BERLIN — Midway through a propaganda video released last month by a group calling itself the German Taliban, a surprise guest made an appearance: a cleanshaven, muscular gunman sporting the alias Abu Ibrahim the American.
Although the American’s part in the film lasted only a few seconds, it has alarmed German and U.S. intelligence officials, who are puzzling over who he is and how he became involved with the terrorist group.
U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say an increasing number of Western recruits — including Americans — are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps, in spite of a campaign by the CIA to eliminate al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in drone missile attacks.
Since January, at least 30 recruits from Germany have traveled to Pakistan for training, according to German security sources. Other European countries also are struggling to keep their citizens from going to Pakistan for paramilitary training.
In August, Pakistani officials arrested a group of 12 foreigners headed to North Waziristan, where many of the camps are located. Among those arrested were four Swedes, including Mehdi Ghezali, a former inmate of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In the past, homegrown radicals were largely self-motivated and had to find their own way to South Asia. Today, however, al-Qaeda and its affiliates have developed extensive recruiting networks, counterterrorism officials said. The agents provide guidance, money, travel routes and even letters of recommendation.
Another sign of the internationalization of the recruitment networks is the small but growing participation of U.S. residents.
In July, U.S. officials announced that they had apprehended Bryant Neal Vinas, 25, a resident of Long Island, N.Y., who has confessed to traveling to al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan and firing rockets at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.
Last month, the FBI arrested yet another U.S. resident, Najibullah Zazi, and accused him of plotting a bombing in New York. Zazi, 24, traveled to Pakistan last year, where U.S. intelligence officials have said that he made contact with a senior deputy to Osama bin Laden and learned how to make homemade bombs.
