Fear Over U.S.-Born Extremists Is Brewing

THE NATION

Fear Over U.S.-Born Extremists Is Brewing
London attacks raise concerns over the potential for sleeper cells of Americans.
By Josh Meyer
Times Staff Writer

August 1, 2005

WASHINGTON — When security cameras captured four young Britons sauntering into the London Underground before detonating their deadly backpacks last month, the chilling images raised questions about whether such homegrown sleeper terrorists could be plotting attacks in the United States.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials say there is no evidence that such would-be terrorists exist in large numbers in the United States, or that any of them are in the operational stages of a plot. And some U.S. officials and experts downplay the threat such domestic militants might pose to Americans.

But some senior authorities say there is enough anecdotal evidence to warrant concern, and suggest that whatever radicalized the British bombers could presumably also motivate Americans who have embraced Islamic extremist views expressed on websites and chat rooms, in radical mosques and elsewhere.

Terrorism investigators worry particularly about the American-born children of immigrants from countries known to harbor international terrorists or their training camps. An ability to move easily between cultures, and to travel widely on U.S. passports, would give such citizens a unique set of skills should they pursue terrorist intentions.

"These are second-generation Americans, people who grew up here, were educated here or were raised in this country and are now adopting this extremist view, and are now viewing their home country as the enemy," said Joseph Billy Jr., who heads the FBI's international counter-terrorism operations.

"You are talking about people who are actually here and living in the country and view us as the enemy," Billy said in an interview. "If the [terrorist] message is so strong that these people are willing to travel overseas and take up weapons, when are they going to be ready to cross the line?"

Efforts to identify and intercept anyone crossing that line have led to at least several ongoing domestic investigations, authorities confirmed in interviews. Some have resulted in arrests and prosecutions, and some have fallen apart or been downgraded to minor immigration violations.

Those not convinced that a significant domestic threat exists said most Muslim immigrants to the United States don't face the same degree of economic hardship and cultural isolation that their counterparts in Europe have endured for decades and that are thought to contribute to radicalization.

But others noted that several of the alleged London bombers appeared to have come from prosperous homes and had received good educations.

One London bombing suspect, Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was raised in Britain, had worked closely with a U.S.-spawned terrorist operative from Seattle, Earnest James Ujaama, in an abortive effort to establish a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon. Ujaama pleaded guilty in 2003; Aswat is an unindicted co-conspirator in the same case, authorities say.

"In general, terrorism recruiters are using the Internet and not focusing on the individual but rather a shotgun approach that reaches people from Portland, Ore., to Kuala Lumpur," said Matthew Levitt, a former FBI counter-terrorism analyst who heads terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We're as susceptible as anyone else, if not more so. We'd be fools to think that what is happening in Western Europe doesn't affect us. In a globalized world, it certainly does."

But like other current and former authorities, Levitt conceded that it was difficult to know how many homegrown terrorists might be in the United States.

Billy, a deputy assistant FBI director, said he could not discuss the details of any ongoing investigations or the number of potential suspects.

But authorities from several U.S. agencies confirmed that the FBI was investigating several dozen suspected American militants operating in groups and alone, who had had varying degrees of contact with terrorist organizations in the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, North Africa and elsewhere overseas. And they said the potential numbers of such U.S.-born and bred extremists have expanded domestically apace with global antagonism toward the United States for its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Some of the U.S. suspects are believed to have direct ties to Al Qaeda or its many affiliate groups, often through training at war camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other havens.

Other investigations focus on U.S. suspects linked to other terrorist groups from Central Asia and South Asia and to Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

What has the FBI — and state and local police — so on edge is that there are "so many different degrees of connectivity" between such U.S. suspects and terrorist groups, according to a second senior U.S. counter-terrorism official. Some play a peripheral role but are nevertheless of serious concern because of their ability to provide financial, logistical and even operational assistance in the United States, he said.

Authorities say they can never predict which of the potential operatives could suddenly help launch an attack, or do something alone and without prompting. "That's our focus right now. We continue to look at these would-be jihadists and [try to determine] who is going to be the one who is going to do something," Billy said.

Another U.S. official, a top-ranking counter-terrorism authority who coordinates overseas intelligence gathering, agreed that the pool of such potential American militants was probably small. But he said the U.S. intelligence community had grown increasingly concerned about how easily militants with American passports could acquire deadly training overseas in explosives and guerrilla warfare techniques such as assassinations and kidnappings, without the CIA or State Department knowing about it.

Neither agency regularly tracks Americans traveling abroad to find out if they are ending up in the madrasas of Pakistan or the mosques of Saudi Arabia, Morocco or even the Finsbury Park mosque in London and other Western European bastions of anti-Western radicalization, according to that U.S. official and others.

Only those Americans who have already sparked the interest of the FBI or local law enforcement are likely to be monitored as they make their way around the world. And current and former counter-terrorism officials from various U.S. agencies acknowledged that they couldn't do much of that either.

"You have such large numbers of people going overseas and we don't have the resources," said Michael Kraft, who retired last year after many years as a senior State Department counter-terrorism official. "The sheer number of people who go back and forth, it'd be a huge tracking job."

U.S. officials note that in Pakistan alone, there are thousands of madrasas — informal schools that often teach radical curriculums. And they estimate that there could be tens of thousands more informal recruitment and training facilities around the world.

Additionally, Kraft and others said, most of the suspected American militants found to have gone overseas for such training took circuitous routes there and back to cover their tracks.

Authorities point to Hamid Hayat, a 22-year-old Pakistani American from Lodi, Calif., who with his father, Umer Hayat, was charged in June with lying to federal agents about the younger Hayat's alleged 2003-04 attendance at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. That trip, to which Hamid Hayat has confessed, is part of a broader inquiry into a potential sleeper cell within the Pakistani American community in Lodi, according to the FBI.

Hayat was born in Stockton and lived in Lodi with his family. He and his father have pleaded not guilty and denied any ties to terrorism.

But an FBI affidavit alleges in detail how Hayat confessed to spending six months at an Al Qaeda-affiliated camp at which he taught paramilitary training and "how to kill Americans." Hayat said he agreed to return home and launch a terrorist attack, the affidavit alleges.

Hayat traveled home by way of South Korea, but his plane was diverted May 29 on the way to the United States because his name showed up on a "no-fly" list, apparently because of his connections to others in Lodi under investigation.

Several groups of young men born or reared in the U.S. have been convicted of terrorism-related charges in high-profile cases in Lackawanna, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo; in Portland, Ore.; and in Northern Virginia. In the Lackawanna case, six Yemeni Americans admitted to attending a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

In August 2002, a Miami-based U.S. citizen named Shueyb Mossa Jokhan pleaded guilty to plotting with a local teenager to bomb electrical power stations and a National Guard armory as part of an Islamic holy war.

The two allegedly attempted to find money to buy AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons, night vision equipment, stun guns, pepper spray and smoke grenades.

That summer, authorities arrested U.S.-born Jose Padilla, 34, as he stepped off a plane in Chicago from Zurich, Switzerland. He was accused of plotting with senior Al Qaeda leaders to explode a "dirty bomb" made up of conventional explosives and radioactive material somewhere in the United States. Padilla remains in custody as an "enemy combatant."

Last summer, U.S. authorities quietly stepped up their scrutiny of all incoming travelers of Pakistani descent, including U.S. citizens, particularly at airports in Los Angeles; New York; Chicago; Detroit; Newark, N.J.; and metropolitan Washington.

In a confidential warning, Customs and Border Protection agents were told to look for signs of injuries that could have been received during paramilitary training — such as rope burns, unusual bruises and scars.

Citing information obtained during Pakistani military raids near the border with Afghanistan, the memo also warned that, "it is reasonable to expect that many of the individuals trained are destined to commit illegal activities in the United States."

Several months ago, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told the Senate intelligence committee that the FBI had identified various extremists throughout the U.S. and was monitoring terrorism-related activities in Virginia, Minneapolis, New York and elsewhere.

Mueller testified that Al Qaeda had demonstrated the ability to exploit radical American converts "and other indigenous extremists" to the point at which they could play a role in future terrorist plots. One, Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker and Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, admitted to plotting with Al Qaeda leaders to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.

The FBI was especially concerned about peripheral groups, including some radical fundamentalist religious and political organizations, Mueller said. They have even more followers than Al Qaeda among so-called second-generation militants, authorities say. That is because they are perceived as being a more mainstream presence within U.S.-based Islamic communities, and thus less likely to raise suspicions.

Authorities also say there is growing evidence that such extremists have tried to obtain paramilitary training inside the United States. There are several ongoing investigations into such alleged activities by small groups who FBI officials say are inspired by the jihadist rhetoric found in radical mosques, in U.S. prisons and on the Internet.

U.S. authorities told The Times that Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani American who grew up in Queens, N.Y., had been quietly cooperating with their investigation into the July 7 bombings in London. Babar has been linked to an alleged Al Qaeda effort to conduct detailed surveillance on financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark in order to blow them up.

Babar was also indicted on terrorism-related charges; authorities say in court documents that he conspired with top Al Qaeda leaders to organize a jihad training camp in Pakistan and to blow up targets in Britain such as Heathrow Airport.

One of Babar's other alleged associates is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, born overseas but raised in South Florida.

El Shukrijumah is described as one of Al Qaeda's most dangerous operatives, and catching him is a top priority for U.S. authorities.

U.S. authorities say El Shukrijumah, who also has been linked to Padilla's alleged dirty bomb plot, has the same kind of organizational and leadership skills as alleged Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta, but with a U.S. passport and ability to speak and appear like any other youthful American.

Also among the FBI's most wanted is a man known only as "Azzam the American."

Shortly before last year's presidential election, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda released a lengthy tape in which Azzam warned U.S. citizens that support of their government's policies would cost them their lives.

His face hidden under sunglasses and a Palestinian head-scarf, Azzam said that the attacks of Sept. 11 were only the "opening salvo of the global war on America."

U.S. intelligence officials believe that the tape is authentic, and that Azzam the American could actually be Adam Yahiye Gadahn, another alleged Al Qaeda operative, who was reared on a goat farm in Southern California.

Gadahn, also wanted by the FBI, allegedly has worked as a translator and aide for some of Al Qaeda's senior leaders.