Get ready Africa (and the United States) because Abubakar Shekau, the still-somewhat-shadowy, thirty-something leader of Bobo Haram, the Islamic terrorist group that kidnapped 300 Nigerian schoolgirls, has a role model: the late and unlamented Osama bin Laden. According to NBC News, he’s hoping to become African’s Osama bin Laden and already has some of the 21st century organizational and communication tools that bin Laden used in place.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau wants to be Africa’s Osama Bin Laden, and has ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric in an effort to spread his influence globally, according to a more-nuanced profile of him developed since he orchestrated the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls more than a month ago.
U.S. counterterrorism officials and terrorism experts say that Shekau, whose age is unknown and background mysterious, has developed a sophisticated media operation aimed at helping him achieve that goal. But they are divided on his ability to become an influential leader of militant Islam, with some calling him mentally unstable while others argue he is “crazy like a fox.”
The trouble is: in terrorism, as in politics, the people who seem unstable and get the publicity are the ones who get the ink and broadcast time…and pick up like-minded supporters.
Of girls kidnapped from a government-run secondary school in Chibok on April 14, 275 remain missing. NBC says that under his command, “Boko Haram has become the most violent terrorist group in the world, carrying out a laundry list of atrocities in northeastern Nigeria.”
But its the audacity — and incredible tragedy — of kidnapping large number of c-h-i-l-r-e-n that has set him apart here from the there groups that murder to increase a body count that is then used as a bludgeon to try and shove through their political/religious agendas.
And so we get the bad news:
But now, the man who is – at least for now — perhaps the world’s most sought after terrorist, is increasingly emulating Osama Bin Laden in an effort to increase his influence, the experts say.
“His entire on-stage persona is that of a bin Laden wannabe, from the weapon-wielding backdrops, the incessant video releases, etc.,” said Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who has long studied Boko Haram.
In recent video messages, Shekau has also become increasingly anti-American, specifically denouncing President Barack Obama in angry and dismissive terms and making aggressive statements ” very much in the global jihadist vein, including threats against the U.S. from Shekau himself,” said one U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
That leads one former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria believes an attack on U.S. interests in Nigeria is “inevitable.”
Yes, in Nigeria. But, most likely, terrorism experts aren’t ruling out him striking anywhere. Geography matters little — or it can matter a lot.
New Corp’s Australian website has a profile of this guy who’d find it as easy to order some killings as drinking a sip of water. Here’s some of it:
THE fanatic behind the abduction of Nigeria’s schoolgirls is a violent fiend with a lust for infamy — and a complicated relationship with his mother.
Sneering and cackling like a lunatic in his videos, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is determined to gain worldwide fame through acts of extreme brutality.
He’s been declared dead — and “risen again” — multiple times, may very well be insane and doesn’t hesitate to use terror. But exactly who is Shekau?
The Islamist terror leader’s deranged smile and bizarre videos ranting against everyone from Abraham Lincoln to the Queen have made Shekau a uniquely terrifying figure.
The more brutal his actions, the more his reputation grows.
Now, the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls has turned the eyes of the world on him — giving Shekau the platform he so desperately craves.
While their fate remains to be decided and their whereabouts unknown, Shekau has bragged of selling the girls, who were abducted from their school in a lawless part of the country where his group holds sway, as “booty of war”.
AND:
By comparison, the FBI placed a $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden.
“He seems to want to distinguish himself by the depth of his brutality,” former US State Department counterterrorism chief Daniel Benjamin told The Wall Street Journal of Shekau.
“He’s the craziest of all the commanders,” one intermediary told Britain’s The Daily Telegraph. “He really believes it is OK to kill anyone who disagrees with him.”
Shekau was second in command of Boko Haram for years, finally grabbing control after police killed leader Mohammad Yusuf in 2009.
The group — whose name roughly translates as “Western Education is a Sin” has killed more than 7000 people in the past two years, many of them innocent villagers, reports the Council on Foreign Relations.
News.com.au also reports that the Nigerian army has declared him dead two times, “only to have him pop back up like a cockroach. Some officials believe the man in the most recent video released by his group is actually an impostor.”
But if it isn’t him, it’s someone who looks like him emulating Shekau, who emulated bin Laden — and the cycle goes on.
The world yawned, went about its business and largely dropped the ball on bin Laden until it was too late.
Will history repeat itself?
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.