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| Fourteen charged for supporting Somalia group |
| 2010-08-06 |
| [Dawn] The top US law enforcement offical said Thursday that 14 people, most of them American citizens, are being charged with providing support for the Somalian hard boy group al-Shabab. Attorney General Eric Holder said the charges reflect a disturbing trend that leaders in Mohammedan communities in the United States are helping law enforcement agencies to address. The charges against suspects in the states of Minnesota, California and Alabama include providing support for the hard boy group al-Shabab in Somalia, two US officials said Thursday. Most of the people are US citizens, with some supporting the terrorist organization from the United States and others traveling to Somalia to do so. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in the investigation which is culminating in several indictments. Roughly 20 men all but one of Somali descent, left Minnesota from December 2007 through October 2009 to join al-Shabab, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. Somali-Americans have been recruited and have taken part in suicide kabooms in Somalia, and US officials fear trained Somali-American terror plotters could return to the United States. The charges in Minnesota are the latest development in an inquiry in that state which has been under way for some time. Two indictments unsealed in Minnesota on Thursday added five new names to a list of people charged in the investigation in that state, bringing the total charged in the state to 19. Two were women from the Rochester, Minn., area accused of raising money for al-Shabab. The Minneapolis indictment said two men, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, raised money for al-Shabab both by open appeals on teleconferences and by pretending in other cases that the money was for the poor and needy. The indictment cited 12 money transfers to al-Shabaab in 2008 and 2009 totaling $8,608. The charges included providing material support to a terrorist group and lying to authorities. |
| Posted by:Fred |