No one would pay to hear him rap, but the State Department is willing to pay big money to get the rapping jihadi off the streets.
The State Department is offering $5 million for information leading to the takedown of Omar Hammami, the Alabama-born American citizen who once joined al-Qaidas Somali affiliate and terrorized the internet with his lyrics of fury. Hammami and another jihadi suspect, both believed to be in Somalia, are wanted for conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which includes their significant contributions to al-Shabaabs media and military activities, the FBI stated Wednesday, as CNN first reported.
It would be a fitting subject for Hammamis next mixtape. His homeland wants the self-styled jihadist locked up, and his former comrades in al-Shabaab have been trying to kill him, he claims, for the past year. More remarkably, the split between Hammami and al-Shabaab has been very visible online through YouTube, the web and Twitter.
A YouTube channel called Somalimujahirwarrior hosts a handful of short videos from Hammami the most recent one is two months old denouncing al-Shabaab as a militarily frivolous organization. Its supporters struck back last month with a 17-page online PDF calling Hammami both a fake thug and a fake emcee: Allegedly, Hammami was a poor fighter and didnt even write the rap songs he periodically released online that blasted America and praised the rugged Islamist-militant lifestyle.
All that is unusual enough. But Hammami may be using a Twitter account, @abumamerican, to antagonize al-Shabaab. We are waiting for the shabab to allow the muslims in dar islam 2 fight kuffar [unbelievers], went a typical tweet on Wednesday. The account, at the very least, is a fierce supporter of Hammamis, and terrorism analyst J.M. Berger believes that Hammami runs it himself. On March 15, Berger tweeted at @abumamerican who periodically uses the first person to talk about Hammami if he could dispense with the fiction that Hammami might not be behind the account, and @abumamerican replied, dispence [sic] at will.
Alas, @abumamerican isnt following me, despite my entreaties. But he does pay attention to the Western community of counterterrorism analysts and journalists, and not in an antagonistic way. Earlier on Wednesday he got involved in a running Twitter joke about a March Madness-style tweeting contest between Western national-security analysts. Some have joked that Hammami whom they presumed to be @abumamerican would take the Twitter Fight Club literally.
So far, @abumamerican has yet to tweet about the bounty placed on Hammami. Its been months since he put out a new pro-jihad hip-hop song. But the last time he stepped in the booth, Hammami didnt have $5 million worth of U.S. government thirst to inspire him. Next stop: World Star.
