The Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of "
Ten Most Wanted" fugitives dates back to 1950 but
the list of "
Most Wanted Terrorists"
dates back to just after 9/11 and a sense that terrorism had become a
strategic threat. Today, the list includes 31 individuals, all of them
male and with a single exception (Daniel Andreas San Diego, an animal
rights extremist), all of them Muslim:
- Abd al Aziz Awda – 1950, Palestinian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad
- Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser – ca. 1947, Saudi, Saudi Hizbullah
- Abdul Rahman Yasin – 1960, American, World Trade Center bombing in 1993
- Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah – 1963, Egyptian, Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings in 1998
- Adam Yahiye Gadahn – 1978, American, Al-Qaeda
- Adnan G. El Shukrijumah – 1975, Guyanese, Al-Qaeda
- Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Mughassil – 1967, Saudi, Saudi Hizbullah
- Ali Atwa – ca. 1960, Lebanese, TWA hijacking in 1985
- Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie – 1965, Saudi, Saudi Hizbullah
- Anas Al-Liby – 1964, Libyan, Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings in 1998
- Ayman Al-Zawahiri – 1951, Egyptian, Al-Qaeda
- Faouzi Mohamad Ayoub – 1966, Lebanese, Lebanese Hizbullah
- Hakimullah Mehsud – ca. 1980, Pakistani, Pakistani Taliban
- Hasan Izz-Al-Din – 1963, Lebanese, TWA hijacking in 1985
- Husayn Muhammad Al-Umari – 1936, Lebanese, 15 May Organization
- Ibrahim Salih Mohammed Al-Yacoub – 1966, Saudi, Saudi Hizbullah
- Isnilon Totoni Hapilon – 1966, Filipino, Abu Sayyaf Group
- Jaber A. Elbaneh – 1966, Yemeni, Al-Qaeda
- Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim – 1965, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986
- Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi – 1960, Yemeni, USS Cole bombing in 2000
- Jehad Serwan Mostafa – 1981, American, Al-Shabaab
- Mohammed Ali Hamadei – 1964, Lebanese, Lebanese Hizbullah
- Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain Ar-Rahayyal – 1965, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986
- Muhammad Ahmed Al-Munawar – 1965, Palestinian, Abu Nidal Organization
- Omar Shafik Hammami – 1984, American, Al-Shabaab
- Raddulan Sahiron – ca. 1936, Filipino, Abu Sayyaf Group
- Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah – 1958, Palestinian, Palestinian Islamic Jihad
- Saif Al-Adel – ca. 1960, Egyptian, Al-Qaeda
- Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz Al-Turki – 1955, Palestinian, Pan Am hijacking in 1986
- Zulkifli Abdhir – 1966, Malaysian, Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia
Comments:
(1) Muslims make up 30 out of 31 most wanted terrorists, or about 97
percent of them. That's a pretty good indication of what Bernard Lewis'
1990 article famously called "
Muslim rage" and why Islam-related issues have such prominence.
(2). Islamists make up 27 out of those 30; only the three
perpetrators of the Pan Am 73 hijacking in 1986 (Rahayyal, Munawar,
Turki), all connected to the Abu Nidal Organization, are not Islamists
(or at least were not in 1986). This predominance of jihad reflects the
Islamist hegemony among politically extreme Muslims.
(3) Ethnic Arabs make up 25 of the 30 terrorists. The largest numbers
are 4 each of Lebanese, Palestinians, and Saudis, 3 each of Americans
and Egyptians. Non-ethnic Arabs include 2 Filipinos, 1 Malaysian, 1
Pakistani, and 1 American convert. This high percentage confirms the
sense that Arabic-speakers have the most pent-up hostility toward
Americans.
(4) Most attacks by these most wanted fugitives date from the 1980s
and 1990s – Khobar, TWA 847, East African embassies, WTC bombing.
Symbolically of this relative antiquity, the only American airlines
attacked by them were Pan American and TWA, both long defunct. This
points to the greater success since 9/11 in both foiling and tracking
terrorism, thanks to greater resources and more diligence.
(5) Also reflecting the long-ago quality of this most wanted list, note the striking pattern of their decadal birthdates:
1930s – 2
1940s – 1
1950s – 4
1960s – 18
1970s – 2
1980s – 3
1990s – 0
The average age is close to 50 – not exactly the prime time of life
for terrorism. The youngest listee, Hammami, will be 29 years old in
less than a week. The eldest two, Umari and Sahiron, are approaching 80.
(April 30, 2013)
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