Mohamud Said Omar Is the Minnesota Somalia Aressted In The Netherlands

MINNEAPOLIS — A Somali man arrested in the Netherlands and accused of financing Islamic terrorists was not an extremist and was so poor he couldn't afford to bring his new wife from Somalia to the U.S., according to two of his brothers who live in Minnesota.

Mohamud Said Omar, 43, was arrested Sunday at an asylum seeker's center near Amsterdam and is being held at the request of American authorities.

The arrest is related to the FBI's investigation into the disappearance of up to 20 young Somali men who left the Twin Cities over the last two years for Somalia, presumed to have joined the terror group al-Shabaab. Dutch authorities said the U.S. has asked for Omar's extradition, which could take up to a year if he contests it.

Dutch prosecutors said U.S. investigators suspect him of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic militants and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.

Abdullahi Said Omar, Mohamud's younger brother in Minneapolis, and another brother, Mohamed Osman, said Mohamud worked low-paying jobs to make ends meet, and didn't have enough money to send to terrorists. They believe their brother is innocent.

"He was homeless, he didn't even have a place to stay," said Osman, 51, of Rochester, Minn.

Abdullahi said he and Mohamud left Somalia soon after graduating from high school and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for a time, before moving to the U.S. in 1993, living first in Virginia and moving to Minnesota in 1999.

Omar traveled to Somalia in early 2008 to marry a woman there, Abdullahi said, but had not been able to scrape together enough money to bring her back home with him.

Mohamud returned to the U.S. after the wedding and got a job as a fruit truck driver to earn money to bring his wife to the U.S. He said Mohamud also worked on an assembly line for a time.

Omar left the U.S. in November 2008 to make a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Abdullahi said, then he went to the Netherlands. Abdullahi said his brother had tried unsuccessfully to get U.S. citizenship and that it was not a surprise he hadn't returned after his trip to Mecca.

Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator with the NEFA (Nine Eleven Finding Answers) Foundation, which researches Islamic militants, said it was still possible for someone with limited means to help finance terrorist activities — especially in a place like Somalia, where one can live cheaply. Terror groups like al-Shabaab have learned that, he said.

"What these guys have discovered is, if you pool enough people together, even relatively meager personal resources can be marshalled in a way where you can have a fairly significant impact," he said.

Osman said he had not spoken to Mohamud for about a year, but that he was not as surprised as his brother to learn of Mohamud's arrest, saying Mohamud had worked as a janitor at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minnesota, and sometimes served as a driver for people that Osman suspects might have had ties to al-Shabaab in Somalia. Both brothers said Mohamud earned $800 a month working at the mosque.

He described his brother as highly open to suggestion from authority figures.

"I think my brother, what they are doing is scapegoating him," said Osman.

"He's the same like me — just normal," Abdullahi said. "We pray five times a day and follow our religion, but we are not extremists."

A person working in the mosque's main office this week declined to say anything about Mohamud or confirm he worked there. None of about 20 other people at the mosque approached by a reporter, both workers and citizens, would admit to knowing Mohamud or recognizing his name.

Details of Mohamud's case were sealed in the Netherlands under that nation's privacy laws, and U.S. authorities have declined to discuss the case except to confirm it is related to the Minneapolis investigation.

Omar's Dutch attorney, Audrey Kessels, told the daily newspaper De Volkskrant that because Omar had a U.S. green card, he was ineligible for asylum in the Netherlands and his request was quickly rejected.

She said he had appealed the decision on the basis of illness. Omar had told her he couldn't find work in America and "didn't have any peace in his head." Osman said his brother suffered from sleep problems and was often scared of other people.

"He didn't make a healthy impression," Kessels said.

At least three of the men who left the Minneapolis area have died, including one who carried out a suicide bombing in the semiautonomous Puntland region in October 2008. Three have pleaded guilty to terror-related charges in federal court in Minneapolis; a fourth has pleaded guilty to perjury, and a fifth has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other, causing chaos in the African nation of 7 million.

Tens of thousands of Somalis resettled in Minnesota in the last two decades, and the state now has the largest Somali population in the United States. Abdullahi Said Omar owns and runs a discount store in a part of Minneapolis populated by many Somali immigrants.

Abdullahi said that his brother had called him from the Netherlands early Thursday morning on his cell phone while he was sleeping, and left a message that indicated he thought he could return to America.

"He said he's in the jail and he's doing well," Abdullahi said. "He said he thinks maybe they'll send him back here."


The Rest @ The Associated Press

AQIM Mujahadine Convicted in Algeria

ALGIERS - The leader of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Abdelmalek Droukdel was Friday sentenced in absentia to death and 48 co-defendants for their involvement in an attack that had caused eleven dead and over 100 injured on April 2007 in Algiers, according to APS.

Besides Droukdel (already condemned to death in the past), Algiers criminal court has pronounced death sentences against

• Salah Gacemi Salah : leader of the "communication cell of Al Qaeda in Algeria"
• Rabah Ghiatou, emir of the section El Arkam who performed the operation against the buildings of the police in Dar El Beida, a district of Algiers, the agency said.
• Four defendants present in court, were sentenced for their part to life imprisonment, another to 4 years in prison and two were acquitted.

The 56 defendants were prosecuted for setting up a terrorist group, membership and joining armed terrorist group, murder with premeditation and use of explosives.

All those who testified denied the facts back on confessions they had expressed before the security forces and the judge. They were also then recognized to belong to a section based in the region of Thénia, near Boumerdes (50 km east of Algiers) of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which was transformed in late 2007 into AQMI and allegiance to the organization of Osama bin Laden.

Abdelmalek Droukdel, alias Abu Moussaab Abdelouadoud, 38, is still at large after having joined terrorism in the 90s. He has escaped several arrests and has been repeatedly condemned in absentia to death for deadly bombings claimed by AQIM. The death penalty is not applied in Algeria under a moratorium adopted in 1993.

The Rest @ Ennaharonline

Ahmed Osma's Partner Arrested in The Netherlands

Yesterday the Star Tribune (published in Minneapolis-St. Paul) reported on a seemingly significant arrest in the Netherlands related to the al-Shabaab recruiting networks that have centered on the Twin Cities area. From the Star Tribune:

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland....

The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker's center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released.

• But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism investigation that began here when young men began disappearing in 2007.
• "We are aware of this individual and of this arrest. And it is tied to our ongoing Minneapolis investigation," Wilson said.
• "We are and have been working closely with Dutch authorities through our legal attaché office in Brussels and coordinating with the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs."

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement that

• the man lived in Minneapolis before leaving the United States in November 2008 and arrived in the Netherlands about one month later.
• The statement said American authorities asked for the man's arrest and are seeking to have him extradited....
• According to the Dutch statement, U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.
• The article refers to this as likely "the most significant development yet" in the investigation into US-based Shabaab recruiting networks.

This assessment appears to be correct. A recent article in CTR Vantage that examines Shabaab recruiting networks in the West shows that though recruiters seem to play a significant role in these networks, much is still not known about them.

Those arrested to date in the Twin Cities case have been people who traveled to Somalia, or those who facilitated the travel, but the recruiters have been largely in the shadows.

For example, when 26-year-old Salah Osman Ahmed pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists based on his travel to Somalia, he spoke elliptically of the recruiters who helped draw him there, mentioning "secret meetings" beginning in October 2007 with people he would only describe as "guys."

The arrest of a bigger player in the case may provide greater insight into these networks.


Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/arrest_in_netherlands_may_yiel.php#ixzz0WguAEeSr

The Rest @ The Long War Journal

20 Swedish Youths Fight in Somalia with Shabaab

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A former taxpayer-funded youth recreation center in Stockholm served as a recruiting center for a group of Muslim extremists, Swedish authorities allege.The Kreativitetshuset center, started by a mosque, received $70,400 in funding from the city during four years before closing in 2008, The Local reported Wednesday.

An official at the center allegedly encouraged local youth to join the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab by glorifying war and showing them videos of war victims and decapitated heads, Per Johansson, head of the city's department for clubs and associations, told Sveriges Radio in a story published Wednesday."

It had a big impact on those who weren't strong enough to stand up to it," one unidentified youth told Sveriges Radio.

Al-Shabaab recruited an estimated 20 youths from Sweden in recent years, some of whom were killed in battle in foreign countries, the Swedish security service Sapo said.No information was available on whether any of those recruits attended the Kreativitetshuset center.

The Rest from Terror Free Somalia

Switzerland Opens Investigation Into Al Qaeda Nuclear Connection

Swiss inquiry into Cern terror suspect underway

Swiss authorities are pursuing a separate investigation into the case of the physicist and suspected al-Qaeda collaborator arrested in France last month.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opened its investigation at the end of October, according to a spokesman who comfirmed a Sunday newspaper report.
The 32-year-old suspect was a researcher connected to but not employed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern). He also worked at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

• Cern, a joint project backed by 20 member states, has sites on the border of Switzerland and France.
• It is best known for the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator.
  

Arrested along with his brother in the town of Vienne in southeastern France on October 8, the Cern physicist is suspected of being close to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), also known as al-Qaeda's north African wing.

The men are French citizens of Algerian origin.

Viktor Bout Airlines and Airplane Laundering

oringially posted July 17 th 2007

Not long ago, the European Union added a whole chunk of dodgy Moldovan airlines to its flight-safety blacklist after ramp checks showed their aircraft were unsafe. Now, we have reports that the Moldovans have taken the logical next step and drained the swamp, by revoking the AOCs of the companies in question. It's bye bye to our old friends Jet Line International, but also to mystery operator Grixona (a frequent presence on the Sharjah-Iraq and Afghanistan routes), Jet Stream (another UAE-to-warzones Il76 operator), and Tiramavia (much the same). Pecotox also goes.Here's the list from ATDB:

• An-24RV (ER-AWR, msn 37308605) put in storage by Jet Line International, returned to Aerocom·
• An-24RV (ER-AZY, msn 47309310) put in storage by Aerom·
• An-24RV (ER-AZX, msn 47309804) returned to Pecotox-Air after lease to Aéro-Service then ops in Iraq·
• An-24RV (ER-AFB, msn 87310810.2)
• put in storage by Jet Line International, returned to Aerocom· Il-18V (ER-ICB, msn 188010603) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12AP (ER-ACV, msn 347408) put in storage by Grixona· An-12TB (ER-ACQ, msn 1347908) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12BK (ER-AXG, msn 347407) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-12BK (ER-AXZ, msn 8346106) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-12BP (ER-ADQ, msn 402410) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-12BP (ER-ADK, msn 5342802) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACY, msn 347306) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACS, msn 347401) put in storage by Grixona·
• An-12V (ER-ACO, msn 5343204) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-12V (ER-ACR, msn 6343810) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• An-26B (ER-AFE, msn 17310905) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-26B (ER-AFL, msn 17311705) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• An-72 (A) (ER-AVG, msn 36572095909) put in storage by Pecotox-Air·
• Il-76TD (ER-IBK, msn 53460790) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines· Il-76TD (ER-IBY, msn 53460832) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBV, msn 3423699) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• Il-76T (ER-IBF, msn 73410300) put in storage by Jet Line International·
• Il-76T (ER-IBH, msn 73411331) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBD, msn 73411338) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines·
• Il-76T (ER-IBG, msn 93418548) put in storage by Tiramavia·
• Il-76T (ER-IBP, msn 93418556) put in storage by Jet Stream Airlines·
• Il-76MD (ER-IBC, msn 83489683) put in storage by Tiramavia

It's good to see the back of the firm that brought the missing 99 tonnes of guns in Iraq, to say nothing of the mysterious "Air Bridge Group" of Australia.

Labels: 4GW, aviation, Operation Firedump, Viktor
LINK and Comments posted by Alex : 4:05 PM
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The Rest @ the Yorkshire Ranter

also Richard Chichakli appears to be backonline from Moscow

Pierre Falcone's Private Indirect Government in Angola

The convictions of Pierre Falcone, Arcadi Gaydamak, ex-president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Charles Pasqua in a French court for arms trafficking to Angola have exposed the impunity with which arms traffickers supplied weapons to Angola during its 27-year civil war.

In an effort to stem the conflict, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on both the government and the rebels.

• Both parties contravened the international decision during the second (1992-94) and third (1998-2002) periods of the civil war.
• The Angolan government employed primarily the services of Pierre Falcone and Gaydamak to procure the arms, while the main arms dealer supplying Unita rebels was the infamous Ukrainian Victor Bout, who is currently sitting in jail in Thailand.
  
  In order to understand the significance of these convictions it is important to focus on one key player, Pierre Falcone, and his relationship with the Angolan leadership.
  
  The Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos, publicly hailed him as a national hero. Critical newspapers dubbed him as the "vice-president of Angola" for his privileged access to the president, and for his handling of sovereign state affairs. His influence made a laughing-stock of the former Angolan prime minister Marcolino Moco, who had only two private audiences with Dos Santos during his four years in the job. It coincided with the period of arms trafficking for which Falcone has just been convicted.
  
  In 2004, for instance, Dos Santos' office called for the prosecution of Falcone to be abandoned:
  
  During a difficult moment of the recent Angolan history, Mr Pierre Falcone, by his volition and at his own risk, made funds available to the Angolan government for it to exercise its right of sovereignty, a right that was almost denied by the international community. It was, thus, decisive, at that time, the financial support from some private entities.
  
  The ideological divide of the cold war had enabled the MPLA regime to seek international military protection from Cuba and the former Soviet Union between 1975, the year of Angola's independence, and 1989. Economic liberalisation and the new world order led Dos Santos to shift, during the 1992 post-electoral civil war, to the use of private foreign intermediaries to perform sovereign responsibilities and to enable the ruling elite to enrich themselves illicitly, including the presidential family.
  
  Angola's riches sustained and prolonged the civil war. The government traded oil for weapons, while Unita paid for arms with diamonds.
• These deals fuelled the conflict and contributed to the killings of tens of thousands of Angolans, the devastation of the country's infrastructure, and helped to institutionalise corruption.
• Furthermore, the corrupt channels established by arms trade, oil and diamonds set the stage for a culture of impunity, plunder of the state assets by the ruling elite, and the "legalisation" of such criminal acts in peace time.
  
  It is in this context that Falcone has also become a key player in Angola's state contracts with China, which are worth billions of dollars. His conviction is a serious blow to Dos Santos' arrogance as an untouchable political figure. It imperils the president's form of private indirect government – a term used by the academic Achille Mbembe to describe the privatisation of sovereignty as its various functions and obligations are transferred to private operators and for private ends.
  
  
  The Rest @ The Guaridan