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Minneapolis, November 28, 2009 ―A Minnesota man
hosted a gathering for several young Somalis days before they left
Minneapolis to fight with a terrorist group in their war-torn homeland,
according to court documents unsealed Tuesday in a sweeping federal
investigation.
Mohamud Said Omar, 43, who is in custody in the Netherlands, is accused
of being involved with many of the roughly 20 young men who left
Minneapolis in waves from December 2007 through November 2008.
Omar is among 14 charged in the investigation some terrorism experts
call one of the largest of its kind.
"The numbers are huge compared to other domestic terrorism cases that
have been brought," said Michael Greenberger, director of the University
of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security.
Several individuals are accused in court documents of a mix of
recruiting and raising funds for travel, and of engaging in terrorist
acts in Somalia. Some allegedly attended training camps run by the group
al-Shabaab, which the U.S. says has ties to al-Qaida. All but one of the
men who left the Minneapolis area are of Somali descent.
"We haven't seen anything like that before in the United States," Ralph
S. Boelter, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field
office, said of the case. "The recruitment is a global problem. ... It
varies in intensity from place to place. I think (Minneapolis) is the
center of it."
An affidavit unsealed Tuesday alleges the young Somalis' departures
began with six men leaving in December 2007. Another left the following
February, two more that August and another six last November.
The affidavit by Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk states that
before the first group left in 2007, Omar gave travel money to some
"members of the conspiracy."
In January 2008, Omar allegedly went to Somalia himself, stayed at an
al-Shabaab safehouse for several days and provided money to purchase
AK-47 assault rifles, the affidavit says.
Omar returned to the U.S. that April and was stopped by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection in Atlanta because he had an expired Minnesota
driver's license, purchased his airline ticket with cash and was
returning from a three-month trip to Somalia, according to another FBI
affidavit.
In August 2008, Omar allegedly accompanied two men bound for Somalia to
the airport and that November hosted a gathering that included several
young men who left for Somalia in the following days to join al-Shabaab,
according to court documents.
Two of Omar's brothers in Minnesota previously have said he is innocent
of terror-related charges and is not an extremist. They did not return
telephone calls Tuesday.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords
overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other, causing
chaos in the African nation of 7 million. Minnesota has the largest
population of Somali immigrants of any U.S. state.
Four men have pleaded guilty in Minneapolis to charges ranging from
supporting terrorism to perjury and are awaiting sentencing.
Another man, Omer Abdi Mohamed, 24, of St. Anthony, pleaded not guilty
Tuesday to terror-related charges. He is free on bond.
"Omer had absolutely no connection with a terrorist then, now, or ever,"
said his attorney, Peter Wold.
Seven others charged in the case are believed to be outside the United
States.
"Some of them could have already met their demise," Boelter said. "We
just don't know."
Source: AP, Nov 24, 2009
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