Vol. 76/No. 43 November 26, 2012
Omer Abdi Mohamed, 27, was arrested Oct. 24 for allegedly playing a “key role” in recruiting Somali youth to fight in Somalia alongside al-Shabab, an Islamist group at war with U.S.-backed forces in the country.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ordered the jailing of Mohamed on the basis of testimony from FBI agent Uri Rosenwald, the trial of Said Omar and testimony of Mohamed’s probation officer.
Davis said the trial of Said Omar proved to him that a “treacherous web” had been “exposed under oath by a number of witnesses”—witnesses who were all working for the FBI or faced similar charges and testified against Said Omar in exchange for accepting charges carrying lighter sentences.
The three-hour court hearing was packed with some 50 friends and relatives of Mohamed. One reporter from the St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that “the judge’s decision did not sit well with them.”
According to press reports, Mohamed was charged with providing material support to terrorists and faces a possible life sentence. He accepted a plea bargain, entering a guilty plea to one conspiracy count, which carries a maximum term of 15 years.
Mohamed had been free on bond since July 2011. Federal prosecutors claim he violated his release terms by not reporting to his probation officer that he had gotten a job at the Essential Learning of Minnesota Institute, a school that caters to Somali youth.
“He was a volunteer with the school and that isn’t a violation of his parole.” Peter Wold, Mohamed’s attorney, said in a phone interview.
The evidence used against Mo-hamed is based on FBI interrogations of Somali parents of children at the school. One said Mohamed was a director and was involved in religious training.
“It appears that what is going on at the school represents a great danger to the community,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kovats said at the hearing.
“Hearsay normally isn’t allowed, but in cases of violating probation it is,” Wold explained.
“I’m disturbed,” Bruce Nestor, the school’s attorney, told the Associated Press. “Without facts, other than association and innuendo, to somehow try to link this school to a so-called terror network.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a front-page interview with FBI Supervisory Special Agent E.K. Wilson Oct. 26 titled, “Minneapolis Janitor’s Trial Exposes Trail of Minnesota’s Terror Pipeline.” Wilson describes how the FBI probe, known as Operation Rhino, directed at the Somali community is “one of the largest counterterrorism campaigns since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by Al-Qaida.” Wilson said the operation “has received attention at the highest levels of U.S. government, including the White House” and the “investigation is less than halfway complete.”