Somali Famine Illustrates Al Shabaab Recruiting Methods

September 06, 2011 02:07 AM

Heart-wrenching images of emaciated and dying children in Somalia have brought the country back to the world’s attention. The difficulty in delivering food to the needy because of the opposition of the Islamist Somali insurgents has also put a spotlight on Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, or Movement of the Warrior Youth. Famine or not, Al-Shabaab’s “jihad” continues.

Even before the United Nations declared famine in parts of Somalia, suicide attacks by Al-Shabaab on an African Union post in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, drew world attention to the role of the Somali diaspora in the insurgency. Of the two suicide bombers dispatched by Al-Shabaab, one was 27-year-old Somali-American Farah Mohamed Beledi, killed before he could set off his device. In July, Omer Abdi Mohamed of Minnesota pleaded guilty to charges that he had facilitated the travel of young Somali-American men to Somalia to join the insurgent movement.

Now the famine may have given Al-Shabaab new opportunities.

• The insurgent movement has its own emergency drought-relief committee, currently headed by Hussein Ali Fiidow, formerly an official in Al-Shabaab’s governing administration in the district of Banaadir, where Mogadishu is located.
• This committee organized modest relief programs that included collection of food, water and medical supplies as well as refugee camps.
• Senior Al-Shabaab leaders, including Hasan Dahir Aweys, recently visited one of these camps in the Lower Shabelle district.

Despite these efforts, the massive scale of the famine has proved to be too much for the insurgent movement to deal with alone, leading Al-Shabaab leaders to state publicly that they would allow international humanitarian aid organizations to operate in territory under its control. However, some organizations, including the World Food Program, previously barred from distributing aid because they were allegedly disrupting sales by Somali farmers in 2006, remain banned.

Since its rise to public prominence following the U.S.-supported December 2006 invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia, Al-Shabaab has sought foreign recruits to bolster its military strength. It emerged as the main insurgent group fighting the Ethiopian military occupation of Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia.

Al-Shabaab has aggressively recruited in Somali diaspora communities in Europe, North America, East Africa and the Middle East, estimated to number 1.5 million people. Estimates suggest that Al-Shabaab has attracted around 1,000 recruits from the diaspora and several hundred non-Somali Muslim recruits.

A controversial Homeland Security congressional hearing convened by U.S. Representative Peter King produced a report claiming that 40 Americans, most of Somali descent, have joined the movement.

It’s difficult to draw a single general profile for Al-Shabaab recruits. A number of Somali-American recruits, including Beledi, came from single-parent households, leading lives of petty crime.

Others, such as Abdisalan Hussein Ali, were enrolled in college before joining. Many of the Minneapolis recruits, including Beledi and Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-American who carried out a 2008 suicide bombing in Somaliland, attended the city’s Abubakar as-Saddique Mosque.

The lion’s share of attention from Western media and law-enforcement agencies has focused on Al-Shabaab’s ability to attract scores of men from Somali immigrant families in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Evidence suggests, however, that the movement views East African recruitment as a priority.

There are several reasons for this: The largest Somali communities reside near East Africa, along the Kenyan-Somali border in places such as the Eastleigh district of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Travel logistics for regional recruits are simpler. Somali refugees in East Africa also endure economic hardships in countries such as Kenya, making them more susceptible to recruitment. Regional recruits typically require less time to adjust to the battlefront than those coming from Europe or North America. Finally, Al-Shabaab maintains a well-established support network throughout East Africa, useful for fundraising and potential refuge during battlefield setbacks.

Many recruits from Somali diaspora communities are wooed by Al-Shabaab’s mixing of a relatively simple creed composed of a peculiar form of militant Islamism with appeals to Somali nationalism.

Most of the estimated 20 Somali-Americans who traveled to Somalia and joined Al-Shabaab did so when Ethiopia was still occupying Mogadishu and other parts of the country in support of the Transitional Federal Government. Other non-Somali recruits are Muslims, like American Al-Shabaab member Omar Hammami, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mansur al-Amriki, or the American.

The movement’s media foundation, the Al-Kataeb, or the Brigades, continues to produce increasingly polished propaganda films that serve as recruitment vehicles.

• Young Somalis in North America and the United Kingdom have been targeted since 2007, as evidenced by the appearance of multiple English-speaking young men in insurgent films released in 2007 and 2008.
• A lengthy video recruitment message released in August 2008 from Saleh Ali Saleh al-Nabhani, an Al-Qaeda operative in East Africa with Kenyan and Yemeni citizenship, was subtitled in English.
• More recent Al-Shabaab videos have also included subtitles or narration in English.

In its recruiting appeals, Al-Shabaab’s methods vary depending on the audience.

• For the Somali diaspora, appeals rely on a mix of Somali nationalism and militant Islamism that painted first the Ethiopian military and now the African Union Mission in Somalia, a 9,000-soldier force in Mogadishu, as foreign interlopers propping up a corrupt government.
• Al-Shabaab’s call to non-Somali Muslims is largely transnational. For example, Swedish recruit Abu Zaid in “Message to the Ummah” speaks about Lars Vilks, the controversial Swedish cartoonist who drew derogatory cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that offended many Muslims around the world.
• These calls are not Somalia-specific and are aimed at a wider audience of discontented Muslims.
• Similar religious exhortations, combined with Somalia-centric messaging, are also made to the Somali diaspora.

Al-Shabaab’s desire and ability to recruit from outside the country signals both strength and domestic weakness. On the one hand, its recruitment networks abroad have been relatively successful in attracting recruits through diverse recruitment appeals based both on a virulent interpretation of Somali nationalism and militant Somali Islamism, influenced by militant Islamic trans-nationalism. However, the insurgent movement’s need to recruit abroad is also a sign that it is incapable of meeting its manpower needs domestically.

The Rest by By Christopher Anzalone @ The Daily Star

FBI Continues its case on Minnesota Mujahadeen

MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly three years ago, a Minneapolis man blew himself up oceans away in Somalia.

His death put Minnesota at the heart of a still unfolding multinational counterterrorism probe that has seen 20 Minnesotans indicted on terror-related charges, at least another nine killed in fighting overseas and a handful more arrested and convicted.

Others have been charged with fundraising or wiring money to a terror group in Somalia, and one of the men charged is scheduled to go on trial next month -- a first in the case.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Minneapolis last month to reaffirm his office's commitment to rooting out those responsible for the recruiting of young Somali-Americans to return to Africa to fight for the terrorist group Al-Shabab.

Yet investigators appear no closer to unmasking a leader of the nebulous network that found foot soldiers in the Twin Cities.

The FBI's failure so far to publicly uncover a mastermind has spawned disillusionment among some in the local Somali community who wonder when, if ever, justice will be served.

"They know the big recruiters. The government knows everything," said Abdirizak Bihi, whose teenage nephew is believed to have been killed in Somalia in 2009 after joining Al-Shabab, which U.S. officials say is affiliated with Al-Qaida.

What federal officials dubbed Operation Rhino began following the suicide bombing committed by former Minneapolis resident Shirwa Ahmed in Somalia in October 2008.

Since then, investigators have identified 21 "travelers" and several more "middle men" who they contend raised money and arranged the travel of recruits to Africa. Many of those organizers, however, remain at large and are believed to be in Somalia. Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the FBI's Minneapolis office said he could not comment on how many of those at-large are still in Minnesota.

While limited in what he can say -- especially with the trial of alleged organizer Omer Abdi Mohamed set to begin July 19 -- Wilson acknowledged some things are clear.

Young men were recruited and indoctrinated by peers. Money was raised and travel arranged by those in "more of a leadership role," he said. But no kingpin has been revealed.

"It's evolving daily -- still," Wilson said of an investigation that has stretched from Minnesota to Canada, Europe and Australia. "We're still trying to put those pieces together and find out who did what. That's information we're refining and will still be working on for years to come."

What drives the FBI, Wilson said, is protecting America from the possibility that someone trained by terrorists overseas will return to carry out an attack here. That threat makes this investigation a priority, he said, although there has been no evidence of such a plot.

Until recently, the case had mostly slipped off the public radar. That changed when a second Minnesota suicide bomber was identified last week. Farah Mohamed Beledi's death in a hail of gunfire in Mogadishu rekindled frustration with the pace of the investigation.

Like many of the men who left, Beledi was known to have worshipped at Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis -- the largest mosque in Minnesota.

Beledi didn't work at the center, but sometimes volunteered there, according to a recent statement from Abubakar's executive director, Hassan Jama. Beledi also spoke at a public open house at the center in February 2009, several months before he left the country.

"As for Farah's alleged travel and subsequent death in Somalia, the center has learned that from the media," Jama said in the statement.

To date, the FBI has found no evidence that mosque leaders, including Abubakar's, were responsible for the recruitment of those who went back to Somalia, Wilson said.

Bihi, who once defended the sometimes-methodical pace of U.S. justice, has lost patience.

"For a long time I would explain that this system is different. They need a lot of evidence. But now I'm running out of excuses," he said.

But the FBI's failure to nab a head conspirator may simply reflect reality, according to local attorney Stephen L. Smith, who has represented 20-30 witnesses and possible suspects.

Smith, who began getting calls in 2009 from local Somalis called to testify before a federal grand jury, said he wouldn't be surprised if investigators "had the top dog wrapped up."

But, he added, "I think there are people higher up. I don't think there's 'The One.'"

Smith said he is convinced there are people here and abroad who helped local men reach the Horn of Africa. The ongoing investigation appears to have slowed that traffic, he said, but young Somalis still may be slipping away to fight.

The Rest @ Naples News

Shabaab Recruiters Indicted in the US

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, November 23, 2009

Terror Charges Unsealed in Minneapolis Against Eight Men, Justice Department Announces
Terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants.

According to the charging documents, the offenses include

• Providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization;
• Attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab;
• Fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab.
  

Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota through indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and brought in connection with an ongoing investigation into the recruitment of persons from U.S. communities to train with or fight on behalf of extremist groups in Somalia. Four of these defendants have previously pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

The charges were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; B. Todd Jones, U.S. Attorney for the District of Minneapolis; and Ralph S. Boelter, Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"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," Assistant Attorney General Kris said. "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."


Background


According to court documents,

• between September 2007 and October 2009, approximately 20 young men, all but one of Somali descent, left the Minneapolis area and traveled to Somalia, where they trained with al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization.
• Many of them ultimately fought with al-Shabaab against Ethiopian forces, African Union troops, and the internationally-supported Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
• Court documents also state that the first group of six men traveled to Somalia in December 2007. Prior to their departure, the six men, as well as others in the Minneapolis area, raised money for the trips and held meetings in which they made phone calls to alleged co-conspirators in Somalia.
• Upon arriving in Somalia, the men from Minneapolis allegedly stayed at safe-houses in Somalia and attended an al-Shabaab training camp.
• The al-Shabaab training camp included dozens of other young ethnic Somalis from Somalia, elsewhere in Africa, Europe and the United States.
• Purportedly, the trainees were trained by, among others, Somali, Arab and Western instructors in the use of small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and military-style tactics.
• Allegedly, the trainees also were indoctrinated with anti-Ethiopian, anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-Western beliefs.

According to court documents, on Oct. 29, 2008, Shirwa Ahmed, one of the men who left Minnesota in December 2007 and attended the al-Shabaab training camp, took part in one of five simultaneous suicide attacks on targets in northern Somalia. The attacks appeared to have been coordinated. Shirwa Mohamud Ahmed, also known as "Shirwa," drove an explosive-laden Toyota truck into an office of the Puntland Intelligence Service in Bossasso, Puntland.

Other targets included a second Puntland Intelligence Service Office in Bossasso, the Presidential Palace, the United Nations Development Program office and the Ethiopian Trade Mission in Hargeisa. Including the suicide bombers, approximately twenty people were killed in the attacks.

Today in Minnesota, U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones said of these cases, "The sad reality is that the vibrant Somali community here in Minneapolis has lost many of its sons to fighting in Somalia. These young men have been recruited to fight in a foreign war by individuals and groups using violence against government troops and civilians. Those tempted to fight on behalf of or provide support to any designated terrorist group should know they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Joining U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones was Ralph S. Boelter, Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who added, "It is through the sustained and dedicated efforts of the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force and the support of the Somali-American community that today we are able to disclose some of the significant progress we have achieved in this critical investigation. At the same time, I emphasize 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."


Charging Documents Unsealed



The Justice Department announced that three charging documents were unsealed this morning in the District of Minnesota:


United States v. Mahamud Said Omar, 09-CR-242


On Aug. 20, 2009, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging Mahamud Said Omar with terrorism offenses. According to the indictment, from September 2007 through the present, Omar, who is a Somali citizen but was granted permanent U.S. resident status in 1994, conspired with others to provide financial assistance as well as personnel to terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations.

On Nov. 8, 2009, law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands arrested Omar according to a provisional arrest warrant. The United States has filed its request for extradition. According to documents unsealed this morning, including affidavits in support of the United States’ request for extradition of Omar from the Netherlands, Omar provided money to young men to travel from Minneapolis to Somalia to train with and fight for al-Shabaab.

Omar also allegedly visited an al-Shabaab safe-house and provided hundreds of dollars to fund the purchase of AK-47 rifles for men from Minneapolis.

Omar is in custody in the Netherlands.

United States v. Ahmed Ali Omar, Khalid Mohamud Abshir, Zakaria Maruf, Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan and Mustafa Ali Salat, 09-CR-50

On Aug. 20, 2009, a federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment charging Ahmed Ali Omar, Khalid Abshir, Zakaria Maruf, Mohamed Hassan and Mustafa Salat with terrorism-related offenses.

These men were charged in the summer of 2009 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;
• Solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

The indictments that detail the charges filed against these co-conspirators also were unsealed today.

None of the five defendants is in custody. All five are believed to be outside of the United States.

United States v. Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax

United States v. Abdiweli Yassin Isse

On Oct. 9, 2009, a criminal complaint was filed, charging Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax and Abdiweli Yassin Isse with conspiring to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons outside the United States.

The affidavit filed in support of the complaint states that in the fall of 2007, Faarax and others met at a Minneapolis mosque to telephone co-conspirators in Somalia to discuss the need for Minnesota-based co-conspirators to go to Somalia to fight the Ethiopians.

The affidavit also alleges that later that fall, Faarax attended a meeting with co-conspirators at a Minneapolis residence, where he encouraged others to travel to Somalia to fight and told them how he had experienced true brotherhood while fighting a "jihad" in Somalia. Subsequently, Faarax was interviewed three times by authorities and each time denied fighting or knowing anyone who had fought in Somalia.

The criminal complaint states that Abdiweli Yassin Isse also encouraged others to travel to Somalia to fight the Ethiopians. He purportedly described at a gathering of co-conspirators his own plans to fight "jihad" against Ethiopians, and he raised money to buy airplane tickets for others to make the trip to Somalia for the same purpose.

In raising that money, he allegedly misled community members into thinking they were contributing money to send young men to Saudi Arabia to study the Koran. The complaint that details the charges filed against these co-conspirators also was unsealed today.

Faarax and Isse are not in custody. Both men are believed to be outside of the United States.


Guilty Pleas

The Justice Department also announced that four residents of Minneapolis have entered guilty pleas in connection with this investigation; one resident of Minneapolis awaits trial on charges that he made false statements to the FBI, and one resident of Minneapolis was recently indicted on related charges.


United States v. Kamal Hassan, 09-CR-38


On Feb. 18, 2009, Kamal Said Hassan pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists and one count of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, respectively. On Aug. 12, 2009, Hassan pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI.

Hassan is in custody awaiting sentencing.


United States v. Abdifatah Yusuf Isse, 09-CR-50

United States v. Salah Osman Ahmed, 09-CR-50



On April 24, 2009, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse entered a guilty plea to one count of providing material support to terrorists. On July 28, 2009, Salah Osman Ahmed entered a guilty plea to one count of providing material support to terrorists.

Isse and Ahmed are in custody awaiting sentencing.

United States v. Adarus Abdulle Ali


On Nov. 2, 2009, Adarus Abdulle Ali pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of perjury for making false statements to a federal grand jury in December of 2008.

Ali has been released pending a sentencing hearing.


Additional Pending Cases




United States v. Abdow Munye Abdow



On Oct. 13, 2009, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Abdow Munye Abdow with making false statements to the FBI. The indictment alleges that on Oct. 8, 2009, Abdow lied to FBI agents when he was questioned after returning to Minnesota from a road trip to southern California. Abdow purportedly told the agents only one other person traveled with him when, according to officials, four people accompanied him. In addition, Adbow allegedly told the agents he did not know how the rental car in which he rode had been financed when, according to officials, he had used his own debit card to pay for the car.

Abdow has been released pending trial.

United States v. Omer Abdi Mohamed

Mohamed has been released pending trial.

To date, the investigation into the recruitment of young men to join al-Shabaab and those supporting that recruiting effort has been conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force with the assistance and cooperation of the Dutch KLPD; the Dutch Ministry of Justice; Judith Friedman at the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs; the U.S. Department of State; the embassies at Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sanaa, Yemen; and The Hague in the Netherlands; and the Department of Defense. The case is being prosecuted by W. Anders Folk, Assistant U.S. Attorney and William M. Narus, from the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance having been provided by David Bitkower, formerly of the Counterterrorism Section and currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York.

An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.

On Nov. 19, 2009, Omer Abdi Mohamed was arrested on charges that he conspired to provide material support to terrorists; that he provided material support to terrorists; and that he conspired to kill, kidnap, maim and injure persons outside the United States.


09-1267National Security Division

The Rest @ The Department of Justice

Shabaab Recruiting Part 2: Abdifatah Ise

Fox News Published a Story on 1 July, 2009 about the sealed indictment Acquired by the FBI

A federal grand jury has indicted a group of Somali-Americans on terror-related charges after more than 20 young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, according to two law enforcement sources.

By Mike Levine Wednesday, July 02, 2009


The indictments have yet to be unsealed, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks. One law enforcement source told FOX News the grand jury already has handed up indictments against at least three people.

Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according to the two sources and a leader in the Minneapolis Somali community. The man was then arrested in a Seattle airport and transferred to a jail in Minneapolis, where he is currently being detained, according to the law enforcement sources.

The law enforcement sources said the man, described as in his 20s, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, in this case al-Shabaab, which has been warring with the moderate Somali government since 2006.

Omar Jamal, the executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minn., identified the man as 21-year-old Abdifatah Ise.

FOX News was unable to independently confirm that. Jamal said the man's family contacted him for "assistance" after the arrest, but he had been unable to speak publicly about it until now "in the interest of" a federal investigation.

For much of the past year the FBI has been looking into how dozens of young, Somali-American men were recruited to train and possibly fight alongside al-Shabaab in anarchy-stricken Somalia.

The investigation has centered around Minneapolis, where a grand jury has been hearing testimony from witnesses for several months, but the investigation has also been active in Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Boston; and San Diego.

A source told FOX News in March that "several" recruits had returned to the United States, but counterterrorism officials have repeatedly said there is no intelligence indicating that any such recruits are planning attacks within the country.

"[Their] primary focus obviously is not on the homeland, it's abroad," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said during a briefing with reporters last week. "But any time you have people who are being trained in terrorist-type activities, that's something that needs to be monitored."

Jamal said indictments in the case are a positive step.

"To us that means the investigation is almost over and someone will be held accountable for those missing people," he said. "What we have is human trafficking. Those Somali boys were being trafficked for a war."

• According to Osman Ahmed, whose 17-year-old nephew was one of those to go to Somalia late last year, at least a dozen people have testified before the Minneapolis grand jury in the past few weeks alone, including officials from the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in St. Paul.
  
• One law enforcement source said that shows "major progress" in the investigation, since the Abubakar mosque has been a focal point for investigators from the beginning.
  
• Many of the men recruited to join al-Shabaab attended the Abubakar mosque, and several mosque officials, including director Farhan Hurre, could face indictment, one source said.
  
• In addition, a youth volunteer at the mosque, Abia Ali, recently testified before the grand jury, and she is now worried that she could face indictment, according to Ahmed, who said he talked to someone close to Ali. Ahmed said he was told that Ali had been planning to visit family in Africa sometime in the next few weeks, but after testifying to the grand jury authorities told her not to leave the country.
• In a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Ali acknowledged that she felt like a target of the FBI investigation, but she denied any involvement in recruiting Somali-Americans to join the fight in Somalia.
  
• "It's very sad," she told Minnesota Public Radio. "It's hurting me so much. I'll be the last person on earth encouraging violence. I'm against violence."
  
• In fact, she said, she tried to prevent two boys from going to Somalia after realizing what they were up to.
  

Efforts by phone and e-mail to reach Ali were unsuccessful. Similarly, Hurre did not return repeated phone and e-mail messages. But in a statement posted online in March, the Abubakar mosque said suggestions it had any role in the recruitment were "unfair" and untrue.

"Abubakar Center didn't recruit, finance, or otherwise facilitate in any way, shape, or form the travel of those youth," the statement said. Ahmed and others have long insisted otherwise.

"Like his peers, [my nephew] was never interested in Somali politics," Ahmed said during a Senate hearing on the issue in March. "These kids have no perception of Somalia except the one that was formed in their mind by their teachers at the Abubakar Center. We believe that these children did not travel to Somalia by themselves. There must be others who made them understand that going to Somalia and participating the fighting is the right thing to do."

Not all of those who went to Somalia have returned to the United States. Some are still fighting alongside al-Shabaab, and others have died there.

Ahmed's nephew, Burhan Hassan, was killed in Mogadishu four weeks ago. It's unclear exactly how he died. Ahmed suggested his nephew was killed by members of al-Shabaab.

Law enforcement officials said Hassan was likely killed by artillery fire or a stray bullet.
Eight months earlier, in October 2008, 27-year-old college student Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis became "the first known American suicide bomber" when he blew himself up in Somalia, killing dozens, according to the FBI.

E.K. Wilson, a spokesman with the FBI Field Office in Minneapolis, declined to comment about the case or any indictments. Officials with FBI headquarters and the Justice Department in Washington also declined to comment.

Source: Fox News, July 01, 2009

The Rest @ Hiiraan online

Shabaab Assassinates One if its Minnesota Mujahadeen Rescruits

Al Shabaab may have murdered Minneapolis recruit in Somalia
By Jerry Gordon 06/08/09 07:04 AM EDT


FoxNews, reported the second death of a Somali American youth from Minneapolis, 17 year old Burhan Hassan in Mogadishu, Friday.

Hassan may have been recruited for the Taliban-like Al Shabaab militia in Somalia at the Abubakar As-Saddique Mosque in Minneapolis.

• Hassan's uncle, Osman Ahmed testified at a US Senate Homeland Security and Government Committee (HSGAC) hearing in March about his nephew, Hassan and accusations against the Mosque's Imam, who was put on a government 'no-fly' list.
• Last December, the remains of another Minneapolis Somali American, 27-year old Shirwa Ahmed, a suicide bomber who took the lives of 29 others in Somalia ,were returned for a funeral and interment.
• Both Hassan and Ahmed attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. The FBI has been investigation the 'disapperance' of upwards of 40 Minneapolis area Somali American young men who were reported to have gone to Somalia.

Hassan's uncle Osman Ahmed in the Fox report noted:

• "Someone who claimed (to be) a member of al-Shabaab called Burhan's mom Friday (afternoon) and said Burhan died Friday morning," Ahmed said.
• "Burhan's mom got shocked and (threw) the phone when she heard the story."
• "Al-Shabaab assassinated Burhan and shot (him in) the head," the individual said, according to Ahmed.

A law enforcement official told FOX News on Sunday that one of the Somali-American men was recently killed in Somalia by artillery fire, but the official declined to release the man's name.
"My sister still is under shock," Ahmed said.

Ahmed accused the Abubakar As-Siddque Mosque leaders of recruiting his nephew for Al Shabaab:

• "Like his peers, Burhan Hassan was never interested in Somali politics, or understood Somali clan issues," Ahmed said during testimony.
• "These kids have no perception of Somalia except the one that was formed in their mind by their teachers at (a local mosque).
• We believe that these children did not travel to Somalia by themselves. There must be others who made them understand that going to Somalia and participatingon the fighting is the right thing to do."

Al Shabaab also appeared to be recruting Jailhouse converts to Islam as Jihadis, such as those caught in the New York City Temple Bombing plot.

• We note the death of an Army Private and wounding of fellow recruiter at a West Little Rock mall by, Carlos Bledsoe AKA Abdulhakim Muhammad, an American convert to Islam who traveled to Yemen, and who apparently frequented a radical Mosque in Columbus, Ohio.

The Rest @ RedC0unty.com

Minnesota Mujahadeen

March 6 (Bloomberg)

-- Seven months ago, Mustafa Salat told his father he was taking his clothes to the laundromat near their apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota. He never returned.
Salat, 19, later called from his birthplace, Somalia, and said he was okay, though he wouldn’t discuss what he was doing in a country he left when he was one year old, according to his parents, Lul and Ali.

Salat’s parents, along with U.S. authorities, said they fear he and other young Somali-Americans from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area were recruited to train at terrorist camps and fight in Somalia’s civil war.

• Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is concerned those Somalis may return to the U.S., where they are citizens, and plot terrorist attacks.
• Those fears were heightened last week when Robert Mueller, the FBI director, said a Somali-American living in Minneapolis was “radicalized” in his hometown, went to Somalia and became the first known U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing.

“I am like a dead person walking,” said Lul, 42, who asked that her last name not be used and spoke in Somali through an interpreter. She and her husband go to bed with the phone under the pillow, fearing bad news about their son, they said. “I am not sleeping,” Lul said.

FBI Interviews

The FBI said it has been interviewing relatives of the missing and monitoring other cities with large Somali populations such as Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle, for reports of disappearances.

The bureau wouldn’t comment on Salat or estimate the number of Somali-Americans who have disappeared. The FBI wouldn’t say whether those who went missing would face charges if they return.

• At least 17 young men have vanished during the past two years from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and are believed to be in Somalia now, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, a legal-aid organization.
• Jonathan Evans, a counter-terrorism official in the U.K., recently raised concern in a newspaper interview that residents there had trained in camps in Somalia and had returned to Britain.
• The FBI won’t say whether any of the Somali-Americans have returned to the U.S.
• The FBI is concerned that there may be more Somalis who have disappeared and whose parents haven’t reported them as missing, said E.K. Wilson, a bureau spokesman in Minneapolis.

Senate Hearings

The disappearances also are raising concern among lawmakers. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who heads the Senate homeland security panel, plans a hearing March 11 on recruitment efforts in the U.S. by Somali groups.

Somali-Americans have gone to Somalia and trained there in terrorism camps associated with the militant group al-Shabaab, or “the Youth,” which has ties to al-Qaeda, said a U.S. counter- terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Al- Shabaab was designated as a terrorist group last year by the U.S.

The official said al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda are closely connected and it is unclear which organization runs the Somali training camps.

U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops entered Somalia in 2006. Islamist and clan-based opposition militias began a guerrilla war against the Ethiopian occupation.

Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia in January after the occupation failed to end Somalia’s civil war, leaving much of the south of the country under the control of al-Shabaab.

Obama’s Inauguration

While al-Shabaab has focused its activities within Somalia, its aspirations may be expanding. The FBI investigated a possible threatened attack by the group that could have been directed at Washington, coinciding with President Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

The disappearances are worrisome because of the risk posed by citizens of the U.S. and U.K. who can travel freely and blend in with the population, terrorism analysts said.

“It’s a blinking yellow light that needs further attention before it deteriorates and becomes a dangerous opening for attack,” James Phillips, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington public policy organization, said in an interview.

The recruiting in the U.S. “raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home, and, if so, what they might undertake here,” the FBI’s Mueller said in a Feb. 23 speech in Washington.

Suicide Bomber

Mueller flagged the case of Shirwa Ahmed, 27, who lived in Minneapolis before going to Somalia, where he carried out a suicide bombing in October that killed at least 30 people, according to news reports. Ahmed was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

For their part, Salat’s parents said they don’t know if their son is involved with al-Shabaab.

Lul and three other mothers or grandmothers of missing young men have formed a group attempting to make sure the disappearances are reported, and to ensure that if their children return, they won’t be held by authorities. Other parents may not have reported disappearances for fear their children will be targeted by law enforcement, or that family immigration violations may come to light, said Jamal, who helped organize the mothers.

“If he comes back, I’m afraid he will be arrested,” Lul said of her son. “We don’t want him to be victimized again.”

Salat, a high school student, often asked questions about the food eaten in Somalia, and about universities there, his father said. He talked about wanting to become a nurse or police officer in the U.S., never about returning to Somalia.

Salat left behind some clothes and books in Arabic on a shelf in a room with a bunk bed that he shared with his brother Zacharia, 17.

‘Indoctrinated’

Lul said someone “indoctrinated” her son, though she isn’t sure who persuaded him to travel to Somalia.

• Jamal said those he knows of who disappeared had attended a Minneapolis mosque, the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center.
  
• Omar Hurre, director of the center, said the mosque played no role and that he has urged anyone with knowledge of what happened to come forward.
  
• “We don’t know where they picked up those ideas,” Hurre said in an interview. “Attending the mosque programs does not in any way, shape or form mean we had anything to do with this.”

Even so, he said the mosque’s imam and a leader of its youth group were placed on the U.S. government’s no-fly list, preventing them from traveling to Mecca. Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the department doesn’t comment on those on the no-fly list.

Another member of the mothers’ group, Fadumo Elmi, said through an interpreter that her grandson, Mahamoud Hassan, 18, disappeared in November. In the days before he disappeared, Hassan brought Elmi money to help pay for clothes and shoes for an Islamic celebration, she said.

Hassan called Elmi from Somalia last month. She told him to come back. He said he couldn’t, Elmi said. He also wouldn’t answer questions about what he was doing in Somalia.

“His mind was taken by something we don’t know,” said Elmi, as she wiped away tears using her head covering. “They forced him out of my hand.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in St. Paul, Minnesota at jblum4@bloomberg.net