Taimour al-Abdaly, Mona Thwany, Facebook, and YouTube [redacted]

Details uncovered in relation to this investigation have been deliberately left unsaid for the time being.

Facebook

As noted previously, Taimour had a Facebook account. He used it to keep in touch with family and friends, not least of which his wife Mona Thwany, as he traveled about the world on his jihadi adventures. It is probably safe to assume the he exercised a degree of self-censorship regarding the videos he 'shared' via Facebook.[1] Consequently we find a predominance of anti-Shiite and anti-apostate videos, lesser amounts of anti-Western/anti-USA/anti-Semitic/anti-Israel content (in that order). Such a division of hatred - if you will - is consistent with jihadi discourse in general. Jihadis may attempt to attack the West from time to time, but the real source of their rage will be found in their unhappiness with Muslim rulers and with their fellow Muslims more generally. Missing from Taimour's shared Facebook videos are any explicitly jihadi or al-Qaida items (though it is possible they may have been among the videos that were unavailable as a result of violating YouTube's Terms of Service.

A table of the videos, a brief description, and the ID of the YouTube user who uploaded the videos will be found here, at sofir.org. The reader will note that while I intended to examine the videos in relation to the date when Taimour chose to share them, I have not done so yet. Other information seemed more important to follow up on first.

Before moving on to YouTube, I would like to address Mona's alleged and actual presence on Facebook. She had a personal account:

There wasn't much there, and it has now been removed by Facebook

Mona used the account, as noted above, to keep in touch with Taimour:

Idle chitchat, but with a political focus (and terrorism is a political crime)

Mona also has a business account, which at this writing is still available on Facebook:

This account is at least visually and factually consistent
with what is known about Mona

There is a third account that many believe is also Mona's. I think this is a mistake, but would happily stand corrected. The account is not visually consistent with the first two, and the biographical details are wrong. There is also no sign of this account interacting with Taimour or any of Taimour or Mona's family.

Not the Umm you're looking for

This is the biographical info that does not match that of Mona Thwany (note that this particular Facebook profile has been edited to remove this information in the last 24 hours):

Mothers can be counted on to know how many kids they have
(at least until they have 8 or 9 - then things get fuzzy)

YouTube

Quite a few people - particularly in Sweden[2] - have publicly identified a YouTube account that they believe is linked to Taimour and/or Mona and/or one of Taimour's sisters. The age and location of the account correspond to the sister, but there is little else to support that connection. On the other hand, there is quite a lot to connect the account to Taimour and/or Mona. This relates to the content of a significant number of the videos, and also the fact that a number of the videos 'favorited' on this YouTube account were 'shared' by Taimour on his Facebook Wall.[3]

Favorited on YouTube, shared on Facebook - coincidence?

Since the account has seen activity following Taimour's death, *someone* is making use of it (in fact, the use they made of it was to upload copies of Taimour's last statement in Arabic, Swedish, and English - videos subsequently removed by YouTube for Terms of Service violations). Since Mona remains at large it certainly could be her who is using the account, but then again, it could be a confederate of Taimour's, perhaps one of his alleged accomplices, or it could even be her sister. Based on open sources of intelligence that part of the puzzle is impossible to sort out. I would suggest citizen sleuths be slow to make accusations in this matter. At length truth will out.

In the unlikely event that the suspect YouTube account turns out to have no connection whatsoever to Taimour or Mona, researching it has turned up two YouTube users worthy of serious attention:

1. http://www.youtube.com/user/almasri002

YouTube user almasri002 - 322 terrorist video uploads,
1,092 friends, 843 subscribers, 3,348,706 upload views.

 

al-Qaida video uploaded by YouTube user almasri002,
and favorited by the YouTube account suspected
of belonging to Taimour and/or Mona

 

2. http://www.youtube.com/user/MACrusaders

There is a connection between the suspect account and these people.

--

[1] These were *not* videos he uploaded, as far as I know.
[2] Gee, you think so?
[3] Not to mention that the account name appears to be a clear reference to Mona and Taimour, and has recently subscribed to an account whose name could be interpreted as a reference to a relative of Mona's.

Posted on 18 December 2010 @ 18:12