This is an update of the story we posted here three weeks ago about the arrest of four Somalis in San Diego (including the local imam) who are charged with aiding the terrorist group Al-shabab.

From KPBS:

SAN DIEGO — Despite scores of FBI intercepts, many local Somalis think the government’s case against four area San Diegans is fabricated and believe their community remains caught in the crosshairs of 9/11.

“There’s no Somali that I know today who supports al-Shabab,” said Mohamed Mohamed, a local Somali college student.

But in court papers, federal prosecutors say at least one of the accused men — Basaaly Moalin — had ties with top-ranking al-Shabab figures including Ayden Hashi Ayrow, the founder of al-Shabab which is trying to topple the weak central government in Somalia.

International Rescue Committee spokesman says undue pressure put on Somali “community” by authorities.

College student Yusuf Ali questions how the Imam, who counseled the community’s youth on the importance of education and Islam, could support al-Shabaab — a brutal group infamous for cutting off people’s hands and beheadings.

“He was my mentor. He used to tell me, `stay in school, stay away from drugs, study.’ He was teaching me my religion. He never taught me any violence. I was with him for 10 years. I never saw him doing that stuff.”

When asked if he thought the government was lying, Ali said, “Yeah, I do.”

Edgar Hopida of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says past terrorism cases have fostered that perception. He says the government has accused other American Muslims of having ties to violent Islamist groups but ends up with minor immigration violation convictions.

“So when they saw this come about with one of their local leaders, they saw it as `oh no, here we go again,'” Hopida said.

Many Somalis believe the government is specifically targeting their community.

“There’s a feeling that there’s an undue focus on the Somali community which is unfounded, because until now, there’s really been no wrongdoing in the community,” said Bob Montgomery who runs the International Rescue Committee in San Diego. “People are just struggling to rebuild their lives and all have fled the same terrorism that al-Shabab is doing now.”

Mr. Montgomery is probably worried that the public will ask him why his organization brought so many Somalis to San Diego in the first place.

See more about San Diego here where Somalis and law enforcement begin dialogue.

This is just one of those ‘told-you-so’ stories that makes one chuckle.  Byron York, writing at the Washington Examiner today tells us all about how the mayor and council of Portland, OR told the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to scram in 2005.  Now they may want them back in light of Christmas tree bomb plot.

York begins:

“I was recently told by a media person that if something happens in this city, I’m toast.”

So said Tom Potter, mayor of Portland, Oregon, on April 28, 2005 as he and the city council voted to bar Portland police from participating in one of the federal government’s key anti-terrorism initiatives, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. In Portland’s deep-blue precincts, there was intense opposition to the Bush administration’s conduct of the war on terror; residents worried the task force might violate state anti-discrimination laws by targeting Muslims for their religious and political views. So city leaders forbade police from taking part in it.

They made brave statements. “Here in Portland, we are not willing to give up individual liberties in order to have a perception of safety,” city commissioner Randy Leonard told reporters a few days before the vote. Yet there was still a little note of concern in Mayor Potter’s words: What if there were a terrorist attack after we refused to work with the FBI to prevent it?

Last Friday, that nearly happened. FBI undercover agents arrested would-be jihadi Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year old Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen, in connection with a plot to set off an enormous car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. Mohamud told the agents he wanted to stage a “spectacular show” in which hundreds, perhaps thousands of Portlanders would die. He also said he wasn’t worried about getting caught because the authorities in Portland “don’t see it as a place where anything will happen.”

Read it all.