Category: Africa

More details emerging about that Inauguration day terror scare

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you about this at the time of Obama’s inauguration, but this week the AP has reported more details on how things went down in the situation room at the White House  just as the transition of power from Bush to Obama was occuring.  According to AP, it seems there was much scrambling going on.  Just how serious was the threat from Somali terrorists that some action would go down that day?

As people crowded into the capital for Barack Obama’s inaugural celebration, senior counterterrorism officials huddled in the White House situation room, frantically trying to unravel intelligence about a possible attack on Washington.

By Tuesday afternoon, as Obama took the oath of office, the threat of a terror plot by the Somalia-based al-Shabab organization had been debunked, but the flurry of activity underscored growing worries about this Islamic militant group.

“I think they are a serious problem, and I don’t think that we should be glib and take it lightly,” said Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for African Affairs. “Are they the ones that are going to plan the next major terrorist attack in the United States and carry it out? Probably not. But could they provide some of the foot soldiers for it? Yes.”

Only foot soldiers?  Ms. Whelan, you underestimate the Somalis at your peril.

U.S. counterterrorism officials say they detect a disturbing pattern, one that mirrors al-Qaida methods and could spawn homegrown insurgents and suicide bombers in the U.S.

Counterterrorism officials suspect that al-Shabab is recruiting young men from Somali communities in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, luring them back to their home country for terror training and creating cells of fighters who could travel to other countries, including the United States, to launch attacks.

Officials don’t know if Somalis who have left the country are returning.  Homeland Security has the intelligence framework in place to know that and I suspect they do.  I suppose the larger question is, will they tell the public if these men do return?

And, darn,  it just occured to me that since the FBI is in AG Eric Holder’s Justice Department and they are running the investigation in cities with significant Somali populations, are they sharing their information with agencies like the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) in Homeland Security?  

U.S. officials aren’t sure who is recruiting for al-Shabab, or whether recruits trained in Somalia have been returning to the United States. That uncertainty increased the concerns about the inaugural weekend intelligence reports. Counterterrorism officials described the time as tense as they faced a threat that appeared to grow in credibility as the hours passed.

Furthermore, Ms Whelan who is quoted extensively here is in yet another department—the Defense Department.  I hope this isn’t evolving into a government terrorist investigation (like how 9/11 happened) where walls between agencies with knowledge of the Somalis in the US are firmly in place.  Indeed yet another agency knows a whole bunch about who is and who isn’t in the US, and that is the US State Department.  I sure hope they have some interagency working groups on the subject.

Whelan, who has been a senior policy adviser on African issues at the Pentagon for 14 years, said the al-Shabab threat is complex and evolving, potentially becoming more serious as al-Qaida or other Islamic ideologues try to make inroads into the Somali communities in the U.S.

“There has been a lot of movement back and forth (to Somalia) for a long time, and that leaves us open to the potential that weaknesses will be exploited by those that have jihadist aims,” she said. “We need to be very careful because we have seen that we are internally vulnerable because of the Somali Diaspora.”

And how did we get this large Somali Diaspora in the US?   Ask the State Department and the volags busy lobbying for more Africans to resettle in your town!

Lets see how much of this story Senate hearings might reveal!

The al-Shabab threat also has attracted attention in Congress, where the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is planning to hold a hearing on the rise of al-Shabab.

Somalis don’t like dogs and other things you need to know about your new neighbors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Feb. 28th:   The Star Tribune published an editorial yesterday about the open house at the Minneapolis mosque that is under suspicion (discussed below).   It’s your typical, ho-hum, editorial about how we must all come together, but read it anyway.

 

A couple of articles came across my desk yesterday that I’m throwing together here because both involve a stepped-up campaign to help Americans understand our ever-expanding Somali Muslim population.   The first is about a documentary film that follows the lives of two families resettled in the US from camps in Kenya.    The filmmaker is Anne Makepeace, so I think you know where this is going.

I’ve just pulled this little bit from the article in BU Today (Boston University) to get your attention!   Dogs are considered in the top ten dirty things in Islam right along with urine, feces, dead bodies and pigs.  Families taking in Somalis should have been briefed about the Muslim prohibition about dogs.

…. there’s also a scene when the family going to Atlanta first gets there, and the hosts who take in the family want the kids to pat the dogs, so they’ll be friendly. But the hosts did not know that some Muslims don’t touch dogs. So the kid quickly touches the dog, because he’s pressured to do it. When that clip was seen on the Internet, the child was teased by his classmates, so his mother wanted me to take it out of the film. But it was too late — PBS already had it, and it was about to be broadcast.

Watch the brief film clip from the documentary because it gives a little view into the “education” received by refugees from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) before the refugees depart Africa.  There is a discussion about what is “rape” in the US.   Is it rape to force one’s own wife to have sex against her will, NO! answer the men and all the Somali women answer, yes!

Skipping out to Minneapolis

In the wake of FBI Director Mueller’s speech this week about the Somali missing men, the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center opened its doors to the community to show that the Somali Muslims are welcoming, want to be a part of the Minneapolis community and to assure the public they were not involved in any way with indoctrinating the missing youths.

The public relations campaign is working judging from responses like this one in the Star Tribune.  I thought it was funny though how the reporter put the following paragraphs together.  One of Abubakar’s ‘worshipers’ kills himself and 30 others in a suicide attack in Somalia and it’s all about prejudice, huh!

Henry Lippman, whose daughter lives in the neighborhood, came from St. Paul.

“I’m Jewish,” he said. “I grew up recognizing prejudice. I thought it was important to show support. … I know there has been prejudice against this community and particularly this center.”

Rumors connecting the mosque to the missing men surfaced late last fall when news broke about the death of Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali immigrant from Minneapolis who returned to Somalia and killed himself in a suicide attack in October. Ahmed, and some of the other Somali men from Minneapolis who disappeared had spent time at, or had ties to Abubakar, sources in the Somali community have said.

It is believed that the source is none other than Somali community mouthpiece Omar Jamal, NOT the big bad FBI or prejudiced Americans.  Even the families of the missing youths say their “chidren” spent all their free time at the mosque.  And, someone had to arrange for (and pay) their plane tickets out of the country.

The Star Tribune puff piece goes on:

Standing at the head table in the wedding hall, Hurre (mosque director) minced no words.

He said the disappearances are a tragedy that has left families and friends reeling. But a second tragedy is the “finger-pointing” and implication that the mosque was behind their disappearance.

“This mosque has nothing do with … Somali politics or indoctrination or recruiting or helping to return these young people to Somali,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Hurre said mosque leaders have talked among themselves and are convinced nobody on staff influenced the young men.

The article goes on to say that mosque leaders will soon be meeting with the FBI.  Funny, this has been going on since late November and that hasn’t happened yet.

And, one final note, CAIR and the mosque invited Mueller to attend this ‘open house’ but notice was too short for Mueller’s busy schedule.

FBI director Mueller: “…a perversion of the immigrant story”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is why I love the Washington Times and hope it will survive as papers big and small crash and burn!   Judy told you in the previous post that the New York Times is reporting (3 months after the fact) that Somali “youths” are leaving the US and assumed to be traveling to Somalia to join the Jihad.  The Washington Times had reported the story on the front page on December 29, 2008 here.

The Washington Times is reporting that news again, and adding so much more to the story today.   This excellent reporting by Ben Conery  takes the speech yesterday that FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III gave to the Council on Foreign Relations and gets out and finds more information.

A monthly conference call with Homeland Security:

Ahmed Elmi, chairman of the Somali-American Community Association in the Washington area, said Somali community leaders throughout the U.S. are concerned about what happened in Minnesota and are eager to help the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies deal with the issue.

“We tell Somalis: ‘If you know something, you should report it immediately. It’s a crime if you don’t. If you don’t know the language or feel uncomfortable, go to Somali community agencies for help,’ ” Mr. Elmi said.

On the first Tuesday of each month, a half-dozen Somali community leaders from throughout the U.S., including from Minnesota, have a one-hour teleconference with the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Elmi said.

“We’ve spoken with FBI agents in Virginia, and we are hoping to do something similar with the FBI,” he said.

Back to Mueller:

Mr. Mueller pointed to the costs of the present situation in human terms.

“The prospect of young men, indoctrinated and radicalized within their own communities, and induced to travel to such countries to take up arms – and to kill themselves and perhaps many others – is a perversion of the immigrant story,” Mr. Mueller said.

It’s not so perverse Mr. Mueller if you guys knew anything about Islam!

Now, just in case my theory is correct and that all these radicalized Somali youths  have not gone back to Somalia, this Washington Times article goes into a discussion about how the FBI was involved in helping India in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, concluding:

Though he declined to speculate about whether a similar attack [to the one in Mumbai] would take place in the U.S., Mr. Mueller said the Mumbai attacks, carried out by 10 terrorists, “reminds us that terrorists with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximize their impact.”

Note to readers (and the FBI):   If  Muellers (CYA) speech gives you comfort that the FBI is on top of the Somali radicalization issue in the US, think again.   They have missed some critical opportunities in one city I know of—Nashville, TN.  Could there be others?

FBI notices Somalis were radicalized in Minnesota; not sure if it’s a problem

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ann has posted numerous times on the radical American Somalis who went to join the jihad, and tonight I noticed this report in the New York Times, Militants Drew Recruit in U.S., F.B.I. Says.

WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said Monday that a Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States.

The man, Shirwa Ahmed, was the first known suicide bomber with American citizenship. He immigrated with his family to the Minneapolis area in the mid-1990s, Mr. Mueller said, but he returned to Somalia after he was recruited by a militant group.

“It appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota,” Mr. Mueller said, speaking at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations. Minneapolis claims the country’s largest Somali population.

Mr. Ahmed was driving a vehicle laden with explosives that blew up in northern Somalia in an attack that killed as many as 30 people, according to news reports. His body was returned to the United States with the help of the F.B.I.

Federal authorities have said that Mr. Ahmed was one of as many as two dozen young men of Somali descent who had disappeared in the past two years from their homes in the Minneapolis area after being recruited by the Shabab, a militia that is suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda and that has waged a war against the Somali government.

Mr. Mueller suggested that Somali recruiting posed a serious issue for the F.B.I., which has sought the cooperation of the Somali community to try to understand whether the recruiting represents a threat.

“It raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home, and, if so, what might they undertake here,” he said.

Thanks for noticing, Mr. Mueller.  But can the FBI really not figure out whether a terrorist organization recruiting young men in Minnesota represents a threat? I can save a lot of taxpayer money: Instead of seeking the cooperation of Somalis to find out, just ask me. I’ll tell you without all the bother: The answer is Yes. And the question is, What are you going to do about it?

Maryland Immigration lawyer found guilty of fraud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is always so much to write about and so little time.   This story is over a week old, but better late then  never. 

We told you some time ago that there was a whole industry developing around the Asylum business.   Asylees basically either got into the US illegally or present themselves at some port of entry as an asylee.  An asylee is someone who is afraid if he or she returns to their home country they will in some way be persecuted and in danger.   If granted asylum, the immigrant can avail himself of all the perks and privileges of the refugee program.

Last year Patrick Tzeuton was indicted for falsifying documents of clients who sought asylum and earlier this month he was convicted.   Tzeuton himself is from Africa and most of his clients were as well.   From the Washington Post:

A Silver Spring lawyer was convicted in federal court yesterday on charges of fabricating asylum applications for immigrants trying to stay in the United States.

Patrick G. Tzeuton, 42, who is from Cameroon and worked with many people from West Africa, signed off on clients’ fraudulent paperwork and coached them to lie during interviews with immigration lawyers, prosecutors said.

During a four-week trial in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, prosecutors alleged that Tzeuton carried out the scheme from 2002 to 2005.

Tzeuton was taken into custody after the jury’s verdict and is scheduled to be sentenced April 29 by Judge Peter J. Messitte. Tzeuton faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, 10 years for immigration fraud and 20 years for obstruction of official proceedings.

More information on how Tzeuton perpetrated the fraud is here, at a Dept. of Justice press release at the time of his indictment.

Defendants Allegedly Coached Aliens to Tell False Stories of Fear of Persecution

Tzeuton operated a law firm known as the Law Offices of Patrick Tzeuton & Associates (the “Tzeuton Law Firm”) located at 8121 Georgia Avenue, Suite 102 in Silver Spring and 8401 Colesville Road also in Silver Spring, which employed Henri Nzone as a legal assistant. Tzeuton represented hundreds of clients as an attorney in immigration matters before U.S. immigration officials.

According to the 15 count indictment, from May 2002 to at least October 2005, Tzeuton and Nzone prepared false asylum applications, together with false and fraudulent supporting affidavits and documents, and presented them to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The asylum applications contained false statements regarding (1) the alleged basis for the alien’s fear of future persecution in his or her home country; (2) the date and circumstances of the alien’s entries into the United States; and (3) the alien’s marital status, spouse, and children. In addition, Nzone translated and notarized false and fraudulent letters purporting to be from the alien’s relatives and other witnesses; and included false and fraudulent documents bearing forged notary stamps and signatures.

Ironically Tzeuton is quoted in a Washington Post story from 2005 saying he welcomed more scrutiny of the growing Immigration Consultant business.

Now, here is one of the questions I have, what happens to all those asylees Tzeuton coached to lie and were then granted the right to stay in the United States.   Do they get prosecuted for immigration fraud or do they just get to stay?

And, here is the other question.  How many Patrick Tzeutons are out there?  We granted asylum to 81,183 asylees in 2007 alone.  How many of those were legitimate?