US Could Face EMP Threat?

So says Khalid Khawaja. The Canadian Sentinel is relaying the story from Adkronos International (AKI) as reported by Syed Saleem Shahzad, who is also the Pakistan bureau chief for the Asia Times.

[Popular Mechanics ran a cover story in September 2001 on the potential of relatively inexpensive e-bombs in the hands of terrorists].

Khalid Khawaja is an alum of Pakistan's ISI. In his public statements, he often tries to pass himself off as a soft-spoken voice of reason, however two of his closest friends are al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden and al-Fuqra's Mubarik Ali Gilani. He's no moderate.

I first reported on Khawaja on October 23, 2005, where I cited a CBS interview with him where he stated that the commitment of Gilani's followers surpassed that of bin Laden's.

On November 3, 2005, I wrote another post on Khawaja citing a Newsweek interview in which he described OBL as "like an angel".

In December 2005, Khawaja actually commented on this blog in response to the October post and asserted that Gilani was simply a diligent humanitarian and that he would answer any questions I had about his friend. He even left his phone number and email address. [I didn't respond].

Earlier this year, I ran across an article from 2002, reprinted by the Militant Islam Monitor, on the questions surrounding Gilani and alleged connections to AQ shoebomber Richard Reid. A portion of it read:

Khawaja, Gilani's friend, said the cleric is peaceful and forgiving, but warned that the United States should not anger him with new accusations about Al Qaeda and Reid.

"One white American [follower] told me that there are thousands of people in America, who, if they are asked to cut off one limb so that they can stay with him [Gilani], they are ready to do that," Khawaja said.

"If you push him to that stage, that he has no option but to declare jihad on America . . . it will blow like a volcano."

Not exactly peaceful words. Let's hope the EMP talk is just idle gossip on the jihadi grapevine. Of course, just to be sure, I'm for us knocking off a few more of 'em.