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Africa Horn

Al-Shabaab: Three Americans Among Gunmen in Kenya Mall

2013-09-22

From Bridget Johnson @ PJ Media Al-Shabaab is claiming that there are American gunmen among those still holed up in the Westgate mall in a standoff with Kenyan and Israeli special forces. The Somali al-Qaeda affiliate tweeted a series of names on its latest account before Twitter against suspended the group. Al-Shabaab has been creating new accounts each time they get shut down but a movement of pro-Kenyan tweeters has been tracking down the new accounts and complaining to Twitter. Al-Shabaab recently released a PR video targeted at Somali-Americans in Minnesota, trying to lure them to jihad as more than two dozen have already done so through the state's "terror pipeline." Three Americans -- Abdisalan Hussein Ali, Farah Mohamed Beledi and Shirwa Ahmed -- from Minnesota have been suicide bombers for Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu over the past few years. Other gunmen were named as being from locations such as Finland, Canada, the UK., Somalia and Kenya. None of the names were female, even though witnesses reported a white woman among the shooters. That's raised speculation about whether "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite, a British widow of one of the 7/7 attackers who became an al-Qaeda paymaster, is involved in the attacks. Last year she was on the run in Kenya as international authorities tried to hunt her down. Nine names were released; authorities have said 10 to 15 gunmen are still believed to be in the mall holding around 30 hostages, including possibly children. CNN International witnessed one grief-stricken man trying to break police lines to get into the mall, claiming that his kids are still inside. The death toll in the terrorist attack rose to 68 today. More than 175 have been wounded. The rest of the article is obligatory political stuff and reactions on the internet. The Somalis seem to be angry about what radicalized Somali-Americans are doing in their name. We're kinda disfunctional about cultural stuff these days.

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Africa Horn

Mother of US-born militant confronts al-Shabaab threat: 'It's in God's hands'

2013-01-21

Omar Hammami, who left Alabama to join the Somali bad turban group, has been given Saturday deadline to turn himself in Debra Hammami is hoping for a miracle to save her son from the al-Qaeda-linked Somali Orcs and similar vermin he left his hometown in Alabama to fight alongside. "It's in God's hands," she said Friday, on the eve of a deadline set by a ... the personification of Somali state failure... for their former adherent's surrender or death. The threat comes after a public falling-out between 28-year-old Omar Hammami and the leaders of the terrorist group. Having already lost her son to cut-thoat ideology, his family back in the town of Daphne, Alabama, may now face the prospect of never seeing him alive again. Living proof that out there in the world is a terrorist whose mother does love him... Omar Hammami, whom the FBI has named as one of its most-wanted terrorists, joined al-Shaboobs in Somalia in late 2006. Since then his family in the US have had no direct contact with him. But they, as well as the American authorities, have been able to track his rise and subsequent falling-out with homegrown hard boyz in the strife-torn African country through his appearance in recruitment videos and his own online outbursts. The American-born fighter become a major leader in the Islamist group, and is said to have helped organise a deadly 2008 attack which left some 20 people dead in Somalia. Among those who took part in that assault was Shirwa Ahmed, a 26-year-old from Minneapolis, who became the first known American jacket wallah in the process. By the time of that co-ordinated attack, Omar Hammami was already a rising star in al-Shabaab's ranks. Computer savvy and charismatic, he had helped the terrorist organization recruit other American-born Islamists, it is claimed. In October 2007, under the nom de guerre Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki (the American) he gave an interview to al-Jazeera in which he implored other Mohammedan Americans to join him in Somalia. But his high profile seems to have led to a rift with other Somali fighters, especially after he used his online presence to air grievances against other al-Shabaab members. Big mistake. You're still a foreigner, didn't you know that? In a series of online videos and Twitter postings from an account purportedly owned by Omar Hammami, he has accused the Islamist group's leaders of corruption, murder and ignoring global jihad in favour of internal Somali struggles. He also attacks them for living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of other fighters. "War booty is eaten by the top dogs, but the guys who won it are incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for touching it. A gun, bullets, some beans is their lot," read one tweet from the abumamerican account, thought to be updated by Omar Hammami or one of his associates. That'll get a fellow in trouble whether he's in Mogadishu or in Moscow... He has also accused al-Shabaab leaders of operating assassins to kill fellow fighters within the group. Many of his grievances were aired in an online video he posted in March, during which he expressed fears for his life. He was publicly slapped down by al-Shabaab in a statement released last month, in which the Islamist group accused him of a "narcissistic pursuit of fame". It added that they were morally obligated to put out his "obstinacy". The spat has culminated in an apparent demand that Omar Hammami surrender to his former comrades, or be killed. "Shabaab make off announcement in front of amriki: drop ur weapon b4 15 days or be killed. Its on," a post on his apparent Twitter feed read on 4 January. That deadline will pass on Saturday. Watching on in anguish from some 8,500 miles away are Omar's parents, Debra and Shafik Hammami. "The last time I saw my son was in 2006, in Egypt," Debra told the Guardian. "We now follow him via the internet, Twitter and newspaper reports." And pretty soon in the obits... Growing up in Daphne, a town of some 22,000 people situated on a Gulf of Mexico inlet, Omar showed no signs of his future life as a bad turban fighter. A hard-working and intelligent pupil, he was voted president of his sophomore class and was in the local high school's gifted students programme. "He was just so full of life. Always into something, very smart in school, always wanting to be the first to hand in his term paper, very popular. He was just a normal kid," Debra said. But at around the age of 16 or 17 he started to change. "I did not notice anything radical. He just wanted to get deeper and deeper into religion," his mother said. Having been originally brought up as Southern Baptist, the religion of his mother, he had already turned to Islam. But whereas his father followed the mainstream beliefs of the religion, Omar turned to extremism. Typical. Let me guess: distant but domineering, somewhat abusive father, spineless, door-mouse mother. He left Daphne for Toronto, before then going to Egypt and finally Somalia. Despite the lack of contact, Hammami's mother refuses to accept that he has turned his back on the family. "I never give up hope. Even if I make 100 years old, I'll still be waiting for him." Speaking from her home in Alabama, Debra explained that she still talks to him at home as if he is still there and can hear her. "We do not agree with his philosophy. But we still love him as the son we had, we still love him," she added. But the threat from al-Shabaab has put in jeopardy any chance she has of seeing her son alive again. Debra doesn't expect her son to hand himself in to authorities -- he is wanted back in the US on terrorism charges. She said the best hope she has is that he can get out of Somalia and live the rest of his life in peace. Maybe he could move to Mali... "I would like to see him be able to leave Somalia if possible, go somewhere and just be safe." Experts suggest that such an eventuality may be his only option, and even then his chances of survival may be slim. Clint Watts, a former executive officer at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center said that even if al-Shabaab's death threat isn't carried out on Saturday, it will be pursued by the ruthless al-Qaeda-linked cell. "He's always going to be looking over his shoulder in Somalia. They're not going to forget and eventually they're going to come after him," said Watts, now a senior fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. "And I think he still ends up being killed in the long run," he added. Meanwhile his parents have turned to prayer -- his father at the local mosque, his mother at the town's church. "It is in God's hands," Debra told the Guardian, adding: "We are just praying that God can perform a miracle."

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Home Front: WoT

U.S. links 8 to Somali terrorist group

2009-11-25

The Justice Department on Monday announced terrorism charges against eight people for activities involving an al Qaeda-inspired organization in Somalia -- including recruiting, financing and actual fighting. For the past two years, authorities say, about 20 young men, all but one of whom are of Somali decent, have left their homes in the Minneapolis area to go fight with al-Shabaab, a terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The group is engaged in a civil war against Somalia's government with the goal of imposing a new regime based on Islam's strict Shariah law. "The recruitment of young people from Minneapolis and other U.S. communities to fight for extremists in Somalia has been the focus of intense investigation for many months," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. "While the charges unsealed today underscore our progress to date, this investigation is ongoing. Those who sign up to fight or recruit for al-Shabaab's terror network should be aware that they may well end up as defendants in the United States or casualties of the Somali conflict." Only one of the people identified Monday is in custody. Mahamud Said Omar, who was charged in a five-count indictment in August, was arrested in the Netherlands earlier this month, and the U.S. is seeking his extradition. Mr. Omar, a Somali citizen who was granted permanent U.S. resident status in 1994, is accused of providing money to the young men who went from Minneapolis to Somalia. Two of the other men charged, who are thought to be overseas, are accused of being in contact with al-Shabaab members in Somalia and of encouraging young men in Minneapolis to go wage jihad there. One of the men, Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax, told young men that jihad in Somalia would be "fun" and that they would get to shoot guns, according to an FBI affidavit. Mr. Faarax and the other man, Abdiweli Yassin Isse, left the U.S. last month at a Mexican border crossing south of San Diego, according to court records. A state trooper had pulled them over a few days earlier while they were driving in Nevada and contacted the FBI after the two men gave inconsistent answers about how they knew each other and who was getting married at the wedding in San Diego they said was their destination. The state trooper searched the car and found Mr. Faarax's passport and $4,000 in cash, but they apparently were let go because there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, according to court records. Mr. Faarax and Mr. Isse are charged with conspiring to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons outside the United States. The other five - Ahmed Ali Omar, Khalid Abshir, Zakaria Maruf, Mohamed Hassan and Mustafa Salat - were charged last summer with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations; conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure people outside the United States; possessing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence; and solicitation to commit a crime of violence. According to authorities, those five went to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab. The ages of the five men, who are still thought to be overseas, were not immediately available. Including the eight cases announced Monday, 14 people have been charged in federal court in Minnesota as part of a months-long investigation into al-Shabaab and young men from Minneapolis. Four of the other six have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. The investigation received greater public focus after news last October emerged that Somali-American Shirwa Ahmed carried out a suicide bombing in his native country. He is thought to be the first American citizen to have carried out such an attack. "The revelation last year that a Somali-American became radicalized, traveled to Somalia, and carried out a suicide bombing was a wake-up call that violent Islamist radicalization is happening in our country," said Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut independent and the panel's chairman, said he is "gratified that the FBI is closely tracking the threat of homegrown terrorism, and I look forward to learning how these young Americans were recruited, so that we can protect others from the pernicious spread of violent Islamist extremism." Ralph S. Boelter, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field office, stressed the importance of the Somali community's cooperation in helping to build cases. "The sole focus of our efforts in this matter has been the criminal conduct of a small number of mainly Somali-American individuals and not the broader Somali-American community itself, which has consistently expressed deep concern about this pattern of recruitment activity in support of al-Shabaab," he said.

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Minnesota men charged in Somali recruiting

2009-07-14

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A federal grand jury has indicted two Minnesota men in connection with the recruitment of Somali immigrants to fight with Islamic insurgents in their home country. Big Viking fans I'll bet... Nah, hockey fans from their childhoods in the rinks of Mog ... Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse are charged with one count each of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people overseas, the indictment states. The recruiting effort took place between September 2007 and December 2008, according to the charges. Ahmed also is charged with two counts of making false statements to investigators. According to the indictment, he told FBI agents that he had traveled alone on a flight to Somalia when, in fact, he and another person were going together "so that they could fight jihad in Somalia." Ahmed, of the Minneapolis suburb of New Brighton, was arrested Saturday, FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson said. It was not immediately clear whether Isse was in custody. The FBI has been investigating what appears to be a massive recruiting effort by the al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in immigrant communities in the United States. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months, and at least three have been killed in Somalia, community leaders have said. The latest, Jamal Bana, was confirmed dead over the weekend, his family said Sunday. The same day, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country. "I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to foment violence against your people,' " President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said. Stay there and stiff the infidels on cab rides. Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government, U.S. officials said. It remains entrenched in the northeast and in sections south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighting that has uprooted more than 200,000 people since early May, according to the United Nations. Wilson said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is "in the 10s," but their recruitment is "a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority." In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia and blew up himself and 29 others. It was the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI. Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago, around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia. Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States, where they came as young boys, and Bana's family believes that he was being held against his will, said Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis. "Only one time he placed a phone call [in mid-November], he didn't say much," Jamal said. "He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short." C'mon Jamal. It's long distance... Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. Ethiopia invaded Somalia to push the Islamists out of Mogadishu in December 2006, but their presence in the country was an outrage to most Somalis and became a rallying cry for al-Shabaab. Ethiopian troops left Somalia this year, leaving Ahmed's weak transitional government to battle the insurgents.

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Home Front: WoT

American Al Qaeda hold rare 'press conference'

2009-04-06

Two young Americans who left their homes to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia held a rare “press conference” in Southern Somalia on Monday, saying they want to be killed “for the sake of God,” according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a video posted on a Somali news Web site. For several months the FBI has been investigating at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area and elsewhere in the United States who traveled to war-torn Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006. Last month, a source familiar with the FBI investigation told FOX News that “several” of the men had returned to the United States, while others “are still there [in Somalia]." Today is the first time any of these men have spoken publicly. "We came from the U.S. with a good life and a good education, but we came to fight alongside our brothers of al-Shabaab to be killed for the sake of God,” one man said in the video, as translated by Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn. In the video, two men, identifying themselves as Abu-Muslim and Abu Yaxye, say they are “Somali youth” from the United States who are now stationed near the city of Kismayo, more than 300 miles southwest of Mogadishu, according to Jamal. The men say they are talking to media for the first time so others can learn why they joined al-Shabaab, he said. A spokesman from the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis, E.K. Wilson, said he is “aware of the video,” which was posted on the Web site dowladnimo.com. He said the video was first brought to his office’s attention early Sunday. Wilson would not say whether the FBI has identified the men in the video. At their press conference, the men did not say exactly how many other U.S. citizens have joined al-Shabaab, but they insisted that “many” Somali-Americans are now “all over Somalia to join the Jihad,” according to Jamal's translation. “Some of us are still in training, others are on the frontline of the Jihad,” Abu-Muslim said in the video, according to Jamal. “Sadly a few of us are dead, one of whom carried out a suicide bombing.” In October 2008, Shirwa Ahmed — a 27-year-old college student from Minneapolis — became what the FBI calls “the first known American suicide bomber” when he blew himself up in Somalia, killing dozens. The men in the new video said they want others like Ahmed to fight in Somalia, according to Jamal. “We are here to invite others to come and join us" said Abu Yaxye, as translated by Jamal. This comes a week after another video featuring an American in Somalia surfaced online. But unlike the new video, which is essentially a news story covering a “press conference,” the video posted last week is a highly polished production with the primary intent of recruiting foreign youth. It was a "clear appeal to foreign youth, especially in English-speaking countries, to join the jihad in Somalia," according to the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which first provided the video to Fox News. In the 30-minute video, featuring an anti-American hip-hop score and images of Usama bin Laden, a man dubbed "The American" purportedly leads a group of al-Shabaab militants in an ambush of Ethiopian forces, which oppose an Islamic state and have backed the new Somali government. “If you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbors, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad it would be a great asset for us," the so-called “American” says in the video, which was posted on an Islamist web site. A law enforcement official confirmed to FOX News that the man, identified in the video as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, is originally from the United States, but said he has been in Somalia “for some time.” The official said the man is in his late 20s or early 30s, and left the United States “many” years ago. The FBI investigation into how young American men were recruited to join al-Shabaab in Somalia is active in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Boston; Seattle; and San Diego, according to testimony from counterterrorism officials and others at a Senate hearing last month. But, officials said, there is no intelligence to indicate that Somali-Americans who traveled to Somalia are planning attacks inside the United States. The source familiar with the FBI investigation would not say publicly if authorities know the whereabouts of the men who returned to the United States, nor would the source say if authorities are pursuing arrests in the case. But Muslim leaders in the Minneapolis area told FOX News that they believe arrests are coming. “It will be a big relief for the community once this comes to an end,” Jamal said.

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Minneapolis: Somali-American returns from jihad, tail between legs

2009-03-22

A 22-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis believed to have been recruited by a terrorist group to travel to his war-torn homeland has returned to Minnesota, community leader Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said Saturday. He added that the recruit for jihad had a change of heart. Jamal wouldn't confirm the man's identity, saying that he and his family fear for their safety and are in hiding. Others identified him only as Kamal. Jamal also wouldn't say why the man went to Somalia or how he financed the trip, but said he apparently returned because "his expectation was not what he wanted when he went over there. ... I think he simply didn't like what he saw over there." Jamal said the man who returned to Minnesota had been recruited by a group called al-Shabab, an Al-Qaida off-shoot, and left Nov. 4 for Somalia, where he expected vocational training and study Vocational training? For what, dry land farming techniques with a concentration in Israeli-invented drip irrigation design? but encountered war and further indoctrination. "The mobilization of the jihad and what have you is different when they really go over there," Jamal said. Jamal said the man has met with FBI investigators but is not in jail. No, he and his family have gone into hiding. I'll bet the FBI knows exactly where. FBI special agent E.K. Wilson declined Saturday to comment about the development or the status of the travelers "because of the ongoing investigation," he said. Members of the Somali community were called to testify before Congress on March 11. Others have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Minneapolis. Farhan (Omar) Hurre, director of the Abubakar As-Saddique mosque in south Minneapolis, said Saturday that he knows of at least 10 people within the Somali community who received subpoenas in the past two months. While FBI director Mueller never said where Shirwa Ahmed was influenced, much of the focus has been on Twin Cities mosques, and Abubakar specifically. In late November, an imam and youth director from Abubakar were prohibited from boarding a flight to Saudi Arabia. At that time, an attorney representing the mosque, the largest in the Twin Cities, said they were put on a federal ''no fly'' list because they and the mosque were connected by rumor to the missing men. Sources close to the federal investigation have said that Ahmed, along with some of the other missing men, including Burhan Hassan and Mustafa Ali, 17, of St. Paul, spent time at or had ties to Abubakar. Hurre, the mosque director, has said that he did not know Shirwa Ahmed, but that others at the mosque knew him and were aware that he had spent time there. Hurre said that mosque officials are still hoping to meet with the FBI to talk about the investigation and learn how they can help. I'm sure they are.

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Home Front: WoT

FBI tracks Somali Terror Links throughout US

2009-03-12

Minneapolis has become the focus of a wide-ranging FBI investigation into a terrorist group's recruitment of young immigrant men for service in Somalia's ethnic and religious warfare. The group, Al-Shabab, an Al-Qaida offshoot, is suspected of being involved in the disappearance of as many as 20 young Somali-Americans who have vanished from their homes in the Twin Cities and turned up with the radical Islamist group in Somalia. While cases like Shirwa Ahmed's and Burhan Hassan's have made Minneapolis the focus of the FBI's investigation, Somali youths have also been recruited in Columbus, Seattle and San Diego.

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The Boys From Minnesota

2009-03-06

The U.S. identified the remains of a suicide bomber who committed an attack in Somalia last October, and returned the remains to his family in Minnesota last December. The bomber, 27 year old Shirwa Ahmed, was an naturalized American citizen of Somali origin. It's believed that 10-20 other young Somali men have gone back to Somalia to fight with Islamic radicals in the last year or so. The FBI has been investigating this situation for nearly a year, and so far have not released their findings. This is understandable, as it is an ongoing investigation, and the FBI doesn't want to jeopardize the sources it has, or reveal how close it is to identifying and building a case against those who recruited and paid for the missing Somali-Americans to go fight for Islamic radicals in Somalia. Suicide bomber Shirwa Ahmed migrated to Minneapolis with his family in the 1990s. There are 15,000 Somalis, mostly recent migrants, in the Minneapolis area. Somalis claim there are many more, up to 80,000, but this would imply a large number of illegal migrants, and there is little evidence of this. The young men have the usual problems of recent arrivals from a Third World country. Many have a hard time adapting, and some join Somali street gangs. These gangs largely preyed on fellow Somalis, although there were increasing attacks on non-Somalis. It was hoped that family ties would help maintain order in the Somali community. But then the State Department began DNA testing of family members allowed to migrate to the United States, and found that 80 percent were not family, but participants in a scam whereby they paid up to $10,000 to have a Somali already in the U.S. claim them as a family member so they could enter legally. The Somali community in Minneapolis is a mixed lot. Some are college educated professionals who left before the government disappeared in 1991. Most, however, are poorly educated, often illiterate, Somalis who fled the violence that has beset the country since 1991. And many of these got in illegally via the false family member scam. A number of the Somali migrants are Islamic conservatives, and some of these are believed to be the key people in the Islamic terrorist recruiting operation. This sort of recruiting goes on in Moslem migrant communities throughout the world. What worries the FBI the most is that if some of these missing Somalis are given terrorist training overseas, and then return to the United States.

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Fifth Column

Did MN Muslims intend to kill Obama on inauguration day?

2009-01-27

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) -- With the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the past, U.S. officials are reporting information about possible threats on the day of the ceremony by a Minnesota Somali man. U.S. intelligence was reportedly investigating a potential inauguration threat involving a Somali insurgent group. They believed one man to be connected with the missing Somali men from Minnesota. 48 hours before the inauguration, U.S. customs agents arrested the 32-year-old Bile Abdullahi, a resident alien from Minnesota, at the Canadian border near Detroit. He's not a white supremacist? According to federal charges, Abdullahi was trying to sneak into Canada using his brother's U.S. passport. Both Bile Abdullahi and his brother are from Minneapolis, and until recently lived in the Cedar Riverside apartment complex. Abdullahi told officials he was going to Canada for a vacation, but intelligence officials fear it could've been some kind of dress rehearsal for leaving the country in a hurry. Fox News has learned Abdullahi's arrest was just part of the intelligence that led to a cryptic warning. The FBI and Homeland Security were investigating information about a potential threat on inauguration day. The information was of limited specificity and uncertain credibility. The threat reportedly involved Al Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda connected radical Muslim group, operating terror training camps in Somalia. Al Shabaab is the same group that's believed to have lured as many as a dozen missing Somali men from the Twin Cities to fight in the jihad back in their homeland. The remains of one of those men, Shirwa Ahmed, were returned to Minnesota, after he became a suicide bomber in Somalia last October. U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether financial support for Al Shabab is coming from Minnesota and other cities with a large Somali population. But, as we all know, those airline passengers were a bunch of racist islamophobes for being concerned about the Flying Imams.

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Home Front: WoT

Minnesota mosque suspected behind Somali terrorism

2008-12-19

Mohamud Ali Hassan once told the Somali grandmother who raised him that he'd become a doctor and care for her. The Somali immigrant, who moved to the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" when he was 8, had good grades at the University of Minnesota and called Muslims to prayer at his mosque, where he also slept during the holy month of Ramadan. But on Nov. 1, Hassan disappeared, as have a dozen other boys and young men here — two days after another young Muslim from Minnesota blew himself up as a suicide bomber in Somalia. Hassan, 18, called his grandmother to say he was back in Somalia, where an Islamist militia is trying to take over the Horn of Africa nation. What he was doing there, he did not say. Now the FBI is asking questions, as are members of the Somali community. The Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center denies any wrongdoing, but many here suspect that the mosque and its imam are radicalizing their youth to become jihadists in an Islamic holy war overseas or perhaps even in the United States. "They are very powerful, whoever got into his mind and got him to do this," says Hassan's grandmother Fadumo Elmi, 83. "We were forced out of our country one time. We don't want to be forced out of here." Details of the disappearances are few, but what little is known is cause for concern, says Abdizirak Bihi, a community activist who represents six families of young men who disappeared in early November. Among them was Bihi's nephew, Burhan Hassan, 17, a high school junior. All were good students, had no problems with the law, Bihi says. All were raised by single mothers and spent a lot of time in the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center. The center is the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. Bihi worries it is preaching a radical Islamic ideology to vulnerable young men. Shirwa Ahmed, 19, who left in August with no notice to his family, was among five terrorists who blew themselves up Oct. 29 in an attack that killed 24 people in Somalia, Bihi says. "We are wanting the government and politicians to investigate who is responsible for sending our kids and we are requesting the American government to help us to get us back our kids." Bihi says. Other Somali immigrants worry the disappearances may foretell dangers for their adopted nation. "That kid that blew himself up in Somalia could have done it here in Minneapolis," says Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul. Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the FBI in Minneapolis would not say whether his agency is investigating the mosque. Bihi and Elmi said the FBI has talked to them and others about the missing. Wilson said the FBI knows that Muslims here have been going overseas to fight. "We're aware that a number of Somali men have traveled from around the United States including Minneapolis to potentially fight overseas," Wilson said. A lawyer for the Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center denied any involvement in planning or financing the men's travels or any political indoctrination. "The mosque has taken a position that it would never take a stand on any political issues," says lawyer Mahir Sherif in San Diego. "We do not support terrorism or any kind of suicide bombing or act of violence." He said federal authorities last month prevented the mosque's religious leader, Sheik Abdirahman Ahmed, from flying to Mecca. Yusuf Shaba, who writes about Islamic ideology and radicalism for the Warsan Times, a Somali-English monthly newspaper published in Minneapolis, says he decided to speak out about what he considers Islamic indoctrination at Minneapolis mosques because he doesn't want his sons to follow the same path he did. Shaba, 34, joined Al Ittihad Al-Islami (Islamic Union) at age 16 and was wounded at age 19 in Somalia. Al Ittihad was Somalia's largest Islamic terrorist group in the 1990s. Shaba says jihadists generally recruit young men from among two groups: those shunned by their families because they've turned to drugs, gangs or alcohol; and the sons of families who forbid exposure to Western culture and allow them to socialize only at the mosque. Shaba says he and his three teenage sons attended a program two months ago at Abubaker As-Saddique Islamic Center, where a former Somali warrior sat in a circle with other young people and delivered a passionate recitation of his experiences during the Somali civil war. Some mosques also screen videos about the war in Afghanistan and about Muslim victims of perceived injustices in such places as Nigeria and the Palestinian territories. "They give them all the grievances that Osama Bin Laden has," Shaba says. "They talk about nothing but jihad and it's the best thing that can happen to a Muslim." When the brainwashing is done and the teachers are confident students will do anything asked of them, the teachers give them tazkia, or clearance, to get more specialized training in the United States or abroad, Shaba says. "The people who trained us encouraged us to not get married, to sever our ties with our families, so that when the mission comes we won't worry about family." Shaba says similar activities occur at Minnesota Da'wah Institute in St. Paul, another mosque. Sheik Mahamud Hassan, the institute's imam, says nothing like that is happening as his mosque. "It's liars," he says. "I'm not missing any members." Elmi wrapped herself in her shawl and sobbed as she thought of Hassan in her one bedroom apartment in a Minneapolis public housing high rise. Outside, snow covered the parking lot and temperatures were below zero. They moved to the United States in 1996, when Hassan was 8 and after his father was killed in the civil war. Hassan was obedient, but after going to the mosque, "He was completely changed." "I thought the mosque would be a much safer place than the night clubs and bars," she said, crying. "I don't want God to curse me because I say something bad about the mosque."

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Africa Horn

Somali-American teens disappearing to Somalia as jihadis?

2008-12-12

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota--Last month, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan told his family he was catching a ride to school with a friend. He then vanished.His mother spoke to her son just a few days ago over the phone. To her shock, she says, he told her he was no longer in the United States. "Mom, I'm in Somalia! Don't worry about me; I'm OK," the mother quoted her son as saying. Details of how he got there and what has transpired in his life since his November disappearance are sketchy. His mother, who agreed to be identified only as Amina, says her son has clearly changed. "He was different," she said of his attitude on the phone. Hassan is one of more than a dozen young men of Somali descent -- many U.S. citizens -- to have disappeared from Minneapolis over the past six months, according to federal law enforcement authorities. Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio. "A number of young Somali men have traveled from throughout the United States to include Minneapolis to Somalia, potentially to fight," said FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson. The fear among the Somali community in Minneapolis is that their young men are being preyed upon and recruited to fight jihad, or holy war, in Somalia. Some have even called to tell their parents not to look for them. "Those I talked to were completely shocked and dismayed as to what happened. They were completely in disbelief," said Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The shock is magnified by what happened to one of them: Authorities say a 27-year-old named Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in an apparent suicide bombing in northern Somalia in October. Other local Somalis have voiced concern that, because a large number of the men missing attended the same Islamic center after school, it could have played a role. Amina does not believe the center itself played a role but thinks there are certain people associated with it who may be involved. On Monday, representatives of the mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, held a news conference to address the issue. The mosque's attorney, Mahir Sherif, strongly denied any allegations that it is connected to the men's disappearance, saying the center "has not and will not recruit for any political cause." "I haven't talked to any of them [since the stories came out]. I haven't seen any of them fighting," Sherif said. "I mean, I would be speculating. I'm hearing what everybody else hears." Sherif continued, "It must be the Boy Scouts. I know those boys were all considering scouting, and you know how violent the Scouts are. They may be off earning their jihad merit badges. By the way, didya know we're the Religion of Peace™?"

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Terror Networks

Were missing Somalis in Minneapolis area recruited for jihad?

2008-12-05

Dozens of young Somali men in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have disappeared in recent months, causing community members and U.S. intelligence officials to fear that they are joining jihadist groups in Somalia. Officials are especially concerned that some of the men may be destined to return to the U.S. after they have received terrorist training. The missing young men have been the focus of some attention since late October, when Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen, died in a suicide bombing in northern Somalia. Ahmed was a 1999 graduate of Minneapolis's Roosevelt High School. The Twin Cities media have reported that a number of other young Somali men — estimates range from six to 40 — have disappeared from the area. Multiple sources within the local Somali community and U.S. government fear that these men may have returned to Somalia to train, or to participate in jihad against the country's secular transitional federal government (TFG). "I've come across 10 to 15 mothers crying because their sons are missing," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Justice Advocacy Center. A senior U.S. military intelligence analyst said the number may be even higher, since not all of the families whose sons have gone abroad will report it. Jamal said the Somali community has seen young men disappear in a number of countries across the world, including Canada, the Netherlands and Australia. Multiple sources within the Somali community have corroborated this account. Dahir Jibreel, who previously served as the TFG's permanent secretary in charge of international cooperation, said, "Other young Somalis went missing in Europe, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere." Jibreel said many of the disappearances occurred simultaneously. The Somali men who have vanished in Minneapolis are diverse in their education level and job prospects. Some were reportedly linked to Somali gangs, while others have been described as intelligent and studious. Some attended college and appeared to have good job prospects. There is little evidence that these men were radicalized when they entered the U.S. Abdiweli Ali, an associate professor of economics at Niagara University and a former adviser to the TFG, said young Somalis are being targeted for indoctrination. "There's a huge underclass," he said, "and the kids get involved in gangs and drugs. So every time a kid goes to hang out in the mosque, the parents see that as good. They encourage their kids to go to after-school programs with religion, to youth groups at the mosque." The youths are susceptible to "brainwashing," Ali said. "They are very young, susceptible to any kind of indoctrination. All you need is one rogue imam who tells them the wrong things, and they are susceptible to that." A senior American intelligence source confirms that Somalis have vanished in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, adding that some people from the Caribbean also appear to have left for Somalia. And not all of the people bound for training or jihad in Somalia have a Somali background, the source said. A man who appears to be Caucasian and is aligned with the Somalia-based terrorist group Shabaab can be seen in a recent jihadist video, and another gave an interview with al-Jazeera (though he wore a facemask when doing so). The source said that at least three African-Americans from the Minneapolis area also are suspected of traveling to Somalia to join jihadist groups. While Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have been puzzled by the simultaneous disappearances in multiple countries, the intelligence source says it can be explained by the reopening of certain training facilities in Somalia, such as those in Ras Kamboni. "School is open for business, so the demand has gone up," he said. The intelligence source said there is a transportation network in place to move fighters to Somalia, including Ruben Luis Shumpert (a Seattle-area barber who was killed this year while fighting for the Shabaab) and Daniel Joseph Maldonado (a U.S. citizen who was arrested in 2007 for undergoing terrorist training). The network apparently has provided forged passports on some occasions, he said. It is not clear is who is funding the expensive cost of traveling to Somalia. Virtually all of the Somalis who have disappeared in Minneapolis are from impoverished backgrounds. The size of the recruiting network in the U.S. isn't known, and estimates vary widely. But a major concern is what will happen when these young men return to the U.S. after having undergone terrorist training or participated in combat. "Ethiopia has announced that they are planning to withdraw from Somalia," said the intelligence source. "So this problem is just going to get worse."

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