FBI probes death of Jewish terrorism expert
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 8, 2004
The FBI is investigating the mysterious death of a young American Jewish
terrorism expert who worked at a think tank where research into Islamic
extremism has drawn death threats, family and friends said.
Jason Korsower, 29, died in his sleep in his Washington apartment on Friday,
November 26, after returning from Thanksgiving celebrations with his family in
his native Atlanta.
For his 29 years, Korsower had lived a full life, thriving in a Jewish youth
group, serving in the Israeli army in a crack infantry unit, studying
religion and most recently plunging into terrorism research in Washington. He
was also about to start law school.
Korsower's family and friends told JTA that FBI agents had gathered information
about the death, but they know little else.
An FBI agent in Atlanta, Steve Lazarus, refused to confirm or deny an
investigation, citing FBI policy. However, an FBI spokeswoman in Washington,
Debra Weierman, had referred JTA to the FBI's Atlanta bureau, even though JTA
had not mentioned Korsower's hometown in its request for information.
Sources also made clear that the FBI is asking questions, and without relating
specifically to Korsower's death, Lazarus said that agents would only ask
questions about a death if a full investigation were underway.
Officials at the Investigative Project, where Korsower worked, also would not
comment.
The Investigative Project is run by Steve Emerson, whose predictions of a major
Islamist attack in the 1990s enhanced his credibility as a terrorism expert
after the attacks of September 11, 2001. After the attacks, the number of death
threats against him and his organization ratcheted up – and drove his
organization semi-underground.
The death of Korsower, who was athletic and believed to be in good health,
continued to mystify his family, who is wracked with grief. An autopsy was
inconclusive.
"It wasn't an aneurysm. It wasn't a heart attack. It wasn't the obvious things
that could happen to a healthy 29-year-old," his mother, Karen Grablowsky, told
JTA on Tuesday.
"I knew he worked for the Investigative Project. But we thought he was safe,"
she said, noting that Emerson himself said that it was very unlikely that he
would have been targeted.
Grablowsky said she understood from Emerson that FBI agents were asking
questions in Washington as well.
FBI investigations into single homicides are very rare, a former agent said.
"The only times they are involved in a homicide is in cases of terrorism,
crimes on government reservations - military bases, federal property - or, as
in the case of Martin Luther King, when someone is killed while carrying out a
constitutionally protected activity," said Steve Pomerantz, a former FBI
investigator who now consults for Jewish organizations.
Friends and family of Korsower recalled a handsome, self-effacing man with a
will of steel.
"He was a terrific little athlete 'for a Jewish kid,' " his mother said,
with an affectionate laugh. He was the pitcher on his Little League baseball
team, she said, and a star on a flag football team in Israel where he would
deflect praise, saying instead, "You should see my little brother."
After completing his degree at Colgate University, a small liberal arts college
in a bucolic setting in upstate New York, where he joined the Alpha Tau Omega
fraternity, he traveled to Israel in 1998 on the United Jewish Communities'
OTZMA program, a 10-month volunteer program that brings American young adults
to Israel to do social service projects and live among Israelis.
He fell in love with the country and decided to make it his home. In May 2000
he broke some stunning news to his mother.
"He sent me an e-mail, 'Happy Mother's Day; Don't freak out I just joined the
Israeli army,'" she recalled.
"I was freaking out. If I was ever going to lose him that's where I was sure I
was going to lose him," she said. He served in the Nahal unit, which splits
service between crack infantry work and work on Kibbutz Tzora, near Jerusalem.
After completing his service, he studied Jewish texts at the modern Orthodox
Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.
His best friend since their time together on the OTZMA program and then through
Nahal service, Tahg Adler, recalled an enthusiastic soldier and an avid
athlete.
"He was the most athletic guy I ever met. He played basketball, he was strong
like an ox," Adler, a personal fitness trainer who remained in Jerusalem, told
JTA.
Adler posted a PowerPoint tribute to Korsower on his Web site
(www.tahgsfitness.com). In it, Korsower poses in his army uniform and automatic
rifle and with green war paint on his face. Other photos show him hiking near
the Dead Sea, smiling in front of the Western Wall in his army uniform,
drinking a beer on Israeli Independence Day, and donning his green Nahal beret
after completing his basic training.
He returned to the United States two years ago and joined Emerson's outfit.
There, he co-wrote a number of Op-Eds on terrorism and Islam with Yonah
Alexander, a veteran terrorism expert.
Korsower planned to start law school at Syracuse University in New
York in the fall.
Family and friends were left asking questions.
Grablowsky said her ex-husband and Jason's father, Alan Korsower, a medical
doctor, was convinced of foul play, and was pressing hard for answers.
Korsower didn't seem fearful about the line of work he was in, investigating
terror groups, although he once fretted about a Web site biography that
mentioned his Israeli army service, Adler said.
A former colleague said the work at Investigative Project drew "unwanted
attention," but added that he was doubtful it would result in an actual attack,
especially on a relatively low-profile researcher like Korsower.
You're "going to get people's attention that you may not want to get," said
Glen Feder, who worked at the Investigative Project until eight months ago.
"I just have a hard time believing that anyone would go after him due to the
work he was doing."
Korsower did not write anything that would have particularly inflamed passions,
Feder said, especially compared to some of the Project's other output.
Feder said he believed a health complication was likelier than homicide.
Adler said he spoke on the phone with his friend the night before he
was found.
"He said he was going to visit me, that he was dating a beautiful girl."
Two days later, Adler got the phone call saying his friend was dead.
Korsower's girlfriend recalled him as "a beautiful, humble, kind soul."
"He just made the world a better place, quietly, in his own way," she
said, requesting that her name not be used.
"This world is a much sadder place, you know, without him."
"It's just a bad dream," she added.
Friends were planning the traditional 30-day memorial on December 26 at Pardes
in Jerusalem.
"We had a lot of plans," Adler said.
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