Al Qaeda's New Tactic

This past weekend a man identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir visited a refugee camp in Somalia. A scarf covered his face, he was surrounded by masked gunmen wearing white vests, and brought with him donations. The donations included sacks of grain, dates, dehydrated milk, children’s clothes, copies of the Koran, and $17,000 cash which was divided amongst the families. Even more peculiar, Almuhajir was a white man speaking perfect English with an American accent and the donated items had a label that said “Al Qaeda campaign on behalf of Martyr Bin Laden. Charity relief for those affected by the drought”. The Shabab terrorist group starving the people of Somalia has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. Many believe that this is solely Al Qaeda propaganda in order to gain a new generation of recruits after a series of detrimental blows to the terrorist groups hierarchy of command. This is likely true, though some believe that Almuhajir is only pretending to be an Al-Qaeda representative. In this case it would be hard to find his motive. One possibility is that Almuhajir is a wealthy and clever individual who had devised a way to get aid into the starving people inside the Al Shabaab camp, though this is unlikely.