Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of our readers a wonderful day with friends and family, and thank God today and every day  that you live in a great country—the United States of America!

We’re not planning to post anything today (unles a major story breaks) but will be back tomorrow with lots of news on refugee issues around the world.

In the meantime, if you aren’t the cook in your house and have extra time, use our search function for refugee and immigrant topics that interest you.  We have written 2557 posts since July 2007, so surely there is information you might have missed!

Climate refugees, elephant in the living room in Copenhagen?

Since there is so much titillating news over the last few day about those leaked (or hacked) e-mails and documents calling into question the whole scientific underpinning of the so-called global warming (aka climate change) “crisis,” I thought this “elephant in the living room” reference was a bit overblown.  I suspect the real discussions will center around, not climate refugees, but, well now, how do we salvage this whole mess!

In any case, here is just a bit from one of the latest alarmist screeds on “climate refugees,” a subject that is not expected to be formally addressed in Copenhagen to the chagrin of these authors.

According to this Australian on-line journal, millions upon millions of “climate refugees,” that I notice are quietly being called “environmental refugees,” are expected to be swarming the planet by by 2050.

Until there is a significant movement calling for recognition of climate refugees – under the UN climate convention or another international governance instrument – the issue will continue to be swept under the carpet. This will not make the problem go away. Estimates of likely displacement continue to grow. Professor Norman Myers, who has been researching the topic for decades, suggests that, without serious action to reduce greenhouse emissions, we could be facing the prospect of perhaps 200 million climate refugees by mid century.

Check out this new verbiage we can all expect to see creeping into the mainstream lexicon.

…..campaigns for climate justice for those most threatened by environmental changes.

Climate justice—don’t you just love it!   And then, note that they have recognized the hole they dug with the “global warming” mumbo-jumbo and they then went to “climate change” and now its just “environmental change” we in wealthy countries are responsible for!

Pittsburgh: Just who exactly is exploiting the refugees?

Let’s see, is it an ‘evil’ Catholic Charities, an ‘evil’ business, or the ‘evil’ labor unions?   Or, maybe all three?   I believe that for the first time, I am seeing evidence of a thesis I have been promoting on these pages for a long time.  My theory is that refugees and other immigrants are being used as political pawns by the Far Left to bring about crisis using Alinsky’s (Rules for Radicals) methods with the ultimate goal of changing our form of government (see posts in our Community Destabilization category).

This is the story today in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that prompted me to look a little further.  We have already discussed some of this controversy in a previous post, here.

Catholic Charities

A group of Burmese refugees protested their treatment by Catholic Charities at the opening of an immigrant center yesterday.  Gosh, don’t you wonder who taught them to protest in this manner and present their demands—the union community organizers of course.

Refugees from Myanmar picketed the opening of a new welcome center for clients of Catholic Charities at its Downtown office yesterday.

Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, who dedicated the Susan Zubik Welcome Center in honor of his late mother, went out to meet the protesters, who spoke little or no English. Counting children, they included more than 30 ethnic Karens, who carried handwritten signs such as, “We demand a professional translator who speaks our language.”

The protest was organized by Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, a group with ties to organized labor that helps workers with problems such as evictions. It printed a leaflet claiming that Catholic Charities had assigned the Karens a Burmese translator who did not speak the Karen dialect and who treated them with contempt.

It claimed that a Karen refugee facing eviction had given $500 to a Catholic Charities caseworker to pay his rent, but eviction notices kept coming. It also said that refugees are placed in low-paying, dangerous jobs.

Bishop Zubik said he tried to invite the protesters in for food. “But they didn’t speak English.”

The core of the problem stems from the allegedly unhappy refugees working at W & K Steel nearby.

Ms. Rauscher said that there are only 20 Karen translators nationwide, and that Catholic Charities investigated reports that their translator was prejudiced against Karens. Those who worked closely with her saw no sign of it, she said. [Ms. Rauscher, there are several Karen  Burmese in Bowling Green, KY who speak English well enough to translate, maybe you could get one of those and free him or her from the misery of chicken plant work.]

But the core of the dispute involves 14 Burmese workers at W&K Steel in Rankin. The Three Rivers Coalition for Justice says they are paid less than other workers, and that they all work in dangerous conditions.

Two W&K employees, one of them Burmese, went on strike in September, and Ironworkers Local 3 is supporting their action. According to the Coalition for Justice, there are 35 employees total. Ed Wilhelm, owner of W&K, did not return phone calls.

Ms. Rauscher said Catholic Charities didn’t place any clients there, but that two got jobs on their own initiative. After the labor complaints, a social worker asked them if their workplace was safe and if they wanted to find new jobs.

“They said they liked their jobs and wanted to stay,” she said.

[.....]

“I’m not sure what’s going on with W&K Steel and the Ironworkers. … But from our perspective, we didn’t see that this employer was exploiting the refugee workers,” she said.

Mr. Rink (Chad Rink, an Ironworkers organizer with Three Rivers Coalition for Justice) said he believes the workers lied to Catholic Charities about work conditions.

“They are afraid for their jobs,” he said.

Then we have the usual old saw that refugees only get $425 when they come to the US.

Ms. Rausher said all refugees struggle to make ends meet, especially when they arrive without western job skills. The government provides a one-time grant of $425 to set them up in an apartment. Most of the money Catholic Charities spends on refugees is from donors, she said.

Well, that’s not exactly accurate Ms. Rausher, most of your funding comes from the taxpayers of the United States.  See Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s most recent Form 990 here and note that in a total income of $9,583,772, $5,322,899 is from government grants and $1,138,826 is indirect public support (this is a category I have come to realize is also money from the government somehow, contracts maybe).  So they are mostly government funded and that government funding probably allowed them to open this “welcome” center where the demonstration took place.

We have previously reported that Catholic Charities placed refugees in a Pittsburgh area slum building for the past decade here, so we know there is some veracity to the charges that refugees have been neglected.  In addition to this story, there are reports in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette that Somali Bantu resettled in the area in 2005 had similar problems.

Big business

I have no clue who is telling the truth about the working conditions at W & K Steel. Readers will need to read all the links I’m providing and try to sort that out.  Frankly, I wondered why a business in this day and age would be so stupid as to pay a legal immigrant worker less than other comparable workers at the plant (as alleged in this story) thus opening themselves up for discrimination charges.  

There has always been a rumor that somehow the “employment service” whoever that was in this case, Catholic Charities or the Jewish agency mentioned, gets a piece from the refugee workers salary, but I can’t believe any of them would be so foolish to set up such an arrangement.

Labor Unions

Sorry, Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, I don’t believe you either.  I think you are ticked off at Catholic Charities over the health care debate and that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is standing firm on abortion (the only thing they are standing firm on) so you are setting up the Burmese to go after CC as well (although I might agree they need to be gone after)!  Three Rivers is teaching Catholic Charities a lesson, and CC since you have gone to bed with the Far Left I have no sympathy for you.

Exploitation of immigrant workers is the heart and soul of the labor movement in the US!

At a website called “Talking Union” a site for the Democratic Socialists of America, an article entitled, “Indentured Workers Fight Back” confirms, at least to me, that the Burmese refugees may be being exploited by business, and not properly cared for by Catholic Charities, but pro-union socialists use them too to promote their cause— “changing” America.

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. DSA’s members are building progressive movements for social change while establishing an openly socialist presence in American communities and politics.

Here is what they are saying about the Burmese refugees in the Pittsburgh area and this controversy.  Please read this!

Right in the Pittsburgh area a new and surprising strike around related issues is being waged with support from the Ironworkers Local 3. Some 35 workers at an unorganized steel fabrication factory in Rankin, W & K Steel, went on strike against unsafe and dangerous working conditions, and to demand an end to discrimination in wages and other treatment against the 14 workers who are refugees from Burma. The refugees, who have legal status and the right to work in the USA, are placed for employment at W&K by Catholic Charities and the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Pittsburgh, which take no responsibility for the unsafe and discriminatory conditions under which the refugees are placed. A statement from the striking American workers reads: “We feel as Americans that it is our duty to defend the defenseless and expose the wickedness of the unjust.”

More information on this strike is available from the Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, 2201 Liberty Ave, Ste 4, Pittsburgh Pa 15222, phone 412-849-1271.

 

Such moral solidarity as demonstrated here between American workers and Burmese refugees is the heart and soul of the labor movement in America. If the struggle for the rights of immigrant and indentured workers is becoming considered part of organized labor’s core agenda for workers rights, it is clearly not on the immediate or middle term agenda of the Obama administration. Painful struggles against ferocious resistance by reactionary and nativist elements must be waged. Solidarity for battles like those at Signal and W&K Steel build the heart needed to wage those battles.

In conclusion, refugees are being used all around in my opinion!  The folks at Catholic Charities (and other government contractors) get their salaries paid primarily from the US government and they get to pat themselves on the back for bringing the downtrodden to America while seemingly being cavalier about the living conditions in which they place refugees.   Businesses may take advantage of them.  And, then their supposed friends in the socialist unions like this one, use them to promote their socialist agendas.   Frankly, it stinks!

Parents of Liberian girl raped in Phoenix arrested

The arrest happened over the weekend, but I just saw this story now at Gates of Vienna.  For our previous reports on this horrible case from July, go here.

From CNN on Saturday:

The parents of an 8-year-old Liberian girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by four boys in July were arrested Friday on child abuse charges, according to Arizona police.

The father, 59, and mother, 47, were arrested Friday in Phoenix on seven counts of child abuse, said police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill. Police were waiting for them at their home after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office issued the warrants.

The names of the parents have been withheld by CNN to avoid identifying the daughter, who is an alleged rape victim.

The child abuse investigation was based on documented incidents from the Phoenix Police Department and numerous referrals to Arizona Child Protective Services dating to 2005.

Police said the parents, refugees from the West African nation, used sticks, wires and their fists to hit their young daughter.

Witnesses told CNN affiliate KTVK that the parents left their daughter wandering their apartment complex alone at night, begging for food.

Details of the girl’s assault last summer shocked the nation. She was allegedly lured to a storage shed, pinned down and gang-raped by four boys, none of them older than 14.

The parents said they felt they had been shamed by their child and blamed her for being victimized. As a result, the girl was taken from her home and placed in state custody.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said at the time that the parents’ reaction was wrong and that they needed counseling. 

This is what I said in one of my earlier reports on this case:

Why so many Liberians in the US when that country is pretty stable now?

Apparently we have a category for temporary asylum (for humanitarian purposes!) and we brought thousands of Liberians here years ago.  In February, I reported that many where supposed to be deported to Liberia by March 31st, but a public relations campaign, spearheaded by Senator Jack Reed of one of America’s highest unemployment states, Rhode Island, was waged to keep them here.  Guess he won.  We lost.

Targeted Assistance grants tell us where the refugee overload is

Your tax dollars:

That’s how I look at this program of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.  When you check the list of counties receiving the grants, you will see according to how much federal support the counties are getting where the refugees are congregated. It is not a perfect correlation because I bet some politics are involved too, I don’t know for sure, just a guess considering the way Washington works these days. 

We hear all the time in the mainstream media that refugees only get that measly $450 or so when they arrive in the US, but there is so much taxpayer money sloshing around, one just needs to find it all!   And, frankly most of the money doesn’t go to the refugees—salaries and programs eat it up.

Targeted Assistance is federal grant money that goes through states to counties experiencing the worst refugee overpopulation and where refugees are not economically self sufficient and are relying heavily on public assistance (aka welfare).

Here is how it is described at ORR’s website:

The Targeted Assistance program (TAG) is part of the Division of Refugee Assistance and allocates formula funds to States that qualify for additional funds due to an influx of refugee arrivals and a high concentration of refugees in county jurisdictions with high utilization of public assistance.

TAG services are the same as Refugee Social Services and are intended to assist refugees obtain employment within one year’s participation in the program and to achieve self-sufficiency. TAG service priorities, however, are distinctive in that they prioritize (a) cash assistance recipients, particularly long-term recipients; (b) unemployed refugees not receiving cash assistance; and (c) employed refugees in need of services to retain employment or to attain economic independence.

One question I have after reading the lengthier discussion, available apparently only as a pdf file, is that  it appears that Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs) can receive some of these dollars as pass-throughs from their county government.   ECBOs can be nothing more than a few folks of a particular ethnicity filing a $50 incorporation with a state and presto they are legit groups to receive your money.  They don’t even have to be federally designated 501(c)3 charities!

Here are the top counties in the US receiving this extra money for FY2009 (FY2010 will be the same)   Total funding is $43,731,000 for the year.  I’ve only selected those counties that received over $1 million.  These then are the hotspots for refugees not finding work and trying to survive on public assistance:

Arizona, Maricopa County:  $1,232,374

California, Los Angeles County: $2,276,525

                       San Diego County:  $1,053,907

Florida, Maimi -Dade:  $12,176,596 (jackpot!)

Georgia, DeKalb County:  $1,004,721

Illinois, Cook/Kane/Dupage:   $1,005,683

Minnesota, Ramsey/Hennipin:  $2,389,647

New York, NYC:  $1,400,675

Texas, Dallas/Tarrent County:  $1,025,330

               Harris County:  $1,142,247

Washington, King/Snohomish:  $1,137,988

If you would like to see if your county is receiving this funding, write to me at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com  and I’ll send you the pdf.   Or write or call the contact person at the bottom of this page at ORR.  The table with the counties is actually a very cool list because it will even tell you how  many asylees are in the county.

Endnote:  Two cities we have talked about lately with refugee overload in Kentucky (Bowling Green) and Maine (Lewiston) don’t get any extra money.

Who fingered Zakaria Maruf?

That is a question I asked last summer, here, when Andrea Elliot in a lengthy New York Times story on the missing Somali youth case reported that Maruf was thought to be THE recruiter.  Funny thing is, Maruf, is believed to have been killed in Somalia within the same two or three day period that the NYT went to press with the story. 

So, either someone was trying to throw off the investigation and gave erroneous information to the NYT and then “killed” Maruf off either in fact  (sacrificed for the good of Allah) or in fiction;  or suspicions arose about Maruf talking (bragging?) and he was ‘offed’  by Al Shabaab to shut him up.   In either case, I found it interesting that Maruf is still listed among the living in the Press Release yesterday from the FBI.

If someone else (other than Maruf himself) told the NYT he was the recruiter, I would be grilling that person real hard.

See what his sister told RRW in a comment in July, here.

Now, visit Andrea Elliot’s New York Times piece on yesterday’s announcement—not a mention of Zakaria Maruf, a man who played a large role in her July story. What is up with that?

A final thought, then I have to get to work on some boring posts.  I find it interesting that none of the reports on the Somali terror case ever mention how the Somalis got here in the first place.  A reader unfamiliar with the refugee resettlement program would think they just arrived here one day.   That is why I put this little explanation at the end of many of these Somali posts.

Hope springs eternal that one day a mainstream media reporter will actually inform readers about how we, the US State Department through many Administrations, selected these Somalis and brought them here.

For new readers :

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened, but will be soon.  Nevertheless, thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.

Abdirizak Bihi: Not close to the big fish yet!

Update:  Jerry Gordon’s take on the news, here, at New English Review.

Here is a very thorough report at the Minneapolis Star Tribune today about yesterday’s announcement by the FBI of more arrests in the Somali missing youth case.   See my previous posts here and here.

Please read the Star Tribune article and note this near the end of the story.  Abdirizak Bihi and I seem to be on the same page about yesterday’s announcement.

Less satisfied was Abdirizak Bihi, uncle of Burhan Hassan, 18, who was killed in June, just one day before his class graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis.

“This isn’t close anywhere to the big fish who were responsible for masterminding the recruitment of our kids,” he said.

“This is nothing, actually. What does this do?” said Nimco Ahmed, a former high school classmate of both Faarax and Shirwa Ahmed.

B. Todd Jones, U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said the investigation is not yet complete. But he hopes the message to those who would leave this country to fight in another is clear.

I hate to sound so cynical, but Mr. Ahmed is right, “What does this do?”  In my opinion, it serves only to send a message to a country grieving over the massacre at Ft. Hood that the FBI is on the job after they dropped the ball, surely out of political correctness, in following Major Nidal Hasan’s jihadist trail.   Imagine if one of these trained Somali terrorists actually carried out a terrorist attack in the US now!   The political repercussions for the Obama Administration would be profound.  Frankly it would be the nail in the coffin for Obama’s Presidency.

Endnote:  We previously heard directly from Mr. Bihi who wanted us to know this.  Among other things he stressed that the families were being silenced by CAIR, aka Muslim Mafia.  And the sister of Zakaria Maruf, one of those indicted yesterday but believed to have died in Somalia some months ago, told us this.

Terror charges unsealed in Minneapolis against 8 Somalis

Update November 24th:  Not close to the big fish yet, here!

Earlier I reported that the FBI was holding a press conference today about the missing Somali (former refugee) case.*  Thanks to a friend from Tennessee, below is the press release which I am posting in its entirety so we have it handy for future reference.

Terror Charges Unsealed in Minneapolis Against Eight Men, Justice Department Announces

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Justice Department announced that 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; and 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; and 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, Abdow 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

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.

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.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

CONTACT: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs,
+1-202-514-2007, TDD: +1-202-514-1888

* If you go back to this original post a year ago note that I got sick of updating back in July, but you can readily find all the updates since then by going to the ‘pingbacks’ in the comment section.

Breaking News: FBI to announce more arrests in Somali missing youth case

Update November 24th:  Not close to the big fish yet, here.  And, who fingered Zakaria Maruf? here.

Update a few hours later:  Entire press release is available, here.

So, what is my reaction?  BIG DEAL!   What took you so long? Check out this story from Fox News this afternoon. Hat tip:  Watchful in Tennessee and Blulitespecial.   There is virtually nothing new in here!

Some of the arrests have already been announced (one last week) and some others are overseas somewhere, ho hum.    And, if this story is accurate there won’t be any connection made to the mosque that most, if not all, attended. 

This is what I think.  The FBI MISSED SPOTTING MAJOR NIDAL HASAN and now this is an effort to make the FBI and by extension the boss–Obama–look like they are on top of potential terror cases.   We started following the story of former Somali refugees* thumbing their noses at American generosity a year ago!  Again, what took the FBI so long?  Doing the happy dance around political correctness I suppose!

Federal authorities are expected to announce charges against eight more people today in a long-running investigation into how perhaps dozens of young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia.

It will be the most significant and public move to date in the case.

Charges against the eight people will be announced at a joint FBI-U.S. Attorney’s Office press conference in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon, a source said. Some, if not all, of the individuals will be charged with providing material support to terrorists, the source said.

Many of those charged have already been arrested, but some individuals are currently overseas, the source said. The source did not elaborate.

Beginning in late 2007 and continuing through last year, more than 20 young Americans of Somali descent were persuaded to train and fight with al-Shabaab, which is fighting to establish a Muslim state in Somalia and recently pledged its allegiance to Usama bin Laden.

U.S. officials worry that if al-Shabaab prevails, Somalia could turn into a haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

After families in Minneapolis began to report their sons missing, the FBI launched a wide-ranging investigation.

Check back later for more news, maybe they’ll surprise us!

For new readers who are wondering how the Somali refugees came to be here in the first place:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened, but will be soon.  Nevertheless, thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.

Who resettles them:  Catholic Charities, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and World Relief (Evangelicals) and others.

San Diego “man” targeted Somalis in what looks like ponzi scheme

Update November 24:  A little more thorough and less politcally correct report here.

Once again I had planned to tackle that boring topic targeted assistance this morning, but as my time at the computer runs out, it’s juicy stories like this one that are much more distracting and appealing.   Tomorrow—targeted assistance for sure! 

This is the title of the article that distracted me from harder work, ”SEC says SD County man targeted Somalis with fraud.”   My immediate reaction was what “man,” with the name of Smith or Jones or Madoff, was scamming the poor Somali Muslim refugees?  In typical mainstream media fashion (I call it Major Nidal Hasan syndrome) we learn that the “man” was another Somali (or Arab Muslim) named Mohamud!

This is the whole story that could well have been entitled, “Immigrant Muslim fleeces fellow Muslims.”

SAN DIEGO — The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Diego County man with securities fraud, saying he targeted Somali immigrants in San Diego and Seattle.

In a complaint filed Thursday, the SEC says 45-year-old Mohamud A. Ahmed of Spring Valley and his company Shidaal Express sought Somali investors at a San Diego mosque, at a presentation in Seattle and on its Web site.

The complaint says Ahmed raised at least $3 million promising heady guaranteed returns of five percent per month. The complaint says Ahmed initially paid monthly returns but stopped.

A judge has frozen Ahmed’s assets and scheduled a Nov. 30 hearing on the company’s future.

It was not clear whether Ahmed was taken into custody. [My guess is that he has already skipped the country!]

A phone message left with the company was not immediately returned.

Incidentally, I thought we were told that Shariah-compliant financing prohibits paying interest, or does that only apply when Muslims want to buy houses and such?