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?

CAIR threatens Lewiston, Maine School District

November 22nd:  For more background on the Somali migration to Lewiston and the role of Catholic Charities, go here.

Here we go!  Lewiston, the city that has struggled for years ever since federal government contractors, such as Catholic Charities, chose it as a site for refugee resettlement [correction: I am alerted by a reader that Catholic Charities didn't choose Lewiston, see comments] and after a secondary migration of mostly Somali refugees picked this city in “welcoming” Maine, the joys of multiculturalism have come home to roost.  And, darn, just when town fathers thought citizens were finally getting the memo that diversity is strength something like this happens.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) the subject of an important new book entitled, “Muslim Mafia:Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” has the audacity to threaten to bring action against a school district that supposedly denied a Muslim girl the right to pray during school.  Here is the story from the Sun Journal today.  Hat tip: Mars

LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide “constitutionally protected religious accommodation,” such as a designated prayer room.

The group has also requested the school department institute diversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schooler won’t face retaliation because of her request to pray at the Lewiston Middle School.

According to the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, seventh-grader Nasra Aden had been routinely “praying discreetly during her free time or lunch break in a corner of a school hallway.” But, on Tuesday, CAIR asserts a teacher told Aden “never to pray on school property” after Aden was seen preparing to kneel in prayer in a corner of one of the hallways.

After Aden told her mother, Jamad Warsame, what happened, Warsame spoke with school Principal Maureen Lachappelle and asked the school to accommodate her daughter’s desire to pray. According to CAIR, Warsame’s request was rebuffed and she has been “forced to pick up her daughter every day and take her to a nearby park to pray.”

Lachappelle said Aden is not being forced to leave school to pray, but that the district accommodated her mother’s request for her to leave the campus this past week for prayer.

Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque, who learned of CAIR’s written accusations hours after a press release had already been published on various Web sites, said, “Students are free to pray quietly during class if they choose as long as it’s not disruptive,” because “prayer is constitutionally protected in schools.”

“A stunning scenario of lack of multicultural competency” —they have learned the lingo!

In a written statement, Ismail Warsame called school officials’ alleged actions in responding to Aden’s effort to pray “a stunning scenario of lack of multicultural competency” and “clear violation of our constitutional rights to free religious expression.”

Warsame also accused Lachappelle of hanging up on him as he was asking whether the school department would accommodate the family’s request to accommodate the specific religious needs of certain students. Lachappelle acknowledged she did end a phone conversation with Warsame abruptly because “he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

According to Lachappelle, after an involved conversation about the school’s position on allowing silent prayer, she said she told Warsame that “this is what the ruling is. We’re disagreeing, and I’m following district policy. I feel we need to end this conversation.”

Readers should know that we have had reports from many cities about the fact that some Muslim men do not respect female school teachers and administrators, so that may explain what happened in this phone conversation.

Ibraham Hooper threatens:  Do what we say, or else!

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said Friday that if the Lewiston School Department did not address its four requests to allow prayer, modify school policy, institute training and protect Aden from retaliation, “we wouldn’t really have much choice but to take the case further” because “the student has the legal right and the constitutional right to pray in school in a manner that is not disruptive to the learning environment.”

I wonder what Lewiston Mayor, Larry Gilbert, thinks now?   This sort of coincidence has happened before.  I had something to post earlier in the week about the Mayor of Lewiston and didn’t get to it, and then sure enough something like this story comes along and the two pieces fit nicely together. 

On the Mayor’s website just a couple of days ago appeared a report of a meeting where the City Council had a briefing about refugees and the resettlement programs in Maine.  It is there that we learned this:

Catholic Charities Maine (CCME) has been the only refugee resettlement agency in Maine during the past 30 years.

Read the glowing account of how great the refugee resettlement program is and then note this conclusion by the mayor.

I hope that sharing this information will assist in allaying the many misconceptions and fears that somehow permeate our community.

As I have mentioned in previous columns, it is only through communication with those who may appear to be different from us, that when we engage in conversation, we find that we have far more similarities than differences. Our skin color may be different, our language may be different and our customs may be different. What we do find is that we seek the same things, quality of life, family life, employment, religion, education, music, arts, etc. We find that we truly are one-humanity. Assimilation may take a bit of time, but it will happen just like it has with all of our forefathers who have made us this richest country in the world, a country of immigrants.

If we truly believe that we are all God’s children, then we must therefore believe that we are all brothers and sisters created in His image.

Tell that to the Islamic supremacists at CAIR!

We have covered Lewiston Somali problems extensively, use our search function and you will see what I mean!

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.

Another indictment in Minneapolis Somali Jihad case

I said yesterday that I had a couple (turns out to have been 5!) of those hot Somali stories and this is one I didn’t get to.  The sixth indictment has been handed down in the FBI investigation into the Somali (former refugee) missing youth case.  Hat tip: ever-watchful in Tennessee.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a paper that keeps on top of this story:

A 24-year-old local Somali man has been indicted in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on charges of conspiring to provide support to terrorists.

Omer Abdi Mohamed, an unemployed employment counselor and father of a 2-month-old boy, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to “kill, kidnap, maim or injure” people in foreign countries, according to an indictment filed Tuesday but made public Thursday.

Mohamed, of Minneapolis, is the sixth Somali man with local ties to be charged in connection with a two-year-old federal counterterrorism investigation aimed at finding out who recruited as many as 20 area men of Somali descent to return to their homeland and train and fight with the terrorist group, Al-Shabaab. The probe is considered to be one of the most sweeping international counterterrorism investigations since Sept. 11, 2001.  [Reminder: the FBI missed Major Nidal Hasan]

[....]

According to the indictment, others connected to the conspiracy include: Salah Osman Ahmed, Kamal Said Hassan, Ahmed Ali Omar, Abdifatah Isse and Khalid Mohamud Abshir — all of whom left the United States in December 2007 with a final destination of Somalia. Ahmed, Hassan and Isse all have pleaded guilty to the same charges Mohamed faces.

How and where were they radicalized?  It all just keeps coming back to the mosque they had in common—-Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center.

Officials at the mosque have repeatedly denied any role in recruiting or enabling the men to return to Somalia. Just last week, two mosque officials were cleared to fly after their names had appeared on a federal “no fly” list last year. According to an attorney for one of the men, the move cleared them of any involvement in the Somali men’s disappearance.

Why did they go?  

The woman [who knows the men well and helped the FBI in the investigation] said she doesn’t know for certain why all the men left for Somalia, but said she believes it’s rooted in a combination of patriotic feelings toward the Somali homeland and religious fervor.

I’m guessing 10% patriotism and 90% religious fervor.  This is an important point of discussion as I learned when I went to the Senate Homeland Security hearings on this terror-training investigation.  The Senators and those in the intelligence community testifying were eager to dismiss the return to Africa by men who had been given a good life through our refugee resettlement program, if it was patriotism that motivated them.  They skirted the religious fervor angle in what I’ll call the Major Nidal Hasan syndrome.

A judge released this latest indicted man on bond.

Mohamed appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Franklin Noel, who agreed to release him on a $25,000 signature bond after Wold argued that his client was not a risk to flee. As of Thursday night, he was preparing to be released, pending the installation of an electronic home monitoring system.

Let’s see, so 6 have died and 6 have been indicted. Then an alleged ringleader was arrested in the Netherlands.  The FBI has been saying 20 left the US for Somalia.  If you count the ringleader that makes 13 accounted for, leaving only 7 who knows where.   Wanta bet there were more than 20 from the US?

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.

The Rainbow Nation: more trouble in paradise?

We have been sold such a bill of goods about the South African government spawned by the revered Nelson Mandela and those who followed him to power in the so-called “Rainbow Nation.”   Rarely do we see stories in US publications about the violence of the majority black population against other Africans and the white population.  Gosh, is it possible that blacks can be xenophobic and racist?  Or, is it just plain-old tribalism and protecting one’s own stuff driving the violence—something the multiculturalists at the UN fail to acknowledge as they, and the one-worlders, perpetuate the myth of multiculturalism as nirvana?

Looks like trouble is brewing again according to this article from the BBC.

The UN has condemned attacks against Zimbabweans seeking work in South African vineyards, which it says have driven 3,000 people from their homes.

Local farm workers accused the Zimbabweans near Cape Town of stealing their jobs by accepting lower wages.

South Africa saw an outbreak of xenophobic violence in May last year, when Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers were attacked.

More than 60 people died in the waves of mob violence.

The UN refugee agency said those displaced in the latest unrest were living in tents in a sports field north-east of Cape Town.

On Friday, police said they had arrested 22 people in the informal settlement of De Doorns in Western Cape for allegedly attacking foreigners earlier this week, South African Press Association reports.

The trouble broke out when South African farm labourers were angered at reports that the farmers were employing migrant workers at lower wages.

“They started to shout at us saying that we had to go back to Zimbabwe,” one migrant worker told the BBC.

“After that they started to break our houses. We phoned the police but the police didn’t take action. They just stood there as people broke our houses and they stole our things.” [A little corruption in the police, eh?]

Correspondents say South Africa is keen to show the world that poverty and crime is under control in preparation for next year’s World Cup.

In addition to the BBC’s UN-slaps-wrist article above, my alerts reminded me of the website ‘Why I am a White Refugee,’ here where Friday’s article begins with this quote:

In SA, a major way of problem-solving is mob rule….. This use of mobs and the impunity of the anonymity of mass action lead to a breakdown in the rule of law. This, as academics have observed, is a direct result of the merging of militarised struggle politics with unions and community organisations.

Can you believe it, struggle politics, unions and community organizing there too?  Do we see a pattern?   Could they be reading Rules for Radicals too?

We have written about South Africa a lot, use our search function to learn more.

State Department close to reopening previously fraud-ridden program

Here is a story I am ashamed to say I missed two weeks ago!   According to Matthew Lee of AP, yes, apparently the same Mr. Lee who reported on the last day of every month in the waning months of the Bush Administration that that awful Mr. Bush didn’t let in to the US enough poor Iraqis, here, tells us the State Department will soon re-open the controversial family reunification program.   

And, he reports that nothing will likely be done about the estimated 36,000 Africans (mostly Somalis) who may have gotten into the US by lying.  We admitted over 80,000 Somalis over 25 years.

Although no final decisions have been made, the State Department said it “was close to the end” of a review that had been delayed by the change in administrations. “Now that policy-level people responsible for this issue are in place, we expect to reopen the program with revised procedures in the near future,” an official said.

The suspended pilot program, known as Priority 3, allows foreign — almost all of them African — family members of legal U.S. residents to join relatives here.

With little fanfare [Edit: little fanfare!  It was because they wanted to keep it quiet, the WSJ had it, where were you?] , the program was halted in March 2008 after DNA testing on applicants in Africa found that up to 87 percent of their familial claims were fraudulent.

The experimental program was conducted in late 2007 and early 2008 on about 3,000 people mostly from Somalia, Ethiopia and Liberia who claimed blood relationships with each other and wanted to be reunited with a family member who had been resettled as a refugee in the U.S.

DNA testing was not done on the alleged relatives in the United States. The State Department said it targeted Africans abroad only for genetic testing because they make up 95 percent of applicants to the program. The testing started, officials said, only after suspicions of fraud arose in applications originating among refugees in Kenya.

“We were … only able to confirm all claimed biological relationships in fewer than 20 percent of cases,” the State Department said in a fact sheet. “In the remaining cases, at least one negative result was identified or the individuals refused to be tested.”

Ho hum, fearing the ire of civil rights groups nothing will be done about the possibly 36,000 illegal aliens.

As the U.S. review winds down, questions were raised about what to do with the estimated 36,000 African refugees who arrived in the United States under the resettlement between 2003 and its suspension.   [Edit:  I don't get why they are only going back to 2003 for this number, we have been resettling Somalis and other Africans long before that, I bet it's more than 36,000 questionable refugees.]

The Homeland Security Department has jurisdiction to determine if any of those applications were fraudulent but department officials said Thursday they had no plans to check those already in the United States. Such a move would likely draw opposition from civil rights groups.

Gosh, maybe some of those are involved in the Kansas City, MO murder, or the recent Somali murder in Fort Morgan, CO, or the Boys in the Hood we heard about just two days ago,  or Somali gangs in Minneapolis and Seatttle, or the mosque arson we reported this morning, or maybe some of the Somali missing youths—one of whom was arrested just today for attending terrorist training in Somalia.   Nah, it couldn’t be, and besides it’s not worth riling up the diversity-is-strength gang !

Shades of Major Nidal Hasan, wouldn’t you say?

Columbus: Mosque fire exposes Somali infighting

I’m starting to feel like I should rename this blog ‘Somali Watch’ because just when I thought I had a window of time to write the much needed post about that boring “Targeted Assistance” program I’m procrastinating  about, comes two hot Somali stories in the US and another in Finland.  And, oh geez, I forgot to tell you about the Somali missing youths from Canada!

Here is Patrick Poole, an expert on radical Islam from Ohio, writing on the intrigues surrounding a battle between a moderate Somali mosque and an Al-Shabaab-terror-supporting mosque in Columbus, Ohio.  Hat tip:  Jerry Gordon.

Poole begins:

In the early morning of October 19, a fire ravaged through the property surrounding Masjid Salama, a growing Columbus, Ohio, mosque frequented primarily by members of the local Somali community. Several Somali-owned businesses surrounding the mosque were heavily damaged, but the mosque itself was not touched. However, because of the surrounding damage, the mosque itself has not been cleared for reopening.

As reported by the Columbus Dispatch, fire investigators immediately determined that arson was to blame for the blaze.

But rather than blaming the arson on unknown anti-Muslim individuals engaged in a religious hate crime, many inside the Columbus Somali community are fixing their suspicions on leaders of another local Somali mosque, Masjid Ibn Taymiya. This mosque is dominated by supporters of the al-Shabaab terrorist group, and members have made repeated attempts to take over the rapidly growing Salama congregation through an unsuccessful campaign of legal and physical intimidation.

Following the blaze, I met with two leaders of Masjid Salama, who described the ongoing efforts by the leaders of Ibn Taymiya to take over their burgeoning year-and-a-half-old congregation. On November 12, the Salama leaders had to obtain a temporary restraining order to prevent the bulldozing of their rented facility by a leader of the Ibn Taymiya mosque, Mohamed Hassan, who, they say, is the ringleader of the campaign.

Read the whole article.  Poole wraps up with this:

While arson investigators continue to look into the fire that has temporarily displaced Masjid Salama, the leaders are waiting to see whether local officials and the media in Ohio — who have thus far ignored the larger controversy surrounding the fire — will finally recognize the larger battle between Muslim moderates and extremists happening in the Columbus Somali community.

And waiting to see exactly who the politicians and media will side with in this struggle.

Minneapolis, MN, Columbus, OH, Seattle, WA, San Diego, CA, Nashville, TN, Boston, MA and even little Lewiston, ME  (see the Mayor of Lewiston just this week talking up the joys of multiculturalism) are “welcoming” cities for Somali refugees and residents can expect similar warm and fuzzy diversity-is-strength experiences in the near future.   You can thank the US State Department and its Ten federal refugee contractors for this opportunity.

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 thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.