Years ago Somali immigrant Mohammed Warsame was arrested on charges involving material support of terrorism after traveling to an Afghanistan training camp. Yesterday the case came to an end according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
More than five years after FBI agents first knocked on the door of his Minneapolis apartment, terrorism suspect Mohammed Abdullah Warsame brought an abrupt end to his legal battles Wednesday by pleading guilty to a single charge of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Al-Qaida.
Four other charges against Warsame, 35, will be dropped, including providing material support to the terrorist organization and making false statements to the FBI.
[….]
Prosecutors described the plea agreement in a news release, saying that Warsame attended two training camps in Afghanistan in 2000, met Osama bin Laden at one camp, and later worked at an Al-Qaida guesthouse and clinic. In 2001, he traveled from Pakistan to Canada, establishing e-mail contacts with several Al-Qaida associates he had met in Afghanistan, the news release said. He sent money to one of his former training camp commanders, it said. After moving to Minneapolis, he maintained e-mail contact in 2002 and 2003 with several people associated with Al-Qaida, the release said.
Read on.
So why does this interest us? We first told you that we had discovered that Minneapolis Somali Justice Center head honcho, Omar Jamal, was a relative of Warsame here. We have written extensively about how Jamal, who had been convicted of immigration fraud and was expected to be deported, curiously places himself in the middle of many issues involving Somali refugees and immigrants in the US. He even went to New York recently to defend the Somali pirate.
Here his family connection to Warsame is mentioned in a 2004 CNN report:
Omar Jamal, Warsame’s uncle and executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, told CNN he is prepared for a lengthy process.
And, here is what he said to Minnesota Public Radio a month later. No mention of the family connection.
A spokesman for the Warsame family, Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Center, said it’s important to keep in mind Warsame is innocent until proven guilty.
“We don’t have to lose the sight that this is an allegation from the government. This is subject to proof, burden of proof on the government side. This will be the thing in the court. This trial will go on very long period of time. And it’s going to be the part of the government to prove that,” says Jamal.
By the way, it is believed that Jamal himself came into the US through Canada.
Here is our archive on the many posts we have written on the flamboyant Omar Jamal.