Pakistan looking for recruiter who lured US Muslims

Washington Post:

Pakistani authorities on Saturday were searching for an insurgent figure believed to have aided five Northern Virginia men who allegedly tried to join up with al-Qaeda, saying the case could help unravel a growing network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men.

Investigators have identified the man, known as Saifullah, as a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban and said he contacted one of the American men on YouTube, exchanged coded e-mails with the group, invited them to Pakistan and guided them once they arrived.

But the men, all Muslims from the Alexandria area, failed to reach the remote tribal zone that is al-Qaeda's home because al-Qaeda commanders thought they were sent by the CIA to infiltrate the terrorist network -- and Saifullah could not convince them otherwise, a Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday.

"They were regarded as a sting operation. That's why they were rejected," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. The five men disappeared just after Thanksgiving and were arrested near Lahore on Tuesday. They have not been charged with any crime.

The developments point to the dangers posed by an extensive and sophisticated network of online terrorist recruiters, but also its limitations. Investigators and terrorism experts say recruitment worldwide has become far more Web-based, with recruiters playing a critical role in identifying potential radicals and determining whether they can be trusted.

Yet Saifullah's endorsement, secured through months of online contact with the five men, apparently did not carry much weight with Osama bin Laden's organization: It wanted someone who knew them better.

...

Which raises the question of just who in the US bin Laden trusts to vouch for recruits? If there are any, why didn't Saifullah know who they were and stear these guys for clearance?

If the US were mounting a sting operation it is unlikely that it would use five relatively young guys. But it is nice to know how paranoid the religious bigots of al Qaeda have become.