Somali terror funding trial opens in Minneapolis tomorrow

Update October 2ndHere is an AP report published in the Washington Post today on the opening of the terror funding/jihadist recruitment trial of Mahamud Said Omar.  Here is the same story in the Miami Herald if the WaPo won’t let you open it.   I just noticed that the article never uses the word “refugee.”  I am sure the average reader is wondering how all the Somalis got here in the first place.

This trial isn’t for the two Somali women, they’ve already been convicted and are awaiting sentencing.  Tomorrow’s trial is for the former refugee who sees ghosts.  We told you about him here last week.

US Attorney:  This is the government’s only opportunity, to date, to tell the public what is going on in the Somali community.

From AP at Fox News (the story is breaking into the national news for a change):

MINNEAPOLIS –  A Minnesota man accused of helping to recruit and finance U.S. fighters for an overseas terror group heads to trial Monday in a case that’s expected to show how some young Somali expatriates in Minneapolis were persuaded to risk their lives for insurgents back home.

Mahamud Said Omar, 46, faces five terror-related counts as part of a much broader investigation into recruiting by al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terror group at the center of much of the violence in Somalia.

Since 2007, more than 20 young men are believed to have left Minnesota for the East African nation, presumably to take up arms with al-Shabab. The departures shook the Somali community in Minnesota — the largest in the United States.

While prosecutors don’t consider Omar a mastermind in the Minneapolis pipeline, they allege that he was far more than a bit player: They say he encouraged young men to fight, helped some get tickets for travel to Somalia and helped pay for weapons.

“We believe it’s a very important case because it will be the government’s only opportunity, to date, to explain to the public what has been going on in the Somali community, and how these recruiters have been going after these young men,” said U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Jeanne Cooney. “I think it will go a long way in explaining how these cases tie together.”

There is a lot more!  Read it all.

We have posted dozens of times on the story, use our search function for the words ‘Somali missing youths’ for our complete archive.