Jamshid Muhtorov, Uzbek Suspect in Terrorism Case, to be Test for FISA Surveillance Intelligence

o This is a case that will now move from regional experts' and local news obscurity to national and international news -- it will suddenly become of interest to adversarial journalists like Greenwald or Natasha Lennard at Slate, as well as the radical NGOs like EFF, ACLU etc because it will fit with their agenda -- even though it doesn't and they should care more about distinguishing between terrorists and human rights activists.

o Suddenly, everyone will think that because the US was silent about human rights abuses in Uzbekistan while it depended on Tashkent for the supply route to Afghanistan, and that some of the terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan might have been faked by the government as an excuse to crack down on Muslims, that therefore, this case was trumped up. I disagree. Sometimes a terrorist helper really is a terrorist helper. Yes, the Uzbek government persecutes thousands of Muslims unjustly, which I've covered and condemned many times on my other blog. But yes, it also faces a real terrorist threat as does the US, and it's okay to arrest people helping terrorists. The wisdom is to know the difference. I trust US intelligence agencies to know that difference more than I do radical NGOs and journalists with an agenda.

o The pressure of media and NGO assault on the court in Denver may lead to Muhtorov's release, in which case I don't change a thing about my views of him -- which remain this: that he was properly arrested.

o The trial may bring out facts that will help support the government's case, or its use of the FISA intelligence will be discredited. Perhaps this will lead to Muhtorov's exoneration. That's fine, and it's always good to have adversarial defense and vindication of trial truths in favour of innocence. That will not change a thing about my views of Muhtorov, which is that he is an opportunist and exploited the human rights movement for his own agenda, and likely was doing the same thing when he got involved with the jihadists.

o There's also the very distinct possibility that Muhtorov is a police informer working for the MNB, Uzbekistan's security agency. And it may just be that the Uzbek government has cast him loose rather than defend him and get his extradition and thereby outing their informants' program. There are at least three or four other Uzbek cases in the US: one related to Muhtorov's case who raised money for the jihadist organization; another involving a young Uzbek man who grew radicalized after emigration and stockpiled weapons and threatened to assassinate Obama who was sentenced already; and one who had a lot of jihadist Youtubes and interest in bombs that ran some training sessions with explosives that led him to be arrested - his trial has been postponed and also seems to be related to FISA evidence.

Does the Uzbek government use spies to keep tabs on emigres and influence or even harm them? Indeed it does, this is amply documented. Could that be the case here? There isn't proof, but there is a distinct possibility.

The IMU is not a fiction. It really did attack our soldiers in Afghanistan as well as sites in Germany and Uzbekistan itself. Even if it is waning, it can have its bursts of activity, just like Al Shabaab, which was also said to be on the run until it staged a horrific attack on a mall in Kenya.

I'm critical of the faction that minimizes terrorism and makes talking to terrorists a scholarly enterprise - J.M. Berger of Intelwire and those related to him, and Joshua Foust and others still at Registan today (he and the original gang have left). Joshua Foust has completely dropped writing about Central Asia, now that it is out of fashion and out of grant money, as our troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan and the interest in the region is dropping rapidly. He may come back to write sympathetically of Muhtorov or he may not, now that he has taken up another industry, writing critically of Snowden. That would be humorous indeed, if he wound up endorsing the arrest of Muhtorov he once blasted me for justifying -- simply because of Snowden. On the other hand, most of Foust's so-called exposes and critiques of Snowden actually end up still taking his side on various issues -- he thinks there is wrongdoing at the NSA which I don't; he thinks David Miranda was wrongfully arrested which I don't, and so on.

We'll see how it turns out.

Posted at 07:37 PM in Terrorism, U.S. Policy | Permalink