washington | The FBI is investigating the death of a young terrorism expert who worked at a think tank where research into Islamic extremism drew death threats, family and friends said.
Jason Korsower, 29, died in his sleep at his father’s Atlanta home on Nov. 26, after Thanksgiving celebrations with his family.
His family and friends said FBI agents had gathered information about the death, but they know little else.
Korsower thrived in a Jewish youth group, then served in a crack infantry unit in the Israeli army, studied religion and most recently plunged into terrorism research in Washington. He was about to start law school.
Dr. Randy Hanzlick, the medical examiner in Fulton County, Ga., said last week it looked likely that he would rule out homicide as the cause of death. There was no evidence of physical injury, Hanzlick said, and he was leaning toward concluding that Korsower had had a heart-related problem.
“This is preliminary, but at this point we’ve done extensive testing for a number of agents and nothing has turned up,” Hanzlick said. “We don’t have any indication of any toxin-related problem at this point.”
Steve Lazarus, an FBI agent in Atlanta, refused to confirm or deny an investigation, citing bureau policy.
However, the agency was aware of the case. Debra Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman in Washington, referred JTA to the FBI’s Atlanta bureau, even though JTA had not mentioned Korsower’s hometown in its request for information.
Sources made clear that the FBI is asking questions. Without relating specifically to Korsower’s death, Lazarus said agents would ask questions about a death only if a full investigation were underway.
Officials at the Investigative Project, where Korsower worked, also would not comment on the circumstances of the death. 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 9/11.
But his warnings led to death threats against him and his organization, and drove his organization semi-underground.
The death of Korsower, who was athletic and believed to be in good health, continued to mystify his grief-stricken family. 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,” said his mother, Karen Grablowsky.
“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.
After completing his degree at Colgate University in upstate New York, he traveled to Israel in 1998 with the United Jewish Communities’ OTZMA program, a 10-month volunteer stint 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.