Update November 17th: Omar Jamal is off to NYC again, this time to represent Somalia at the UN, here.
Update May 19th: Somali pirate indicted in NY, faces life in prison.
Urgent Update later on the 22nd: Minnesota State Rep. is seeking to cut any public funds to Jamal’s organization, here.
Update April 22nd: The pirate’s life here (if you can believe it!). And, a report from court, but no sign of Jamal.
To devoted readers who predicted this in the last couple of days, you nailed it! Omar Jamal is going to help the Somali pirate to assure he gets justice! Thanks to all who sent it! From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
A Twin Cities Somali community activist said he is on his way to New York this morning on a mission to ensure that an accused pirate is treated justly in a court appearance this afternoon.
Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, said he spoke Monday with the parents of Abdiwali Abduhl Wali-i-Musi, the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain.
Jamal said he intends to be in court today with Wali-i-Musi and carrying a letter from his parents in Somalia explaining that Jamal has permission to arrange for Wali-i-Musi’s defense.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Omar Jamal is either a narcissistic news hound or something much more complex, sinister? We have been writing about him for a year and a half. At first he was only defending Somali rapists, then he hit the big time when he got into the middle of the Somali cyanide death case in Denver last summer. I call him the Somali Jesse Jackson! In that case, the M.O. was the same as the one reported here in the Star Tribune, he contacted the Canadian family of the Somali who died with enough cyanide to kill hundreds in advance of the Democratic National Convention and convinced the media that the guy was no terrorist, just a nut.
Most recently Jamal has been the go-to guy for the media on the missing Somali (former refugee) youths story. In between he is into every issue involving Somalis from Somali gangs to ‘no child left behind,’ even the Coleman/Franken Senate race. Check out the three pages of posts in which we have mentioned him. Needless to say, the Somalis are always the victims when Jamal gets involved.
And, hey big media, do us all a favor and find out how he got out of his immigration fraud conviction. We are dying to know!
And to readers who have told us there is no connection between Somali immigrants in the US and piracy, guess you are WRONG! Amazing how Jamal so swiftly found the mommy and daddy of the pirate.
Get ready for the “….one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard” defense.
For new readers, the US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.