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Vol. 79/No. 20      June 1, 2015

 
(front page)
Arrest of Somali youth in Minn.
sparks debate on FBI spying
 
BY HELEN MEYERS
AND DAVID ROSENFELD  
MINNEAPOLIS — The April 19 arrest of six Somali youth from Minnesota has prompted discussion and debate about the role of FBI spying in the Somali community. The young men are accused of making plans to travel to Syria to join Islamic State. For years the FBI and other federal cops have targeted the democratic right of Somalis here, claiming dozens of youth have left to join al-Shabab — an Islamist group in Somalia linked to al-Qaeda — and more recently Islamic State.

Zacharia Abdurahman, Adnan Farah, Hanad Musse and Guled Omar are jailed here. If convicted of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization they face sentences of up to 15 years in prison. Two other youth accused of conspiring with them were arrested the same day in San Diego.

The government’s case is based on a paid informer and wiretapping. At an initial court hearing April 23, FBI Special Agent Harry Samit said the informer, a former friend of the defendants, was paid $12,700 and was directed by the cops to tell the men he had a connection that could provide false passports.

This description “prompted murmurs in the courtroom and outrage on social media,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. More than 200 people packed the courtroom for that hearing, and 100 rallied at the state Capitol two days later in protest.

Some 120 family members and supporters attended a second hearing for the four May 12, where U.S. District Judge Michael Davis upheld an earlier decision to deny bail. Many more people were turned away, even though many empty seats were available.

Nearly 100 people participated in a town hall meeting May 9 to question Andrew Lugar, U.S. attorney for the district of Minnesota, and Richard Thornton, FBI Special Agent for Minneapolis.

“Many Somali residents believe that the government was involved in entrapment with respect to the six arrested,” said Sadik Warfa, a local leader of Global Somali Diaspora, who moderated the meeting. “How do you expect the community leaders to respond when we lack the facts in the case before us?”

Lugar refused to discuss any specific details of the arrests. He repeatedly maintained, “We do not entrap people.”

There was also debate over the Countering Violent Extremism pilot program, which promotes collaboration between the FBI and other police agencies and schools, community organizations and local officials to head off recruitment by terrorist groups.

“We need resources but not from the FBI,” said Kamal Hassan from the audience. “If you give me money today, you will expect me to spy tomorrow.” The pilot program is “mixing law enforcement and social services,” he complained.

“I support the CVE program,” said another participant. “At the airport I am dealt with differently,” he said, but “I don’t feel discriminated against because there are criminals in our community.”

There are 75,000 Somalis in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. About 21 percent of them are unemployed, the highest rate for Minnesota’s five largest immigrant groups.
 
 
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