Update November 24th: Not close to the big fish yet, here. And, who fingered Zakaria Maruf? here.
Update a few hours later: Entire press release is available, here.
So, what is my reaction? BIG DEAL! What took you so long? Check out this story from Fox News this afternoon. Hat tip: Watchful in Tennessee and Blulitespecial. There is virtually nothing new in here!
Some of the arrests have already been announced (one last week) and some others are overseas somewhere, ho hum. And, if this story is accurate there won’t be any connection made to the mosque that most, if not all, attended.
This is what I think. The FBI MISSED SPOTTING MAJOR NIDAL HASAN and now this is an effort to make the FBI and by extension the boss–Obama–look like they are on top of potential terror cases. We started following the story of former Somali refugees* thumbing their noses at American generosity a year ago! Again, what took the FBI so long? Doing the happy dance around political correctness I suppose!
Federal authorities are expected to announce charges against eight more people today in a long-running investigation into how perhaps dozens of young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia.
It will be the most significant and public move to date in the case.
Charges against the eight people will be announced at a joint FBI-U.S. Attorney’s Office press conference in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon, a source said. Some, if not all, of the individuals will be charged with providing material support to terrorists, the source said.
Many of those charged have already been arrested, but some individuals are currently overseas, the source said. The source did not elaborate.
Beginning in late 2007 and continuing through last year, more than 20 young Americans of Somali descent were persuaded to train and fight with al-Shabaab, which is fighting to establish a Muslim state in Somalia and recently pledged its allegiance to Usama bin Laden.
U.S. officials worry that if al-Shabaab prevails, Somalia could turn into a haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
After families in Minneapolis began to report their sons missing, the FBI launched a wide-ranging investigation.
Check back later for more news, maybe they’ll surprise us!
For new readers who are wondering how the Somali refugees came to be here in the first place:
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 will be soon. Nevertheless, thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.
Who resettles them: Catholic Charities, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and World Relief (Evangelicals) and others.