TIGER 21 Investor Intelligence Group Hosts Noted Terrorist Commentator Steven Emerson for Unsettling Discussion of Domestic Security

NEW YORK (April 17, 2006) – While many Americans still wonder about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, terrorism expert Steven Emerson believes that the fate of the Al Qaeda leader is wholly irrelevant to future terror attacks on U.S. soil.

 

Addressing members of peer-to-peer investor group TIGER 21 recently in New York, Emerson, the author of best-selling book American Jihad (Free Press) and head of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, argues that cells of radical Islamists have regenerated sufficiently as to create multiple pockets of Jihadists untethered to any formal groups.  He claims that their breakaway autonomy poses a threat despite the best efforts of law enforcement to contain or keep tabs on them.

 

“Call it Al Qaeda 2.0 or 3.0,” he said.  “Reconstituted, often home-grown, and unfortunately, highly motivated, these splinter groups have the potential to wage active domestic warfare in our own backyards.”  Emerson predicts localized Infitadas for years to come, based on a cycle of beliefs that are not easily shaken.

 

“In the mind of the Muslim extremist, there is a war raging against Islam, perpetrated by the U.S. and Western interests, and it is up to this individual to avenge the wrong – that’s really all you need to perpetuate a holy terror campaign for years to come, not only in the U.S. but in Europe and Asia,” he added.

 

At first blush, Emerson does not sound like the typical presenter at TIGER 21, whose high net-worth members regularly meet to share intelligence on ways of enhancing long-term investment returns.  Other recent speakers have included former Bear Stearns CEO Alan “Ace” Greenberg, as well as legendary private equity investors Stephen Schwartzman (of the Blackstone Group) and David Rubenstein (of the Carlyle Group).  TIGER 21’s 75 members collectively manage some $6 billion in investable assets.

 

But the group’s founder Michael Sonnenfeldt sees an obvious need for hosting a terrorist watcher such as Steven Emerson.  ”Investors are often particularly sensitive to real world events because their portfolios can be transformed rather quickly as markets reassess the strengths and weaknesses of their holdings.  While it may be a common belief that wealthy investors are immune to economic cycles in fact they are often even more exposed than those that depend on a salary or a single organization or profits from a single company to support their way of life” he said. 

 

Mr. Sonnenfeldt noted that in a recent survey analyzing how TIGER 21 members divide up their personal assets, an unusually high percentage of their holdings – 11 percent – was dedicated to cash and liquid securities, three or four times than might be expected during an otherwise healthy economy. 

 

“We have a strong sense that even the most affluent individuals remain uneasy from the events of 9/11 when it comes to managing their own money,” he said.  “Regardless of the risks they take in their professional lives, as entrepreneurs, corporate executives and professional investors, many well-off Americans have developed a conservative streak with respect to asset allocation that we believe is rooted in concerns about national security.” 

 

Mr. Sonnenfeldt added that wealth preservation has become a more important priority for top-tier investors in the last several years, even as the wealthy pursue a number of diverse strategies, including private equity, hedge funds and exchange-traded funds, real estate, fixed income securities and overseas stocks.

 

Certainly Steven Emerson’s presentation at TIGER 21 did little to outwardly boost investor confidence.  If he sounds like a conspiracy theorist, it’s because he has been following U.S.-based radical Islamists for nearly 15 years, and has seen credible threats in the most unlikely of places.  As a CNN correspondent in1992, Emerson was working in Oklahoma City when he happened upon a pan-Islamist convention on Christmas Eve that included representatives of Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad, as well as individuals later tied to Al Qaeda and Hamas.

 

“It seemed a strange gathering for Oklahoma City, but when I contacted a terror analyst I knew at the FBI, he dismissed my concerns and said that none of these groups deserved to raise alarms in the U.S.,” Emerson recalled.  “I returned to my job in Washington a changed person.  Less than two months later, the first World Trade Center bombing happened and suddenly attention began to be paid.”

 

Emerson went on to produce a documentary for PBS on the nascent extremist movement.  Convinced that the media and government agencies were still not showing enough interest in the subject, he formed the Investigative Project on Terrorism in 1995 to direct research and keep tabs on militant Islamic groups in the United States. 

 

Today, ITP maintains the largest archives on such entitles – possessing some four million documents and more than 18,000 hours of video and audio feeds, including Al Qaeda recruiting and training videos, as well as web site downloads from offshoot radical groups that are often here today, and gone today.   Emerson himself, who once had trouble getting anyone to take his research seriously, is now one of the most sought-after commentators on Islamic-fueled terrorism.

 

“Virtually every group has a web presence, often dozens of sites,” he told the TIGER 21 listeners.  The web is becoming an especially potent platform for spreading Jihadism to young people, he said, including content such as MTV-style rap videos calling for attacks on Jews and Westerners.  Emerson played one such video called “Dirty Kuffar,” whose main performer – his identity hidden by a ski mask – brandishes a gun and a hand grenade, urging viewers to “Kill the crusader” against a backdrop of exploding cars and images of Western leaders morphing into fiends.

 

Among other observations offered by Emerson at the TIGER 21 gathering:

 

Ø      On the extreme efficiency of the 9/11 attacks – “From a logistics and impact standpoint, the September 11 attacks represented a remarkable return on terror investment,” he said.  “Consider that the operation cost an estimated $430,000 and only 19 individuals to execute, with an outcome of 3,000 people killed and a direct hit on the U.S. economy of some $700 billion.  The indirect economic loss has been projected at $1.3 trillion.  That represents a tremendous success of terrorist objectives.”

 

Ø      On prospects for attacks in Europe – Emerson believes that Western Europe is especially prone to more terrorist acts in coming years, following events in London, Madrid and Paris.  “England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy have numerous localized pockets of radicalized groups,” he said.  “Despite surveillance and improved law enforcement, recruitment and fund raising continues to be very active in Europe.”  

 

Ø      On terrorist financing – While aggressive anti-money laundering efforts have stifled flows of funding to terrorists, ITP tracks the wide net of criminal activity that continues to sustain organizational activities.  Emerson noted enterprises such as counterfeit drug sales, theft rings of infant formula and other goods, and even stolen cars, some of which have surfaced in suicide bomb operations in the Middle East.  “Our information confirms that Jidhadist organizations are financially alive and well, and getting bigger and stronger,” he said.

 

Ø      On U.S. exposure – Emerson believes that America’s nuclear facilities and transportation systems remain key terrorist targets, particularly at risk given that many plants and transit systems are in regions with the highest concentration of underground cells – New York, Washington, Chicago, Houston, Michigan, and northern and southern California.

 

Ø      Non-profit connections – Emerson credits law enforcement with curtailing significant terrorist support provided by U.S. charitable groups tied to radical Islam, but says that “non-profit front groups remain a huge challenge to national security.  There are still many organizations that are part of what we call “the grand deception,” operating freely under the banner of human rights or philanthropic works, but with genuine, traceable links with the international terror network.”

 

 

Ø      Radicalism behind bars – “The U.S. prison system has become one of the most fertile incubators of Islamic militantism,” Emerson told the TIGER 21 meeting.  “Prisons have becomes especially significant in bringing American-born recruits into the movement.”

 

Ø      Need for more intelligence – Emerson won’t say how the government has made use of ITP, but contends that his organization has been instrumental in “building public, open source intelligence that has had contributed materially to the war on terrorism.”  Shunning federal funding, along with money outside the U.S. or from religious groups, ITP’s endowment comes totally from individuals and private sources.  Emerson says the group’s budget is directed at acquiring intelligence, as well as providing translations of source material, analysis and even some undercover work – “virtually anything that doesn’t involve wiretaps,” he notes.  ITP also helps security companies beta test new hardware and software related to a variety of anti-terror technologies.

 

Ø      Attacking the true enemy – “It’s important to drive home that we exist to monitor and help curtail Islamic extremists bent on fomenting violence in the U.S.,” Emerson told TIGER 21 members.  “We wish there were more outspoken voices within the broader Muslim community condemning terrorism. Some critics would call us anti-Muslim when in fact, we recognize that Islam is among the world’s great religions and that the majority of Muslims worldwide – even those that denounce U.S. policies – certainly aren’t planning terror attacks against Americans.  What we do oppose, and will continue to try and thwart, is the extreme theology of Islamic militants that targets the U.S. and Israel as the source of all the world’s problems, justifying their attacks against infidels and non-believers.”

 

Emerson called on all societies to actively stigmatize terrorist actions, just as segregationism was actively de-legitimized in the U.S. more than a generation ago.  “We’re asking that society participate in a global behavior modification process,” he said to TIGER 21’s investor group.  “Only by repeatedly denouncing religious violence and declaring it unacceptable does the world have any hope of affecting any real change among extremist groups.”