U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick Tuesday faulted the U.S. intelligence community for failing to see a connection between a terrorist group and a radical Charlotte blogger now believed to edit an al-Qaida magazine in Yemen. Meanwhile a spokesman for local Muslims said he and others met with Samir Khan at least twice in 2007 in an unsuccessful effort to steer him away from supporting terrorism.
Intelligence sources told national news organizations Monday that they believe Khan is the top editor of "Inspire," an online magazine designed as a recruiting tool for the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Myrick, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Observer she's frustrated. "It becomes clear to me that he had contacts with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula while he was in the U.S.," she said. "And if that's the case, the intelligence community should have been able to discover that. And if they knew it and didn't do something, that raises more red flags."
Khan, about 24, is a Saudi-born U.S. citizen whose family moved to New York City when he was 7 and to North Carolina in 2004. He's a former Central Piedmont Community College student who in 2005 started a blog called "Inshallahshaheed," or "a martyr soon if God wills." It was the first of a succession of blogs he edited from the suburban home in northeast Charlotte that he shared with his parents.
According to a 2007 New York Times story, one blog featured "glad tidings" from a North African militant whose group had massacred 31 Algerian troops. Links connected readers to sites where they could get insurgent videos from Iraq. "I will do my best to speak the truth," he told the Times, "and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached."
A few months later, responding to a letter in the Observer about Muslims' view of women, he wrote his own letter to the editor. "Muhammad said, 'This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever,'" he wrote. "Our women who die upon Islam will receive rewards from Allah which no eye has ever seen ... In Paradise, Satan won't exist so evil thoughts won't ever exist."
Jibril Hough, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, said local Muslims grew alarmed at Khan's increasing radicalization. A group of men influential in the Muslim community - including Khan's father - twice met with him at Hough's southwest Charlotte home. "We were trying to give him good advice, tell him he was going down the wrong road," said Hough. "He didn't listen."
Hough said even an Imam from Raleigh tried to intervene with Khan. "Our counseling didn't look like it made that great of an impact," Hough said.
Bill Warner is a private detective in Sarasota, Fla., who tracks jihadist web sites. He followed Khan's postings closely. He said he tried unsuccessfully to get authorities to shut them. "It's unbelievable," said Warner, who was featured in a 2008 WBTV report on Khan. "Now it's going to be a bigger problem. He's going to have a worldwide audience now. ... They had more than one opportunity to shut him down."
FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson said although she can't comment on specific cases, blogs are protected by the First Amendment. "If someone is not acting on something, they're allowed to say it," she said. "The moment people act on something is when it crosses the line."
Khan is believed to have gone to Yemen in 2009. Myrick argues that his association with al-Qaida didn't happen overnight. "If you don't have contacts, they don't take strangers into their midst," she said. "This is a closed society. Unless they know you, they don't trust you. Somewhere along the line there were connections."