Fourteen Somali naturalized U.S. citizens arrested

[gemstar]

Fourteen naturalized U.S. citizens have been indicted on multiple counts in connection with the conflict in Somalia, a law enforcement official told CNN on Thursday.

Most of those charged are believed to be outside the United States, with all of those perhaps in Somalia.

The 14 have been indicted on multiple counts unsealed on Thursday in three federal districts - Minnesota and the southern districts of Alabama and California. Two are under arrest and are believed to be in Minnesota.

The case has been going on for a few years and brings to 19 the total indicted on criminal charges, which include providing material support to a terrorist organization, the official said.

One of the key suspects is Omar Shafik Hamami, who lived in Alabama before going to Somalia.

Another source said the indictments allege that some people in the United States provided support to al-Shabaab, an Islamist group in Somalia that the United States has labeled as a foreign terrorist organization.

This comes a day after federal prosecutors in Chicago, Illinois, charged a U.S. citizen with trying to provide material support to two terrorist organizations - al Qaeda and al-Shabaab - and with another charge related to weapons of mass destruction, according to a criminal complaint.

Shaker Masri, 26, a U.S. citizen who lives in Chicago, was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to violate a law that prohibits U.S. nationals "from using, threatening, attempting or conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States," the complaint said.

He had "advocated an extremist and violent interpretation of Islam" in conversations with a confidential source for federal investigators, according to the complaint. He told the source "that he wanted to participate in jihad" in Somalia or Afghanistan, it said.

The Minneapolis office of the FBI has been investigating about 20 men who have gone to Somalia in the past three years to fight with the Islamist extremist al-Shabaab organization in their East African homeland.

Federal officials previously indicted 15 Somali men from Minnesota on terrorism-related charges. Eight were indicted in November, joining seven who had previously been charged.

In addition to the Minnesota cell, the FBI says al-Shabaab has established operations in California, Ohio and Massachusetts. But Minnesota is home to the country's largest population of Somali residents, according to the Minneapolis Foundation, a philanthropic community organization.

Most of those Somalis came to the United States as refugees, the foundation says.

About one-third of Minnesota's Somali residents came directly from refugee camps. Others settled first in another state and then relocated to Minnesota.

Most go to Minnesota because an established Somali community already exists there, which means health care, education and other services are already in place to address the particular needs of Somalis. The availability of unskilled jobs that don't require English fluency or literacy also is a major draw.

Somalis in Minnesota primarily live in the Minneapolis metro area. Nearly one-third of Minnesota public school students who speak Somali at home attend Minneapolis schools.

Minnesota has seen an exponential growth of refugees fleeing war-torn parts of Africa, particularly Somalia, Liberia and the Sudan.

According to the Minneapolis Foundation, there were 5,000 Minnesota residents in 1990 who had been born in Africa. Ten years later, that number had grown to more than 34,000.

By 2002, nearly 9,000 more immigrants had arrived in Minnesota directly from various African nations.

The 2000 Census showed that 13 percent of Minnesota's foreign-born residents were from Africa - a higher percentage than any other state in the country.

– CNN's Jeanne Meserve and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report

Post by: The CNN Wire
Filed under: Latest news • Security Brief • Somalia • Terrorism

[Dhaga Bacayl]

Fuck them all. These fake wadaads made it hard for all of us. I hope they Put them away for a long time.....

[gemstar]

Two indictments unsealed in Minnesota on Thursday added five new names to a list of people charged in the investigation in that state, bringing the total charged in the state to 19. Two were women from the Rochester, Minn., area accused of raising money for al-Shabab.

The Minneapolis indictment said two men, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, raised money for al-Shabab both by open appeals on teleconferences and by pretending in other cases that the money was for the poor and needy.

The indictment cited 12 money transfers to al-Shabaab in 2008 and 2009 totaling $8,608. The charges included providing material support to a terrorist group and lying to authorities.

Al-Shabab members began pledging allegiance to al-Qaida last year. One of its most famous members is known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American." He appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009.

In another case unrelated to Thursday's developments, a 26-year-old Chicago man who told an FBI informant that he didn't expect to reach the age of 30 was charged with plotting to go to Somalia to become a suicide bomber for al-Qaida and al-Shabab.

During a brief hearing Wednesday, prosecutors told a judge that the Chicago man, Shaker Masri, attempted to provide support through the use of a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States.

___

Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

[Shirib]

The Hamami guy from Alabama isn't Somali but white and Syrian

[kambuli]

Alla Somaalibaa iska ba'day We don't know what these people did or did not..Only Allaah SWT knows

[Twisted_Logic]

Alla Somaalibaa iska ba'day We don't know what these people did or did not..Only Allaah SWT knows

It is too late now. It is a matter of time till we come for the likes of abdisamad and others captivated by your Darod unity calls. Al Qaida will not survive in our midst

[IRONm@N]

The Minneapolis indictment said two men, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, raised money for al-Shabab both by open appeals on teleconferences

this is suppose to say "two women" not to men.


FBI has been listening on Somali phones, emails and websites and they finally decided to take down, I think after the Uganda incident, a lot of this people aren't even Somalis, and most of them may be innocent, as everybody collects sends money back to their homeland or tribe.

[Twisted_Logic]

The Minneapolis indictment said two men, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, raised money for al-Shabab both by open appeals on teleconferences

this is suppose to say "two women" not to men.


FBI has been listening on Somali phones, emails and websites and they finally decided to take down, I think after the Uganda incident, a lot of this people aren't even Somalis, and most of them may be innocent, as everybody collects sends money back to their homeland or tribe.

The recorded transcripts, one of the women says to an Al Shabab leader in Somalia not to contact her since "the enemy has taken her stuff" doesnt seem so innocent to me. Let the bastards rot in the deepest parts of hell

[S-D-M]

Alla Somaalibaa iska ba'day We don't know what these people did or did not..Only Allaah SWT knows

It is too late now. It is a matter of time till we come for the likes of abdisamad and others captivated by your Darod unity calls. Al Qaida will not survive in our midst

[Sir-Luggoyo]

Alla Somaalibaa iska ba'day We don't know what these people did or did not..Only Allaah SWT knows

It is too late now. It is a matter of time till we come for the likes of abdisamad and others captivated by your Darod unity calls. Al Qaida will not survive in our midst

I second that laughter

[S-D-M]

^^ I was tying to figure out the correlation between Al-Qaida and Darood.

[Twisted_Logic]

I think y'all need just few more smiley faces to drive your point home.

[Twisted_Logic]

^^ I was tying to figure out the correlation between Al-Qaida and Darood.

Almost all of the Somalis that left the US hail from one clan. Some of them were hardcore AY supporters, but donned the ninja costume once the man was booted out and carried out suicide bombings in Somalia. In Snet, we see the identity and psychology of the Al Qaida supporters. Sometimes the patterns are just too obvious to observe.

[S-D-M]

I think y'all need just few more smiley faces to drive your point home.

FBI AND CIA are coming...........allow wadnaha hana tiri. You live once............Man up Mr. dameer

[nomadicwarlord]

Let this be a reminder to folks who advocate for violence in Somalia. Send them to the Guillotine


Was Somali-Star among those indicted?