KABUL — Pakistani authorities Saturday zeroed in on the alleged mastermind of a plot to send five Northern Virginia men to Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops, saying they hope the case could help unravel an extensive network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men.Investigators said they were hunting for a shadowy insurgent figure known as Saifullah, who invited the men to Pakistan after first discovering them when one made comments approving of terror attacks on the Internet video site YouTube.
Saifullah guided the men after they were in Pakistan, attempting to help them reach the remote area in Pakistan’s tribal belt that is home to al-Qaida and its terrorist training camps.
But a Pakistani intelligence official briefed on the case said Saturday that Saifullah was unsuccessful in convincing al-Qaida commanders that the men were not part of a CIA plot to infiltrate the terrorist network.
As a result, they were marooned for days in the eastern city of Sargodha, far from the forbidding mountains of the northwest that have become a terrorist haven.
“They were regarded as a sting operation. That’s why they were rejected,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The official said the men were undeterred and were still trying to acquire the right endorsements to gain access to the al-Qaida camps when they were arrested by Pakistani law enforcement.
The case
of the five — who remain in Pakistan and are being questioned by the FBI — underscores the critical role of recruiters in identifying potential terrorists and, perhaps more importantly, determining who can be trusted.Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. intelligence has made it a top priority to try to place human assets inside al-Qaida. The organization’s recruiters act as gatekeepers, keeping out those who are not serious about their commitment to holy war, and those who could be spies.
Would-be American recruits are treated by al-Qaida with special scrutiny, analysts said. But they are also considered enormously appealing to the group because of their potential to access U.S. targets and because of their propaganda value.
But Evan Kohlmann, senior analyst with the U.S.-based NEFA Foundation, said terror groups have also become much more cautious in recent years about who they allow in because U.S. intelligence agencies have become experts in their recruiting methods.
“If you’re trying to sink someone into these groups, what better way than to follow the recruitment model that so many have already followed?” Kohlmann said.
The model is one that has become far more Web-based.
“Increasingly, recruiters are taking less prominent roles in mosques and community centers because places like that are under scrutiny. So what these guys are doing is turning to the Internet,” Kohlmann said.
Terror group operatives, and even freelance recruiters, troll jihadi social networking sites, attempting to establish relationships with young men who seem ideologically committed, and physically able, to commit violence in the name of radical Islam.
In one case, a recruiter named Younes Tsouli is believed to have used such sites to identify dozens of aspiring insurgents for the war in Iraq — all without leaving his London basement.
But Kohlmann said the case of the five from Northern Virginia was unusual because they were identified on a site with mass appeal.
“The idea that YouTube would be a mechanism for making these connections, that’s something new,” he said, adding that it could be a troubling development for law enforcement because such sites are so vast they are difficult to monitor.
In most cases, it is the recruit who reaches out to radical Web sites and chat rooms in the hopes of finding someone to help make the introductions to a militant group.
“A recruiter does not radicalize a person from scratch,” said Manuel Torres, a terrorism expert in Spain, where the Internet played a key role in influencing some of the perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. “They deal with people who are already ready to die.”
Recruiters who are satisfied that they have found a would-be terrorist who is serious, and not a spy, can then make the necessary introductions. “What they really serve as are facilitators, intermediaries to the jihadist world,” Torres said.
In the case of the five men from Northern Virginia, their recruiter was unable to complete the introduction. The men — Ramy Zamzam, 22, Ahmad A. Minni, 20, Umar Chaudhry, 24, Waqar Khan, 22, and Aman Hassan Yemer, 18 — have not yet been charged with a crime. But investigators say they have proudly admitted to flying to Pakistan on Nov. 30 to join the jihad, or holy war, against American forces in Afghanistan.
Law enforcement authorities have said they likely would not have uncovered the men’s plans so quickly had it not been for family members who expressed concern when the men went missing. At least one of the men left behind a video described as containing jihadi overtones.
The case has surprised leaders of the mosque in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County, who said they had never seen the men expressing radical beliefs.
The five were shifted from Sargodha on Saturday to the provincial capital of Lahore, where they continued to face questioning. Pakistani officials said that while the men would ultimately be sent back to the U.S. to face charges, they were hoping to keep them in Pakistan while the investigation continues so they can use their statements to help track Saifullah and other members of his network.
The man known as Saifullah — Pakistani officials are unsure if it is his real name — was already wanted for his role in a spectacular attack earlier this year on the Sri Lankan cricket team as it visited Lahore for a tournament.
A Pakistani police official involved in the investigation said Saifullah is a member of the Pakistani Taliban, and that he first contacted the men in August. They exchanged coded e-mail messages for months thereafter. After their arrival in Pakistan, he advised them to wear the local dress and instructed them to take buses to a city near the edge of the tribal areas where they could then be transported to North Waziristan, home base of al-Qaida. They were arrested before they could make the journey.
The men have told investigators that Saifullah was the only one who welcomed them in Pakistan, and that they were rejected by at least two other extremist groups, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Saifullah is believed by Pakistani investigators to have spent time in the United States, because of his familiarity with American slang and geography.
Mehmood Shah, a retired Pakistani general who is based in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said that many among al-Qaida’s top ranks have lived or have been educated in the West, and have insight into how best to appeal to American Muslims.
One of the group’s best known spokesmen, the U.S.-born Adam Gadahn, released an English-language video Saturday that claimed al-Qaida was not responsible for a string of recent bombings in Pakistan that have killed scores of civilians.
“The mercenaries of the ISI, RAW, CIA or Blackwater are the real culprits behind these senseless and un-Islamic bombings,” he said, referring to the intelligence services in Pakistan, India and the U.S. as well as the American military contractor now known as Xe Services.
Pakistani authorities have said they believe a nexus of al-Qaida, the Taliban and local extremist groups are behind the bombings.