Opinion

WHO IS AL-AMRIKI?

He is the rare caucasian face in al Qaeda’s online propaganda videos. No one knows his name. In jihadi circles, he is simply known as “The American.” What is known is that he is one of the most high-ranking officials within the terrorist group and goes by Sheikh Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. He is currently in Somalia, training new recruits to al-Shabab – many of them American boys of Somali descent. It has been reported that he is an American Muslim, ex-US Special Forces, one of a handful who were sent unofficially to fight in Bosnia in about 1992, though the American government hasn’t confirmed those reports.

He is the star of al-Shabab’s most recent recruitment video – a highly sophisticated video that employs hip-hop and looks more like an extreme version of “Survivor” – his face exposed for the first time. (He has appeared on al-Jazeera, but with his face obscured.) The boys are all obscured, but they, too, are clearly American, the Sheikh acknowledging their sudden lack of American comforts: “The only reason we are staying here, away from families, cities, ice, candy bars,” he says, “is because we’re waiting to meet the enemy.”

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