FBI Engages Social Media in Terrorist Manhunt

The FBI offered a $50,000 reward this week for information leading to the arrest of a US citizen wanted on terrorism charges.

The suspect is Ahmad Abousamra, who fled his home in Massachusetts in 2006.

He’s known to be an associate of Tarek Mehanna, another Massachusetts resident, who was jailed in April for 17 years.

Mehanna was convicted of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country.

Abousamra was indicted on the same charges in 2009; what’s new in the story is the reward, and the FBI’s appeal to the public here, and around the world, for information.

Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, says the FBI has embraced social media in recent years.

“This considerably broadens our reach across the world stage,” says DesLauriers. “Really, our reach overseas, in the past, using traditional media, had been limited.”

You can now message tips directly to the FBI on Facebook or Twitter.

Abousamra was last known to be in Aleppo, Syria. He was born in France, but is of Syrian descent, and had extended family in Aleppo.

Some activists have expressed concern over the case of Mehanna and Abousamra. Prosecutors in the Mehanna trial said the pair couldn’t even locate the terrorist training camps in Pakistan or Yemen. Other reports say they were rejected by al-Qaeda.

But the FBI’s DesLauriers insists the case is extremely serious, as both men traveled with the clear intent of wanting to kill American service personnel overseas.

Abousamra was questioned by Border Patrol agents as he fled the country in 2006, but he was not detained for what Deslauriers calls “operational reasons.”

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Marco Werman: Hi. I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. The FBI offered a $50,00 reward this week for information leading to the arrest of a US citizen wanted on terrorism charges. The suspect is Ahmad Abousamra, who fled his home in Massachusetts in 2006. He’s known to be an associate of Tarek Mehanna, another Massachusetts resident who was jailed in April of this year for 17 years. Mehanna was convicted of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country. Abousamra is indicted on the same charges. His indictment was issued in 2009. What’s new in the story is the reward and the appeal to the public here and around the world for information. Richard DesLauriers is a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, which is handling the case. Now you say he’s one of the top wanted people in the United States, but prosecutors in the Tarek Mehanna trial said that these two guys couldn’t even locate the terrorist training camps in Yemen and Pakistan. Other reports say they were actually rejected by al-Qaeda. Why take them so seriously? What’s so dangerous about them?

Richard DesLauriers: Well, the nature of these charges, Marco, are very serious. These are serious counts to include conspiring to kill US soldiers overseas and to provide material support to a terrorist organization, namely al-Qaeda. He repeatedly, Mr. Abousamra repeatedly traveled overseas to Yemen, Pakistan and then subsequently to Iraq, to carry out global harm against US soldiers. So we consider these charges to be very, very serious and we are initiating a worldwide manhunt for him via our global media campaign that is being launched this week.

Werman: And yet, he was not put on a watch list. Why not?

DesLauriers: There are a variety of factors, Marco, that go into that decision, and in this case we chose not to for a variety of operational reasons.

Werman: I see you brought in a looseleaf notebook that says Abousamra Publicity Campaign, and that’s an angle to this story that we want to pursue, this appeal to people overseas and here in the States through social media. How unprecedented is this and how will you manage the tips?

DesLauriers: This is something that he FBI has been embracing over the last few years, Marco, the use of social media. We have vigorously embraced it as a leading way for law enforcement to disseminate information on a global scale, and it’s particularly effective in attempting to allow us to apprehend fugitives, either domestically here inside the United States or worldwide. Combining the reach and power of all media platforms is a powerful way to inform the public about our searches for fugitives across the globe, and in addition to traditional media, we are using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all forms of social media to disseminate information regarding Mr. Abousamra. The FBI itself has close to 700,000 Twitter and Facebook users, so we feel we have a broad audience we traditionally had not been able to reach in the era before social media.

Werman: And is that just in English?

DesLauriers: I believe it’s primarily English, however, the wanted poster for Mr. Abousamra is being disseminated in English, Arabic, and French to ensure the broadest audience possible who would be best positioned to possibly report information on him.

Werman: So as of this morning the FBI has 271,000 likes on Facebook and I think most organizations would be pretty excited by that. Do you know how many are overseas and is that ultimately a critical mass for real assistance?

DesLauriers: We think it is. Really our reach overseas in the past using traditional media had been limited. There are many parts of the world that we had not been able to reach via social media, but this considerably broadens our reach across the world stage. Not all countries permit the same access to social media as others. We realize we can’t possibly reach everybody. However, our universe has shrunk, shall we say, in terms of those we can reach and they’re now far more reachable than they had been in the past.

Werman: Now Tarek Mehanna, Abousamra’s convicted collaborator has this support committee which responded to yesterday’s appeal for help with this statement saying it was all part of a government campaign, and they said, “It’s to distract us all from the ongoing US occupation and bombing of Muslim countries and the Islamophobic attacks on Muslims here in the United States.” Could you comment on that?

DesLauriers: That’s something probably, Marco, that speaks for itself. Mr. Mehanna has been convicted in a court of law here inside the United States and has been sentenced to a term of 17 1/2 years in a federal penitentiary for his actions, and I think those facts speak for themselves.

Werman: Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. They’re handling the case of Ahmad Abousamra. Thanks very much for coming in.

DesLauriers: Thank you so much, Marco.

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