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Sources in the Twin Cities and the Netherlands confirmed the
identity of the man jailed overseas as a former Minneapolis resident,
Mohamud Said Omar, 43.
Amsterdam, November 14, 2009 – A Somali man from Minneapolis being held
in a Dutch jail on suspicion of bankrolling terrorist activities has
been identified by sources in the Twin Cities Somali community as
Mohamud Said Omar, 43.
Government officials in Amsterdam and federal authorities in Minneapolis
would not confirm the identity of the man being held in the Netherlands.
But several sources there and here say Omar, who is known by the
nickname "Shariif," is the man in custody.
Dutch authorities said in a statement that U.S. prosecutors suspect the
man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and
helping other Somalis to travel to Somalia to fight in 2007 and 2008.
Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the FBI's Minneapolis office also would not
confirm that Omar is the man being held, but acknowledged that the
arrest is related to the ongoing counterterrorism investigation that
began here when young Somali men began disappearing in 2007.
Details of Omar's life and activities in the Twin Cities are sketchy.
Several Somali sources said they believe he may have lived in
Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside apartment complex, home to thousands of
Somali refugees. They also said a cousin of his lives in Minneapolis.
But more about him was not immediately known.
Abdirizak Bihi, whose teenage nephew, Burhan Hassan, left Minneapolis
last November for Somalia only to be killed there in June, said he
learned from friends in the Netherlands that Omar went by the nickname "Shariif."
Omar was arrested Sunday at the Dronten asylum seekers center northeast
of Amsterdam at the request of U.S. officials. He was alone and arrested
without incident, Dutch authorities told the Star Tribune.
He had been staying at the center, a fenced complex of bungalow-style
buildings, since he asked the Dutch government to grant him asylum Dec.
25, 2008. Authorities said he first arrived in the Netherlands a month
earlier.
It is not clear why Omar, who is not a U.S. citizen but does have a
green card allowing him to live and work in America, was seeking asylum.
A call to his asylum attorney in the Netherlands was not returned
Thursday.
But in an interview with Janny Groen, a reporter for the Dutch newspaper
de Volkskrant, attorney Audrey Kessels said Omar went to Amsterdam
because he could not find work in Minneapolis. He told the lawyer that
in January 2008 he left Minneapolis for three months, staying in
Somalia, Djibouti and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
He also told her that he had married in Somalia and returned to
Minneapolis, Kessels told Groen.
Omar arrived in the Netherlands in November 2008, about the same time
that several Somali men and teens from Minneapolis quietly slipped away
from their homes to train and fight in Somalia.
An official in the Netherlands said Thursday that authorities within the
past month denied his asylum request. Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the
federal prosecutor's office in the Netherlands, said U.S. officials had
asked in September that the man be arrested. He said he could provide no
additional details about his time in the Netherlands, what brought him
there or why U.S. authorities wanted him.
Officials with AIVD, the Netherlands intelligence service, would not
comment on their role other than to say they gave information about the
man to Dutch police.
A judge in the Netherlands on Tuesday ordered Omar held for 60 days.
U.S. officials are expected to push for his extradition, which could
take more than a year if he fights it.
Omar's arrest appears to be the most significant development so far in
one of the most far-reaching counterterrorism investigations since 9/11.
At the heart of the case is finding out who recruited, indoctrinated,
and financed the travel of up to 20 young Minnesotans of Somali descent
to their homeland to train and fight for Al-Shabab, which has been
designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization with
ties to Al-Qaida.
Source: Star Tribune, Nov 12, 2009
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