Tag: al-Shabab

Mainstream media: Somalis just “found their way” to America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In the wake of the brutal slaughter in Kenya (don’t open this link if you have a weak stomach) by Somali Jihadists a little over a week ago, I’m struck by the fact  that the mainstream media is running one story after another about America’s growing Somali population, but the word “refugee” never makes it into the telling.   I can’t say never, but I just reviewed a bunch of recent stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time magazine and searched for the “R” word. It was not there!

A seriously wounded girl is carried away from the Westgate mall in Nairobi as Al-Shabaab’s terror reign unfolded.

And, by the way, I still haven’t seen any further report on whether Americans have been officially identified among the killers.  Have you?

Do you think the average reader, someone not following immigration issues daily, wonders how a particular group of immigrants ‘found their way’ to America?  I think they do, so why does the media rarely mention the legal programs through which the US government is changing America’s demographic make-up?

Below is an example from a New York Times story entitled, ‘Somali Community in U.S. Fears New Wave of Stigma After Kenya Attack.’

Would this help you know anything about how the Somalis got here, how they in fact became a “community” (through the US State Department’s Refugee Resettlement Program going back three decades)?   The “R” word does not appear in the story:

More than 32,000 people of Somali ancestry live in Minnesota, census figures show, and local leaders say the true number is far higher. Some came in the 1990s after fleeing civil war, and others are their children, many of them born in this country.    [By the way, the number is way higher than 32,000 in Minnesota, in addition to the tens of thousands in other preferred resettlement states—ed]

They “came….after fleeing civil war.”   What!  they just got on a plane and said “here we are America,” “let us in,” and then picked Minnesota on a map?

Regular readers of RRW know how it happened (here and here), but do the reporters not know or do they deliberately cover-up the truth about LEGAL immigration programs gone wrong?

By the way, there is a good article (at Powerline, hat tip: Judy) about the problems the media is glossing-over with the Somali “community” in Minnesota, but it too doesn’t use the word refugee.  Why is that?

Minneapolis Somalis still being recruited by al-Shabab to fulfill “religious duty”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t really want to post this because I have been writing about this for five years and I’m sick of them and sick of the mainstream media that is five years late addressing this serious issue.  It takes a blood bath in Kenya for the supposed journalists to get off their duffs.

Abdirizak Bihi testified about youth radicalization at a House Homeland Security hearing in 2011. CAIR has been trying to shut him up!

This is from USA Today and it doesn’t have anything new that we haven’t discussed here ad nauseum.  They even brought back Omar Jamal for a cameo appearance.

Long time readers know that we call Jamal the “Somali Jesse Jackson” because he manages to be quoted anytime a Somali gets in trouble anywhere in the US.  He originally came to the US illegally, was convicted of immigration fraud, but has simply been movin’ on up!

By the way, I will be reporting the minute we get official confirmation (or at least the minute I hear about it!) that there were or were not American killers (former refugees) in Kenya.

From AP at USA Today:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Leaders of the nation’s largest Somali community say some of their young men are still being enticed to join the terror group that has claimed responsibility for the deadly mall attack in Kenya, despite a concentrated effort to shut off what authorities call a “deadly pipeline” of men and money.

Six years have passed since Somali-American fighters began leaving Minnesota to become part of al-Shabab [sometimes spelled al-Shabaab—ed]. Now the Somali community is dismayed over reports that a few of its own might have been involved in the violence at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.

“One thing I know is the fear is growing,” said Abdirizak Bihi, whose nephew was among at least six men from Minnesota who have died in Somalia. More are presumed dead.

Since 2007, at least 22 young men have left Minnesota to join al-Shabab, including two who did so last summer. Unconfirmed reports that two more left earlier this month have deepened concerns.

Here’s Jamal!

Al-Shabab means “The Youth” in Arabic. The group uses a mixture of religion, nationalism and deception to lure young people, said Omar Jamal*, a longtime local activist who now serves as the first secretary for the Somali mission to the United Nations.

Former assistant U.S. attorney states clearly what this is all about—-Jihad is a religious duty—a duty to fight!

Anders Folk was an assistant U.S. attorney in Minneapolis for several years of the recruiting investigation before leaving for private practice. Al-Shabab’s recruiting was at least as effective after the Ethiopians left as before, he said.

“Al Shabab’s recruiting technique was essentially a call to jihad, that this is a religious duty,” Folk said. “It was a call to jihad to come and fight.”

* For more on Omar Jamal type his name into our search function and I bet we have two dozen posts on him, maybe more.

Photo can be found at this report of the House “radicalization” hearing in March 2011.

London slaughter: Al-Qaeda or Al-Shabab, what difference does it make?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Every time we have a terror incident somewhere in the world, the media and the politicians want to know whether the event or the group involved was affiliated with Al-Qaeda.  What difference does it make?

In fact, in March of 2009 I went to hear testimony before the US Senate Homeland Security Committee and I was amazed to hear Senators Lieberman and Collins almost audibly give a sigh of relief to hear that the Somali youths (US citizens!) who had left the US for Jihad training in East Africa were only going to join Al-Shabab (sometimes spelled Al-Shabaab) which had, at that point in time, not been formally connected to Al-Qaeda.

Michael Adebolajo with Anjem Choudary at London pro-Islam demonstration in 2007

As a matter of fact, Obama does it all the time.  He says this group or that incident was not connected to Al-Qaeda, implying that it isn’t too bad unless A-Q is behind it.

My point is that it’s the Islamic ideology driving these Jihad attacks, and it makes no difference which group is involved (or no group for that matter!).

I see the New York Times is more interested in the ritualistic slaughter of a British soldier now that a connection has been made to Al-Qaeda.

LONDON — Britain’s security agencies appeared headed for a period of deeply uncomfortable scrutiny after the government said Sunday that it had been aware for more than two years that one of the two men suspected of hacking an off-duty British soldier to death on a London street had ties to Al Qaeda.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the ministry had provided “consular assistance” in Kenya in 2010 to the man, Michael Adebolajo, 28, a British citizen of Nigerian descent. He had been arrested by the Kenyan police on suspicion of planning to join Al Shabab, an extremist group in Somalia that Britain has classified as a terrorist organization.

Think about this next part.  When we, or the Brits, have either raised or “welcomed” and made them citizens these Jihadists are ours.  Kenya had every right to deport the future alleged killer, Adebolajo, back to his homeland—the UK!

But, to the US’s credit and to the shame of the UK, we did prosecute our “youths” (the ones we caught) who went back to Africa to join the Jihad.  In fact many Somalis (our citizens) were sentenced just recently here to jail time for doing what Adebolajo did.

Unfortunately, we did, however, go so far as to bring home a US citizen/Somali suicide bomber’s body to the US for a “decent” burial, here in 2008.

The Brits let Adebolajo return to his freedom in the UK.

In a statement on Sunday, the Foreign Office spokesman sought to tamp down the controversy, saying that the office’s role in the events in Kenya in November 2010 was limited to consular assistance to Mr. Adebolajo, “as normal for British nationals.” It did not address the Kenyan government’s statements that Mr. Adebolajo, using a false name, had been arrested near the Somali border with five Kenyan nationals while carrying Shabab literature.

Then there is the question of whether the MI5 was so stupid as to think they could recruit Adebolajo (was that in exchange for his freedom?).

The statement also did not address a claim made on BBC television on Friday night that Mr. Adebolajo spoke of rebuffing an attempt by MI5, the British domestic security agency, to recruit him. The claim was made by Ibrahim Hassan, a man who says he has links to Islamic extremist groups. Mr. Hassan said Mr. Adebolajo had told him that the recruitment attempt was made after he was deported from Kenya. British security officials quoted in the Sunday newspapers said that efforts to recruit Islamic extremists in such circumstances were common.

[….]

Mr. Hassan’s claims and his arrest added to a growing sense that inquiries into Mr. Rigby’s death are likely to delve into the murky world of the security agencies and their dealings with Islamic extremists.

[….]

Among the issues that the panel’s leading members have said they want to explore is whether MI5’s desire to penetrate groups with suspected terrorist ties had led to decisions not to prosecute people like Mr. Adebolajo under laws that bar Britons from engaging with terrorist organizations overseas. Security officials have said that MI5 viewed Mr. Adebolajo as posing a “low risk” of potential terrorism and did not think he needed close monitoring.

Read it all.

About the photo:  If you don’t know Choudary, learn more about him here.

Minneapolis: Sentencing began yesterday for Somali terrorists; are they still lying?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I told you yesterday that sentencing was about to commence for the refugees who went back to Somalia to join al-Shabab, the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa.   I hadn’t planned to write anymore about it, partly because I am sick of it!  We gave these people the ‘good life’ at great expense to the US taxpayer and they threw it back in our faces.  But, this part of a long story on the sentencing from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press (hat tip: Cliff) was worth mentioning.

Kamal Said Hassan

The Judge wonders whether this Somali, Kamal Said Hassan, might still be lying:

Each man told Davis his story, and the judge seemed to react differently to each. In the case of Hassan, the judge acknowledged that while the defendant had been an “extraordinary” help to investigators since his arrest, he didn’t know if the words he was hearing were a performance.

“I can’t take back what I did, but I can show you, the government, the Somali community, that I can do better,” Hassan told the judge.

“I know what I did was wrong and illegal and I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said. “I’m sorry to the ones I hurt.”

He apologized to his family, his adopted homeland and his fellow Somali immigrants.

“I want the American people to know I am very sorry for what I did,” he said.

When he finished speaking, Davis paused for several moments.

Finally, he spoke. “I heard a lot of sorrys,” the judge said. “And as you well know, I grilled you on the witness stand when you testified (against Omar). Your talk here has reared that ugly head, in my mind … where we have people who are very, very bright and can be very, very dangerous.”

The judge noted Hassan had been deceitful to his own family and had even not been fully truthful with the FBI when they questioned him; prosecutors even added a charge of making false statements to his two counts of providing material support to al-Shabaab.

The judge said he had to ask himself, “Why aren’t you lying today? I have no indicia that you’re not.”

About the photo:  I found it here with a brief background on Hassan.  I had not seen this website, Global Jihad, before but it looks like it might be useful going forward.

Nine Somali refugees to be sentenced in Minnesota terror case this week

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It appears we are reaching the end of the story (this particular story!) of the twenty plus Somali youths who left the good life we gave them in America to join an al-Qaida affiliate, al-Shabab, in East Africa where they underwent jihad training.

Former “refugees” on the march in East Africa. At taxpayers’ expense we fed, housed and educated the “youths” so they would be strong and healthy to join the jihad! Think about it! Without your help they may never have grown up!

Below is a fairly brief summary of the story that we have followed extensively since 2008 here at RRW.  In fact, when you type into our search function the words ‘Somali missing youths‘ you will see an archive that probably runs to at least 50 previous posts.

The only glaring error I see here is that, perhaps recruiters appealed to the youths to help rid Somalia of Ethiopians, but that is not what this was all about.  I noticed when I went to the Senate hearing, here in March 2009, Senators Lieberman and Collins were obviously hoping it was all about “patriotism” for the homeland (a “homeland” that most had never set foot in previously!) but we learned in trial testimony later that al-Shabab was busy violently building an Islamic caliphate.

Here is the summary at the Lacrosse Tribune.   Don’t you think it’s interesting that this news will likely not appear on Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS etc. etc.

Must be a local crime story!

Nine people convicted in a government investigation of terror recruitment and financing for an al-Qaida-linked group in Somalia are to be sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Authorities say more than 20 young men have left Minnesota to join al-Shabab since 2007. Some have died, several remain at large, and others have been prosecuted in what the FBI has said is one of the largest efforts to recruit U.S. fighters to a foreign terrorist organization.

Some of the issues in the case, based on court testimony, court documents and AP interviews:

HOW IT BEGAN

In 2007, small groups of young Somali men began holding secret meetings at a Minneapolis mosque, in cars, and at restaurants to talk about returning to their homeland to wage jihad against Ethiopians. The Ethiopians had been brought into Somalia in 2006 by its weak U.N.-backed government, but were viewed by many Somalis as invaders.

Al-Shabab recruiters in Minneapolis appealed to patriotic ideals and told young men _ some in their teens _ that it was their “duty” to return to Somalia and fight. Recruiters also quoted from the Quran, appealing to religious beliefs to deepen the fighters’ resolve.

The men began leaving Minnesota in small groups to avoid detection, with the first departing Minneapolis on Oct. 30, 2007. Additional groups left in waves over the next months and years, with some raising money for their trips under false pretenses.

The FBI began investigating in 2008. The U.S. declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization in early 2008.

Read it all.  Everything discussed in this summary was reported at some point on the pages of RRW.