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By AMY
FORLITI
MINNEAPOLIS, August 29, 2009 -- One young man attended secret meetings
in Minneapolis. Another got a phone call, urging him to leave Minnesota
and go to Somalia to fight. Terrorist training videos featuring English
speakers pepper YouTube, calling others to the cause.
Details are emerging about how terrorists in Somalia have lured young
American men - including as many as 20 from Minnesota - back to their
homeland to join their jihad. At least three have died, including one
who authorities believe is the first American suicide bomber. Three
others have pleaded guilty in the U.S. to terror-related charges.
Court proceedings and interviews with community members, attorneys and
terror experts indicate the Somali-based terror group, al-Shabaab, uses
widespread recruitment tactics including a vast Web-based network.
"Al-Shabaab 10 years ago would be a two-bit, paramilitary group that no
one would've cared about ... sitting in a basement somewhere stockpiling
rocket-propelled grenades and bullets for AK-47s," said Bruce Hoffman, a
terrorism specialist at Georgetown University. "Now, we see them
reaching into the United States."
Like many terror groups, al-Shabaab uses Internet videos to draw
disenfranchised young men into its fold. Many feature typical militant
scenes: men with covered faces firing automatic weapons, marching or
practicing martial arts. Some show close-up footage of dead bodies and
religious documents.
But al-Shabaab's propaganda sets it apart.
"I would say they were among the most explicit, the most violent, and
the most enthusiastic videos of any jihadi organization out there," said
Evan Kohlmann, a terror consultant.
The group, which the U.S. government says has ties to al-Qaida, also
uniquely targets Americans and English speakers, Kohlmann said.
Some videos show English-speaking suicide bombers reciting last wills.
Others showcase a man with shoulder-length brown hair who calls himself
Abu Mansour the American commanding fighters and glorifying jihadists
killed in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab's online propaganda proliferated in recent years after
messages from Osama bin Laden appeared on jihadist forums encouraging
followers to go to Somalia. The country of 7 million has not had a
functioning government since 1991.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said
Washington was concerned al-Shabaab uses foreign fighters and there was
no doubt the group wants to take control of Somalia and "launch attacks
against countries far and near."
Experts say Western recruits' passports and cultural awareness make them
valuable.
"You can't take someone from the slums of Mogadishu and take them on
some suicide mission to Rome, Paris, New York," Hoffman said. American
deaths also bring more attention to al-Shabaab's cause, he said.
In Minneapolis, home to the largest population of Somali immigrants in
the U.S., a federal investigation into the missing men is illuminating
the recruiting.
Salah Osman Ahmed, 26, of New Brighton, told a judge last month that he
attended "secret meetings" in Minneapolis starting in October 2007.
There, he said, a group of "guys" talked about returning to Somalia to
fight Ethiopians. At the time, the Ethiopian army, which many Somalis
viewed as abusive, occupied parts of Somalia.
When Ahmed got to Somalia, his attorney said, he realized what al-Shabaab
really was.
Hoffman said the underground meetings fit a pattern.
"The conspiratorial air is part of this group bonding," Hoffman said.
"That kind of atmosphere makes these young men think that what they are
doing is all the more important."
Hoffman also said terror groups use a network of friends, many of whom
act like persuasive salesmen, to help recruit.
One man who filled that role in Minneapolis, by one account, was Zakaria
Maruf.
Stephen Smith, an attorney who represents several young Somalis
questioned by authorities, said his clients describe Maruf as someone
with a bravado that appealed to younger men he met on the basketball
court or at mosques.
Smith said one of his 18-year-old clients got a phone call from Maruf,
in Somalia, asking him to join the fight. Maruf and the teenager also
exchanged e-mails and had a brief conversation in a chat room, Smith
said.
Smith said the teen didn't go but felt uncomfortable turning down
someone he looked up to.
Maruf's whereabouts aren't known. Some family members say they believe
he was killed in Somalia last month, but federal officials could not
confirm that.
Many young Somalis in Minneapolis say friends who left have stayed in
touch through Facebook or phone calls. In those conversations, friends
said, the men talked about life in Somalia being harder than expected,
and of missing American food and Starbucks.
The Facebook accounts are private. While the FBI said it can't comment
on specific communications, spokesman E.K. Wilson said the agency
continues to investigate "who or what motivated" the young men to go to
Somalia.
In Minnesota, imams are trying to counter al-Shabaab's message by
speaking out against violence and radicalism, reminding the faithful
that Islam is peaceful.
Farhan Hurre, the executive director of Minneapolis' Abubakar
As-Saddique Islamic Center, which has rejected suspicions it played a
part in recruiting, said mosque leaders also are advising parents to
keep their eyes open.
"If you have computers, if you have Internet, you have to know the sites
that your boys are visiting and what they are listening to," Hurre said
Source: Washington Post/AP, August 25, 2009
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