An ISIS social media consultant is a 33-year-old Boston man who allegedly made the Dean's List at Northeastern University before becoming a wanted terrorist, Gawker reported on Thursday.
Ahmad Abousamra, who has been on the run from the FBI for years, is suspected of joining the terrorist group and leveraging his computer skills to spread their propaganda on social media. Abousamra is a dual American-Syrian citizen, who was born in France in 1981, but grew up outside of Boston. He went to the private Xaverian Brothers Catholic high school in Westwood up until his senior year when he transferred to Stoughton High. There he was a member of the honor roll, school officials said, and went on to make the Dean's List at Northeastern University.
But Abousamra's life changed in 2004 when authorities say he and co-conspirators traveled to the Middle East with the idea of fighting and killing Americans in Iraq, according to ABC News.
The two alleged co-conspirators of Abousamra's, Tarek Mehanna and another unidentified person, worked as the "media wing" of al Qaeda in Iraq once abroad. Al Qaeda in Iraq would eventually turn into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Both returned to the U.S. later on where Mehanna was arrested and later convicted. After Abousamra was questioned by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2006, he fled for Syria. He was charged with terrorism-related offenses in 2009, and in 2013 the FBI added Abousamra to its Most Wanted Terrorists list.
Officials say it appears now that Abousamra may have taken up a similar job with ISIS as his co-conspirators had for AQI. Abousamra, has a "college degree related to computer technology and was previously employed at a telecommunications company," according to the FBI.
"There continues to be a worldwide search for Abousamra and he will be pursued until he is found," FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kieran Ramsey told ABC News. The government offers a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
