At the beginning of 2010, I began emailing with a young jihadist who went by the online sobriquet of Abu Talhah al-Amrikee. Abu Talhah was a sophisticated poster with a broad understanding of U.S. geopolitics and the mechanics of Internet jihad. He posted on a range of online jihadi forums, while also starting a YouTube channel and his own blog, a screen shot of which is pictured here, The Mujahid Blog. In March, he told me, "In 2010 both [his] youtube page and several others have seen more traffic than in all of 2009." As it turned out, Abu Talhah was a pseudonym for Zachary Chesser, a 20-year-old Muslim convert from suburban Virginia, who would reach infamy for threatening the South Park creators with death for mocking Mohammed and who was indicted this summer for supporting the Somali al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab.
Read Jarret Brachman's November 2010 Watching the Watchers
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JKOLAK
9:55 AM ET
October 12, 2010
Providing support to
Providing support to terrorist organizations is illegal. Somebody needs to press charges against Facebook and YouTube.
DPSCHNEIDER
2:37 PM ET
October 13, 2010
Stop the Presses!
Wow, jihadis use the internet! Someone better tell CIA and DOD!