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2013-03-23 Terror Networks
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The jihadi rapper hated by both sides
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With songs such as Send Me a Cruise (Missile) and Make Jihad with Me, Alabama-born Omar Hammami's notoriety has led to the US state department putting a $5 million bounty on his head. Not that Hammami -- also known as al-Amriki, or "the American" -- is letting bother him.
On Thursday he joked on Twitter, "As I'm a bit low on cash, how much is my left leg going for? I figure Shamil Basayev [leader of the Chechen rebel movement] did the one-leg jihad thing."
Hammami, 28, went to Somalia to join al-Shabaab in 2006 and the State Department said he began recruiting for the jihadi cause through his English-language rap songs and videos. His voice has been described as "a deep Barry White growl".
But it is not just his music that has upset US authorities. Hammami is believed to have fought for al-Shabaab in Somalia against the government. He was added to the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists in November last year.
In 2007, he was charged in Alabama with providing material support to terrorists. Two years later new charges were filed against him for leaving the US to join al-Shabaab, listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the state department in 2008.
Earlier this year Hammami released his autobiography, The Story of an American Jihadi, which, like his music, received poor reviews. The Christian Science Monitor described it as a "strange mixture of childish humour (he writes "ha ha" a lot to indicate something he found funny) and deadly serious description of his life with al-Shabaab".
Hammami spilt with al-Shabaab last year, and they denounced his statements and actions as motivated by the "narcissistic pursuit of fame and ... far removed from the reality on the ground".
Al-Shabaab now wants to kill him, but Hammami seems calm about the prospect of having groups on both sides of the war on terror after him. On Friday he joked on Twitter, "If being wanted dead by both US and Shabaab has something to do [with] my patchy beard, fake beards are something negotiable."
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Posted by ryuge 2013-03-23 00:00||
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File under: al-Shabaab
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Posted by JosephMendiola 2013-03-23 00:11||
2013-03-23 00:11||
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