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 ... |
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? |
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 ... |
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? |
| 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. |
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?" |
"... 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 ... |
| Got his shooting iron and went after infidels. We're supposed to want him back? |
"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? |
| So let the little buttercups go, it's not like they'd hide anything from us ... |
| He says in order to be re-elected ... |
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. |