Scrutiny began around time of Obama inauguration: community members

By Louisa Taylor

OTTAWA, January 9, 2010 — Members of Ottawa’s Somali community say their youth were targeted by security officials in the run-up to the inauguration of Barack Obama, and the targeting continues more than a year later, causing deep mistrust in the community.

Community advocate Mohamed Sofa, 27, says he knows of 10 separate cases from the past year and a half in which CSIS has approached young, male Somali-Canadians in Ottawa.

“For some it was a phone call asking them to come to CSIS and talk, for others it was a visit at home or at their workplace, unannounced,” says Sofa.

They said the questions asked were very general and vague — ‘Did you go to this lecture? Do you know this person?’ They left not understanding what had just happened.”

“So they ask themselves, ‘Am I being watched? Has someone said something bad about me?’ ”

Sofa says many of the young people he spoke with didn’t get clear answers from CSIS about why they were being singled out.

“People were afraid and they thought that they were being accused or they had done something wrong, when in fact it was a routine check or sometimes even for recruitment purposes,” says Sofa, adding that they were among the most influential and respected members of the local Somali community.

“The way the CSIS field officers handled it created a lot of talk and negativity about CSIS in the community. It seems like a recruitment tool gone south.”

When reached for comment on Monday, CSIS spokeswoman Isabelle Scott said the agency works with various communities through outreach programs.

“We receive useful information from all segments of Canadian society and we are grateful for this assistance to help keep all Canadians safe,” Scott said. “Individuals are targeted because they engage in specific threat-related activities, not because they come from a particular ethnic group or community.”

Census figures suggest there are about 37,000 Canadians of Somali descent, although unofficial estimates put the number far higher. The census estimates there are almost 9,000 in Ottawa, a third of those under the age of 19.

The focus on Somali-Canadian youth as potential recruits for terrorist activities has been growing in recent years, with the rise in Somalia of al-Shabaab, a militant group with links to al-Qaeda. As many as 20 young Americans are believed to have left Minnesota to join al-Shabaab in the past two years, all but one of Somali descent. U.S. prosecutors recently announced charges against eight suspects accused of

financing terrorism training for al-Shabaab recruits.

CSIS is said to be investigating the disappearance early last month of several young Canadian men in Toronto. It is rumored that they travelled to the Horn of Africa to join al-Shabaab.

On Monday, it was revealed that, in the days leading up to the Obama inauguration, U.S. terrorism experts reacted to a tip that Somali extremists were poised to launch an attack on Washington after crossing the border from Canada. The threat resulted in high-level White House meetings to plan reactions to any possible assassination attempt.

Several young Somali-Canadians from Ottawa attempting to attend the inauguration of the first black president reported being fingerprinted and photographed before entering the U.S. Others were simply turned back. One young Ottawa man crossed the border, but was interrogated, searched and followed once he arrived in the Washington, D.C. area.

The RCMP says it now believes the tip was a “hoax,” likely sparked by clan rivalries in Somalia.

“A lot of our young people were shaken by their experience at the border and they will receive an answer through this news of the hoax,” says Farah Aw Osman, executive director of Canadian Friends of Somalia. “They also understand now that law enforcement agencies rely on informants and some of them are there to provide misinformation that can cause tremendous suffering for innocent people.”

Aw Osman says he met recently with RCMP and CSIS officials to share the community’s concerns about the more recent CSIS contacts with youth.

“CSIS told me they are interested in recruiting people from our community, that our community is one of the communities of concern,” says Aw Osman. “They said sometimes they go back to the same person again because they know a person will not be convinced to help them on the first contact. But instead they’re causing fear in young people who have never experienced this kind of contact.”

Aw Osman says community members are in an uncomfortable position, especially the parents.

“We also want to help keep Canada safe and work with law enforcement agencies. But we are concerned that our children’s rights are protected. We don’t want them violated in the name of security.”

Last October, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott pointed to a growing threat of Islamic radicals among Canadians of Somali descent. He warned the RCMP is concerned about Canadians who travel to Somalia “to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate that into direct action.”

Aw Osman said Elliott’s speech hit the community hard.

“The commissioner’s statement was damaging, especially when our young people were already feeling alienated and targeted,” says Aw Osman. “A lot of young people travel to Somalia to visit their loved ones, to explore their roots. Now the commissioner says any young person who goes there is potentially involved in al-Shabaab.”

Aw Osman believes security officials need to start listening instead of just talking.

“We need more openness, more dialogue between Canadian officials and the Somali community, especially the youth,” says Aw Osman.

Source: The Ottawa Citizen, January 6, 2010

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