10 The Evolution of an American Jihadi: The Case of Omar Hammami By Christopher Anzalone omar hammami, who was until mid- March 2012 the most prominent foreign fighter in the ranks of the Somali insurgent-jihadist movement al-Shabab, has never been shy of being in the limelight. He emerged as the English-speaking, Western face of al- Shabab’s recruitment of foreign fighters following an interview from the field in October 2007 with the Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazira and continues to be the subject of intense Western media interest even after his public break with al-Shabab on March 16, 2012, in a video posted to YouTube. 1 In May 2012, Hammani released the first part of his autobiography describing his experiences before and after traveling to civil war-torn Somalia. 2 The first part of the autobiography, totaling 127 pages, was released as a document upload to the Scribd website in mid-May after its release was teased a week earlier by “somalimuhajirwarrior” 3 in a comment left on the original YouTube video. 4 In a footnote, Hammami also revealed that he produced written work as an online jihadist writer using the pseudonym “Abu Jihad al-Shami,” specifically four written volumes totaling nearly 300 pages. 5 This work stands in contrast to the widely-ridiculed jihadist rap songs 1 In the 1:10-minute video posted by user “somalimuha- jirwarrior,” Hammami, sitting in a room with a bare wall with the black-and-white flag used by al-Shabab hanging in the background, issued an “urgent message” to “who- ever it [the message] may reach among the Muslims,” saying that he feared for his life following a break with al-Shabab over “differences” in matters of “Shari`a and strategy.” See Omar Hammami, “urgentmessage,” video message, March 16, 2012. 2 Abu Mansuur al-Amriiki, The Story of an American Ji- haadi: Part One, May 2012, available at www.scribd.com/ doc/93732117/The-Story-of-an-American-Jihaadi. 3 The user name translates to “Somali emigrant-war- rior.” In this context, the term refers to travel from one’s homeland to one of the “lands of jihad.” 4 The original document was uploaded to Scribd by user “Abu Muhammad al-Somali.” 5 Ibid. The autobiography is not paginated and the page numbers referenced in this article are taken from the page numbers of the PDF version of the document when it is opened. for which he was previously known and shows an attempt by the Alabama- native to evolve from simply being another “mujahid” on the battlefield to a respected jihadist strategist and ideologue along the lines of individuals such as Abu Mus`ab al-Suri, whom he openly admires. This article examines both Hammami’s career in al-Shabab, paying particular attention to the debate over his exact position within it, and his strategic writings under the pen name “Abu Jihad al-Shami.” Drawing from Hammami’s writings, including his autobiography, the article seeks to provide a detailed analytical profile of one of the most famous and prolific Western jihadist foreign fighters, contributing to the existing literature on the development of jihadist strategic studies 6 and the Muslim foreign fighter phenomenon. 7 The Road to Somalia and Al-Shabab After living in Egypt for a brief period of time, during which he tried and failed to enroll at al-Azhar University, the prestigious Sunni center of religious learning located in Cairo, 8 Hammami left for Somalia in November 2006 using the pretext of looking for work in Dubai. 9 He traveled to the East African country to support the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an umbrella movement that brought together local Shari`a courts and a diverse array of Somali Islamist actors and successfully established a brief period of relative peace in much of central and southern Somalia during the second half of 2006 before being overthrown by an Ethiopian invasion in late December of that year. 10 In his 6 Study of “jihadist strategic studies” was pioneered by Brynjar Lia and Thomas Hegghammer in their article “Jihadi Strategic Studies: The Alleged Al Qaida Policy Study Preceding the Madrid Bombings,” Studies in Con- flict and Terrorism 27:5 (2004). 7 Thomas Hegghammer, “The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters: Islam and the Globalization of Jihad,” Interna- tional Security 35:3 (2010); Thomas Hegghammer, “The Foreign Fighter Phenomenon: Islam and Transnational Militancy,” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, February 2011. 8 Al-Amriiki, The Story of an American Jihaadi, pp. 29, 32-33. 9 Andrea Elliott, “The Jihadist Next Door,” New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2010. 10 See Christof Putzel’s interviews with Hammami’s for- mer best friend, Bernie Culveyhouse, in the 2010 Van- autobiography, Hammami blamed the ICU's military failures on several factors, including the “tribal” mindset of some of its leaders—specifically naming Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmad and Hawiye clan leaders—and overreach by attempting to seize control of more territory than the ICU's “fledgling army” was capable of realistically controlling at that time. 11 His experiences in 2006- 2007 had a profound effect on him, as represented in his strong opposition later to premature expansion and the use of conventional military tactics over guerrilla warfare in spite of jihadists’ technological and numerical disadvantages vis-à-vis their enemies. 12 After the outbreak of guerrilla warfare by al-Shabab and other Somali Islamist insurgent groups following the Ethiopian invasion, Hammami eventually moved away from the armed faction led by Hasan al-Turki following political and strategic disputes and toward al-Shabab, which emerged in 2007 as a movement independent from the ICU. 13 Hammami in Al-Shabab’s Media Campaign Despite the attention he receives in Western media, Hammami’s exact position and role in al-Shabab is debated and unclear. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in its designation of Hammami as an international terrorist, described him as a “military tactician, recruitment strategist, and financial manager” for the Somali insurgent movement and accused him specifically of planning the October 2008 suicide bombing carried out by U.S. citizen and guard TV documentary American Jihadi. 11 Al-Amriiki, The Story of an American Jihaadi, p. 58. He also criticized the ICU’s treatment of foreign fighters in a short treatise, “A Message to the Beloved Mujahideen Specifically and the Muslims Generally,” dated January 8, 2008, and released by al-Shabab’s media department and distributed on jihadist internet forums by the Global Islamic Media Front. 12 He warned against premature expansion beyond ji- hadists’ current capabilities in one of the strategic mono- graphs he penned as Abu Jihad al-Shami, The Vision of the Jihadi Movement & the Strategy for the Current Stage, pp. 18, 23. In another work, A Strategy for the Land of the Gather- ing (Syria): An Attempt to Pinpoint the Pivotal Aspects, he advised Syrian rebels to stick to guerrilla tactics against the larger and more technologically-advance and well- equipped Syrian military and security forces. 13 Al-Amriiki, The Story of an American Jihaadi, pp. 94- 98. JUNE 2012 . VOL 5. ISSUE 6