The Travelers: American Jihadists in Iraq and Syria

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Seamus Hughes, Bennett Clifford FEBRUARY 2018 THE TRAVELERS American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq BY Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Seamus Hughes, Bennett Clifford Program on Extremism February 2018 All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. © 2018 by Program on Extremism Program on Extremism 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20006 www.extremism.gwu.edu Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................v A Note from the Director ........................................................................................vii Foreword ........................................................................................................................ ix Executive Summary ......................................................................................................1 Introduction: American Jihadist Travelers ........................................................5 Foreign Fighters and Travelers to Transnational Conflicts: Incentives, Motivations, and Destinations .....................................................................5 American Jihadist Travelers: 1980–2011 ...........................................................................6 How Do American Jihadist Travelers Compare to Other Western Counterparts? ............8 Methodology and Statistics ....................................................................................... 11 Definitions ..........................................................................................................................12 Statistics ..............................................................................................................................17 Category 1: Pioneers .................................................................................................... 23 Abdullah Ramo Pazara .......................................................................................................23 Ahmad Abousamra ............................................................................................................30 Pioneers: Enduring Relevance for Jihadist Groups .........................................................35 Category 2: Networked Travelers ......................................................................... 39 Clusters ...............................................................................................................................39 Families ...............................................................................................................................46 Friends ................................................................................................................................49 Networked Travelers: Why “Strength in Numbers” Matters .........................................52 Category 3: Loners ....................................................................................................... 55 “Mo” ....................................................................................................................................55 Mohamad Jamal Khweis ....................................................................................................62 Loners: Can Virtual Networks Replace Physical Recruitment? .....................................68 Returning American Travelers ..............................................................................71 Recruitment, Returnees, Reintegration: Challenges Facing the U.S. Regarding Jihadist Travelers ..............................................................71 Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud ...........................................................................................73 Criminal Justice Approaches to Returning Travelers .....................................................75 Addressing the Threat of American Jihadist Travelers .............................. 79 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 85 Notes ................................................................................................................................. 87 Acknowledgements his report was made possible by the dedicated and tireless work of the Program on Extremism’s staff. The au- Tthors wish to thank the Program’s Director Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, as well as research fellows Audrey Alexander, Katerina Papatheodorou, and Helen Powell for their invaluable insight and significant contributions to the methodology and construction of this report. Several of the Program’s research assistants, including Silvia Sclafani, Tanner Wrape, Sarah Metz, Grant Smith, Gianluca Nigro, and Aaron Meyer, assisted in editing and verifying the final product. The authors also thank Larisa Baste for designing this report. The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the George Washington University. The Program on Extremism The Program on Extremism at the George Washington University provides analysis on issues related to violent and non-violent extremism. The Program spearheads innovative and thoughtful academic inquiry, producing empirical work that strengthens extremism research as a distinct field of study. The Program aims to develop pragmatic policy solutions that resonate with policymakers, civic leaders, and the general public. The Travelers: american JihadisTs in syria and iraq | v A Note from the Director Since its foundation, the Program on Extremism has made analysis of all aspects of the Syria and Iraq-related jihadist mobilization in the United States one of its cornerstones. In 2015, it released its flagship report, ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa, which provided the foundation for various congressional hearings and is currently used as a training text by law enforcement and intelligence agencies throughout the country. The Program then released several groundbreaking studies: Cruel Intentions: Female Jihadists in America, a seminal study on the radicalization of women; Fear Thy Neighbor: Radicalization and Jihadist Attacks in the West, which analyzed all jihadist attacks in the West since the declaration of the Caliphate; and Digital Decay: Tracing Change Over Time Among English-Language Islamic State Sympathizers on Twitter, part of the Program’s larger effort to monitor various jihadist activities online. The Program also regularly releases two related products: the Extremism Tracker, our monthly update which details terrorism-related activities and court proceedings in the United States, and the Telegram Tracker, a quarterly analysis documenting our researchers’ data collection of pro-Islamic State channels with English-language content on the messaging application Telegram. Our latest report, The Travelers: American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq, provides a uniquely comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of American foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Drawing on thousands of pages of documents and dozens of exclusive-access interviews (including with returning foreign fighters), the report describes a phenomenon that is bound to have enormous implications on the security environment for the coming years. As the nature of the threat evolves, the Program on Extremism is committed to continuing its effort to produce evidence-based and non-partisan analysis to support sound policymaking and public debate. DR. LORENZO VIDINO Director, Program on Extremism February 2018 The Travelers: american JihadisTs in syria and iraq | vii Foreword BY BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS he declaration of a caliphate by Abu Bakr al- Syria “before we all get killed here at home.” The public TBaghdadi in 2014 generated excitement among mostly agreed. Salafi-jihadist Muslims worldwide. Here, at last, was the In response to the Islamic State’s atrocities, an American- restoration of the long-awaited Islamic State that would led coalition began bombing ISIS targets and assisting go on to conquer the world for Islam. Coming at the Iraqi and locally recruited ground forces in September crest of victories by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq 2014. Meanwhile, Syrian government forces and Iranian- and al-Sham (ISIS), an organization that traced its origins created militias, assisted by Russian air power beginning to the insurgency in Iraq following the American-led in 2015, closed the ring on the Islamic State’s forces in invasion of that country, Baghdadi’s audacious assertion western Syria. seemed to carry weight. While guerrillas and terrorists are difficult to destroy, The anti-government protests in Syria—one dimen- defending territory in open battle against militarily su- sion of the wave of uprisings that swept across North perior foes is generally a losing proposition. By the end Africa and the Middle East beginning in 2011—and of 2017, the territorial expression of the Islamic State had the Syrian government’s brutal response, had already been almost entirely eliminated, although most analysts attracted foreign volunteers to the ranks of the rebels. believed that the armed struggle would continue. The Islamic State, as the caliphate was called, attracted tens of thousands of additional recruits, far more than Many of the foreign fighters

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