Zazi Pleads Guilty

The plea is sealed but here's the DOJ press release:

Najibullah Zazi guilty plea

It's clear from the information revealed in this release that Al Qaeda Core is now focusing on smaller scale attacks.

The conventional wisdom for years has been that AQ wanted to stage an attack even more spectacular than 9/11 and was not interested in smaller operations. I personally doubt whether this was ever true (there was already strong evidence to the contrary), but at this point no one can credibly mount such a claim.

This has to be seen as a negative development, since smaller attacks are easier to accomplish and pressing small attacks does not preclude the simultaneous deployment of a spectacular attack.

In fact, if the operations are properly compartmentalized, smaller attacks could distract focus away from a larger operation. U.S. counterterrorism focus is highly reactive. For instance, we might be preoccupied chasing breast impant bombs with body scanners while someone is stowing a dirty bomb on an LNG tanker from Yemen.

Another interesting point here is that Zazi traveled specifically to fight for the Taliban and only after arriving on the ground was he diverted to Al Qaeda. Since 2003, we’ve seen an increase in cases where potential foreign fighters are diverted to terrorism before they gain any battleground experience.

Prior to 2001, fighters would more often cut their teeth in a more traditional foreign fighter combat or even regular military environment, and after proving themselves under those conditions then be recruited to receive specialized training for terrorism.

For instance, Khalid Shaik Mohammed went to Bosnia in 1992 to play a support role for the mujahideen, but returned in 1995 to recruit terrorist operatives from the pool of experienced fighters.

There is a useful distinction and transition to explore between jihadist (which I am defining as a foreign fighter taking part in a localized armed conflict or insurgency) and what I would call a “networked terrorist” (attacking non-combatant civilian targets outside of a hot conflict zone). I'll get into this more in my forthcoming book.

Labels: American-Jihadists, Najibullah-Zazi

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

More Detail on 'Michael Jackson's Neverland Favorites'

Previous reports stemming from the FBI's release of files on entertainer Michael Jackson led to speculation that a child pornography tape titled "Michael Jackson's Neverland Favorites, An All-Boy Anthology" was obtained during a search of one of Jackson's homes.

A supplemental release received today from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement indicates the tape has no direct connection to Jackson, but was obtained during an unrelated child pornography prosecution in Florida. According to forensic analysis, the tape contained no original material and had been remastered from previous recordings.

ICE files on Michael Jackson

Labels: INTELFILES, Off-Topic

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

Al Qaeda's Breast Implant Bomb Plot

I appeared on Channel 7, WHDH NBC Boston, tonight during the 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts to discuss reports that Al Qaeda is planning to equip female jihadists with breast implants that have been filled with explosives. Believe it or not.

This kind of tactic would be very effective, if all the pieces were in place. However, it would be extraordinarily difficult to make it happen. You need a competent surgeon with a specialty in cosmetic surgery, you need a fundamentalist woman jihadist (rare enough) who is willing to undergo the procedure in violation of Islamic modesty taboos, and that individual also needs to be able to extract the explosives from the implant and make them into a bomb in an airplane restroom. Most Al Qaeda operatives can't even manage to set their shoes or underwear on fire, let along perform surgery on themselves, then build a bomb, then detonate it.

Video of the report is here, but for a more rounded discussion, check out the new INTELWIRE podcast:

Podcast: Al Qaeda's Breast Implant Bomb Plot

I will post video when it becomes available.

Labels: Weblog

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink

 

American Arrested in Raid on Bosnian Village

An American citizen was arrested during a police raid on a Bosnian village populated by Wahhabis, according to Balkans media outlets.

Enis Bosnic, of Jacksonville, Florida, was among several people arrested in "Operation Light," a sting operation conducted in Gornja Maoca, in northern Bosnia. The residents of Gornja Maoca live under Shariah law.

Some members of the community are believed to have relocated there after the Bosnian government shut down a notorious village of former mujahideen known as Donja Bocinja.

According to Bosnian news outlets, Edis Bosnic is a Bosnian national who became a naturalized American citizen. A person by that name was nominated to the board of directors of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida in 2004.

According to the Bosnian TV news magazine "60 Minutes" (no relation to CBS), Bosnic was in close contact with Adis Medunjanin, the Queens man arrested in the U.S. on suspicion of taking part in a bomb plot led by Afghan national Najibullah Zazi.

Bosnian journalist Bosnian journalist Esad Hecimovic contributed to this report.


Sources:

Glas Srpske

International Relations and Security Network

Washington Post

Labels: Adis-Medunjanin, American-Jihadists, Bosnia, Edis-Bosnic, Najibullah-Zazi, Sarajevo-Ricochet

Posted by J.M. Berger | Permalink