>>
calling him a suspect yet.
>>>
now to the fight against
al qaeda
. a u.s. counterterrorism official says the senior
al qaeda
official killed this week was a top strategist who worked to plan
al qaeda
's terror operations abroad. some of the five students arrested in
pakistan
, nbc news has learned the students told the
fbi agents
that they made up their minds to wage jihad. i'm joined in studio by msnbc terrorist analyst evan coleman. good morning.
>>
good morning.
>>
what would these alleged would-be terrorists have struck? was it only potential overseas or potentially domestic as well?
>>
that's a concern. we've seen a bunch of
home grown
extremists leave the
united states
over the past two years and go to different conflict zones --
pakistan
and somali are the two
big ones
. are these people just going to fight on the ground there? you know, certainly fight against
u.s. troops
but fight there? or is the point of doing this in order to get the skills to come back in the
united states
and do something here? there are indications that it may be latter. there were two individuals down in atlanta who were recently convicted in a case similar to what's going on now in
pakistan
where these guys basically outlined in very detailed computer conversations, which they conveniently recorded on their own computers about how they wanted to go abroad to iraq, to
pakistan
, to somalia, and learn how to, quote, cook. learn how to produce explosives. learn how to shoot. and then use those skills to come back right here in the u.s. and do something right here. but it's not clear. we hit the seam. these guys talk about jihad beyond u.s. borders. the question is if they reach somebody who really is in
al qaeda
or a real
terrorist group
is someone like that going to say, look. forget about fighting here. go back home where we really need you.
>>
all five of these students are from the washington, d.c. area. let's listen to what a lawyer for the local mosque had to say about it.
>>
they were wholesome, regular kids, thoughtful, with manners, engaged in their religion. regardless of all the information that is coming out, no one said from
law enforcement
specifically that we know of that a crime has been committed. and therefore, you know, even if people think this community is naive, we still hope for the return of these kids safely to their parents. and there's no reason to conjecture as to what may happen in the future.
>>
wholesome, regular kids. that's certainly a vastly different picture than what the
u.s. government
has maintained.
>>
that may be correct. at one point they may have been like that. the reality is that most terrorists are not bearded, foaming, crazy lunatics. most are
ordinary people
and what we're seeing is kids from ordinary families, ordinary mosques, from an ordinary community, and it's something that's not within that community that's radicalizing them but something outside that community. obviously the internet here is playing an increasingly large role not just generally in terrorism but very specifically in this case. the idea that these kids didn't have access to the world of jihad, violent extremism, aside from this narrow window over the computer. but it was through this narrow window that they apparently not only gathered together information about the cause and the willingness to join the cause but they may have actually made contact with the recruiter in
pakistan
who wanted to bring them over on the basis of the fact that this guy saw that in their private lives on the internet they were
big fan
boys of jihady videos and websites.
>>
okay.
evan kohlmann
as always we appreciate your insight.
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