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Jumat, 06 Agustus 2010

14 accused of helping Somali terrorists

WASHINGTON — The government announced yesterday that it has charged 14 people as participants in “a deadly pipeline’’ to Somalia that routed money and fighters from the United States to the terrorist group Al Shabab.
The indictments unsealed in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala., reflect “a disturbing trend’’ of recruitment efforts targeting US residents to become terrorists, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told a news conference. In one case, two women pleaded for money “to support violent jihad in Somalia,’’ according to an indictment.
The attorney general credited Muslim community leaders in the United States for regularly denouncing terrorists and for providing critical assistance to law enforcement to help disrupt terrorist plots and combat radicalization. “We must . . . work to prevent this type of radicalization from ever taking hold,’’ Holder said.
Of the 14 people charged, at least half are US citizens and 12 of them are out of the country, including 10 men from Minnesota who allegedly left to join Al Shabab.
Al Shabab is a Somali insurgent faction embracing a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by the Taliban. Its fighters, numbering several thousand, are battling Somalia’s weakened government and have ties to Al Qaeda, according to the United States and other Western countries.
Terrorist organizations such as Al Shabab continue to radicalize and recruit US citizens and others to train and fight with them, said Sean Joyce, the FBI’s executive assistant director for the national security branch.
One of two indictments issued in Minnesota alleges that two Somali women who were among those charged, and others, went door-to-door in Minneapolis; Rochester, Minn.; and elsewhere in the United States and Canada to raise funds for Al Shabab’s operations in Somalia. The indictment says the women raised the money under false pretenses, claiming it would go to the poor and needy.
One of the Minnesota indictments alleges that the two women, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, raised money by making direct appeals to people in teleconferences “in which they and other speakers encouraged financial contributions to support violent jihad in Somalia.’’
Ali is accused of sending $8,608 to Al Shabab on 12 occasions between Sept. 17, 2008, and July 5, 2009.
Ali’s attorney said she denied the allegations. Asked whether she understood, Ali said: “I do not know; however, I think maybe because of my faith.’’
At one point, speaking through a translator, Ali said: “Allah is my attorney.’’
She said she worked in home health care and had lived in Rochester, Minn., for 11 years. Hassan said she ran a day care.
After the FBI searched Ali’s home in 2009, she allegedly contacted an Al Shabab leader in southern Somalia and said: “I was questioned by the enemy here. . . . They took all my stuff and are investigating it . . . do not accept calls from anyone.’’
US Attorney B. Todd Jones of Minnesota said parents in the state’s Somali community have cooperated with authorities because “it’s their kids that have been recruited and in some cases ended up as casualties in Somalia.’’
Omar Hammami, who is now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, was charged in Birmingham, Ala. Amriki, or “the American,’’ is one of Al Shabab’s most famous members.
He appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009.
In San Diego, prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Jehad Serwan Mostafa, 28, with conspiring to provide material support to Al Shabab. Mostafa is believed to be in Somalia

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