Jihad Joe_ Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam - J. M. Berger [0]
JOE
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JIHAD JOE
AMERICANS WHO
GO TO WAR
IN THE
NAME OF ISLAM
J. M. Berger
Copyright © 2011 by J. M. Berger
Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berger, J. M. (John M.)
Jihad Joe : Americans who go to war in the name of Islam / J.M. Berger. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59797-693-0 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Terrorists—Recruiting—United States. 2. Terrorism—Religious aspects—Islam. 3. Religious militants—United States. 4. Jihad. 5. Islamic fundamentalism—United States. 6. Qaida (Organization) I. Title.
HV6432.B464 2011
363.3250973—dc22
2010053161
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39-48 Standard.
Potomac Books, Inc.
22841 Quicksilver Drive
Dulles, Virginia 20166
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Introduction: The “New” Problem
1 The Early Years
2 Al Qaeda’s Americans
3 The Death Dealers
4 Project Bosnia
5 Rebuilding the Network
6 War on America
7 The Rise of Anwar Awlaki
8 Scenes from September
9 The Descent of Anwar Awlaki
10 A Diverse Threat
11 The Keyboard and the Sword
12 The Future of American Jihad
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
The “New” Problem
In 1979 a motley band of several hundred extremists staged an armed takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site. It was an unprecedented heresy, and it marked the dawn of the modern age of terrorism.
They were mostly Saudis, but the terrorists included Egyptians, Sudanese, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Yemenis, and at least two Americans.1
The siege took place during a period of violent change in the Islamic world, soon after the revolution that installed the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and just before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As many as six hundred followers of a Saudi named Juhayman Al Otaibi believed they had discovered the mahdi, an Islamic messiah figure embodied by Juhayman’s cousin. They struck during the Hajj, Islam’s most sacred pilgrimage, seizing the Grand Mosque and taking scores of hostages. For two weeks, Saudi Arabia was paralyzed by the siege, which eventually ended with a violent raid that left most of the terrorists dead and the historic mosque smoldering from its minarets.2
Juhayman and a handful of his men were captured and publicly executed. One of his American followers was taken prisoner and then secretly whisked home. Weeks after the siege ended, the wife of the other American walked into the U.S. consulate in Jeddah to inform officials that her husband, Faqur Abdur-Rahman, had been killed during the takeover. Saudi police had showed her his picture. His body had been buried in a mass grave, along with everyone else who was killed while taking part in the attack. “She does not desire to attempt to recover her husband’s remains,” a State Department official reported.3
The Siege at Mecca was only the beginning. Thirty years later, after a highly visible series of incidents in 2009 and 2010, U.S. media outlets discovered a new reason to worry. Americans were “suddenly” signing up for violent jihad.
Yet the phenomenon is far from new. Since 1979 American citizens have repeatedly packed their bags, left wives and children behind, and traveled to distant lands in the name of military jihad, the armed struggle of Islam.
Their reasons are as varied as their backgrounds—some travel to defend Muslims in peril, and some