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy.

Mobley graduated from high school in 2002 in the southern New Jersey town of Buena, and records show he had previously lived in Philadelphia and Newark, Del. It wasn't clear when he went to Yemen, although his mother told WMGM-TV in Atlantic City that he was there when she talked to him in January.

His father, Charles Mobley, said outside the family home: "I can tell you this: He's no terrorist."

Mobley's capture is the latest in a string of Yemeni counterterrorism efforts aimed at disrupting al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda branch there has been linked to the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner and is a growing concern for U.S. authorities.

Mobley was among 11 al-Qaeda suspects detained this month after a security sweep in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, officials said. He was taken to the hospital over the weekend and was apprehended after he attacked the guards in an escape attempt and barricaded himself in a hospital room, Albasha said.

Officials said he snatched a gun from a security guard and shot him, then made his way from his fifth-floor room to the ground floor. Witnesses said he got into a shootout with hospital security guards, who pinned him down until a unit of the antiterrorism police apprehended him.

Working with U.S. intelligence officials, Yemen has stepped up its counterterrorism efforts, particularly since the attempted jetliner attack. The suspect in that case, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent weeks in Yemen before the failed attack and has been linked to the country's al-Qaeda branch.

FBI spokesman Rich Wolf in Baltimore confirmed that the agency was investigating Mobley's case but wouldn't comment further. It wasn't clear why the Baltimore office was investigating, but it covers Delaware.

Michael Brothman of Vineland, N.J., said he graduated from Buena Regional High School with Mobley. He said that Mobley was competitive in gym class and that he had said he had a black belt in karate. Mobley was also a member of his high school's wrestling team.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031104014_pf.html

U.S. citizen accused in Yemen killing

U.S. citizen accused in Yemen killing had been under FBI watch

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010; A02

Sharif Mobley, a U.S. citizen accused of killing a hospital guard in Yemen, is believed to be a homegrown radical who left this country to make direct contact with al-Qaeda, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials, making him the latest in a string of such suspects.

Mobley, 26, first came to public attention Wednesday, when Yemeni authorities reported that he had grabbed a guard's gun during a medical visit last weekend after being arrested in a sweep of suspected al-Qaeda militants.

Several U.S. officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mobley had been in custody in Yemen for at least several weeks before the shooting and had been known to U.S. and Yemeni authorities for a considerable period before that. "He's been a matter of some concern for a while," according to one official.

The officials said FBI investigations had been underway in Delaware, among the places that Mobley had lived, and in New Jersey, where he was born and was once employed as a maintenance worker in nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday that he also worked at nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs but that it had no reason to believe he had had access to sensitive material, news services reported.

The Associated Press quoted Mobley's father as saying his son was innocent.

Revelations about Mobley's arrest came amid rising U.S. concern about the radicalization of American Muslims. Recent cases include that of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, who was charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, as well as that of five young men who were arrested in Pakistan and charged with terrorist offenses in December after their parents reported them missing from their Washington area homes.

This week, a 46-year-old Philadelphia woman, a Muslim convert who identified herself online as Jihad Jane, was charged with plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had caricatured the prophet Muhammad.

Many terrorism suspects from the West are said to have frequented jihadist Web sites, and Hasan and others -- including the Nigerian charged with the Christman airline bombing attempt in Detroit -- were in touch online with Anwar al-Aulaqi, a dual U.S.-Yemeni citizen being sought by both governments as a member of al-Qaeda's Yemen affiliate.

Asked whether Mobley had also been in touch with Aulaqi, a U.S. official said, "Everyone has."

Officials said Mobley's mother was of Somali origin. Several Somali Americans are thought to have traveled to Somalia to join the al-Shabab militia. Although senior militia leaders are closely linked to al-Qaeda, many in the rank and file are said by U.S. officials to be fighting for nationalistic reasons confined to Somalia.

But officials said they did not think Mobley had traveled to the region as what one called a "wannabe" soldier in Somalia. He obtained a Yemeni visa ostensibly to study Arabic, the official said, but "went to hook up" with al-Qaeda.

At the State Department on Friday, spokesman P.J. Crowley said that U.S. consular officials in Yemen were attempting to verify Mobley's identity but had not been able to meet with him.

But other officials indicated that U.S. law enforcement at least had access to interrogations of Mobley after his initial arrest. "There would be an interest by the U.S. government to see what he knows, what his experience was like" with al-Qaeda, another official said. His situation, the official said, "may change his thinking, now that he has gone from [being picked up in] a sweep to a murder charge."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/12/AR2010031204241_pf.html

'JihadJane' suspect

'JihadJane' suspect dropped out before high school, married at 16

By Carrie Johnson and Alice Crites
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 11, 2010; A04

The Pennsylvania woman who allegedly used the Internet alias JihadJane to recruit people for violent jihad had dropped out before reaching high school and was married at age 16, the start of a bumpy life that might have left her vulnerable to radical beliefs, according to federal sources and public records.

While caring for an ailing man in a suburban community where she had few friends, Colleen Renee LaRose, 46, turned to YouTube, MySpace and electronic message boards, where she found like-minded individuals bent on supporting international terrorism, according to an indictment unsealed this week. Her path to radicalization took years and included a series of online contacts with men who urged her to action, the sources said.

LaRose left her live-in boyfriend in Pennsburg, a quiet town outside Philadelphia, and traveled to Western Europe in August as part of an alleged plan to kill a Swedish artist. LaRose believed she could "blend in" to the community because of her blond hair, blue eyes and small frame, she wrote in e-mail messages to her alleged co-conspirators.

FBI analysts and national security experts have worried for years that Westerners with easy access to passports could be recruited for terrorist aims. Michael L. Levy, the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, said the JihadJane case "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."

Central to LaRose's case is the Internet, which is being used increasingly by al-Qaeda and other groups to penetrate U.S. borders with radical propaganda, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael E. Leiter said in a talk last month to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

"LaRose's actions again reflect the fact that immersing oneself in the propaganda and culture of jihadists through the Internet can lead to an individual attempting to undertake a violent act, no matter that person's age, gender, or background," according to an analysis by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private firm that monitors jihadist Web sites.

LaRose is scheduled to appear in court March 18 for an arraignment on charges that she conspired to support terrorists and kill a Swedish artist and that she lied to FBI agents about her online activities and associations. Prosecutors say she could face life in prison if convicted. Mark Wilson, a public defender representing her, declined to comment.

LaRose was arrested in October in Pennsylvania, accused of attempting to transfer a passport stolen from her boyfriend, Kurt Gorman. She was appointed an attorney, appeared at a brief public court hearing, agreed to be detained and waived her right to a speedy trial. The grand jury indictment accusing LaRose of terrorist offenses did not emerge until last week and was unsealed by authorities Tuesday.

The charges came as a surprise to neighbors on Main Street in Pennsburg, a little less than 50 miles from Philadelphia, where LaRose had lived for years while taking care of Gorman's elderly father.

In an interview with CNN, Gorman said LaRose had vanished -- with his stolen passport -- in August, shortly after his father's death. Prosecutors say she traveled to Europe to find artist Lars Vilks as part of an alleged plot to kill him in revenge for his provocative drawing of the Prophet Mohammed on the body of a dog.

"Sounds crazy," Gorman told CNN. "It is hard to believe. . . . She wasn't no rocket scientist. She was limited in her capacity, so I'm not sure how much she thought she could do on her own."

Four men and three women were arrested in Ireland by local police this week in connection with the case, according to European news accounts.

LaRose had brushes with the law in Pennsylvania, where in 2002 she faced charges of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, according to public records. She also fought charges in South Texas, where she lived with Sheldon "Buddy" Barnum, the man she married at 16.

In a telephone interview, Barnum, who was 32 at the time of the 1980 wedding, said: "What do I remember about her? Nothing. Wasn't nothing to remember."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/10/AR2010031003722_pf.html

Colorado woman held in death plot

First 'JihadJane,' now Colorado woman held in death plot

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010; 4:32 PM

Federal officials confirmed Saturday that a second suburban American woman had been apprehended in connection with a plot to kill a Swedish artist who angered the Muslim world with a derogatory drawing of the prophet Mohammad.

But authorities cautioned that Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a blond-haired mother, may have been motivated by love for an Algerian Muslim man rather than by terrorist urges when she traveled to Ireland for a rendezvous in September.

Paulin-Ramirez, 31, of suburban Denver, was taken into custody by Irish police last week on the same day that U.S. prosecutors unsealed a criminal indictment against another fair-haired American woman who allegedly used the Internet handle "JihadJane" to recruit people to further the plot.

The two apparently connected in online chat rooms, officials said Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. But authorities think Colleen R. LaRose, also known as JihadJane, posed a greater danger.

LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, Pa., will appear in a Philadelphia federal courtroom Thursday to face arraignment on charges that could send her to prison for life. LaRose told her co-conspirators that her blond hair, light eyes and small frame would help her "blend in" with Western society and avoid detection by law enforcement, according to court papers.

Paulin-Ramirez, whose identity was reported on the Web site of the Wall Street Journal, had been a nursing student and medical aide before she converted to Islam. She began covering her hair and ultimately disappeared last fall, surprising her relatives.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said officials would have "no comment on the identities of those arrested. Our investigation continues."

Law enforcement activity also continued Saturday in the case of Sharif Mobley, an American citizen born in New Jersey who had been captured in Yemen in connection with alleged terrorist activity.

Mobley drew attention because he had worked at U.S. nuclear sites, but a senior administration official told The Post that the youth had essentially served as a janitor, without access to sensitive information about the facilities.

U.S. investigators, including the FBI's Baltimore field office, are working closely with the Yemeni government on the case and are reviewing Mobley's activities and associations on American soil, the administration official said. Mobley, 26, had been on the law enforcement radar screen for at least two years, the official said.

It is unclear whether Mobley will ever return to the United States. The Yemenis suspect him of killing at least one guard in a prison fight, and they may wish to exact their own justice, authorities said.

One law enforcement source said Mobley came into contact overseas with Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical Yemeni American cleric whose fiery rhetoric has inspired plots in Canada, Britain and the United States. Accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal M. Hasan and the Christmas underwear bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab also exchanged correspondence with Aulaqi before they took action, the source said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/13/AR2010031301532_pf.html

Al Qaeda Calls On American Muslims To Attack U.S.

Al Qaeda Calls On American Muslims To Attack U.S.

PATRICK QUINN | 03/ 7/10 11:17 AM | AP

CAIRO — Al-Qaida's American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.

In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.

"Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes," he said.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as "high-value targets."

Gadahn grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, California, and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

"You shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage," he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him.

Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and two years later was charged with treason. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

He has in the past posted videos and messages calling for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. His location is unknown, but he is believed to be somewhere along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hasan has been charged in the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist remains paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by two civilian members of Fort Hood's police force.
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"Nidal Hasan is a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers," Gadahn said.

In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms like Hasan, but could use other weapons. "As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon."

Gadahn said fighters should target mass transportation systems in the West and also wreak havoc "by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media."

He recommended finding ways to shake "consumer confidence and stifle spending" and noted that even unsuccessful attacks, such as the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, can bring major cities to a halt.

"I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam," Gadahn said.
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Associated Press Writer Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report.

From Huffington Post, 7 March 2010.

The "Right" Kind of Bigotry

"There were moments--long moments--during the Iraq war when I had my doubts. Even deep doubts. Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice. But some prejudices are built on real facts, and history generally proves me right. Go ahead, prove me wrong."

Read Glenn Greenwald's scathing commentary on this astonishing statement by Marty Peretz in Salon.com. Peretz is editor-in-chief and owner of The New Republic.

Farrakhan predicts 'white right' trouble for Obama

Monday, Mar 1, 2010 08:10 EST
Farrakhan predicts 'white right' trouble for Obama
Nation of Islam leader, boasting of divine stature, blames far right for stalling healthcare
By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press

Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, boasting his divine stature, on Sunday predicted trouble ahead for President Barack Obama and urged him to do more to improve the lives of blacks and the downtrodden.

The 76-year-old leader said the "white right" was conspiring to make Obama a one-term president, and pointed to his stalled efforts to introduce health care legislation as proof. He said those opponents and lobbyists were trapping him into a future war with Iran that could lead to mass destruction.

"The word 'prophet' is too cheap a word. I am a light in the midst of darkness," Farrakhan said at the annual convention of the movement that embraces black nationalism. "It ain't ego, it's my love for you."

An estimated 20,000 people attended the heavily guarded Saviours' Day event at the United Center in Chicago. Followers -- men dressed in navy uniforms and women in white skirt suits with matching hijabs -- cheered on Farrakhan with shouts of "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great."

Farrakhan spent most of the fiery nearly four-hour speech recounting a 1985 vision he had in Mexico. Farrakhan has often described how he believes he was invited aboard an unidentified flying object he calls "the wheel" where he said he heard the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad speak to him.

He said that experience led him to inklings about future events, including the United States' 1986 bombing of Libya.

Farrakhan recounted how his divine knowledge has allowed him to recognize countless warning signs over the decades -- such as natural disasters such as the earthquake in Chile -- and said they indicate impending trouble, including for Obama.

Dressed in ornate creme robes, he addressed the president directly:

"Your people are suffering. You can't ease their plight, but you can use your bully pulpit. Speak for the poor. Speak for the weak."

He said helping the Nation of Islam, which has worked to reform black inmates for decades, would also be an answer.
"Put some money on back of us," he said. "We can reform our people."

Farrakhan has vigorously supported Obama for years and used his presidency as a call to action for blacks. That was even as Obama distanced himself from the group for Farrakhan's past comments that many considered anti-Semitic.

Supporters say Farrakhan's words are often taken out of context.

Farrakhan continued his praise of Obama Sunday, and said the nation's first black president was manipulated into disavowing Farrakhan.

He would not say if he and Obama had ever met on the issue.

"They all want to know did I ever meet with him and what did I say or what he say," Farrakhan said in the speech. "I ain't going there."

http://www.salon.com/news/2010/03/01/us_nation_of_islam_farrakhan/index.html

Bias in Hiring

February 28, 2010
Lawsuit by Moroccan-American Muslim Accuses Police of Bias in Hiring
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
The New York Times

As the New York Police Department has initiated and expanded counterterrorism efforts in foreign countries over the last several years, it has also aggressively tried to recruit speakers of Arabic and other languages of countries where Islam holds sway.

But a Moroccan immigrant who applied to become a police officer as a result of those efforts is suing the department, charging that he was not hired because he was a Muslim and was born outside the United States.

Lawyers for the city filed a motion asking that his claim be dismissed, but on Jan. 29, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled that there was enough evidence for the suit to proceed.

The immigrant, Said Hajem, took the police exam in February 2006 and said he scored 85.6, well above the passing grade. That June he received a letter of congratulations from Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and began preparing to enter the Police Academy. Mr. Hajem said he had even decided to delay his wedding, hoping to get married as a police officer.

“I started dreaming of becoming one of the Finest,” Mr. Hajem, 39, said last month, as he sat in his lawyer’s office on lower Broadway, “an important person who is going to save lives and stop terrorism.”

Now those hopes seem remote. It has been four years since Mr. Hajem passed the exam, but his application has been suspended in bureaucratic limbo.

Mr. Hajem, who said he became an American citizen in early 2006, said the hiring process faltered for him in July 2006 when an officer reviewing his paperwork, Ricardo Ramkissoon, told him that he disapproved of people from “other countries” joining the department.

Mr. Hajem added that Officer Ramkissoon had also rejected references he had provided from people with Middle Eastern names. “He told me, ‘I need American names,’ ” Mr. Hajem said. “He said, ‘You may be a terrorist.’ ”

Mr. Hajem’s lawsuit said he had been subjected to discrimination that violated his constitutional rights.

In response, a lawyer for the city, Jessica Miller of the Law Department, said in a statement: “We expect to prevail at trial.”

Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, declined to specifically address the statements that Mr. Hajem attributed to Officer Ramkissoon, but said in an e-mail message that “the allegations fly in the face of the N.Y.P.D.’s well-established record of outreach and hiring” of recruits from countries like Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which all are mainly Muslim nations.

“We have actively and successfully recruited native speakers of Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, Pashto and other languages,” Mr. Browne wrote. “Our linguist program is the envy of law enforcement worldwide.”

Mr. Hajem’s lawyer, David B. Rankin, did not contest the department’s claims of diversity. He contended, however, that Officer Ramkissoon had sabotaged Mr. Hajem’s application by giving misleading and false information to superiors.

On a department form dated July 2006, Officer Ramkissoon presented several reasons not to hire Mr. Hajem, including that he had not disclosed a summons received while he was working as a livery driver, and that he had engaged in “tax evasion” from 2001 to 2005.

In court papers, Mr. Hajem included Internal Revenue Service documents; he said that he had earlier provided them to Officer Ramkissoon and that they showed he had paid the proper amounts in taxes.

And Mr. Hajem said the summons, issued for picking up a passenger who hailed him from the sidewalk, was dismissed when he went to court.

Officer Ramkissoon did not respond to a request for comment.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/nyregion/01muslim.html