Update November 16th: More insight on this story from Jerry Gordon at New English Review, here.
Today comes news that the Somali arrested in the Netherlands this week and believed to be the recruiter and financier of the twenty-plus American Somali former refugees who returned to the Horn of Africa for Jihad training lived penniless in Rochester, MN. Really?
The arrest in the Netherlands of a Somali man with a Rochester connection is “heart-breaking” for local Somalis, said a local Somali community leader.
“It gives a bad image to our community,” said Abdifattah Abdinur of Rochester. “As American Somalis, we don’t condone any kind of violence or extremism, whether it’s here or in our country or back home. It’s heartbreaking to hear about these kinds of people.”
The Somali man arrested in the Netherlands, Mohamud Said Omar, 43, is accused of financing Islamic terrorists. One of his brothers, Mohamed Osman, 51, lives in Rochester.
Another brother, Abdullahi Said Omar of Minneapolis, said Mohamud Said Omar was so poor he couldn’t afford to bring his new wife from Somalia to the U.S.
Mohamed Osman said Mohamud Said Omar worked low-paying jobs to make ends meet and didn’t have enough money to send to terrorists.
“He was homeless, he didn’t even have a place to stay,” said Mohamed Osman. Both brothers said they feel Omar is innocent.
Investigators claim he bankrolled the purchase of weapons and recruited the youths. Guess he had a stash of cash from somewhere.
Mohamud Said Omar was arrested Sunday at an asylum seeker’s center near Amsterdam and is being held at the request of American authorities.
The arrest is related to the FBI’s investigation into the disappearance of up to 20 young Somali men who left the Twin Cities over the last two years for Somalia, presumed to have joined the terror group al-Shabaab.
Dutch prosecutors said U.S. investigators suspect him of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic militants and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.
I wrote about Rochester, MN a few weeks ago and predicted I would be hearing more from this “welcoming” city, here, and sure enough! Oh, by the way, I wonder if that nice lady promoting refugees for Catholic Charities in Rochester resettled this Somali “family?”
Note to 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. That specific program has not yet been reopened, but thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.