FBI's newest 'Most Wanted' terrorist is American

[anothersta]

WASHINGTON – For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terror suspects.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks and say he has tattoo that proclaims, "It only takes a spark."

A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the "Most Wanted" terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

San Diego would be the 24th person on the list, and the only domestic terror suspect.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to comment on the pending announcement.

The move to add a domestic, left-wing terrorist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.

An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in northern California of the corporate offices of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm, and at Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company. The explosions caused minor damages and no injuries.

A group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells" took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.

Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.

In February, the FBI announced San Diego may be living in Costa Rica, possibly working with Americans or people who speak English in the Central American country.

Law enforcement officials describe San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has images of burning and collapsing buildings.

The FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running "Ten Most Wanted" list. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is on both.

There is another American already on the list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaida. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaida.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_domestic_terrorist

[Jolie Rouge]

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Rapping Jihadi on FBI's Most Wanted
By Lee Ferran | ABC News – 3 hrs ago.

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GymEwrusDRBy64TCd7QLqg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzYwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NjQwO2R4PTA7ZH k9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0zNTU7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/gma/us.abcnews.go.com/ap_omar_hammami_ll_120517_wmain.jpg

An Alabama-born rapping jihadi fighting half a world away is among the new entries on the FBI's infamous Most Wanted List, the bureau announced today.

Omar Hammami, also known as Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, has been fighting with the Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab since 2006. Hammami has allegedly been a propagandist for the al Qaeda-linked group and has released several rap songs praising jihad against the West.

Hammami was originally indicted in the U.S. on terrorism-related charges in 2007 and faced additional charges in a superseding indictment in 2009.

Douglas Astralaga, the Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI in Mobile, Ala., told ABC News he couldn't comment on exactly why Hammami was being added to the list now, but said there is an ongoing investigation into Hammami's alleged terrorist activities and, after a lengthy review, information against him "met the criteria" for being added to the list.

READ: American Terrorist's Mom Wants Him Back Home

Earlier this year Hammami said he feared for his life, but it wasn't the American government he was worried about. In a video posted online, Hammami said he suspected his fellow militants might turn their guns on him due to ideological "differences."

He has apparently survived that tiff, but his terror group has been on the losing end of several recent battles in Somalia. In September, al-Shabaab was pushed out of its last urban stronghold in Kismayo by African troops.

In a recent autobiography written by Hammami and posted online, he describes a daily fear of drone strikes and jokes that the drones are "racist" - they prefer to target white people in Somalia.

He may have reason to worry. In late September 2011, a high-profile al Qeada recruiter, Anwar al-Awlaki, and an al Qaeda propagandist, Samir Khan, were killed in a CIA drone strike. Both were American citizens.

In addition to Hammami, the FBI added Raddulan Sahiron, a suspected leader of the Filipino terror group Abu Sayyaf, to the list. The bureau said it is also seeking information about Shayk Aminullah, an alleged recruiter for al Qaeda and the Pakistani-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

http://news.yahoo.com/rapping-jihadi-fbis-most-wanted-185453545--abc-news-topstories.html

[Jolie Rouge]

American militant urges attacks on US diplomats
Adam Gadahn, a California-born al-Qaida militant, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the Arab region.
12 hr ago | By Mahmoud Habboush of Reuters

http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/14/4361174e4f52994a7151ebf15ede41/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg

DUBAI — An American al-Qaida militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya last year on Sept. 11, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Sunday.

Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open Sunday after being closed for 12 days.

Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said. "These prizes have a great effect in instilling fear in the hearts of our cowardly enemies," Gadahn said in the 39-minute video recording in Arabic posted on websites used by Islamist militants, according to SITE.

"They also encourage hesitant individuals to carry out important and great deeds in the path of Allah," he said, in an English transcript on SITE.

The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaida last year offered 3 kilograms of gold for the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or 5 million rials ($23,350) for an American soldier in the impoverished Arab state.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 when Islamist gunmen attacked the U.S. Consulate during what some initially said was a protest by a mob angry over a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Gadahn has called for attacks on U.S. diplomats before. In August 2007, he said al-Qaida would target diplomats and embassies in retaliation for U.S.-led military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The FBI has been trying to question Gadahn — believed to be in Pakistan — since 2004, and the U.S. government has offered up to $1 million in cash for information leading to his arrest.

http://news.msn.com/world/american-militant-urges-attacks-on-us-diplomats?ocid=ansnews11

[Jolie Rouge]

Omar Hammami Dead: American Jihadi Killed In Somalia, Reports Say
By ABDI GULED and JASON STRAZIUSO 09/12/13

MOGADISHU, Somalia — An American who became one of Somalia's most visible Islamic rebels and was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list with a $5 million bounty on his head was killed Thursday by rivals in the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab, militants said.

The killing of Omar Hammami, an Alabama native known for his rap-filled propaganda videos, may discourage other would-be jihadis from the U.S. and elsewhere from traveling to Somalia, terrorism experts said.

Hammami, whose nom de guerre was Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American," was killed in an ambush in southern Somalia following months on the run after falling out with al-Shabab's top leader, the militants said. Reports of Hammami's death have cropped up every few months in Somalia, only for him to resurface. But J.M. Berger, a U.S. terrorism expert who closely follows the inner workings of al-Shabab, said he thinks the current reports are accurate.

The rebels did not immediately present proof of Hammami's death.

Hammami was highly critical of al-Shabab's leadership over the past year and freely shared his views in Internet videos and on Twitter, making him a marked man.

Somalia has long been an attractive destination for foreign fighters, and al-Shabab counts several hundred foreign fighters among its ranks, including about two dozen Somali-Americans from Minneapolis recruited over the past several years.

Hammami's death will hurt the group's recruitment efforts, said Abdirizak Bihi, an advocate for the Somali community in Minnesota and the uncle of a young man killed in Somalia in 2008. "We always knew the Somalis inside Somalia knew that al-Shabab was bad," Bihi said. "We were concerned about the Somalis in the diaspora ... who never really knew the facts on the ground and were always manipulated and misled."

"So that's why it's a victory. They now know exactly what al-Shabab is, as much as the Somalis inside."

Terrorism expert Clint Watts wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, that Hammami's plight "probably soured recruitment pipelines from the West into Somalia."

Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan – a former Osama bin Laden spokesman – the 29-year-old Hammami was one of the two most notorious Americans in jihadi groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a community of 20,000 outside Mobile, the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.

His YouTube videos that featured him rapping and his presence on Twitter made him one of the most recognizable and studied U.S. foreign fighters. The FBI put Hammami on its Most Wanted Terrorist list in 2012 and offered a $5 million reward in March for information leading to his capture.

U.S. prosecutors had charged Hammami with providing material support to terrorists.

In Alabama, Husam Omar, vice president of the Islamic Society in Mobile, a mosque Hammami once attended, said he had not heard of the reports of his death. "I'm shocked," Omar said, declining further comment.

A man who answered the door at Hammami's parent's home declined to identify himself and said, "I am sorry, I cannot talk about it right now." The home is in an upper-middle class neighborhood with manicured lawns where most houses fly American or Alabama University flags.

A member of al-Shabab who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed told The Associated Press that Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia's southern Bay region. Some of Mohammed's associates carried out the killing, he said. Two other fighters with Hammami, including a Briton of Somali descent, were also killed, he said.

Hammami, an Arabic speaker, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joined al-Shabab in about 2006. He fought alongside al-Shabab until they had a falling out amid increasing tension between Somali and foreign fighters. He first expressed fear for his life in a March 2012 web video that publicized his rift with al-Shabab.

The first serious attempt on his life came in April, when al-Shabab's leader, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Godane, ordered the killings of several of Hammami's associates. "Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet," Hammami tweeted after the April attack.

Al-Shabab and al-Qaida announced formal merger in February 2012, but the Somali militant group maintained a reputation of being hostile to foreign fighters.

Hammami accused al-Shabab's leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. Another grievance was that the militant leaders sideline foreign militants.

Hammami has been "a thorn in the side of al-Shabab" for more than two years and "one of the few surviving dissenters after Godane's bloody purge over the summer," said Berger, who runs the website Intelwire.com.

"Hammami brought a lot of unwelcome outside scrutiny on Shabab from the international jihadist community. His story will likely be a case study on what can go wrong when Westerners join jihadist movements," Berger said.

Before the falling out, Hammami made frequent appearances in combat videos, and in 2011 he released two rap songs, "Send Me a Cruise (missile)" and "Make Jihad With Me."

In December, al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in an Internet statement, saying his video releases were the result of a "narcissistic pursuit of fame."

Last week, Voice of America interviewed the wanted American, who said he was unlikely to ever return to the U.S. "That is not an option unless it's in a body bag," Hammami said.

Frequent Twitter postings over the last year alluded to the fact that Hammami's life was in danger.

"i'll be a mujahid till the day i die whether it's shabab who kills me or someone else," Hammami wrote in an April Twitter posting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/omar-hammami-dead-american-jihadi_n_3912516.html