September 5, 2014
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Sources: ISIS poster boy Boston-trained techie
By: Chris Cassidy, Erin Smith, Joe Dwinell and Laurel J. Sweet A 32-year-old computer whiz who was raised in Stoughton is suspected of using the high-tech skills he honed at Hub colleges to spread the bloodthirsty message of ISIS terrorists on social media, according to a Herald source and news reports. Ahmad Abousamra — who was educated at Northeastern University and UMass Boston — had already been placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list last year with a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to his capture and return. The FBI said Abousamra “has shown that he wants to kill United States soldiers.” He is now believed to be a social media warrior for the heartless terrorists behind the recent beheadings of two Americans. Stoughton Police Chief Paul Shastany told the Herald yesterday he was not at liberty to talk about the case, but he did say it brings home the stark reality of being on guard against homegrown terrorism.
ABC News first reported that Abousamra was suspected of joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and spreading their social media propaganda. Abousamra’s computer skills are particularly troubling because of the terror group’s use of Twitter and Facebook to target recruits, according to a former Homeland Security adviser. “If that’s his role, that becomes as valuable as boots on the ground — he becomes your best recruiter,” said Bradley Schreiber, who once served as a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. “ISIS has used social media to provide propaganda tools to convince people that would not otherwise go to give them a cause and purpose.” Abousamra graduated from Stoughton High School in 1999, but there’s no trace of him in the school’s 172-page yearbook, except for his name — without a photo — listed among the other seniors. He studied computer science for three semesters at Northeastern between 1999 and 2001, a school spokeswoman said. Abousamra graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a degree in computer science in December 2006, the school confirmed. Abousamra, who was a co-defendant of convicted Sudbury terrorist Tarek Mehanna, still has federal charges pending in Boston of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to murder American soldiers abroad and making false statements to authorities. Mehanna, 31, a former pharmacist, is serving a 17-year sentence at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill. Abousamra was named in a superseding indictment five years ago alleging he traveled to Pakistan in 2002 to receive military training at a terrorist camp “in order to fight and kill American nationals.” Prosecutors said he and Mehanna watched jihadi videos together for years “as a source of inspiration to personally engage in violent jihad and martyrdom.” Abousamra, who authorities have long believed to be living in Syria, left the country on Feb. 1, 2004, to travel to Yemen, but not before he was stopped at Logan International Airport and questioned about his plans. In 2009, federal prosecutors said Abousamra plotted with Mehanna to amass automatic weapons they planned to use to shoot up a local shopping mall. “It’s starting in our own backyards,” said a source with knowledge of the case. “The longer it takes to get him the more vulnerable we’ll be. We need to get serious about it.” Matt Stout, Bob McGovern and Prisca Pointdujour contributed to this report. |
“This underscores the need for police departments to work with the government, law enforcement agencies and the Joint Terrorism Task Force to keep our lines of information open,” Shastany said. “You just never know.”