Somali Terror Watch: 71/2 yrs for Al-Qaeda operative

[Hoowle]

Apparenlty he was "overweight idealist" which goes to show the egalitarian nature of Al-Qaeda. Even obese Somalis can contribute to the cause of Allah.

Canadian jailed for supporting al-Qaeda

Preached jihad, trained at bin Laden's camp, U. S. says

Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Friday, July 10, 2009
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A Canadian who left Toronto in 2000 to join Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda was sentenced to 7½ years imprisonment yesterday after admitting he had trained with and helped finance the terrorist group.

Although his lawyers described Mohamed Abdullah Warsame as simply "a naive, near-sighted and overweight idealist" who became deeply religious while living in Toronto and travelled to Afghanistan in search of an "Islamic utopia," prosecutors in Minneapolis argued the 35-year-old Somali, who came to Canada as a refugee in 1989, was devoted to the al-Qaeda cause.

Warsame could be released in less than a year and deported to Canada; he has been in custody since his 2003 arrest and the judge gave him credit for the time he has already served.

Warsame pleaded guilty in May to a single count of providing material support to al-Qaeda. In exchange, federal prosecutors dropped three counts of making false statements to the FBI.

"Mr. Warsame's actions demonstrate that he was a member of the organization, that he believed in its cause, and that he was willing to violate United States law in support of al-Qaeda," said U. S. Attorney Frank Magill.

Warsame's lawyers maintained that his trek to Afghanistan was not driven by violent ideals, but rather religious devotion. "There came a time, however, where it became so apparent that his vision of the new Islamic world was different than that embraced by the other men who had travelled to Afghanistan," defence lawyer Andrea George wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

"There came a time when Mohamed Warsame had to acknowledge that the utopia that he had envisioned, that the Islamic paradise that he sought was usurped by men who wrapped their piety in bandoliers and announced their faith with explosives."

Warsame was born in Mogadishu and schooled in India. At age 17, he fled Somalia for Rome. From there, he went to New York and then Canada, where he was accepted as a refugee.

He married a Minneapolis woman in an arranged marriage but had to return to Toronto without her because he did not have immigration status in the United States.

"He could not find spiritual fulfillment in Canada or the United States," his lawyer wrote, and "like many religious Muslims, became aware of the Taliban in the mid-1990s and believed a pure Islam would rise from there."

In March 2001, he left Toronto for Pakistan, and crossed the mountains into Afghanistan. He trained for five months at an al-Qaeda camp near Kabul, and then trained at bin Laden's infamous Al Farooq camp near Kandahar, where he saw the al-Qaeda leader there "frequently."

He left Afghanistan in the fall of 2000, and stayed briefly in Pakistan. While he was there, he sent an e-mail to a friend in Canada describing his time in Afghanistan as "one of the greatest experiences of my life. I will be going back there very soon."

He wrote other e-mails encouraging friends to join him because he considered it un-

Islamic to live in non-Muslim countries, and "I don't want you to be late for the action, you know what I mean. I hear there may be an attack soon."

He returned to Afghanistan and, beginning in January 2001, lived at an al-Qaeda guesthouse, where he worked as a guard. At a nearby Islamic institute, he "taught radical Islam and preached jihad to students," the U. S. Department of Justice said in a statement yesterday.

"While in Afghanistan, Warsame was asked to conduct operations in Western countries, but Warsame claims he denied this request," federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

Al-Qaeda sent Warsame back to Canada in April 2001 because his Canadian passport was about to expire and they did not want him to get "stuck" in Afghanistan, the prosecutors wrote. But Warsame remained in contact with his al-Qaeda associates and sent $2,000 to one of his former training camp commanders.

During sentencing proceedings, prosecutors said some of Warsame's associates in Afghanistan -- also apparently Canadians -- were nervous "about returning to Canada." But once he reached Toronto, via the United Kingdom, Warsame wrote to one of them with advice.

"Thanks to Allah I have reached safely in Canada. There is no stamp on the passport from London. In Canada I was asked lots of question like how come you went for a year and all that. And also they are afraid of mad cow disease and they check the bags and spray something on your shoes so be careful."

He later moved to Minneapolis and lived there until his arrest.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story. ... 776107&p=2
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MODS: make this thread sticky please. More and more Somalis are getting themselves mixed up with criminal Jihadi groups and activities in the West. It's import to keep abreast of the latest developments to keep up awareness among Somalis.