Category: Africa

Another guilty plea in missing Somali youth case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A third Somali, former refugee, plead guilty in Minneapolis this week.  He admitted fighting with Al-Shabaab in Somalia.    For readers who have been following this case for a long time, what is puzzling to me, is how did 3 Al-Shabaab-trained terrorists get back into the US?   Four others died in Somalia and three of those are believed to have been killed by Al-Shabaab itself  because they might return and tell who recruited them.  Why did Al-Shabaab let these three return?

So, did the three who have now plead guilty talk?  Do we know the recruiter or recruiters?

Here is the latest from AP:

MINNEAPOLIS — A third man pleaded guilty Wednesday to terror-related charges stemming from a federal investigation into Americans traveling to Somalia to fight with Islamic militants.

Kamal Hassan acknowledged lying to FBI agents questioning him in February about the case and admitted spending time at a training camp run in Somalia by al-Shabab, a group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida.

Hassan told federal agents that he traveled to Yemen after spending time in the camp, but admitted Wednesday to a federal judge in Minneapolis that he had lied. He told U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum he fought with al-Shabab in Somalia.

Hassan also admitted concealing the identities of people he associated with in Minnesota and Somalia.

Few other details about Hassan’s case emerged in court, and his age and hometown weren’t immediately available.

[….]

He faces up to eight years in prison in a plea agreement worked out with the U.S. attorney’s office. A sentencing date wasn’t immediately set.

Court documents unsealed later Wednesday showed that Hassan had pleaded guilty in February to two other charges: providing material support for terrorism and providing material support for a foreign terrorist organization. Court documents said Hassan faces up to 15 years in prison on each of those charges.

Here is the post on the second Somali who plead guilty last month in the case.  For new readers, this is a post where I have kept a chronology of the evolving story of the missing Somali youths, unfortunately I haven’t kept it up to date, but you can see how this issue has developed over many months.  I need to get to work and put in posts since mid-July!

Roanoke refugees plead guilty in kidnapping case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh, well, I am only nearly a month late with the news, but better late then never, right!    What prompted me to search around and see if something was new on this story we reported back in May where 4 African immigrants (3 were identified as refugees) had plotted to kidnap rich local women and hold them for ransom, is that this afternoon nearly 20 people are visiting RRW and that old May kidnapping story.   I figured something must be going on with it.

This is all I found, a short piece from mid-July about how all four have pleaded guilty and face life sentences.   I suspect they got a little culture shock coming from Africa where kidnapping for ransom is likely just one more source of ill-gotten gain.

Four men have pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in a plot to kidnap the wives of wealthy Roanoke area men and hold them for ransom.

U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley said 19-year-old Joshua Kasongo of Roanoke and 20-year-old Luke Elbino of Vinton entered guilty pleas Friday in U.S. District Court.

Two others, 20-year-old Mohamed Hussein Guhad and 18-year-old Anthony Eugene Boyd-Muse, pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Prosecutors say looked for houses in Roanoke County neighborhoods where they believed wealthy people lived, then used the Internet to research their intended targets.

The four face a maximum of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled October 8.

I’m guessing that the Virginia Council of Churches has looked on Roanoke as one of those wonderful welcoming cities, not like mean old Hagerstown, MD.

Hagerstown Refugee article (Part II): Doesn’t this endanger some refugees?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I just told you in my previous post that I had been lazy about posting on a Hagerstown Herald Mail article about refugees in my county.  Go check out what I said, here.  However, when I saw this article published at something called Refugees United, it got my attention.

The Herald Mail story gives a pat on the back to George Miller who previously ran the Virginia Council of Churches in Hagerstown before he was let go during the political problems the organization faced  (the ones I told you about in the previous post).   Miller has befriended an African refugee, who is apparently doing very well in our county, but who literally ran for his life because he was reporting against his government in Africa.

So, now here he is with a big photo and a story that tells all about where he lives and works in the US and that he has family still in the Ivory Coast prominantly featured at a website for finding refugees.   Isn’t it just possible that while patting themselves on the back and wanting so badly to show the public they are good people that they actually endanger some refugees lives?  Who benefits, does the refugee (Diabate in this case) benefit or do the do-gooders just get to feel good while promoting their political agenda?  Can’t his enemies better find him and his family now? 

Here is what the Herald Mail tells us:

Miller has been inviting Diabate, 36, to celebrate holidays with him since Diabate arrived in the U.S. three years ago.

“We usually have him for Easter and Christmas dinners, and even Thanksgiving,” Miller said.

Before fleeing, Diabate said he worked as a teacher and then as a reporter, writing stories critical of the government.

His struggle, which included being arrested and brutalized by unidentified attackers in 2005, was chronicled on The Herald-Mail editorial page in February 2007.

Diabate ran from his attackers, and then walked 200 miles to Ghana.

He is still in touch with his family — brothers, sisters and four daughters. For the last two years, he’s been trying to bring his daughters to the United States.

Who is behind Refugees United?   I just went to their site and then to Guidestar to see what I could learn.  Guidestar gives us the following description of what they are about, sounds all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?

Refugees United works to provide a global, anonymous and secure network to assist refugees in reconnecting with missing family members. Working across borders and boundaries, without taking into consideration the legal status of a refugee, or which conflict he or she has escaped from, the network is aimed at all in search of missing family.

Furthermore the platform operates in 23 different languages, providing an all-important function of anonymity, allowing any person to register with as much or as little information as he/she is comfortable with sharing with the world. Family-known traits such as nicknames, pet’s names and so on, coupled with data on age, former villages or regions, provides a seamless and global network able to restore family contacts.

It is the aim of Refugees United to continuous work with refugees, empowering them in their quest to find loved ones, bringing them into the decision making process and with the ability to make active choices in their own lives. Refugees United also actively seeks open partnerships with organizations in pursuit of alleviating the suffering of refugees, IDPs and stateless persons.

They really don’t have much of a website, but they have a blog where they have posted this Herald Mail story.   On their itty bitty site you find this disclaimer:

We do NOT recommend the service of Refugees United to people at risk of being traced by potential persecutors.

Well, now I am wondering if they asked Mr. Diabate if they could plaster his information and photo on their blog? 

Because Refugees United (New York City address) only began in 2008, they have no Form 990 on file at Guidestar, but they do have their funding sources:

Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation – $200,000

The Way Forward – $75,000

JL Foundation – $50,000

The $200,000 is from a Danish leftwing foundation.   The other two I couldn’t find much information about because there are several ‘The Way Forward’ projects, one is at Ford the other at Chase Manhattan Bank and the only JL Foundation I found didn’t seem remotely connected to refugees and immigration.

I was thinking gee, it’s too bad that Obama didn’t have this site last year before he was surprised and embarrassed by the press discovering Auntie Zeituni living illegally in subsidized housing in Boston.  I wonder if he could use this site now to find the still elusive Uncle Omar?

Voice of America/Omar Jamal have the inside scoop on travel agency raid

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When it comes to Somalis in America, Omar Jamal IS the voice of America.   Regular readers will know I’m laughing as I write this.  Here we go again, this time it’s news about the feds raiding a Minnesota travel agency in connection with the case of the Somali missing youths who have returned to Somalia to participate in Jihad.   Omar Jamal ALWAYS has the inside scoop.  From the Voice of America:

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the office of a Minnesota travel agency this week for clues to the disappearance of 20 Somali-American men believed to be fighting in Somalia’s civil war.

Omar Jamal, spokesman for the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, says the owner of Amana Travel was approached several months ago by two young men who wanted to travel to Somalia. Jamal says the owner, Ali Mohamud, refused to book the tickets when he learned the young men’s parents were unaware of their plans.

Type ‘Omar Jamal’ into our search function and you will see what I mean.  I bet we have dozens of posts on him.

Hillary goes to Somalia and ticks off Al Shabaab

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well, no that is not the headline in the New York Times that reports glowingly about Secretary of State Clinton’s visit to the Somalia this past week, but it should be.  Clinton promised the tottering government that the US would continue to send all sorts of goodies and weapons to help prop up the “moderate Muslim” government. 

I hope, however, that our Homeland Security people are ready for retaliation.  If you will recall the Jihadists claim that the US-backed invading Ethiopian troops entering Somalia were the reason they were fighting—for nationalism, for defense of their homeland.   Garbage of course,  the Ethiopians are gone and they are still fighting.  The Al Shabaab is fighting to create a radical Islamic state in the Horn of Africa.

Anyway, here is how the NYT begins its schmaltzy story:

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government received desperately needed support on Thursday as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised its president as “the best hope we’ve had for some time,” then strongly warned Eritrea to stop supporting insurgents in the country.

Mrs. Clinton met with Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, elected Somalia’s president in January, for more than an hour. She promised more aid, training and equipment, in addition to the millions of dollars’ worth of weapons the United States has recently shipped to his government.

“We need to be there to help them deliver the results of stability to the people of Somalia, who have suffered for so long,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Sheik Sharif can use the help. His moderate Islamist government controls no more than a few city blocks in a country the size of Texas, with extremist Islamist groups, like the Shabab, in charge of much of the rest.

Now, here we go with this head-in-the-sand notion that I witnessed at the Senate Homeland Security hearing last March, that somehow as long as we could keep Al-Qaeda out of Somalia we were safe.  What the hell!  Al-Shabaab is virtually the same organization with the same goals—destroy the West!  And, they are already in the US!  They also have no respect for Obama as we saw when Al-Amriki made fun of Obama’s Cairo speech.

“No doubt that Al Shabab wants to obtain control over Somalia and use it as a base to influence and infiltrate surrounding countries,” she said. “If Al Shabab were to obtain a haven in Somalia which could then attract Al Qaeda and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States.”

The handshake death sentence.

Then this was a really stupid move on Hillary’s part.  They could have planned ahead of time to not shake hands in public.   Shaking hands with a woman, an infidel woman no less, is strickly forbidden in Shariah law.  

Sheik Sharif seemed to bask in the attention. He stood riveted at a lectern next to Mrs. Clinton at an end-of-the-day news conference, wearing a crisp blue suit, an Islamic prayer hat and a lapel pin of joined Somali and American flags.

Before saying goodbye, he vigorously shook Mrs. Clinton’s hand — which caught the eye of one Somali journalist, who asked the president if that was religiously forbidden.

“No, no,” Sheik Sharif said and flashed a nervous grin. “Next question?”

Obama, Hillary, the NYT, the Left, they just don’t get it.  I’m not suggesting we tip-toe around Al Shabaab, just that we do nothing overtly naive and stupid.  All of this—giving weapons and support to the “moderate” government—could have been done with no fanfare and no overt ‘in your face’ gesture like this lovefest/handshake press conference.  Now that Hillary has added more fuel to a raging bonfire, are she and Obama going to do anything more for Somalia—I doubt it.