The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to jttmsubs@memri.org with "Membership" in the subject line.)
Note to media and government: For a full copy of these reports, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to media@memri.org. Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
EXCLUSIVE: Mark Taylor Of New Zealand, aka Muhammad Daniel, Currently Fighting In Syria
New Zealander Mark Taylor, who calls himself Muhammad Daniel, is currently fighting in Syria. According to his Facebook page, which was recently shut down, he is opposed to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and so far has not joined any group but means to fight as an "independent."
Al-Amriki
On August 27, 2014, a video featuring American jihadi Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki, a Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) fighter who carried out a suicide bombing in May 2014, was released online. Al-Amriki recently appeared in another video where he extolled jihad and martyrdom. In the current video, Al-Amriki tells the story of his hijra (emigration) to join the jihad in Syria. He reveals that he had a friend in the U.S. who was planning to travel with him to Syria, but who apparently got cold feet at the last minute. Al-Amriki sheds light on the journey of foreign fighters into Syria, which, he says, takes place mostly through Istanbul, Turkey. Al-Amriki appears to have had no contacts in Istanbul prior to arriving there, and claims that finding someone who would later facilitate his travel to Syria was more divine intervention than anything else. Once he met his contact, Al-Amriki says that he stayed in a mujahideen safe house, supposedly somewhere in or near Istanbul, for an entire month. Other mujahideen were with him, including some who were injured in Syria. Interestingly, Al-Amriki says that he had to obtain tazkiya (a testimony of an individual's honorable record) before being given the greenlight to go to Syria.
On August 24, 2014, the jihadi forum alplatformmedia.com posted a set of guidelines for its members on writing messages and materials about the Islamic State (IS). While some of the pointers are technical and editorial in character, others are aimed at preventing security breaches and the dissemination of unauthorized information. Yet others are aimed at protecting the organization's prestige and shed light on the ongoing information war between this organization and its rivals.
The following are the instructions:
The Islamic State must not be referred to as "Da'esh" (the Arabic acronym for ISIS) or as an "organization," the terms used by its rivals, even when quoting from a source that uses these terms.
Only the IS's official accounts may report on the conquest or liberation (of areas).
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On August 16, 2014, Al-Malahem, the media arm of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released an English-language magazine titled Palestine – Betrayal of the Guilty Conscience.
The new magazine recycles materials from AQAP's Inspire magazine. However, in a section on making car bombs inside America, it presents a new list of suggested targets for "lone-wolf" attacks, including casinos and night clubs in Las Vegas; oil tankers and trains; Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, Georgia; the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and General Atomics HQ in San Diego, California.
Report: Disgruntled Pakistani Taliban Commander Omar Khalid Khorasani Forms New Terror Group
Omar Khalid Khorasani (center)
Omar Khalid Khorasani, a leading commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has formed a new organization comprising of his own fighters but hasn't left the TTP, according to a Pakistani media report.
New Militant Group In Cairo Threatens To Carry Out Terror Attacks
A new militant group calling itself the "Helwan Brigades" recently threatened to carry out terror attacks in Egypt. The masked militants filmed in the video wielded weapons and said: "Our message to [the Interior Ministry] is that you are our targets."
Following are excerpts from the video-clip, which was posted on the Internet on August 16, 2014:
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
Helwan Brigades member: "We are fed up with the peacefulness of the Muslim Brotherhood. We are no Muslim Brotherhood. We are fed up with their peaceful demonstrations. When we go on demonstrations, blood is shed, women are raped, and property is stolen."
Logo of the madrassa
Below are excerpts from an Afghan media report which indicates that the controllers of Pakistan's infamous Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa continue to train students for jihad against Western forces in Afghanistan:
"Deputy Head of the largest Islamic training center, Darul Uloom Haqqania Madrassa, located [at Akora Khattak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province] in Pakistan, called on the Taliban to fight against the Afghan government and foreign troops on Monday [August 22, 2014] during an exclusive interview with TOLOnews.
"Reports indicate that Mullah Omar, the notorious Taliban leader, has awarded the madrassa many times in training newcomers to fight.'We call on the Afghan Taliban … and ask them what relations do the thousands of foreign troops have with Afghanistan?' asked Maulana Hafiz-ul-Haq Haqqani, Deputy Head of the Darul Uloom Haqqania Madrassa. 'They should fight against them [foreign troops] and the Afghan government.'"
A page from Issue VI of Azan
The latest issue of the Taliban's English-language magazine "Azan" carries a long article by Al-Qaeda's Pakistani scholar Maulana Asim Umar that offers an Islamic clash-of-civilizations theory, declaring that democracy is just another deen (a complete system and code of life), much like Islam is, and the sharias (methods) of the two systems are in conflict from their roots. The article's main purpose is to develop a basis on which Muslims who proclaim faith in Islam but still are part of a democracy as military and political leaders can be declared infidels.
The magazine "Azan – Call to Jihad" is published by the Taliban in Khorasan, the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The latest issue of the magazine – issue six – was produced sometime in June, before the fasting month of Ramadan. A PDF copy of the magazine was released through a jihadi account on micro-blogging site Twitter associated with Omar Khaild Khorasani, a leading commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
In the last couple of weeks, several tutorials dealing with jihadis obtaining fake U.S. phone numbers, as well as various advices on maintaining security and anonymity online, were posted online. Jihadis are at times faced with the need to provide a working phone number that is used to open a new account online or to verify, as part of a security measure, already working ones. Phone numbers are required as well to use a number of messenger apps.
ISIS Parades Scores Of Syrian Soldiers Captured At Tabqa Airbase
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
ISIS Destroys Cannabis Crops In Syria
Footage posted on the Internet on August 28, shows ISIS members destroying and burning a cannabis field north of Aleppo.
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
