Vol. 73/No. 48      December 14, 2009

The FBI claims it is investigating a conspiracy based in Minneapolis to recruit, train, and arm young Somali men to fight in Somalia with Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahideen (The Mujadiheen Youth Movement), an armed Islamist group with alleged links to al-Qaeda. The agency says as many as 20 young Somali men from Minneapolis—most of them U.S. citizens—have traveled to Somalia to join the group, commonly referred to as al-Shabaab.

According to the Wall Street Journal, federal “counterterrorism” officials say the case echoes the type of “homegrown radicalization that threatens parts of Europe.”

At a news conference announcing the indictments, Ralph Boelter, special agent in charge of the FBI in Minneapolis, said he had “no indication” that any of the Somali men ever intended to carry out a terrorist act in the United States. “But the national security implications are evident,” he said. “Americans with U.S. passports attending foreign terror camps.”

A grand jury indicted six of the men August 20: Mahamud Said Omar, Ahmed Ali Omar, Khalid Abshir, Zakaria Maruf, Mohamed Hassan, and Mustafa Salat.

Mahamud Omar was charged with conspiring with others to provide money and recruits to al-Shabaab. Omar, a legal resident of the United States who lived in Minneapolis, was arrested November 8 in the Netherlands and is fighting extradition.

The other five were charged with “conspiracy to provide material support to 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,” reported the U.S. Justice Department.

The other two, Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax and Abdiweli Yassin Isse, were charged October 9 with recruiting to al-Shabaab.

U.S. authorities say five of the Somali youth who allegedly went to Somalia to join al-Shabaab have died. They claim one of them, Shirwa Ahmed, carried out a suicide bombing in northern Somalia last year.

To date, 14 Somalis have been charged in the ongoing investigation, which the FBI says extends beyond Minneapolis to San Diego; Boston; Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; and Portland, Maine. Four have pleaded guilty this year to lesser charges that include providing material support to a “terrorist organization” and making false statements to the FBI and a grand jury.

Somalia has had no functioning central government since 1991. In December 2006 thousands of Ethiopian troops, backed by the U.S. military, invaded the country and dealt blows to al-Shabaab and other troops fighting to defend the government of the Islamic Courts Council based in Mogadishu.

The new Transitional Federal Government, which was installed with the aid of the Ethiopian troops, has the backing of the United States and the United Nations. Its authority, however, is very limited beyond a few neighborhoods of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab is fighting to retake the capital.
 
 
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