Way back in March of 2009, I went to a Senate Homeland Security hearing in Washington to hear testimony before Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins about the investigation into the Somali Al-Shabab recruitment on-going in Minneapolis (then and now!).
Federal investigators told the Senators, to their obvious relief, that this was all about nationalism (fighting Ethiopians!) on the part of the Somali jihad recruits and that Al-Qaeda was not involved. Now we know that both of those assessments were wrong, but at the time I wondered how the feds could have been so misguided because even to casual observers it was apparent that they were on the wrong track (but why? political correctness run amok?).
Here is a story from last week (yet another story) about the terrorist recruitment trial that just wrapped up in Minnesota. This is what the FBI now says:
Most of the young men who left Minnesota to become holy warriors hadn’t seen Somalia since they were toddlers, when their families fled at the outset of the 1991 civil war. For that reason, investigators believe that the young men needed indoctrination to get them to go, and help to get there.
“We know now that we were dealing with an organized effort,” Wilson said. “To leave the relative comforts of a place like this, you’ve got to have some external influence, absolutely.” [Readers, in my view, this is one of the most egregious errors we make in trying to assess danger involving Islamists—they aren’t like us! Those following Mohammad’s teaching (Koran and Hadiths) don’t need comfort and the good things in life.—ed]
[….]
At first, these recruiters appealed to the men’s sense of nationalism, calling on them to help rout Ethiopian soldiers — a traditional enemy — from Somalia. But Wilson said the long-term goal was to radicalize the men as Islamist holy warriors with an agenda of spreading their extremist views across the Horn of Africa.
I hope someone went back to Lieberman and Collins and made sure they now understand that!
It is not over! More Minneapolis Somali former refugees joining Al-Shabab!
Minnesota Public Radio reports that at least two more ‘youths’ left this summer to join the Jihadists. Don’t you just love it, you, with your tax dollars, raised them, fed them, housed them and educated them so that now they can be strong and healthy Islamic warriors!
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Four years after federal authorities in the Twin Cities began investigating homegrown recruitment for the terrorist group al-Shabab, at least two additional men slipped away to Somalia as recently as July.
Federal authorities believe the Minneapolis men joined the group and are still in the East African nation.
The FBI’s confirmation this week that a terrorist conduit continues to flow from Minnesota to Somalia perplexes members of Minnesota’s Somali community, who have watched with dismay as young men have disappeared.
It’s ALWAYS been about religion and not nationalism (FBI now re-writing the story line):
So religion appears to be al-Shabab’s predominant battle cry. Al-Shabab’s end game has always been to to radicalize its troops through its extreme interpretation of Islam, Wilson said.
For new readers: We have resettled another 14,757 Somalis into the US during Fiscal years 2008 through 2011 (Obama years!) Check out the numbers yourself here at the Cultural Orientation Resource Center data base. In 2008, the US State Department suspended family reunification for Somalis (and some others from Africa) when they discovered widespread fraud—gee, they weren’t family they were bringing over after all! Estimates are that as many as 36,000 Somalis may have entered the US fraudulently from 2003-2008, here. (Bush years!)
Oh, and family reunification is now up and running for Somalis!