via Report: City has proven attractive to al Qaeda-linked jihadists | Washington Free Beacon.
Muslim extremists with ties to al Qaeda
have been using Massachusetts and the city of Boston as a jihadi
headquarters since at least 1993, according to a recent report by a top
terrorism analyst.
At least 26 residents were found to have ties to al Qaeda, according to the report by the Henry Jackson Society.
The activity dates from before the Tsarnaev brothers, radical Muslim
immigrants to the United States, were identified as the suspects in the
Boston Marathon bombing.
Jihadist activity has taken place in
Massachusetts since at least 1993 and includes in-state fundraising for
terrorism, “those convicted of planning jihad, and even those who have
been killed while fighting abroad,” according to the report by terrorism
analyst Robin Simcox.
“The city [of Boston] and state of
Massachusetts has a long history of ties to AQ [al Qaeda] and
AQ-inspired militancy,” the report states.
“Even prior to last week’s Boston
bombing, there had been twenty six individuals with links to
Massachusetts connected to AQ [al Qaeda] and AQ-inspired
terrorism,” the report states. “Fifteen had lived in Massachusetts, with
eleven 9/11 hijackers using the Boston area as a temporary base from
which to launch their attacks.”
…
Boston itself has become home to several
extremist groups and individuals who have either plotted attacks against
the United States or funneled money to terrorist enterprises, according
to the report.
One such group, Care International, was
engaged in “fundraising, recruiting, and providing other forms of
logistical support for violent jihad.”
Care was founded in 1993 in Boston and
“solicited funds and support for mujahideen fighters and jihadist
causes, including Bosnia and Chechnya,” according to the report.
Care was found to have direct ties to the
Al Kifah Refugee Center, the U.S. branch of Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), an
organization founded in part by Osama bin Laden to combat Soviet forces
in Afghanistan.
“Prior to 9/11, the fact that Care International was based in Boston is significant,” Simcox noted in a subsequent interview.
At least three individuals were later convicted for having ties to Care and its radical activities, the report found.
Emadeddin Muntasser, a Libyan citizen who
founded Care, was convicted in 2008 along with two other Massachusetts
residents for falsifying IRS documents and failing to disclose that Care
“was engaged in soliciting funds and support for mujahideen fighters
and jihad,” according to the report.
Muntasser and his compatriots raised $1.7
million in tax-exempt donations that were designated to be used “for
‘mujahideen’, ‘fighters’, ‘martyrs’, and ‘Jihad’,” and other terrorist
causes, according to the report.
Additionally, Care published a newsletter, Al-Hussam (or “The Sword”), which proclaimed itself as Boston’s “authentic source of information about ‘Jihad action.’”
Al-Hussam regularly included
“instructions such as, ‘Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your
hands, and disgrace them, and help you (to victory) over them,’”
according to the report.
“Boston offers more martyrs,” one March 1993 article in Al-Hussam
announced. It detailed the jihadist acts of Morabit Yahya, a Moroccan
immigrant “who was described at the fourth recruit from the Boston area
who went to fight jihad in Afghanistan,” the report found.
The magazine ceased publishing in 1997.
Another Boston transplant who became
enmeshed in a terrorist plot to kill Americans is Abdel Ghani Meskini,
who pleaded guilty in March 2001 to charges stemming from a plot to
attack Los Angeles International Airport on New Year’s Eve 1999.
“In 1994, Meskini left Algeria for Boston,
and subsequently moved between Boston and Brooklyn due to the fact that
he could not stay in one place too long for fear of being arrested,”
the report notes.
Several Massachusetts-based terrorists were found in the years following the 9/11 attacks.
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