American Jihadis’ Web Network
Daniel Joseph Maldonado (aka Daniel Al-Jughaifi, aka Abu Mohammed), arrested in Kenya after fighting for the Islamic Courts in Somalia, was an administrator at the web site Islamic Networking. Internet Haganah points out that this site is the successor to the infamous clearguidance.com (aka “Islam on Crack,” online home to several of the Toronto jihadis arrested last year, and subject of many LGF posts) and was founded by the same person (Sasjamal), in a post that connects the dots: Islamist terrorism, from clearguidance.com to islamicnetwork.com.
Much has already been written about Daniel, and no doubt much more will be written. Some have been quick to label him a “blogger”, as though that contributes to our understanding of the man or of the global Islamist insurgency he is a part of (and in point of fact, he has a blog). But if you want to get to the heart of the matter, you need to understand Daniel’s involvement in the Islamist forum at talk.islamicnetwork.com
When Sasjamal was interviewed in Houston by the Globe and Mail in August of 2006, he said he shutdown the clearguidance site because “I just lost interest.” That he turned around and opened up a new forum at islamicnetwork.com suggests a different motivation, but motive aside the fact remains that clearguidance was replaced by islamicnetwork, and the beat went on.
According to the criminal complaint against Daniel, he relocated from Boston to Houston in August of 2005. By the 5th of September 2005 he was active on the islamicnetwork forum occupying the position of “Office Manager”, which in practice meant he was a moderator with administrative privileges in the forum. He posted 478 times to the forum and his final posting is dated 15 September 2006. During this time he relocated with his wife and three children to Egypt, evidently to pursue his religious education. In November of 2006 he traveled to Somalia to join the jihad. That he appeared out of nowhere and immediately occupied a position of responsibility on islamicnetwork suggests that Daniel and Sasjamal knew each other already, and they may well have been friends and companions, though the exact nature and degree of Sasjamal’s involvement in Daniel’s jihad, if any, is unknown.
This is the kind of thing Maldonado allegedly participated in, in the name of Islam (from the criminal complaint filed 13 Feb 2007 in the United States District Court Southern District of Texas):
16. MALDONADO recalled that while in Kismaayo he participated in the interrogation of a spy. The spy, a flight attendant who had a cell phone camera, was observed taking pictures of jihadis as they arrived by airplane in Kismaayo. The flight attendant was forcibly taken to a house, across the street from the hotel at which he was staying, where he was beaten and slapped. MALDONADO helped guard and interrogate the flight attendant because they both spoke English. He pointed his weapon at the flight attendant and threatened to kill him. MALDONADO admitted he was later informed that the flight attendant had been killed.
