Category: Africa

From homeless in Rochester to Somali jihad financier

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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.

Somali American jihad recruiter identified in the Netherlands

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update of the story I reported here two days ago.  It appears the FBI might have its man—-the alleged recruiter of the missing Somali youths (former refugees) we have been writing about for a year.

From AP:

AMSTERDAM — A Somali man suspected of recruiting youth in Minneapolis for Islamic terrorism in Somalia has a U.S. green card, Dutch media reported Friday.

Mohamud Said Omar, 43, was arrested last weekend at the request of U.S. authorities in an asylum seeker’s center in Dronten, Netherlands, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Amsterdam.

According to Dutch prosecutors, U.S. authorities suspect Omar of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008. They have requested his extradition.

FBI officials in Minneapolis have confirmed that the arrest of the suspect detained in the Netherlands is related to an investigation into the departure of more than a dozen young men to Somalia, including one who carried out a suicide attack there in October 2008.

Omar’s Dutch attorney, Audrey Kessels, told the daily newspaper De Volkskrant that given Omar’s U.S. green card, he was ineligible for asylum in the Netherlands and his request was quickly rejected.

However, she had appealed the decision on the basis of illness. Omar had told her he couldn’t find work in America and “didn’t have any peace in his head.”

“He didn’t make a healthy impression,” she said.

I sure hope they aren’t setting this up as another Jihad insanity story!

Sudanese government plans closure of refugee camps

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Check out this story today.  Note that anyone trying to understand what is happening in Darfur (a popular cause for many in Hollywood) would never know from reading this that it is Islamic supremacism behind the displacement and persecution of the non-Muslim Sudanese population.   From the Hollywood-set and other humanitarians one never hears an outcry against the radical Islamists in power in the Sudan—the closest this article comes is to say the government is Arab-dominated—and the other radical Muslims trying to bring down that government.

Nairobi – The Sudanese government plans to start closing down camps for the displaced population in the war-torn region of Darfur next year, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Some 20 000 housing units are being constructed to accommodate the homeless in the towns of El-Fasher, El-Geneina and Nyala, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Hasabu Abdel-Rahman told the UN-sponsored Miraya FM radio.

He said the displaced people will have the choice of returning to their village if they do not want to move to the new housing complexes.

Darfur rebel groups criticised the move, calling it a cover by the government to commit further crimes against the Darfur people.

A large segment of the population lives in camps while the Islamic government fights with other rebels, who also are Muslims.

Some 2.5 million people are living in refugee camps in Darfur.

The UN says up to 300 000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in the region first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.

If the camps are closed, will we see a new flood of Sudanese refugees to the US in some sort of emergency action by the State Department?

There have been many positive stories in the news about Sudanese refugees faring well in the US, and others (that didn’t make the mainstream news) not doing well.  See some previous posts on Sudanese refugees in the US in that latter group, here, here and here.

American Somali terror recruiter may have been arrested in the Netherlands

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Although the FBI isn’t confirming it, a key person wanted in the Somali missing youth case that we have been following for a year is under arrest in the Netherlands reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  He was believed to be the recruiter and financier of the “youths” (former refugees*) who went to Africa to join the Jihad.   The still unnamed suspect was caught at an asylum center—what a surprise!  Hat tip: an ever-watchful friend from Tennessee

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland.

The arrest appears to be the most significant development yet in one of the most far-reaching counterterrorism investigations since 9/11.

The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker’s center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released. But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism investigation that began here when young men began disappearing in 2007.

“We are aware of this individual and of this arrest. And it is tied to our ongoing Minneapolis investigation,” Wilson said. “We are and have been working closely with Dutch authorities through our legal attaché office in Brussels and coordinating with the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs.”

Dutch prosecutors said in a statement that the man lived in Minneapolis before leaving the United States in November 2008 and arrived in the Netherlands about one month later.

The statement said American authorities asked for the man’s arrest and are seeking to have him extradited. Wilson said he could not confirm or deny that.

According to the Dutch statement, U.S. prosecutors suspect the man of bankrolling the purchase of weapons for Islamic extremists and helping other Somalis travel to Somalia in 2007 and 2008.

[…..] 

At the heart of the federal investigation has been the question of who recruited the men and financed their return to their homeland to fight.

Wilson would not comment on the significance of Sunday’s arrest. But it is apparently the first to involve someone in an alleged leadership role.

Read the whole Star Tribune story, it’s a good summary of where the case stands now.

* 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.

More on Somali murder in Ft. Morgan: victim identified, sort of

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Ft. Morgan Times reported earlier today that the woman murdered by a fellow Somali immigrant last week is 27-year-old Warsen Aden Abdi.   When no pre-death records could be found, the only thing the Coroner’s office had to go on is the say-so of family members.  

 That is B.S.!   Unless she entered the country illegally (which is possible) someone in the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the Department of Homeland Security AND the agency that resettled her in the US have records for her.   If they don’t know who she is, that is downright scary because we are told refugees are thoroughly screened and surely fingerprinted in advance of arriving in the US.   Let’s hope they do a better job of tracking down documents on the accused murderer.

The victim of a Nov. 3 fatal stabbing has been positively identified by the Morgan County Coroner’s Office as Warsen Aden Abdi.

Her birth date, provided by family members, was Jan. 1, 1982.

Identification was complicated by lack of pre-death records.

The coroner’s office and Fort Morgan Police Department worked together to obtain postmortem fingerprints, a dental examination and medical examination but were unable to obtain any pre-death records for comparison.

Contact with Immigration Services and Lutheran Services, the sponsoring agency of refugees from East Africa, were unable to provide records.

Identification efforts were finalized by visual examination by family members of the victim.

A suspect in the case, Ahmed Abdi of Greeley, is being held in Morgan County jail on $300,000 bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Dec. 16.

Was this another honor killing?  Is that why there was an early gag order on information being released about the case?

Since the last names of the victim and the murder suspect are the same, I think it’s time to raise the Muslim ‘honor killing’ question.