Threats of Jihadist Attacks during the Holiday Season

A senior counterterrorism officer at the Iraqi Interior Ministry disclosed last week that the ISI was planning to carry out attacks in the U.S., Britain, and Europe during Christmas. This information was revealed by an ISI commander recently arrested by Iraqi security forces. The idea of Christmas attacks in the West was also discussed by members on jihadi forums. A prominent writer the Shumukh Al-Islam forum, Yaman Mukhadab, advised the mujahideen to strike at America’s “soft belly” during the holiday by sabotaging the electric grid. He explained that it was possible to cause massive blackouts by in big cities by hacking into their SCADA [Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition] systems through the Internet. These blackouts would be “a Christmas gift not to be forgotten,” he said.
Another idea discussed on the forums was to overwhelm the security services and news agencies in Europe and the U.S. with a flood of false threats about imminent attacks during the holiday season, in order to produce an overall state of confusion among the enemy.
A forum member calling himself “Ayman435″ called to bomb Egyptian churches during Christmas, and provided an extensive list of such churches, as well as Coptic churches in the U.S., Britain, France, Sweden, Holland, Australia, and Germany. In addition, he posted an illustrated manual for making homemade bombs, which was previously posted on the forum, to assist in the preparation of “deadly and surprising” attacks.
Another participant on the forum made threats against the West, bragging that “the countdown has begun.” He posted a picture of the Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, and of explosive charges, which he called “Christmas presents.”
Finally, Islamists are also waging a theological and ideological campaign to persuade young Muslims in Christian countries not to take part in Christmas celebrations. Izharudeen.com, the English-language website of the Syrian-born sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is the former leader of the Islamist Al-Muhajirun organization in Britain, posted an article titled “Christmas – The Path to Hellfire.” . . .