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ISIS in the United States of America
The number of ISIS supporters in the United States who have been arrested for planning to commit acts of domestic terrorism is relatively low. However, we must take this very seriously because of the magnitude of potential damage and because terrorists who are radicalized online are difficult for authorities to track.
According to the George Washington Program on Extremism’s report, ISIS in America, as of July 2017, “The number of individuals charged in the United States on offenses related to the Islamic State stands at 131.” At first glance, this does not seem like a very large number.
Let’s look at the statistics more closely. Of those 131 people, “30% were accused of plotting domestic terror attacks.”
There are 39 people who were arrested for actively planning terror attacks within the borders of the United States.
We can also safely assume that the number of aspiring domestic terrorists is higher than the 39 ISIS supporters already arrested. The FBI simply does not have the resources to track every potential terrorist. According to Politico in The FBI’s Growing Surveillance Gap, “Experts say it’s a big problem – one that’s been brewing for more than two years as the Bureau has struggled to keep up with a wave of aspirational homegrown jihadists, who act faster and leave fewer clues than would-be terrorists a decade or two ago.”
The threat is compounded by low-key profiles of some current Islamist supporters. According to an in-depth report, Terrorism in America After 9/11, “[T]he most likely threat continues to be lone individuals or pairs inspired by jihadist ideology without the type of extensive plotting, communication, or travel activity that would tip off the layered counterterrorism defense system.” ISIS supporters can easily fly under the radar if they are radicalized online and are not communicating extensively with larger terrorist cells.
Operation 250 is an organization dedicated to educating children, parents, and teachers about violent extremist material online. Their report, ISIS on Social Media states, “The number of individuals leaving the west to go to Syria has been decreasing over the past year…ISIS is now encouraging people they have recruited online through social media to stay in their home countries and carry out attacks.” ISIS is encouraging supporters to commit acts of domestic terrorism rather than travel to fight in Syria.
We need to keep this in perspective – the number of Islamist terrorists who are planning to commit domestic terror attacks is quantitatively low. However, we still must take this seriously because Islamists who are self-radicalized online are difficult for authorities to track and arrest, and because their goals are to inflict maximum damage and casualties.
Maryland Cleric Investigated by FBI in ISIS Plot
There’s a new development in the case of Sebastian Gregerson , who changed his name to Abdurrahman Bin Mikaayl after converting to Islam, and was arrested at the beginning of August for stockpiling an arsenal of weapons allegedly to carry out a terrorist attack.
The investigation has been widened to three states, with a Maryland imam suspected of involvement in what is thought to be an ISIS-linked plot to carry out a mass casualty attack.
The imam, Suleiman Bengharsa, stands accused of helping purchase two AK-47s, seven rifles, handguns and ammunition, according to court records.
“Based on the totality of the aforementioned information and evidence, there is reason to believe that Bengharsa and Gregerson are engaged in discussions and preparations for some violent act on behalf of (the Islamic State),” an FBI agent wrote in January on an application for search warrant.
Suleiman Bengharsa is also known as Sheikh Suleiman Anwar, the founder of the Islamic Jurisprudence Center.
There, he advocates positions that are so extreme he regards Muslim-Brotherhood-linked organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as apostates.
In June 2016, he issued a fatwa that “anyone who supports CAIR, ISNA, MAS, or ICNA, or any organization affiliated with them in any way, is a kafir (disbeliever) and a traitor to Allah and His Messenger.”
His fatwa blasted these groups for allegedly promoting “the secular, divisive, corrupt, and immoral democratic system of government and encouraging Muslims everywhere to believe in and implement such beliefs,” since they willing to engage in the democratic process.
In earlier statements Anwar/Bergharsa has gone further, saying, “We are not living under the Khilafah [caliphate],” he said in a 2010 lecture recorded on YouTube “There is a big fitna [i.e. social unrest] going on, if you haven’t noticed. And much of the fitna is happening because we don’t have Khilafah. And then there are many people who don’t want Khilafah, because they want to continue being criminals so that their hands don’t get cut off.”
Bengharsa denied supporting the Islamic State. “No, no, no, that is absolutely untrue,” Bengharsa told The Detroit News. “It might appear that way. I am an advocate of the United States and the West getting the hell out of the Middle East and the Muslim world.”
“It’s ridiculous. All I can say is it’s ridiculous,” he said. “If this was the case, why haven’t they come to arrest me?”
He has not yet been charged with a crime and the investigation is ongoing.
Clarion Project covered Bengharsa/Anwar in the past. In an article written by guest author Sebastian Flynn, Flynn wrote, “Anwar wants total sharia according to the Saudi model, where the hands of thieves are cut off.”
Anwar/Bergharsa subsequently wrote to Clarion as well as to Flynn to complain about our coverage of him:
North Carolina Man Convicted for ISIS North America Plot
A North Carolina man who plotted to kill hundreds of people in an ISIS terror plot has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Justin Nojan Sullivan, 21, “planned to carry out his attack in the following few days at a concert, bar or club where he believed that as many as 1,000 people could be killed using the assault rifle and silencer,” according to a federal indictment.
The attack would have been similarly to the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people.
Court documents say he was planning to unveil an “Islamic State of North America” with his attack.
Justin was reported by his father in 2015, when Rich Sullivan, a retired marine, telephoned the FBI to inform them about his son’s possible Islamic State sympathies. Shortly afterwards, Justin offered money to an undercover agent he believed was an Islamic State sympathizer to kill his parents to prevent them from thwarting his plans.
Justin still faces a separate trial for the murder of 74-year-old John Bailey Clarke, his neighbor, whom he is accused of shooting. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
FBI Director: ISIS Is Top Threat to US
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) remains the top threat America is facing, FBI Director James Comey said this week.
Speaking to reporters from the FBI office in Minnesota, Comey said the threat stems from the terror group’s success in recruiting fighters both overseas and in America.
Comey mentioned a third threat as well which he called a “terrorist diaspora” – hardened and experienced fighters from in Syria and Iraq that infiltrate Western Europe, and from there, are able to travel to the U.S.
“There’s three prongs to this ISIL threat,” Comey said. “The recruitment to travel, the recruitment to violence in place, and then what you saw a preview of in Brussels and in Paris — hardened fighters coming out, looking to kill people.”
The FBI is “laser-focused on that,” Comey added.
Comey’s remarks were part of a two-day visit to Minnesota following the recent terror convictions of three young Minnesota men from the Somali community. Ten men in total were charged in the case that rocked the community – six pleaded guilty and a seventh, who has not been apprehended, is thought to have joined ISIS in Syria.
Comey plans to talk with community leaders and local law enforcement agencies in MInnesota.
The FBI director also noted that there still remain about 1,000 open cases across America of people recruited to the Islamic State. Although the number of open cases has remained constant, the actual number of recruits travelling to Syria has dropped in the last year, from close to six to 10 attempts per month to about one or two.
However, the director said the reason for the drop is unknown. Recruits may be travelling to other locations that don’t arouse the suspicion of officials or, since travel to Syria has become more difficult, recruits are choosing to stay in the U.S. to carry out attacks.
In the best cases scenario, terror recruits have been stopped by family or community members, Comey said.
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