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Alleged Minneapolis Somali terror recruiter is back in jail
 A Minneapolis man described in recent court testimony as a key terrorist recruiter was jailed Wednesday amid disclosure that another young Twin Cities man appears to have returned to Somalia to fight with Al-Shabab, a U.S. designated terrorist group.A federal judge revoked the bond Wednesday for Omer Abdi Mohamed after federal authorities discovered that he was serving as a "parent liaison" at a private nonprofit school that offers after-school programs on the Qur'an, the Arabic language and general studies homework. Mohamed had been identified by four witnesses during a related trial this month as a key figure helping recruit young Minnesota men for a holy war in their native Somalia in 2007. Mohamed himself didn't testify in that case, which focused on a part-time janitor at a Minneapolis mosque who was convicted of five counts related to terrorism. Mohamed had faced similar charges -- and possibly life in prison -- but he cut a deal in July 2011 allowing him to plead guilty to one conspiracy count, which carries a maximum term of 15 years. He'd been free on bond since. Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ordered him taken into custody after hearing from a probation officer and an FBI agent about Mohamed's activities at the school. Davis, who presided over the trial of Mahamud Said Omar this month, said it was clear that Mohamed had been a leader in the initial 2007 exodus of more than 20 Minnesota immigrants who returned to Somali to fight with Al-Shabab. The trial, Davis said, laid bare "the web that has been weaved in dealing with the secret indoctrination" by terrorists of young Minnesota recruits. The pipeline apparently continues. Uri Rosenwald, an FBI agent assigned to the Minnesota Joint Terrorism Task Force, revealed details about two men believed to have left Minneapolis for Somalia on July 18. Like most of the Al-Shabab recruits described in the trial this month, the pair left the Twin Cities on the same day and both later failed to use their return tickets. One of the men, Mohamed Osman, 19, had reportedly attended the school, Essential Learning of Minnesota Institute (ELMI) at 31st and Lake Streets, for three months. He also had worshipped at the Abubakar As-Siddique Islamic Center until a couple of months before he left, when he switched to a mosque in the Karmel Mall in south Minneapolis, Rosenwald said. Mohamed also had worshipped at Abubakar when the first wave of recruits began leaving in August 2007. He moved his residence in May to a place across the street from the Karmel Mall and worships at a mosque there, his probation officer said. An "adult" associated with the school reported to the FBI that Omar A. Farah, 20, also had left to join Al-Shabab. Farah reportedly called the adult and told him he was in Marka, Somalia, "the area where people kill people," Rosenwald recounted. The adult then mentioned Al-Shabab, he said, and Farah replied, "I am with them." Much of Rosenwald's testimony was based on FBI interviews with a half-dozen unidentified adults, including the parents of children who attended ELMI. Posted by: tipper 2012-10-25 |
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