The American Spectator : The Curious Case of Craig Benedict Baxam

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Special Report

The Curious Case of Craig Benedict Baxam

By Reid Smith on 1.26.12 @ 6:08AM

What would make an American Iraq war veteran join forces with al-Shabaab?

On the evening of Tuesday, December 20, 2011, Craig Benedict Baxam boarded a flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport, arriving the next afternoon in London, England. Following a twelve-hour layover, the 24-year-old American emplaned upon a Virgin Atlantic Airbus, outbound to Nairobi, Kenya. He landed Thursday morning, and made a bee-line for the largest mosque in the capital city. It was time for morning prayers.

Twelve hours later, Baxam was on an overnight bus to Mombasa. Two more days of travel found him heading for the northeastern backwater of Garissa. A stranger approached and asked Baxam several pointed questions about the purpose of his visit to the country. Believing the man to be a fellow Muslim, Baxam obliged his queries.

Hours later, Craig Baxam was in the custody of Kenyan police, charged with an unlawful attempt to enter the specter state of Somalia. In a matter of days, he was back in the United States -- held by federal authorities for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. As Baxam admitted to investigators, he had emptied his life savings into his unsuccessful bid to join forces with al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda's regional affiliate on the Horn of Africa.

The facts of the case are detailed in the criminal complaint filed before Maryland's southern Federal District Court. Spelled out in plain English, this young man offers an unlikely case study. Craig Baxam was not the product of a radical mosque. He was not born into a fundamentalist Muslim community at the fringe of American culture. Rather, Baxam was raised in Washington, D.C.'s predominantly Christian shoulder city of Takoma Park, Maryland. He served his country in Baghdad before reenlisting for a year-long stint in South Korea.

If this story sounds slightly familiar, that's understandable. You will recall another young man -- himself born and raised off the Capital Beltway -- named John Walker Lindh. The "American Taliban" pulled up stakes for the hinterlands of Afghanistan, and turned traitor on the wrong side of Qala-i-Jangi fortress in 2001. Whereas Lindh translated his pampered youth into just cause for defection and collaboration with the sworn enemies of America, Baxam served his country in war -- an expert in cryptology and intelligence analysis. While the search for "authentic" Islam drove both men against the law of this land, the paths they found to treason converged only in the distance they traveled.

For his part, Baxam's compulsion stank of cyber Islamica poured through the insurgent Cuisinart -- pureeing everything from pseudo-Sharia to casual anti-Americanism into a sallow, seditious soup. He secretly converted to Islam after a brief, but passionate affair with a number of radical websites. Within weeks, he had begun to separate himself from the American military. He soon found himself back in Maryland plotting his hijra -- the obligatory migration to Islamic lands. This notion of hijra represents a critical institution of "protection" in Islamic tradition and dates back to the Prophet Muhammad's flight from Mecca to Medina to avoid assassination. Craig Baxam felt similarly imperiled here in the Land of the Free -- loud music, idolatrous images. and rampant modernity distressed his fragile piety.

He needed to make a move -- both physically and spiritually -- towards orthodoxy. But his options were limited. From his perspective, true Islam could only be found in primitive austerity, where Sharia jurisprudence channels seventh century Arabia: places like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or Abu Sayyaf separatist strongholds in the Philippines. However, such regions are war-ravaged and difficult to access. Judging from his desire to take up arms in defense of Salafist revival and the country's porous border, Somalia must have seemed an attractive choice. Moreover, as an African American, Baxam's appearance would excite fewer questions as he made his way overland -- by bus -- to the front lines of East African jihad. Where else could one stumble so glibly into Islamic insurgency waged against the enemies of Allah and their foreign handlers?

Yet Baxam is not alone in his desire to reach the movement. Last year, an investigation by staffers on the House Homeland Security Committee, led by Chairman Pete King (R-NY) found that more than 40 Americans have attempted to join al Shabaab. And while many of them hail from Minnesota's Somali-American community, others fit a less predictable profile. Witness Craig Benedict Baxam.

SO WHAT MAKES Somalia so attractive to would-be jihadis? As the emergence of the Afghani Taliban suggested in the 1990s, some of the most hazardous Islamic revivalism defines itself on the edge of the Muslim world. Localized security concerns radicalize religious identities and rouse like-minded Muslims into ideological uniformity and political indivisibility.

By nearly any working definition, Somalia fits the profile of a failed state -- and it has come to represent the Wild West of our globalized world. Decades of lawlessness have left pirates scouring the coastline while Islamist militias control the streets. Their reign of terror was born with the emergence of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who ushered in a wave of medieval Islamic orthodoxy.

Decades spent absent a proper government led to the foundation of these local Islamic courts by Muslim businessmen who wanted someone to catch and punish thieves. Echoing Taliban claims of perverse social guardianship, the ICU's militias soon ruled Mogadishu's markets and major trade routes with an iron fist. Like the Taliban before it, the ICU offered a religious solution to state failure. Its political message resonated with locally held religious beliefs. For the poor and illiterate residents of southern Somalia, the ICU platform appealed through the personification of those ideals in the movement's leadership. When the ICU fell to the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and their Ethiopian military allies, the group splintered into several smaller factions. Ultimately, the al Shabaab movement inherited the ICU's political function -- and expanded the police and militia force into a full-blown insurgency against the interim government.

These days, al Shabaab cannot be classified as a centralized or monolithic organization. The movement is made up of local clans and its internal mechanics are prone to shifting alliances and tribal politics. While most of its 14,000 rank-and-file fighters are motivated by their religious war against the TFG, senior leadership is affiliated with al Qaeda and has likely trained in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated al Shabaab as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" back in 2008, given statements linking Somalia to al Qaeda's global operations, rampant suicide bombing and their penchant for beheading innocent civilians. In other words, al Shabaab offers something for everyone in a failed state where terror is the growth industry.

Baxam's decision to forsake God and country was based on a desire to join the next generation of Islamic jihad. He was willing to martyr himself in the war against secular governance, saying that he would be content to perish "with a gun in my hand." He, and dozens of other Americans like him, have chosen to join ranks with this nebulous, transnational militia to wage war on the forces of modernity. In the process, they are willing to sow the seeds of famine, internal displacement, and murder.

For innocent Somalis and the people of Eastern Africa, the enemy remains intact, invigorated and it's taking applications from the US of A.

About the Author

Reid Smith has worked as a research associate specializing on U.S. policy in the Middle East and as a political speechwriter. A doctoral student and graduate associate with the University of Delaware's Department of Political Science and International Relations, he currently writes for the Foreign Policy Association.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (49) | Leave a comment

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.26.12 @ 6:40AM

It's not all that puzzling.

There are always that small percentile who have different beliefs. With the modern public education system, I'm surprised that there are any left who know they are United States citizens.

However, for your answer, look no further than the White House.

Obama sat in an anti-American, anti-white church run by a terrorist named Jeremiah Wright. Most Americans apparently could have care less.

Obama has now taken that anti-white crusade to the White House and the office of the Presidency.

In modern day America blacks are permitted to threaten whites with bats at polling places. No problems there. Communists have served openly in the White House.

In short, your question was mis-framed. The question isn't the curious case of Craig Benedict Baxam.

The question is, why aren't there more of them?

Jack in Wi.| 1.26.12 @ 8:06AM

Lets put millions of American Muslims in concentration camps, because one guy is pissed with American Policy against his religion. If he belongs in prison for going to fight for a so called terrorist group, what about all those American Zionist terrorists on the West Bank? To me they can all go to hell and should have their citizenship lifted. We had many American Communists who did the same thing for the Soviet Union. They are all the same.

Ryan| 1.26.12 @ 8:52AM

So....al-Shabaab is a "so-called" terrorist group? What information do you have which shows them innocent of such a charge, when they are known to engage military and civilian populations for political purposes wearing no uniform? Is there another term for them?

Doctor Right| 1.26.12 @ 10:39AM

Jack,

You're pathetic. If someone posted their favorite banana cream pie recipe on this forum, you'd conclude that it was a Jewish conspiracy.

Go away.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:28PM

Well, Reid, having guys like you in the State Department who mush up our anti-Terror policy until it is incomprehensible is a big reason why weak men in service to our country who seek strong lines of command and control are easy prey to terrorist groups.

Quartermaster| 1.26.12 @ 6:16PM

Frankly, any muslim that attends mosque where some hate filled Imam preaches jihad should be expelled if they are not citizens. If they have been naturalized, they should have their citizenship revoked and be expelled. The Imam should be jailed for life so he can't carry on his hate here or anywhere else.

You are being a little twit Clint. And I'm a Christian Zionist, but don't think we have a 1:1 correspondence with Israel in our interests. Sorry it's the best I can do on the Israel first thing, but I guess it will have to do for you.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:32PM

QM:

of course we don't have a 1:1 correspondence with Israel in our interests. No allies do. Hell, my wife and I don't.

But you are right about our spam-bots. They get annoying.

To me, it comes down to the fact that there are people out there who want to enslave my daughter and deprave my son. I don't like 'em. Nossir. Jack and Clint remind me of the Nazi character in "Ship of Fools" who states: "I'm not antisemitic. I have lots of Arab friends." Oh well, time for another cut and paste rant.

LaneyB| 1.27.12 @ 10:00AM

Zionist terrorists? You mean Jewish terrorists, no? I see an anti-Semite here.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:39PM

No one said to do that, Jack. Further, Reid is Islamophilic, not phobic, as I am.

Boy, you shore luvvvv your terrorists, don'tcha.

Bob K.| 1.27.12 @ 12:27AM

There have always been "True Believers." They are attracted to mass movements. Time to get out Eric Hoffer's classic and re-read it.

POST American| 1.26.12 @ 8:29AM

-------------Tavistock SOFT-programming-----------
----for the 'coming down the line' criminalization--
-----------------of the American public-----------------

---------------------------ALERT!-------------------------

UH, remember, the 4 decades on Globalist
handover of the American economy, implosion
and TREASON OP is now, UNDENIABLY,
getting prime traction even among sleepy,
out of work, and out of posterity
------------------------------------Joe SIX-packs.

Everythign OLD is suddenly
----NEW-remberg ----AGAIN.

All American American| 1.26.12 @ 8:39AM

That an alleged "conservative" needs to ask:

"What would make an American Iraq war veteran join forces with al-Shabaab?"

is disturbing. What do you think Smith? Let's throw out some of the reasons that come to us as we bury our heads in the sand.

Ummm, he couldn't find a job.
Ummm, he couldn't go to college.
Ummm, he was just disgruntled.
Ummm, he is a "radical."

Isn't this what we're told whenever a muslim attacks or attempts to attack a building or church or airplane? Or go on rampages through Paris?

Here's an idea, how about you read the frigging koran and maybe you won't ask dumb questions like that anymore?

Mike Hawk| 1.26.12 @ 9:25AM

The finest minds of the 10th Century would agree with you. So when did you become one of Allah's martyrs??

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:33PM

Triple A: magnificent, sir.

crypticguise| 1.28.12 @ 9:55PM

I doubt very much this guy has ever read the Koran. More likely he was "dissed" in the military because he wasn't able to handle the "intelligence" work he was assigned.

Just another whack-job who isn't terribly bright, and realizes he's "pissed off" against American Imperialism or some such nonsense.

POST American| 1.26.12 @ 8:54AM

------ONE AND ALL-------

Putting this clown case to one side----

in this the 11th hour of the Globalist
RED China handover and TREASON OP
------------------BEWARE--------------------
of the programming that's being put out there.

Bydand76| 1.26.12 @ 2:18PM

Yes,

"Unfortunately you cannot be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself......"

------------------MORPHEUS---------------

(sorry, I could not resist)

tsd| 1.26.12 @ 9:17AM

All we need to do to help this cause is to continue the failed social policy's of our big inner city slums. Look at all the big cities and you find similar stories, mass unemployment of the minority youth, moral decay of the family and the perpetuation of the hopeless entitlement class. The kids and young adults see this and look for something, what they find is gangs, tribes and the same tribal fight you have in Somolia. We can either work on a real solution.... and no education in these areas is a joke. All the education dollars will do nothing if you have no jobs and no future. A political solution is a joke, they have been feeding on the inner city for years. We need real leadership to solve this problem before it boils out of control. This modern world of our has left many behind and they are finding a home in a radicalism that goes back to primitive times. We can face up to it and work our way out of it over time or we can go on as we are and come to a bad end.

albert constantine jr.| 1.26.12 @ 9:46AM

I think it’s important to pay attention to the details in the article. If what is noted is accurate, this is not an alienated urban youth. This is someone from the suburbs with an employment history, skills and prospects, and chucked it all to seek out Third World jihad. While hitch-hiking across Europe or other locales has certainly found itself as one of the adventures many young Americans from the middle class have engaged in on their road to maturity, taking up arms in the cause of those identified as our national enemies goes beyond youthful wanderlust.

If the facts about Mr. Baxam’s military service listed here are correct, I think it is more important to ask why the Army would place yet another unstable youth in the field of cryptology and intelligence analysis. Like Bradley Manning, this appears to be yet another person with high security clearance who has betrayed his country. It might be a good time to review the screening process that the Army and other services are using, and improve them.

tsd| 1.26.12 @ 10:35AM

My comments were not directed at the details of the article, but the larger problem we are having/creating with our disenchanted youth. Each one of these converts will have their own story, but many of the social issues that drive them to the dark side will be a continuing theme. We can either address these issue or we can continue to deal with the results of not.

tsd| 1.26.12 @ 10:44AM

to quick with the fingers.... Mr. Baxam's affluence gave him the financial ability to head out to Somalia to join up. I am even more concerned with our youth that are not afluent and choose to create the terrorist gangs in our own back yard. It feels to me with the tensions in our big cities escalating year by year, with flash mobs and other forms of group violence increasing, we are on the edge of some real bad days ahead. All the us against them coming out of politics today from our so called leaders only helps to increase the problem.

albert constantine jr| 1.26.12 @ 12:35PM

That is certainly a point to ponder as well. It is frightening to think, though, that the heartening upside of it seems to be that more folks are attracted to deviance by greed than ideology.

rnd| 1.26.12 @ 11:04AM

Agreed, Mr. Constantine. I am sure that we only get whiff of the most egregious current and former military who go bananas on us and then start working for the enemy.

I guess there will always be that odd one, the loon and loner who doesn't understand life and has perverted thinking (One does not have to have red, white, and blue tatooed on one's chest, but going over to an Islamist Jihad organization? Willingly?)

There does need to be better vetting and examination of life backgrounds before granting high security information access. Bradley Manning was, regardless of his ill-thinking, way too young to have access to all that he did. (Something is very, very odd about 1) how young Manning is, and 2) how he had access to it all so very, very early) I don't think that the military is coming clean with us on screw ups aplenty regarding Manning.

It reminds me of one of our greatest Cold War traitors. A simple E-4 Army soldier working in West Berlin in the late 1970's I believe (maybe early 1980's). They guy was carting over to East Berlin lots of our secrets.

It never was clear how such a little guy could obtain so much information, why he'd be entrusted to work with that kind of information in the first place.

albert constantine jr| 1.26.12 @ 1:12PM

Yes, though it is nothing new. Lee Harvey Oswald's checkered Marine Corps service was also in the Cryptology MOS.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:35PM

Please note my comment about weak men in our service. I don't think the US armed forces, outside of the Marines, do a good job of indoctrination anymore.

macwell| 1.29.12 @ 5:08AM

You're right Mr. Occam, and when we ask why things like this are happening?
We're told that Congress demands that we take on all comers, whatever their perverted ideology.
The Marines say NO.
Good for the Marines.
Without career politicians we wouldn't have these problems. OUR Congressmen trading votes like baseball cards.
Besides, Congress was never meant to be a career.
Nor was it meant to be run by a bunch of lawyers.
We the people must rid America of the idea of politics/career. We need more Joe the Plumbers to run for Congress. Don't be afraid that you don't have little letters after your name, Congress needs regular Americans.
Revert back to the model the founders left us, citizen government.

ECM| 1.26.12 @ 9:45AM

For his part, Baxam's compulsion stank of cyber Islamica poured through the insurgent Cuisinart -- pureeing everything from pseudo-Sharia to casual anti-Americanism into a sallow, seditious soup.

Best sentence I've read in quite some time.

rnd| 1.26.12 @ 11:08AM

ECM, I agree. This sentence really stood out. Somebody must have gotten a new Cuisinart for Christmas and has been 'playing' with it in the kitchen.

The sentence reminded me of what I see on the plates of the fully incapable seniors at the home I visit on the weekends. This describes, in a different way, exactly the mush sitting in their bowls and on their plates.

Dai Alanye| 1.26.12 @ 12:00PM

Deserves to be used as a textbook example of "purple prose." Beyond purple, in fact, into ultraviolet. Perhaps AS pays Smith by the word.

An enlightening article, though, once the reader ploughs through the excess verbiage.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:35PM

What's pseudo about the Sharia. Seems mainstream to me.

Rurik| 1.26.12 @ 10:14AM

The phenomenon is familiar. If you hate your country, you adopt a surrogate nationaliity. Lenin packed the Kaiser from 1914, though German Kultur was totally antithetic to his Marxism. Anti-English Irishmen served the King of France in earlier centuries. Active disloyalty is an old, and usually dishonorable tradition.
The question is the cause of Baxam's and Lindh's alienation, anterior to their treason.
For Baxam, it seems likely his disaffection grew from racial hatred of the light-skinned majority. The causes of Black racial hatred of Whites, and other races is a related, but separate topic.
For Lindh, the grievance was obviously somewhat different, perhaps, drug use, or homosexuality, or some other radical anti-capitalist indoctrination by Leftist "educators".
The Minnesota Somalis, have nevr been Americans, and really need no explanation, only the foolish Minnesota Luthran pastors who so assiduously import them.

Doctor Right| 1.26.12 @ 10:48AM

There's nothing surprising about this at all.

What's surprising is that it doesn't happen more often.

Baxam grew up in the most liberal part of one of the most liberal states in the USA. His "education" was likely steeped in victimology with an over-arching emphasis on "culture" as opposed to reading, writing, and arithmetic.

These home-grown terrorists aren't born - they're made.

In fact, Baxan didn't grow-up too far away from the DC-Metro area's other famous terrorist - John Allen MUHHAMED - the DC sniper.

Radical Islam is the next "fad" for disaffected black youth to cling to. And why not? The President himself dies everything he can to tell them that America is oppressing them.

Dick Nome| 1.26.12 @ 12:19PM

When these youth have no grounding in morality, culture or personal integrity, they have no reference point and become susceptible to these outside influences to fill the vacuum. Thus the failure of parenting, education and cultural Liberalism manifests itself. Not surprising.

Derek Leaberry| 1.26.12 @ 12:51PM

The Seven most popular political parties in Takoma Park are 1. Democratic Party 2. Greens 3. Socialist 4. Socialist Workers 5. Trotskyite Communist 6. Stalinist Communist 7. Maoist Communist. The Libertarian and Republican Parties are somewhat behind those main seven.

PaulC| 1.26.12 @ 1:13PM

He overcame every advantage to become a self-made a-hole.

TW in SC| 1.26.12 @ 11:21PM

Perfect.

play nice| 1.26.12 @ 1:50PM

I bet this cryto-commando had never handled a weapon since graduating boot camp.
As for "...be(ing) content to perish "with a gun in my hand." He could have just put one to his head...

bsb| 1.26.12 @ 8:15PM

OOKIE COOKIE!!!!!!!!!!!

POST American| 1.26.12 @ 10:03PM

---Burning corpses in Britain

-----------NDAA 1021 in America

TREASON -----------and the "RED China model'

------------------------BEWARE!-------------------------

Richard Baker| 1.27.12 @ 1:49AM

All American American:
Have read about half of the Koran and it struck me as a manual about how to hate your fellow man and why. Islam in action isn't a great deal different then Bushido.

All American American| 1.27.12 @ 11:00AM

Wait until you read the sira and hadiths. You ain't read nothing yet!

runtime| 1.28.12 @ 5:40PM

RB, what is Bushido? I have seen this word but I do not know what it means. I guess I am out of touch with things. Would you elaborate on its meaning? Thanks.

Occam's Tool| 1.28.12 @ 9:37PM

Bushido: Japanese warrior faith circa 1930s-1945. Accounted for intensely despicable behavior of the average japanese soldier in WWII. (Yes, I know it had much earlier beginnings, but that was its world history period of greatest influence.)

POST American| 1.27.12 @ 8:23AM

---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------

--------5 decades of 'Coucil of Churches' infiltration of the genuine churhc establishment

-----------------------NDAA 1021------------------------

----3.5 MILLION firearms SOLD in Dec ---alone---

---full-spectrum datat tracking and surveillance---

-----------Rockefeller-GATES EUGENICS-----------

------WEAPONIZATION of food, air and meds-----

------------------Agenda 21 DEPOP OP-----------------

---FUKISHIMA world nuclear disaster cover up---

-----------John Wheeler murder cover up------------

--------Inter-gernerational sterilization ops---------

---Franchise slums, porn, sports n 'a--bore-shun'--

-------the yet unfolding Oprah degradation op------
-----------------(THINK OBAMA)-----------------------

--------Unaccountable, psychopathic USURY------

------------------debt serf generation-------------------

---the criminalization and assault of the American people---

--------------------NAFTA/ GATT----------------------

------------the RED China TREASON OP-------------

--------------the FALL of the REPUBLIC--------------

---the FAST approaching RED Chinese receivership occupation
---and aggressive 'no nonsense'
----------------------EUGENICS-----------------------

Some trifling side issues of 2012.

NOW, back to the serious coverage. . .

LaneyB| 1.27.12 @ 9:58AM

One wonders what was this miscreant's background that led him to such bizarre thinking. I wish the author had included that portrait.

guthriej| 1.27.12 @ 9:16PM

Because Baxam wants to be a Sand Negro?

Martin Owens| 1.28.12 @ 8:14PM

You speak of Baxam’s weird hegira as thought it were an aberration. Wake UP! It is precisely BECAUSE he was a product of American Educracy that he was so open to the call of Jihad. The gas and bilge mixture, that child’s vision of power and revenge that fermented in his skull is exactly the same Anti- Western, Anti- American, Anti Christian slurry that has been sloshing through America's faculty lounges for the past 30 years and more. One of their protege's famously hefted a sign against the Nixon administration, that read " Where is Oswald When We Need Him?"

Now the rot has reached the bone, and it is time to ask " Where is Pol Pot when we need him?"
The parasite intelligentsia has become a threat to the nation’s survival. Is there concern that there are not enough trees? Damn betcha.

Ron Lewenberg| 1.31.12 @ 12:32AM

That an alienate young man, taught to hate America in our schools, and obviously in need of social and religious norms would become an Islamists no longer surprises me.
The utter failure of the Army to vet people before giving them security clearances mortifies me. First we have Bradley Manning throw a hissy fit and commit treason, and then we have Baxam be taken in by the people he was supposed to monitor.
Is it any surprise that the military took no notice of Nidal Hasan's apologetics for Jihad?

JWeisheit| 3.22.12 @ 3:00PM

If I grew up around that cesspool of corruption, petty weak politicians, lobbyists, cheaters, etc... (I could go on for weeks) I would surely want to blow it all up too.