A terrorism expert informed the U.S. Senate today that the threat from home grown al Qaeda terror cells is real. How is it that al Qaeda can recruit terrorists in the U.S.? The internet.

Trust me, many of you would be genuinely shocked at reading the amount support terrorists get from American Muslims on bulletin boards. Of course, they always hedge this support by first declaring that the terrorist in question is not really a terrorist.

So, when many of them say, I don't support terrorism, they really mean it. The devil, though, is in the details of exactly what constitutes a terrorist.

Muslim parents, do you know what your children are up to on the internet? Between porn and Islamic message boards, I'd be more worried about the latter.

UPI:

"We are uncovering the spread of new violent extremists networks and cells that lack formal ties or affiliation with al-Qaida or other recognized terrorists groups," said John Scott Redd, the direction of the National Counterterrorism Center in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.

"These new networks are often made up of disaffected, radicalized individuals who draw inspiration and moral support froom al-Qaida and other violent extremists. Group members are most often young, in their teens and twenties, and froom families that are second or third generation immigrants to their western communities. To the outside observer, these terrorists might well appear to be fully assimilated members of their western communities." ....

"In one case, two individuals who are U.S. Muslim converts were c caught robbing a gas station to support their attack plans in California. Possible targets included synagogues, the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, and a National Guard facility," Redd said....

"The emergence of this new brand of al-Qaida inspired, homegrown terrorism group poses real challenges to the intelligence community, and we are grappling with a whole new set of questions," Redd said. "The challenge of countering these cells is complicated by the fact that they may operate virtually, with much of their communication and planning taking place over the Internet. This network of virtual contacts increases the relative stealth with which these terrorists can organize, communicate and plan potential attacks." [emphasis mine]

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One of the Canadian Jihadis arrested for plotting terrorist acts has been linked to the former cyberterrorist #1, Irhabi 007 (Irhabi translated means terrorist). You may remember Irhabi 007 from our previous lengthy discussions about the cyber jihad.

Irhabi 007 was a frequent poster at the Islamist mesage board Ansarnet. He first came to our attention after he posted a video of the beheading murder of Jack Hensley at the forum. He was banned from the forum, not for posting the beheading video, but for asking for money to cover his bandwidth costs!

Irhabi 007 was the greatest distributor of al Qaeda in Iraq propaganda videos on the internet for some time. Irhadi 007 is probably best known in the U.S. for the time he hacked the Arkansas State Department of Highways and used their server to distribute jihadi material.

Eventually, though, he got sloppy and was caught by British authorities as part of a three man cell of terrorists. Irhab 007 turned out to be Younis Tsouli, a 22 year old from West London. Tsouli has also been linked to terror plots in Bosnia, Sweden, Turkey and Holland.

So, the Canadian jihadis have been linked to both a British and American terrorist cell. What is the common thread? Internet forums dedicated to the Religion of Peace.

More background from Chad at In the Bullpen here and Allahpundit here.
more...

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