Yesterday, two were indicted in Minnesota on Somali terror charges following a lengthy investigation in Minneapolis , which I suspect, is still on-going. At least twenty local Muslims may have left the state to train and fight with an Al Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Somalia, who seek to take the region over. The Star Tribne reported four locals have died over there. Never before in our history has Americans joined a jihadist movement in such large numbers!
A federal grand jury in Minneapolis indicted two men on Monday on charges of conspiracy and aiding terrorism overseas, according to court papers.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune said on Monday that one of the men, Salah Osman Ahmed, 26, is of Somali descent and lived in a Minneapolis suburb.
According to the indictment, Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse were charged with two counts of providing material support to terrorists "and resources, namely personnel including themselves," and conspiring "to kill, kidnap, and maim and injure persons outside of the United States" between September 2007 and December 2008....After the hearing, federal officials would not comment on whether Ahmed's case was connected to the investigation into the disappearance of up to 20 local men of Somali descent, the newspaper said.
Update 7/14/09: Death of U.S. jihadist in Somalia shocks family
"...The body of Jamal Ahmed Bana, 20, was displayed semi-naked with a bullet hole in his head in Mogadishu at the weekend after battles between al Shabaab insurgents and government forces backed by African Union (AU) troops.
...The Somali government says foreign fighters are leading the Islamist insurgency, and there is increasing international concern at the influx of hundreds of jihadists into Somalia -- from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Gulf region and western nations including the United States and Britain.
...Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre in Minneapolis, told Reuters Bana was one of 18 teenagers who ran away to Somalia last November after attending a youth programme at a local mosque.
"They (the clerics) convinced some of these teenagers to drop out of school, go back home and wage jihad," he said.
Jamal said the families of the 18 youths were shocked when they heard they had run away to join al Shabaab.
"They stayed in the mosque for a week, day and night," Jamal said. "They did not go to school in that week..."
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Also see:
7/13/09: New York Times: A Call to Jihad, Answered in America (if the link doesn't open, copy and paste title into google).
"...An examination by The New York Times, based on interviews with close friends and relatives of the men, law enforcement officials and lawyers, as well as access to live phone calls and Facebook messages between the men and their friends in the United States, reveals how a far-flung jihadist movement found a foothold in America’s heartland..."
7/10/09: American jihadist in Somalia post audio to President Obama
6/30/09: Al Qaeda North Africa seething over burqa remark
6/26/09: U.S. sending aid to fight Al-Qaeda affiliate, al Shabab, in Somalia
