The jihad’s real target is governments, and therefore militaries.  It can be easy to forget this.  They so often strike soft targets, as in recent days they have targeted a shopping district in Karrada, a Dhaka café, and an Orlando nightclub among others,  Nevertheless, in order to establish their caliphate under the direction of sharia law, they must at some point be able to take on the military.  These ‘soft’ target attacks evoke terror in the general populace and cause other negative psychological effects within society, but they also divert attention and resources away from governments protecting of ‘hard’ targets such as military bases.  The last several weeks we have witnessed the arrests of would-be terrorists attempting such strikes against America’s hard targets.

One case involves an 18-year-old Tucson Arizona man named Mahin Atif Khan. According to AZ Central, Khan “is charged with two felony terrorism-related charges and a felony charge of manufacturing, possessing or selling a prohibited weapon, court records show.”  One of Khan’s targets was a Tucson Air Force recruitment center.  In a court document Khan reveals some motives for planning to conduct a terror attack and describes himself in a conversation as an:

“American Jihadist who supports [the Islamic State]…”and “I’m a ISIL and TTP [Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan – a terrorist group] supporter looking to perform a MO (likely referring to martyrdom operation)… Need AK and pistols can u do that wanna [sic] take out marines [sic] and jews. No jok [sic]. I support hakimullah (referring to TTP Commander who died on or about November 1, 2013) u got trust me.”

Khan also inquired about a likely pressure cooker recipe for making bombs from a TTP member.  It is no wonder that he wanted to target Marines and Jews.  Marines stand for American military power and are proud defenders of our country, while Jews are a common scapegoat for jihadists. Quran 5:82 warns Muslims about Jews, “You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah[.]”

Another case involves a Virginia man who was a former Army National Guard member named Mohamed Bailor Jalloh.  Jalloh is accused of trying “to provide weapons to terrorists plotting an attack in the U.S.”  CBS 6 reports that Jalloh and a FBI confidential human source (CHS) had meetings in April and May of 2016, encounters that help to understand Jalloh’s radical past:

During the April meeting, Jalloh told the CHS that he was a former member of the Virginia Army National Guard, but that he had decided to quit after listening to online lectures by Anwar al-Aulaqi [sic], a deceased leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” the spokesperson said. “Jalloh stated that he recently had taken a six-month trip to Africa, where he had met with ISIL members in Nigeria and first began communicating online with the ISIL member who later brokered his introduction to the CHS.

CBS 6 also reports that “Jalloh praised the gunman who killed five U.S. military members in a terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015, and stated that he had been thinking about conducting an attack similar to the November 2009 attack at Ft. Hood, Texas[.]”  Both terror incidents killed U.S. military personnel.

Also, a 25-year-old Virginia man named Haris Qamar who was arrested “…on charges of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)[.]”  The U.S. Department of Justice gives a good picture into the motives of Qamar:

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, on May 26, Qamar and FBI confidential witness (CW) discussed ISIL’s need of photos of possible targets in and around Washington, D.C., for use in a video that ISIL was purportedly making to encourage lone wolf attacks in the Washington, D.C., area. Qamar allegedly offered CW ideas of where to take these photographs, including the Pentagon and numerous landmarks in Arlington and Washington, D.C., which could be targeted for terrorist attacks. On June 3, a conversation was audio and video recorded when CW picked up Qamar in a vehicle and they drove to area landmarks on the list Qamar had developed. Qamar allegedly said “bye bye DC, stupid [#]ss kufar, kill’em all”…

…he operated over 60 variations of the Twitter handle “newerajihadi”, which Qamar used to express his support of ISIL and share videos and photos of extreme violence, including beheadings and mass shootings…

…Qamar said he loved the bodies, blood and beheadings, and he recalled watching a video of a Kurdish individual being slaughtered, and liked the cracking sound made when the individual’s spinal cord was torn… Qamar also stated that he admired lone wolf attackers because they love Islam so much that they are willing to die as martyrs for Islam…

…Qamar allegedly told CW that the residences of several service members who appeared on the “kill list” were near Qamar’s own home, and that Qamar had observed undercover police cars near those residences.  According to the affidavit, on Sept. 16, 2015, Qamar tweeted his prayer that Allah “give strength to the mujahideen to slaughter every single US military officer.”…

One wonders where Qamar got his inspiration from.  Possibly it was from violent Quranic passages such as Quran 9:73, “O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them…” and Quran 9:123, “O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness…”.

More concretely, Akram Musleh, the Indiana teen who tried to join ISIS, was exhorted by a suspected ISIS member to launch attacks in Florida against U.S. military personnel.  It sounds like a jihadist pattern targeting U.S. military members, especially where service members are vulnerable, including gun-restricted recruitment centers and other military installations.  There have already been accusations that ISIS is targeting U.S. military members via social media in order to gather personal information such as addresses, and as one Army intelligence bulletin advised, to use the information to “show up [at their homes] and slaughter them.”

We must do everything in our power to protect our servicemen and women from this widespread jihadist threat.  Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has already mentioned how he is going to secure military installations by installing “…stronger physical security systems, including stronger entry controls, better alarm systems, reinforced doors, and additional ways to safely exit our facilities[,]” as well as a mass warning capability for DOD employees.  Since we have seen a number of foiled jihadist plots on U.S. military sites recently, our government leaders must take extra precautions and make sure another Chattanooga or Fort Hood attack doesn’t happen again.