The Boston Marathon bomber's mosque, Terrorism, and the Muslim brotherhood

[Jroc]

Boston Marathon bomber's mosque long a lightning rod for criticism

The mosque where at least one of the two suspected Boston Marathon bombers prayed has a controversial history, with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, terror funding and frequent fiery sermons, according to a group that has long monitored the house of worship.

“This is a radical mosque,” Dennis Hale, of a Boston-based group called Americans for Peace and Tolerance, said of the Islamic Society of Boston.

No one from the law enforcement community has publicly suggested that the mosque, located in the brothers' Cambridge neighborhood, played any official role in radicalizing either Tamerlan Tsarnaev or his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But Hale, also a professor of political science at Boston College, said there's reason for concern.


The mosque’s founders were in the Muslim Brotherhood and one, Abdurahman Alamoudi, pled guilty in 2004 for conducting illegal transactions with the Libyan government and his partial role in a conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Hale said. Alamoudi, who served as an Islamic adviser to President Clinton, was accused by critics of espousing pro-American language while lobbying in Washington, while expressing his support of terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah when addressing Islamist rallies.

Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, who has served on the APT board with Hale and founded the Quranists sect of Islam, leading to his eventual exile from his native Egypt, told FoxNews.com that the rhetoric at the Cambridge mosque gave him a bad feeling.

"I was astonished seeing that this mosque, at the time I was there, was controlled by fanatics," he said, recalling how he attended sunset prayers one Friday while he was a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School. "Their writings and teachings were fanatical. I left and refused to go back to pray. I left Egypt to escape the Muslim Brotherhood, but I had found it there."

Boston Marathon bomber's mosque long a lightning rod for criticism | Fox News

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Spread your fear and loathing elsewhere.

 

[waltky]

What information did Russia have that would cause them to suspect him?...

Russia asked U.S. twice to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev, official says
April 24th, 2013 - Months after the FBI cleared Tamerlan Tsarnaev in its investigation of possible connections to jihadist causes, the Russians approached the CIA as well to look into him, CNN has learned.

But what was provided by the Russians in late September 2011 was "basically the same" information that had been given the previous March to the FBI, according to a government official. The source said the communication was a "warning letter" sent to the CIA. Tsarnaev, 26, suspected along with his younger brother of bombing the Boston Marathon early last week, died on Friday following a violent confrontation with police. A law enforcement official said the CIA knew the FBI had done an assessment of the elder Tsarnaev, and the intelligence community seemed satisfied. The FBI concluded its investigation in June 2011. At the request of the CIA, information about Tsarnaev was included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, otherwise known as TIDE, which is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, CNN has learned. The list of more than 500,000 names of known or suspected foreign and domestic terrorists contains detailed, raw intelligence.

The Russians provided information that included "two possible dates of birth, his name and a possible name variant as well," the intelligence official added. The amount of information the Russians provided is at the center of a critical look at whether the government missed signals of a man described as emerging jihadist who may have been further radicalized overseas. "We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston. So he didn't stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people," Secretary of State John Kerry observed on Tuesday. The FBI investigated Tsarnaev based on the initial information from the Russians before concluding he was not a threat.

A senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the information says "the issue with Russia is that the initial information was extremely thin." The Russians believed he was "becoming radicalized." "There were no details, no examples, no threads to pull," the source said. "Because of the rather light nature of the information we did go back to them and asked can you tell us more. We never heard back." "They did not give a case report back when the United States inquired," said another source with knowledge of the investigation. Officials have said that the FBI investigation went as far as it could based on the vague information. "I think we did everything within our legal authority to vet this individual. When all was said and done there was nothing to link him to terrorism," a law enforcement official said. What pinged the Russian interest? The United States still doesn't know everything. But the senior U.S. official says the American intelligence community, including the FBI, is well aware the Russian security service monitors websites and online postings of particular militant websites. "We know the Russians had to see something to make these claims," said the senior U.S. official.

The Russians have not told the United States whether they did any surveillance on Tamerlan while he was in Russia for six months in 2012, but the law enforcement official would not doubt the Russians kept tabs on Tsarneav. If they did, according to the law enforcement official, the Russians never came back to the FBI and said so and didn't provide any additional incriminating information about him. If the Russians held back information, it wouldn't be surprising, said a source familiar with the intelligence process and the flow of information. The Russians are generally "more formal, more irregular" in providing this kind of information to us. "'There's still a lot of suspicion" between U.S. and Russian intelligence operatives, the source said. "I am not sure they would share their source information with us." The FBI is under very strict legal guidelines and standards when investigating Americans or persons on American soil. The standards are carefully scrutinized.

Source

See also:

Bombing suspect was in security files, but not on watch lists
April 24th, 2013 - The name of one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was included in U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism databases, but he was not on any watch list that would have prevented him from flying or required additional screening when he left or entered the country, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.

After the FBI was asked by the Russians in early 2011 to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev's possible connection to jihadist causes, his name was put on a Customs and Border Prevention list known as TECS, used to detect unusual or suspicious travel, so that the FBI and other agencies would know if he traveled outside the United States. The FBI investigation turned up no terrorism threat or any other derogatory information and the case was closed in June of 2011. Several months later in the fall of 2011, the CIA received from the Russians information almost identical to what had been given to the FBI, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The Russian information included a name variant and two possible dates of birth.

At the request of the CIA, that information about Tsarnaev was included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, otherwise known as TIDE, which is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, CNN has learned. The list of more than 500,000 names of known or suspected foreign and domestic terrorists contains detailed, raw intelligence. At about the same time, Tsarnaev's name was also added to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), a list which is similar to TIDE but without the detailed intelligence information. The two lists are linked. New intelligence and data are developed and added to TIDE multiple times a day. When that happens, the TSDB database also is updated.

Both files are tools for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to share information on terrorism suspects. About 98 percent of the names on the two lists are foreign citizens, according to officials. From the lists, the FBI Terrorism Screening Center recommends which names should be put on watch lists used by the Transportation Security Administration, the State Department and the FBI. These include "no-fly" and other lists which would require additional screening. Tsarnaev's name was not added to any of those lists, according to officials. A federal law enforcement official said the "U.S. never deemed him a threat."

But his name was on the customs TECS list to look out for any travel by him during a one year period which started at the time the FBI was investigating him in 2011. When Tsarnaev, 26, traveled to Russia in January of 2012, the FBI was notified of his departure. By the time he returned the following July, the notification period had expired and therefore the FBI was not "pinged," according to the intelligence official. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died last week following a shootout with police. The other bombing suspect, his brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured.

Bombing suspect was in security files, but not on watch lists ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

Related:

From the grave, the cleric inspiring a new generation of terrorists
April 24th, 2013 - He was born and raised in the United States, and killed by the United States. And now from beyond the grave he inspires a new generation of would-be terrorists to attack the United States.

Militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki continues to speak through sermons posted online, and U.S. officials are investigating whether his words may have influenced Boston bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A U.S. government official told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that "the preachings of Anwar al-Awlaki were likely to have been among the videos they watched." A U.S. government source had previously told CNN that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had claimed the brothers had no connection to overseas Islamist terrorist groups and were radicalized through the Internet. Al-Awlaki lived in Colorado, California and Virginia before leaving the United States in 2002. At one point he met two of the men who would be among the 9/11 hijackers, an encounter later investigated by the FBI. There is no evidence that al-Awlaki knew of their plans.

From about 2006 onward he became increasingly influential among would-be jihadists around the world with his eloquent online sermons delivered in fluent and colloquial English. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in a remote part of Yemen in September 2011, along with another American, Samir Khan. U.S investigators are examining whether the Tsarnaev brothers downloaded or viewed a bomb formula that appeared in Inspire, the online English-language magazine published by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Awlaki is believed to have been the driving force behind that magazine and Samir Khan was its editor. The pressure cooker devices exploded in Boston had several striking similarities to a design in the first issue of the magazine in the summer of 2010 "How to build a bomb in Your Mom's Kitchen."

The magazine instructed would-be jihadists in the West to deploy multiple devices and set them off simultaneously in a crowded space. Another issue of the magazine published a year ago called for attacks at crowded sports venues. The Inspire recipe "How to Build a Bomb in your Mom's Kitchen" has been linked to multiple Islamist terrorist plots on both sides of the Atlantic. It was downloaded by a group of Islamist extremists plotting to bomb London in late 2010.

In July 2011, an American Muslim soldier from Fort Hood, Texas -- Naser Jason Abdo -- downloaded the recipe and bought pressure cookers and shotgun shells from which he could extract explosive powder. Abdo was arrested before he had assembled a bomb and was sentenced last year to two consecutive life prison sentences for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. New York resident Jose Pimentel allegedly began building a pipe bomb using the recipe before being arrested by New York police in November 2011. Pimentel was charged with plotting to bomb targets in the United States; he has pleaded not guilty.

The Emergence of a "jihadist rock star"

 

[Jroc]

Spread your fear and loathing elsewhere.

Among the controversial figures associated with Islamic Society of Boston, which runs the mosque Tamerlan Tsarnaev attended:

— In March 2010, Imam Abdullah Faarooq gave a sermon praising Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT graduate who had returned to her native Pakistan in 2003 and was later exposed as courier and financier for Al Qaeda. She was eventually arrested in Afghanistan with containers of sodium cyanide and notes on making a bomb. In his sermon, Faarooq proclaimed Siddiqui's innocence and told worshippers, "You must grab on to this rope, grab on to the typewriter, grab on to the shovel, grab on to the gun and the sword, don't be afraid to step out into this world and do your job."

— Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, an original trustee of the Islamic Society of Boston and known as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the past, he has told followers in sermons that Jews and homosexuals should be "exterminated.” The Anti-Defamation League has referred to him as a “Theologian of Terror,” and he once wrote in an Arabic newspaper editorial that Jews are "the Rapists of worshippers of Allah."

— Tariq Mehanna and Ahmed Abousamra were mosque members who, in 2009, were indicted by federal prosecutors for providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country.

Hale cited a sermon delivered by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, in which he called Christians “spiritually filthy” and said that Muslims could not be citizens of a county where man makes law because they must follow God’s law, as examples of the mosque's misguided teachings.

Boston Marathon bomber's mosque long a lightning rod for criticism | Fox News

 

[Mr. H.]

Spread your fear and loathing elsewhere.

In Las Vegas?

 

[rdean]

Boston Mosque Refuses to Bury Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Boston Bombing Suspects Aunt: Local Mosque Refuses To Bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev

 

[Mr. H.]

I wonder if the feds will wrap him in white like they did O'Sama.

 

[Political Junky]

Tamerlan had been asked to leave a service at that mosque for speaking radical ideas.

 

[Jroc]

Tamerlan had been asked to leave a service at that mosque for speaking radical ideas.

Must have been after 2010