Category: Africa

Incredible News! The British have Somali terrorists returning to the UK

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s been happening in Great Britain too!  Somalis, former asylees, have gone to Somalia for terrorist training and British intelligence thinks they are now returning to the UK.  Regular readers of RRW know that we have been on the story of American Somalis leaving for Africa since the story first broke in the media in November (here).  The great fear among our intelligence people is that they will in fact return to the US with their newfound skills.

Britain also has its first suicide bomber as do we, both thought to be members of al Shabab (we are coming to get you).   Hat tip to an annonymous commenter.

From the Times today:

Dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia, the British security services believe.

Intelligence analysts are worried that they may attempt to launch attacks in this country or use the kudos from having trained and fought in Somalia to try to attract new recruits. The issue was raised by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, in his first interview last month.

In the US, the outgoing head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, has said that Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in late 2006 “catalysed” expatriate Somalis around the world.

An investigation for Channel 4 News, to be broadcast tonight, also reveals that a suicide bomber who grew up in Ealing is thought to have blown himself up in an attack in Somalia that killed more than 20 soldiers.

Tiny UK has 250,000 Somalis!  I don’t know exactly what our Somali population is but the State Department resettled 80,000 over 25 years, so factor in huge families and our numbers must be greater.

The incident (suicide bombing) is the first reported case involving a Somali based in Britain and will add to pressure on Scotland Yard and the Home Office to tackle the problem within the Somali community, which, at about 250,000 people, is the biggest in Europe.

They don’t know exactly how many are leaving 50, 60, 70?   At one point we had a report that 40 have left the US, but now our intelligence people are saying 20, but in reality, they don’t know.

Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert who runs the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, told Channel 4 News: “The numbers I hear [going from Britain to Somalia] are 50, 60 or 70, but in reality we don’t know. You don’t need big numbers for terrorism. Somalia will never become another Pakistan, but that does not mean it is not a threat.”

Most Somalis in Britain entered the country as asylum-seekers within the past 20 years. They include Yasin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed, two of the four men convicted of the botched bombing of the London Underground on July 21, 2005.

Read the rest of the article and learn more about Britain’s first homegrown Somali suicide bomber.

Dinah’s got more on the “seethefest” press conference in Minneapolis the other day

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dinah Lord is really on top of this story we reported earlier in the week.   She has researched the statement from the mosque that some accuse of being behind the disappearance of the Minneapolis Somali youths and has linked the press conference itself.   See Dinah’s post  here.  

One of the little nuggets she unearthed is that apparently the mosque folks are blaming “individuals in the Somali community” for badmouthing the mosque!    And, it looks like that individual is Omar Jamal.  Jamal is the go-to guy for the media on this case.  If you go back and look at all the mainstream media coverage, virtually every reporter has to get their apparently obligatory quote from Jamal (Here are all the posts we have done that mention Jamal in myriad cases).    Dinah quotes the following  in her excellent post.

“It is unfortunate that some individuals in the Somali community unfairly accused the Abubakar Center to have links to the disappearance of the Somali young men,” said Adbirashid Abdi, one the board of directors for the center. “We strongly deny these unsubstantiated allegations. Abubakar Center didn’t recruit, finance or otherwise facilitate in any way shape of form the travel of those youth. (wah! It’s not us, it’s all the evil media and the evil infidel’s fault. Update: Rumor has it that these individuals are in fact, Somali community activist Omar Jamal! Sounds like there’s trouble in Little Mogadishu.)

Jamal was convicted of immigration fraud in 2005.  We would like to know  how he continues to play a prominant role with the  media.   We first came across his name defending a Somali rapist (rapist caught on tape!) and he had his nose in the Denver Somali Cyanide case last summer.  He told authorities that the Somali who died in a hotel room with enough cyanide to kill hundreds was not a terrorist, just a confused Canadian.

Who is this guy Jamal?   A big mouth?   A show off?   Something else?

Thousands of Liberians living in the US will soon be deported (maybe!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You learn something new every day!   Thanks to Blulitespecial for sending this CNN article.  I had no idea we gave temporary protection to citizens of countries undergoing civil unrest.    Amazing!   Does that mean that instead of hauling tens of thousands of  wealthy “refugees” from Iraq and paying their airfare and all of their expenses we could just let them come here for awhile on their own dime and set a date for them to return to Iraq?   Just wondering.

Thousands of Liberians living in the United States face deportation March 31 when a federal immigration status created for humanitarian purposes expires.

Corvah Akoiwala is worried about what will happen to his children, born in the U.S., when he is sent to Liberia.

In the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation, killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to a U.N. report. The United States extended “temporary protection status” to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took advantage of that humanitarian offer.

Temporary protection status is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster.

For years, the temporary protection status for Liberians was extended as the situation there worsened under dictator Charles Taylor. But Taylor was ousted in 2003 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected Liberia’s first female president in 2006. In 2007, citing the progress in Liberia, President George W. Bush signed an order of “delayed enforced departure” for Liberians who had been under temporary protection status, giving them 18 months to return to Liberia.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island wants them to stay.

Many of these Liberians have become important parts of the communities where they live in the United States,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island. There is a large Liberian community in his home state.

But then why have temporary humanitarian assistence if they are all allowed to stay?   Good question!

Critics say Liberians should go back to Liberia when their status runs out.

“It is time for people to go back and rebuild their country,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Stein underlines the temporary in “temporary protected status.” He said for Liberians to stay when their country is at peace would be an abuse of U.S. hospitality.

“It makes a mockery of the concept of short-term temporary humanitarian protection.”

So what do you think the chances are that those ICE airlines flights I told you about yesterday fly to Africa?

By the way, the country of Liberia was founded by freed American slaves who wanted their own country in Africa.

Somaliland government not telling all it knows?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dinah Lord has a post yesterday in which she speculates about whether Obama renditions may have already begun!   Do  you remember we told you two weeks ago that Americans were captured in Somaliland and there  were some musings about whether they were our missing Somali former refugees turned terrorists.

Dinah links to a Voice of America article which reports that Somaliland spokespersons are saying, no not American, we were mistaken, we let them go.   However….

The Washington-based president of the Somaliland American Council, Rashid Nur, says he believes the Somaliland government is not revealing all it knows.

“As you have said, it is really difficult to get the true picture of who these people are and their identities. But from versions coming out of the government and from other people, some of these people are U.S. residents,” said Nur. “There are also some Somalilanders who went to some of the regions in the south, received training, and came back.”

Hint to CAIR and the families back in Minneapolis, ask Obama if he’s got your boys!

Somali press conference (finally) held in Minnesota on missing youths

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Feb. 11th:   More details on the press conference here.

Postponed a couple of times, the press conference about the missing Somali youths was held today.   Hat tip:  Dinah Lord.   It is a snore…. the story that is!  Not Dinah Lord, her post is lively!

Mosque folks deny deny deny, say families are wrong;  mosque leaders say they love their home in America; and  CAIR says law enforcement needs to get on the ball and find the real culprits in the disappearance.

The leaders of a south Minneapolis mosque on Tuesday renewed their denials that the mosque is connected to the disappearance of young Somali men from Minnesota.

For the second time in recent weeks, the leaders of the Abubakar As-Saddique mosque said they have been unfairly accused. Some Somali families have said they’re concerned their teenage sons or nephews may have been brainwashed to return to Somalia to fight in that country’s civil war.

Families are mistaken.

“It is unfortunate that some individuals in the Somali community unfairly accused Abubakar Center to have links to the disappearance of the Somali young men. We strongly deny these unsubstantiated allegations. Abubakar Center didn’t recruit, finance or otherwise facilitate in any way, shape or form the travel of these youth.”

We know from previous reports that these teens, former refugees, spent most of their free time at the mosque.

Then note that CAIR (unindicted co-conspirator) has to throw its two cents worth in:

Kashif Saroya, outreach director for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, called on law enforcement to investigate and resolve the appearances (disappearances) as soon as possible.