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Rep. Ellison says U.S. trying to ensure safe return of missing Somalis
St. Paul, Minn. -- Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison said the U.S. government is trying to ensure the safe return of some of the young Somali-American men believed to be fighting with a terrorist group in their homeland.
I don't suppose that means so they can stand trial for belonging to an international terrorist organization, does it?
Ellison said he has been included in classified briefings about efforts to bring the missing men back to the Twin Cities.
Which he promptly blabbed about to NPR ...
At least four Somali-American men from Minnesota who left to fight in the Horn of Africa have died there in recent months.
Hurrah!
One of youngest, a skinny teenager from Minneapolis named Burhan Hassan, was trying to leave the fighting and make his way to the U.S. embassy in neighboring Kenya, according to family members.
Awww... The heart [urp!] bleeds...
They believe a fellow member of the extremist group Al-Shabaab shot Hassan to death when the group learned of his plans to escape.
Tough luck, Burhan, next time pick your friends better. And was he too 'skinny' to pick up an AK-47?
Congressman Keith Ellison thinks the U.S. should try to retrieve the Minnesotan men who may have been misled into joining Al-Shabaab and want out.
Since they either immigrated here or were born here they've got a country. Too bad they were "misled" into further failing somebody else's failed state.
"We can't have a knee-jerk emotional reaction," Ellison said.
Why not? I can't think of any reason not to. They came here, then left to join the enemy. My knee's dancing its own jig...
"We've got to have an intelligent reaction. If a young person says, 'I have been lied to. I don't like these people. I want to get away from them,' we should help them do that, as long as we know that does not create a public safety issue for Minnesotans and Americans."
Because skinny youts with rifles aren't a threat ...
Can't recall any skinny yoots who ran off to join the Nazis and then changed their minds being welcomed back with open arms.
Ellison wouldn't offer more details of the plans, saying the discussions were classified. But he said the efforts involve private non-governmental organizations as well as government entities. A State Department official did not respond to requests for interviews.
What NGOs? Hizb-ut-Tahrir?
The Widows Ammunition Fund?
Ellison, whose district includes the largest concentration of Somali-Americans in the country, said the U.S. government has a vested interest in bringing the men back to safety.
I fail to understand what our 'vested interest' is other than making sure they don't kill Americans, and that doesn't include bringing them back to safety.
The FBI is investigating how and why about 20 men left the Twin Cities to join the chaos and bloodshed of a homeland they barely knew.
Somebody fired 'em up at the mosque. Somebody else signed 'em up. Somebody else arranged passage for them.
Ellison said the U.S. should send a message to the young fighters. "If you've learned the truth about these exploitative organizations like Shabaab, who are so dangerous, then abandon them and then help tell the truth about what these groups are really all about," Ellison said.
I don't think that's the right message. How about "drop dead"?
How about "drop dead, and if you don't we'll make it happen?"
The Minneapolis office of the FBI has encouraged any of the Minnesota fighters who have had second thoughts to find their way to "the nearest friendly diplomatic agency."
"... before arriving in Somalia. Once you're there you're on your own. Foreveer."
"If these men did come to a point where they wanted to return home, that they were disenchanted with the situation over there, tired of the fighting and wanting to come home, we'd certainly like to get the word out that they should do that," said FBI spokesman E.K. Wilson.
"Or even if they just wanted to take a break. Or if they decided they don't want to jihad in Somalia but they'd rather do it in Afghanistan or Iraq or someplace else."
But Wilson also added that the FBI remains focused on the investigation, "and that focus has not changed at all."
"Yeah. We're focused like a laser here at the Federal Bureau of Ineptitude."
Asking a fighter to simply walk away from Al-Shabaab because he had a change of heart is a tall order. Families have heard that the men are being closely guarded.
Almost as if the brave lions of Islam don't quite trust their new recruits ...
Mogadishu has been under siege in recent weeks as groups like Al-Shabaab vie for power. The U.S. has no diplomatic presence in Somalia; however the FBI has staff and agents in neighboring countries that are assisting in the investigation. At least two men with Minnesota ties were able to escape Al-Shabaab, back in December 2007. Court records released this week say Abdifatah Isse left for Somalia in hopes of fighting against the Ethiopian troops who invaded the country.
Got his shooting iron and went after infidels. We're supposed to want him back?
According to the documents, only after Isse arrived in Somalia, he realized he joined a movement connected to Al-Shabaab. At the time, the U.S. had yet to declare Al-Shabaab as a terrorist group. Isse and another Minnesota man were able to flee Al-Shabaab soon after arriving.
"Xenophobic slippers, don't fail us now!"
A friend identified the other man as 26-year-old Salah Ahmed of New Brighton. The friend said Ahmed told the other Minnesota fighters that he needed to seek treatment for his allergies. Then Ahmed and Isse escaped to Kismayo, and eventually returned to the United States.
"Mom! I'm home! What's for dinner?"
Now, the two men are back in Minnesota -- behind bars.
... which shows extraordinary good sense on our part...
Authorities this week released indictments charging each of them with providing material support to terrorism and conspiring to kill people abroad. At least one of the men, Isse, is cooperating with authorities. A trial for Ahmed is scheduled for October.
Sometimes I have a glimmer of hope for our government. They usually move quickly to extinguish it, but still the spark sometimes alights.
But bringing the remaining recruits back to the U.S. isn't without risk.
For us or them?
John Radsan, a former assistant general counsel for the CIA, said the U.S. government is taking such a heightened interest in the case of the Somali-American fighters because of broader concerns on global terror. "These people are trained, perhaps over there. They become radicalized over there," Radsan said. "They are engaged in combat, and if those people can be put on that cycle, it's only another step before they might come back here to do bad things in the Twin Cities."
There's a voice of reason -- note that he's a 'former assistant' general counsel for the CIA. Why can't we have a voice of reason within our government?
Counterterrorism officials have said they have no evidence that the young men were plotting attacks on the U.S.
So let the little buttercups go, it's not like they'd hide anything from us ...
Congressman Ellison agrees that the U.S. government's first responsibility is to protect its residents.
He says in order to be re-elected ...
I thought it was to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense" in that order?
But he also thinks if the recruits pose no threat to national security, they should be allowed to re-integrate into the American culture they left behind.
Not a chance. They screwed up when they decided life in the old country was better than life in America. Let them stay in Mog or let the Kenyans have them.

Posted by: Steve White 2009-07-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=274648