FBI: 2 Alabama men plotted to wage jihad in Africa

By Pete Williams, NBC News
FBI agents have arrested two Alabama men accused of plotting to wage violent jihad in Africa.

Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, 25, and Randy Wilson, also known as Rasheed Wilson, 25, both U.S.citizens living in Mobile, were arrested Tuesday on terrorism charges. Prosecutors say they planned to travel to Mauritania, in West Africa, intending to prepare to engage in jihad.

Wilson was arrested Tuesday morning in at the Atlanta airport while preparing to begin a journey to Morocco, investigators say. Abukhdair was arrested in Augusta, Ga., at a bus terminal, also beginning a trip to Morocco.
Investigators say the men met online two years ago when Wilson was living in Mobile and Abukhdair was living in Egypt. Last year, prosecutors say, the men were introduced to someone who turned out to be an undercover FBI operative. Court documents say they explained that they had already formulated a plan to wage jihad overseas.

Earlier this year, court documents say, the two thought they detected FBI surveillance, so they threw their laptop computers into Mobile Bay and opened a men's fragrance store to make it appear they had no plans to leave the country. But the actual FBI surveillance continued until they were arrested Tuesday.

The fragrance store closed after four months because of a lack of business.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/11/15846027-fbi-2-alabama-men-plotted-to-wage-jihad-in-africa


The rest of the story from Jihad watch.

Googling 'Randy Rasheed Wilson' turned up this Associated Press article in the Wall Street Journal.
2 Ala. men arrested on federal terrorism charges - WSJ.com
Lots more *fascinating* details.It seems that Mr Wilson may be the product not of 'prison da'wa' but of **college da'wa**.He shared a room at college with Omar Hammami, who (like 'David [Dawood] Headley) is the product of Marriage Jihad (Muslim father, American non-Muslim mother)."...Wilson is a close friend and former roommate of Alabama native Omar Hammami..."Hammami, the son of a Christian mother and an Islamic father, grew up near Mobile and attended college at the University of South Alabama, where he was president of the Muslim student association.
"The complaint said Wilson first met Hammami in 2002 and lived with him in Mobile for seven months ending in December 2004."I wonder what mosque they both attended during that time?As for the other bloke, who is clearly Muslim born-and-bred; it's stated he was born in the USA, but one must assume, to Muslim 'immigrant' (colonist) parents. And when he was in Egypt he got into trouble with the *Egyptian* authorities:"Abukhdair was among a group of people arrested in Egypt in 2010, on suspicion of being involved with a terror group there, according to the sworn document, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Mobile."He was held for two months in Egypt before being deported to the United States, the statement said."Abukhdair is a native of Syracuse, N.Y." 'a native'.
Yeah: better write simply, 'Abukhdair was born to Muslim parents resident in Syracuse, NY'.
and the Muslim Egyptian state (then ruled by Mubarak) thought Abukhdair dangerous and **deported him back to the USA**..oh, the irony...We also learn that Abukhdair has committed passport fraud:"Abukhdair also is charged with passport fraud, accused of lying to obtain a new one since his old one contained immigration stamps from Egypt."(In another report, the matter is described thus:"Wilson told the FBI employee that he and Abukhdair had formulated a plan to travel together overseas for the purpose of waging violent jihad, according to the complaint.
"In preparation for their travel, Abukhdair applied for a new passport **and falsely claimed that his previous passport had been misplaced** {my emphasis - dda}, according to the complaint."Abukhdair was concerned that Egyptian stamps in his passport might raise suspicions and impede his travel plans, the statement said."What a charming pair!Personally, I think that their plans to travel to Mauritania should have been quietly expedited...and then, once they were firmly known to have arrived there, their passports should have been quietly *cancelled*.
Let them take themselves off the premises; and once they are gone, SHUT AND LOCK THE GATES BEHIND THEM.Set them down on the books as Outlaw and Exiled; No Return Permitted.End of problem. They should have been allowed to take themselves off to the howling wasteland that is 100 % Islamic Mauritania;, and with any luck they would have run foul of some other sharia-pusher who deemed them Insufficiently Islamic.And the USA's population of Mohammedan Mobsters would have been reduced by two. (What's more, neither man appears to have married or produced offspring yet).
Alabama: Two Muslims arrested for misunderstanding Islam, plotting to wage jihad in Africa - Jihad Watch


Pursuant to my posting above.

I googled 'Omar Hammami parents', and found an article that reveals a good deal more than its author or its publisher (the New York Times) are aware of.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/ma...anted=all&_r=0

The Jihadist Next Door

First of all: Moderate' Muslim father (who first of all presents as a MINO, but ends up being quite actively practising), as witness this paragraph -

"Shafik had experienced his own religious renewal after drifting from his practice during college. There were no mosques in Daphne (the Chamber of Commerce lists 43 churches).

"But in nearby Mobile, the University of South Alabama had given rise to a small Muslim community of Palestinian, Pakistani and Egyptian professionals.

"**By the time Omar was in high school, his father had become an active member of a growing mosque, the Islamic Society of Mobile, and helped found the area’s first Islamic school** {my emphasis - dda}.

A devout church-going Christian mother.

But the son becomes Omar Hammami and... chooses Islam, and Goes Sharia and then Goes Jihad, despite having been secretly given a good deal of Christian instruction as a child, and despite having had a wonderful Jewish teacher to nurture his intelligence and creativity.

The account of his Jewish teacher is the most wrenching thing:

"Hammami finally found a kindred soul in middle school. Kathleen Hirsch, his teacher in the gifted-student program, was a quirky Jewish woman who wore Ugg boots before they became popular and drove a bottle green Jaguar convertible. She turned her classroom into a salon, replacing the desks with sofas, brewing coffee and filling the shelves with Dylan Thomas and Gertrude Stein. She taught Hammami to “think outside of the box,” he later wrote."...

Now, what Islam does to you, in a nutshell, in several deeply-disturbing (and, to the experienced jihadwatcher, dismally-predictable) passages from the article:

"By his junior year, Hammami had become a spectacle. He made a point of praying by the flagpole outside school yet refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance, friends recalled.

"**In class, he swore at Hirsch, his longtime teacher, assailing her for being Jewish.** {my emphasis - dda}.
" That spring, in another class, Hammami tried to choke a student who interrupted him as he was reciting the Koran, students recalled.

Hammami was promptly suspended.

"With high grades and an A.C.T. score in the 93rd percentile, he skipped his senior year and enrolled at the University of South Alabama.

"There, he no longer prayed alone. He could walk to the mosque from campus, and he soon took over as president of the fledgling Muslim Student Association."...

And (after he shot through to Somalia and joined al shabab):

"The new Shabab video generated a burst of public speculation about the identity of the mysterious American.
"Hammami’s high-school girlfriend, Lauren Stevenson, caught a glimpse of the video on the news in April and instantly recognized him, watching aghast.

"**He seemed like a shell of the guy who took her to homecoming, a boutonniere pinned to his lapel. “When you look in his eyes, it’s just dead,”** {my emphasis - dda} she says.'...
Alabama: Two Muslims arrested for misunderstanding Islam, plotting to wage jihad in Africa - Jihad Watch