MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By THOMAS JOSCELYN, The Weekly Standard – “BuzzFeed has linked to the YouTube page of Tamerlan Tasarnaev – the older brother in the pair suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon earlier this week. A video he linked to on his page is titled, ‘The Emergence of Prophecy: The Black Flags From Khorasan.’

The video deals with a key part of jihadist mythology: That one of the most significant battles fought against the ‘infidels’ will take place in the Khorasan, a geographic area that includes parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

As my colleague Bill Roggio has explained, ‘The Khorasan is considered by jihadis to be the place where they will inflict the first defeat against their enemies in the Muslim version of Armageddon. The final battle is to take place in the Levant – Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. Mentions of the Khorasan have begun to increase in al Qaeda’s propaganda.’

This, of course, does not make the brothers al Qaeda operatives. It does increase the likelihood that Tamerlan Tasarnaev, if this is indeed his YouTube page, was at least sympathetic to the same underlying ideology.

Authorities still have to carefully piece together the details of how the brothers became terrorists, however, including if they have any ties abroad. And this investigation will produce a more complete dossier on their beliefs and motivations.

But Tamerlan Tasarnaev’s affinity for this video should at least inject the concept of the fight for the Khorasan into the public discourse.

Al Qaeda and its allies see the Khorasan as central to their long-term designs. For example, al Qaeda regularly puts out an online magazine titled ‘Vanguards of Khorasan.’ Other jihadists, including those from the Caucasus and from groups linked to al Qaeda, have picked up this theme.” Read more.

By Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch – “The YouTube page is here. On the right of the upper row and the left of the second row are videos by Feiz Mohammed.

‘Police seize Muslim ‘kill enemies’ videos,’ by Simon Kearney and Tracy Ong for The Australian, January 20, 2007:

FIREBRAND cleric Sheik Feiz Mohamed’s defence of his comments on a DVD calling children to jihad has been undermined by revelations, the video also urges Muslims to kill the enemies of Islam and praises martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad.In the DVD, which runs for almost four hours, Sheik Feiz describes inmates of Guantanamo Bay as better Muslims than those in Australia, who would would not forsake their lifestyles for martyrdom.

“The brothers in Cuba are better than us,” he said. “They are being examined through the best examination (a reference to God’s judgment) and the like of them worldwide.”

The sheik, who left Australia in 2005 to live in his father’s homeland, Lebanon, exorts his followers to seek the honourable death of the believer, quoting from narrations about the prophet Mohammed.

“They fight in the cause, they kill others – the enemies who fight Islam and they themselves are killed as martyrs,” he said. He gives the example of a mujaheddin who fought in Bosnia in the 1990s who spoke of nothing but jihad and was killed on the battlefield. “What a beautiful person to be associated with. Would you not like to be an associate of this person?”

The DVD was a recording of a series of passionate fire-and-brimstone sermons that told his audience over several weeks nearly four years ago his thoughts on the way to live their lives. “This is our intention that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, loving Islam,” he said.

Details of the DVD’s contents have sparked an Australian Federal Police investigation and have been met with condemnation.

AFP officers visited the Muslim youth centre founded by Sheik Feiz yesterday to collect a copy of his DVD, which was handed over voluntarily by members of the 4000-strong youth movement.

The two federal agents who arrived at the Global Islamic Youth Centre at Liverpool, in Sydney’s west, Read more…

The two Boston bombers responsible for killing 3 and wounding 264 have been identified as two brothers from the region of Chechnya in southern Russia, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency for the past two decades. Both brothers identify themselves as Muslim. The oldest brother (black cap) has been killed after a confrontation with police and may have been wearing a suicide vest (a tell-tale trait often employed by Islamists). The youngest brother (white cap) is still on the run …

Update: Second brother has been captured alive …

By Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz and Clarence Williams, The Washington Post – “They blasted across the nation’s airwaves as the mystery men on the run from the FBI in the Boston Marathon bombings, both carrying backpacks, one wearing a backward white baseball hat and the other clad in dark glasses and a white T-shirt.

On Friday, after a chaotic night in which one of the men was killed and the other became the target of a massive manhunt, information was slowly emerging about the two men — who are brothers and the prime suspects in the attacks that killed three people and injured more than 170.

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect still on the loose as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was identified as the man killed during an encounter with police after an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge. Tsarnaev was believed to be in his mid-20s.

The brothers’ alleged motive in Monday’s bombings remains unclear, but they appear to be originally from the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, and two law enforcement officials said there is a “Chechen connection” to the bombings. Chechnya has been racked by years of war between local separatists and Russian forces and extensive organized crime since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The extent of the possible connection remained unclear…

The Chechen conflict dates to the early 1990s. In the summer of 1999, fighters in the predominantly Muslim republic rose up in an attempt to throw off Russian domination. Vladimir Putin, then the Russian prime minister, responded quickly, firmly and brutally to put down the rebellion.” Read more.

Chaos: Police Officer Killed, Car Chase Ensues, Explosives Thrown At Police – “About five hours after the FBI released the pictures of the bombing suspects, a police officer was shot and killed on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Middlesex County District Attorney said in a statement. A short time later, police received reports of a carjacking by two men who kept their victim inside the car for about half an hour, the statement said. Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and gunfire was exchanged, the statement said. ‘During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time,’ Colonel Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.” Read more.

Russia’s Caucasus: Breeding Ground For Islamic Terror, Links To Al-Qaida – “Militants from Chechnya and other restive regions in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon explosions would mark the first time they had conducted a terror attack in the West. The conflict in Chechnya began in 1994 as a separatist war, but quickly morphed into an Islamic insurgency whose adepts vow to carve out an independent Islamic state in the Caucasus… The allegations of the Caucasus men’s role in the Boston’s explosions would reinforce long-held claims by Russian officials that insurgents in the Caucasus have been linked to al-Qaida.” Read more.