Svenska i gänget bakom "Death to all juice"
Den 5 juni 2010 slog fällan igen. På Kennedy Airport i New York greps Carlos "Omar" Eduardo Almonte och Mohamed Mahmood Alessa när de skulle borda var sitt plan till Egypten för att därifrån ta sig till Somalia och terroriströrelsen al-Shabaab.
Polisutredningen, som kallades Operation Arabian Knight, hade pågått i nästan fyra år, efter tips från allmänheten. De två unga männen hörde till en krets radikala islamister i New York som gjort sig kända både på internet och på gatan.
I den radikala kretsen i New York återfanns också Zachary Chesser, som gjorde sig ett namn genom att mordhota upphovsmännen bakom South Park, efter att den populära tv-serien dristat sig till att driva med profeten Muhammed. Chesser, som sedermera erkänt sig skyldig till terroristbrott och dömts till 25 års fängelse, uppmanade för övrigt också till mord på svenske Lars Vilks, och var även aktiv på det svenska jihadistiska webbforumet al-Qimmah.
Dråpligheterna till trots har det funnits all anledning att se allvarligt på den radikala gruppen i New York. Kretsarna kring webbsajten Revolution Muslim och aktionsgruppen Islamic Thinkers Society har inte enbart inkluderat patetiska figurer som Colleen LaRose, som under sitt alias Jihad Jane är mest känd för en misslyckad plan att mörda Lars Vilks, utan också Samir Khan, som drev det engelskspråkiga magasinet Inspire tillsammans med al-Qaidas jemenitiske ideolog Anwar al-Awlaki. Radikalerna i New York har fungerat som extremistisk inspiration för engelskspråkiga unga muslimska män och utgjort en plantskola för så kallad hemodlad terrorism. Zachary Chesser har på senare tid blivit ett forskningsobjekt i USA i ansträngningarna att begripa internetradikalisering.
Inte heller Almontes och Alessas ambitioner ska viftas bort. Genom den extraordinärt långa undercoveroperationen blev deras planer på jihad väl belagda, vilket framgick tydligt i åtalet.
The Record, en lokaltidning i Bergen i New Jersey där Alessa bor, intervjuade svenskan:
"A Swedish teen who said she planned to wed the accused jihadist from North Bergen claimed Saturday that Mohamed Mahmood Alessa wanted to leave the United States so they could marry and study Arabic in Egypt, not so he could kill American troops.
The girlfriend, who identified herself as 19-year-old Siham Abedar, said in an interview in Alessa’s living room that Egypt was his final destination, even though authorities say he intended to join up with a terrorist group in Somalia.
'I know it’s not true,' Abedar said through a black veil. 'I know he wanted to get married. He wanted to have kids. He wanted to do a lot of things. That doesn’t fit with that life, that kind of life they are explaining, that he wanted to do jihad or whatever.'
Abedar described Alessa as a kind, devout Muslim who liked to work out at a gym and care for his cat, Princess Tuna.
[...]
But Abedar, who reached out to reporters to share her story, said she got to know a much different Alessa since meeting him through a video chat website about a year ago. The two have regularly talked over the Internet and the phone since then, she said.
'I think he’s amazing,” she said. “I love everything about him. Words can’t explain how I feel.'
[...]
Abedar said she was born and raised in Sweden, where she grew up 'Muslim by culture' with about 300,000 other Swedes who share her religion in an otherwise Christian but secularized country. At 13, Abedar sought to deepen her connection to Islam. In pursuit of that goal, she recently moved to Egypt, where she has enrolled in a school to study Arabic and the Quran.
She said Alessa had plans to meet her there, find a school for himself and marry her. But Abedar said those plans evaporated when a mutual friend in New Jersey called to tell her that Alessa had been arrested.
Abedar’s version of events could not be immediately corroborated. A round-trip boarding pass seemed to verify her June 9 flight to the United States.
'I thought it was silly because I knew he was coming to study in Egypt,' Abedar said. 'Why would they charge him with terrorism? Just because he wanted to go and study Arabic, that makes him a terrorist?'
Distraught by the news, Abedar said she flew Air France from Cairo to New York via Paris to see Alessa, making her first trip to the United States.
With Abedar in the gallery Thursday, both Alessa and Almonte entered U.S. District Court shackled and flanked by a ring of federal marshals. She heard a judge order them held without bail after prosecutors said there were no conditions that could guarantee their appearance in court or the safety of the community. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan pointed to allegedly incriminating conversations recorded by the FBI.
Abedar recalled Saturday how that first face-to-face encounter shattered her expectations. The couple did not speak.
'I felt sad because I didn’t think that’s how I would see him for the first time,' Abedar said as she began to weep. 'It hurts.'"Svenskan gav också en intervju i CNN tillsammans med Alessas moder.
"The 19-year-old woman, who said her name is Siham, sat at the family's home, cloaked in a niqab, a veil that covers the entire body and face with only a sheer cloth revealing the eyes. She said she met Mahmood Alessa in an online chat room.
Siham showed CNN her passport stamped June 9, 2010, indicating her arrival at Kennedy airport from Paris, France. She also produced her airline itinerary, which shows that her trip started in Cairo – where, she says, she was waiting for Alessa.
'We were supposed to get married and study awhile in Egypt. That was the plan,' Siham told CNN.
She said she moved from Sweden, where she was born to Egyptian parents, to Cairo at Alessa's behest a few months ago.
When he didn't arrive in Cairo on June 6, she was shocked to learn from a friend in New York that her soon-to-be fiance had been arrested.
'She told me that Mohamed got arrested for terrorism and that they were saying he was going to Somalia,' Siham said in disbelief. 'So I didn't know what to do; words can't explain what I felt. I was in shock and I couldn't stop crying.'
She said she boarded a flight and arrived in New York a day before Alessa's arraignment Thursday. It was then that she saw him for the first time, through a veil in a federal courtroom.
'I didn't have any ticket booked or anything. I just went to the airport and I booked a ticket from there, and I left,' Siham said.
[...]
When asked about the rallies Alessa attended, Siham insisted his presence was a show of outrage – not intent.
'But that doesn't make him a terrorist. That only shows how much he dislikes what the people are doing to the Muslims,' she said. 'That doesn't show he was going to Somalia and do anything.'Försvarslinjen – han är bara en vanlig upprörd muslim, hon är bara en vanlig muslim – känns igen. Den är flitigt förekommande i extremistkretsar. Det finns dessutom en teologisk förklaring till den. Wahhabiter och salafister anser sig inte vara extremister eller sekterister, de anser sig vara rättrogna muslimer, punkt slut, trots att omgivningen inte ser dem så. När någon som är klädd i niqab kallar någon annan för "vanlig muslim" betyder det inte sällan att bägge är lika extrema.
Därför blir det också intressant att svenskan beskriver sin uppväxt som "kulturellt muslimsk". Hur ser den "kulturellt muslimska" miljön ut i familjen, om dottern bär niqab, vill förkovra sig i sin religion genom att flytta till Egypten, och förlovar sig med en jihadist?
I folkbokföringsregistret kan man först konstatera att CNNs uppgifter om egyptiskt påbrå är felaktiga. Föräldrarna kommer från Marocko: pappan, avliden 2011, föddes i Tetouan 1950 och mamman i Taounil 1964.
En ledtråd kanske finns i svenskans styvmoder. Hon är född i Tetouan i Marocko 1969, folkbokförd i Sverige sedan juni 2003 och svensk medborgare sedan juni 2011 – och tillhör familjen Sofri. Där är det mest prominenta namnet Ahmed Sofri – född i Tetouan 1952, invandrad 1977 och svensk medborgare sedan 1984 – som är känd från Mohamed Moumous ökända lägenhetsmoské i Brandbergen och dömd för terroristbrott i Marocko. En av hans söner står för övrigt åtalad för ett fall av religiöst motiverad misshandel, och är en gång tidigare dömd för en liknande, religiöst motiverad, incident.
Kanske var det ändå inte bara en olycklig slump att svenskans internetförlovning ledde till en terroristrättegång i USA. Huruvida förlovningen är bruten framgår inte.
