4/ However, due to the costs of travel, the fear of telecommunications, and distrust of those outside of local communities, jihadis tend to conspire only with those nearby.
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5/ I know little about the Midlands and Northern spheres, so will only write about the South-Eastern sphere, which developed around the HQ of al-Muhajiroun (ALM) -- the UK's deadliest jihadi network.
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6/ This group has passed through 3 phases. Prior to 2000, it was an asset of the UK govt (see my pinned tweet). After 9/11, it was hit with a crackdown and forced underground. Finally, after 2014, its leaders were jailed, and the group dissipated to avoid further prosecutions.
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7/ When ALM chief Anjem Choudary was arrested in 2014, ALM had already declared allegiance to IS, so it wasn't left purposeless. Secret meetings of ~80 jihadis were held in my neighbourhood, hosted by acting ALM leader Saif al-Islam (pic), to determine the best way to serve IS.pic.twitter.com/h1X0DEaehx
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8/ Ideas spitballed at these meetings included detonating bomb-laden trucks on Oxford Street. This kind of blue-sky thinking was the result of the meteoric rise of IS, which made the jihadis believe their time had come, that Allah was with them, and the (7th) sky was the limit.
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9/ Weirdly, it was IS that told ALM to not be so extreme. The original goal of ALM, under the leadership of its extravagant founder Omar Bakri, had been to organize spectacular, large-scale attacks that would make for viral news stories. It'd had some success with this, on 7/7.
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10/ After the ALM hacker Junaid Hussain (aka "TriCk", pictured) became director of CyberCaliphate, IS's online wing, he established an encrypted Telegram/Whatsapp network whereby ALM could receive orders directly from IS. Shortly afterwards, ALM's tactics began to change.pic.twitter.com/nbPD6s9qur
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11/ TriCk's IS emirs (bosses) didn't want ALM to plot large-scale 7/7-style bombings in the UK. Rather, taking inspiration from the Lee Rigby murder, they recommended the approach of "leaderless resistance" advocated by al-Qaeda tactician Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (pictured).pic.twitter.com/8M5aMhCTCJ
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12/ Nasar believed that the most effective way to spread terror was to decentralise it, utilizing countless small groups that can operate without an external chain of command, and which are also isolated from each other, to minimise liabilities and make tracking impossible.
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No. A system that has no hierarchy whatsoever. A movement as formless as chaos itself.
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