Source: 14 indicted on Somalia terror-related charges

[Amistad]

Originally posted by Nassir:

The Patriot Act also treats representing the claim of any designated group before an

international tribunal court

as a

material support

and thus a federal crime. Civil rights advocates and concerned citizens rightly claim that the law violates their rights to First Amendment guarantees of free speech and association; it also hinders humanitarian efforts to mediate conflicts, promote democracy and human rights.

 

 

Ralph Fertig, president of a non-profit Humanitarian Law Project argued that he was unjustly sent to jail for his organization’s advocacy for peace because of its track record of helping armed organizations like PKK of Iraq renounce violence and make negotiated settlement with its government. It was a position backed by former U.S president Jimmy Carter.

very interesting and scary that.... thats a really fine line to walk if you are in the mediation business.

[Mr. Somalia]

Originally posted by General Duke:

I think people should refrain from adding the names of SOL members here thats not funny at all....

Duke: I don't do it to be "funny", brother. I believe all these terrorist supporters on SOL, who shamelessly support the hell bound hell-hounds who inflict so much carnage in Somalia-- whilst guzzling down Big Gulp fountain drinks and Big Mac hamburgers made possible by their refugee status in the west-- DO NOT deserve a single iota of empathy from me.

 

If anything, I'd encourage the FBI to hunt them down one by one, using their IP addresses, and investigate them as well-- Because I do not doubt it that these scoundrels are also capable of providing "material support" to Shabab, just like the 14 who were arrested yesterday.

[NASSIR]

City part of terror pipeline? Columbus tie found in scheme to aid Somali militants; extent downplayed

By By Jonathan Riskind and Jack Torry

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH August 6, 2010

 

WASHINGTON - An unidentified person from Columbus helped raise money for a terrorist group in Somalia, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

 

In addition, a handful of Somali women in Columbus who raised money door to door for health-care aid in their native country were questioned in the federal case, a leader of a local Somali community group said yesterday.

 

In four indictments unsealed yesterday in federal courts in Minnesota, Alabama and California, the Justice Department charged 14 people with terrorist violations, accusing them of "providing money, personnel and services to the foreign terrorist organization al-Shabab."

 

An indictment in Minnesota says that someone from Columbus is an unindicted conspirator who helped one of those charged - Amina Farah Ali, 33, who court documents say is a Somali national who became a U.S. citizen in August 2004 and lived in Minnesota.

 

The person from Columbus is called "unindicted conspirator 7," or "UC7," in the court documents. He or she was "a resident of Columbus, Ohio, who assisted Ali in collecting money and forwarding it to al-Shabab." It isn't clear whether that person remains here.

 

Being an unindicted conspirator "simply means that the government believes the person was involved with the conspiracy but at this time has not been charged," said Jeanne Cooney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota. The term does not indicate whether the person will be charged.

 

The documents say that on Jan. 12, 2009, Ali directed "UC7" to "always collect under the name of the poor" so the money could be sent to terrorist fighters in Somalia.

 

The court documents say that Ali and others charged in the case "raised funds by soliciting door to door among Somali communities located in Rochester (Minn.) and Minneapolis and elsewhere in the United States and Canada," some of which Ali directed to al-Shabab.

 

Ali made 12 money transfers to al-Shabab in 2008 and 2009 totaling $8,608, the indictment said.

 

In addition, the indictment alleges that Ali raised money by appealing to participants in teleconferences during which she and other speakers encouraged financial support to back violent jihad in Somalia.

 

A leader in the Columbus Somali community said he does not know who the unindicted conspirator is and that he had never heard of anyone collecting money for terrorists under the guise of charity.

 

"I'm very much disappointed with what I heard," Mussa Farah, president of the Horn of Africa Community Center, said yesterday. "That's what we have been preventing for the last two years."

 

 

Since 2008, Farah and 11 other volunteers have gone door to door in local Somali neighborhoods telling parents to be cautious of anyone who might try to lead their children toward extremist ideologies. Now, Farah said, he'll tell them to be wary of anyone asking for money.

 

"People should only give to institutions where money can be followed," he said.

 

Somali community members meet quarterly with police and the FBI to discuss concerns and address problems, and a Columbus-based anti-crime program announced in April allows Somali immigrants across the country to report crimes in their native language.

 

Jibril Hirsi, executive director of SomaliCAN, a local advocacy and outreach organization, said some Somali women in Columbus presented prospective donors with sad stories of people who needed surgery for cleft lips, tumors and other medical issues. But Hirsi said they likely did not know where the money was headed. He said the women typically carried photographs of people said to need surgery outside Somalia.

 

"I don't think anyone in Columbus did anything intentionally to support al-Shabab," Hirsi said.

 

Columbus has the second-largest Somali population in the United States after greater Minneapolis.

 

Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking in Washington, said: "The indictments unsealed today shed further light on the deadly pipeline that has routed funding and fighters to the al-Shabab terror organization from cities across the United States."

 

Roughly 20 men - all but one of Somali descent - left Minnesota from December 2007 through October 2009 to join al-Shabab, the government says.

 

Al-Shabab, which routinely beheads its enemies, is an Islamist army whose several thousand fighters are battling Somalia's weak government. It has been branded a terrorist group by the U.S. and other nations. In turn, it has declared war on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations in Somalia. The group claimed responsibility for a bombing last month that killed 76 people, including an American aid worker, who were watching a World Cup soccer match in Uganda's capital. It is not known to be responsible for an attack on U.S. soil.

 

Al-Shabab members began pledging allegiance to al-Qaida last year. One of its most famous members is known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American," an Alabama native who speaks English with an American accent. He appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009.

 

Some of those charged were in custody, but yesterday the FBI arrested Ali, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 63, both naturalized U.S. citizens and residents of Rochester, Minn. Each is charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Shabab from September 2008 through last month. Ali also is charged with 12 counts of providing material support to al-Shabab.___

 

Dispatch reporter Collin Binkley, the Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this story.

 

Source: Columbus Dispatch

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by Amistad:

quote:Originally posted by Nassir:

The Patriot Act also treats representing the claim of any designated group before an

international tribunal court

as a

material support and thus a federal crime. Civil rights advocates and concerned citizens rightly claim that the law violates their rights to First Amendment guarantees of free speech and association; it also hinders humanitarian efforts to mediate conflicts, promote democracy and human rights.

 

 

Ralph Fertig, president of a non-profit Humanitarian Law Project argued that he was unjustly sent to jail for his organization’s advocacy for peace because of its track record of helping armed organizations like PKK of Iraq renounce violence and make negotiated settlement with its government. It was a position backed by former U.S president Jimmy Carter.

very interesting and scary that.... thats a really fine line to walk if you are in the mediation business.

Indeed. I think al-Shabaab days are numbered. More AU troops are already promised & coming and several countries that sponsor terrorism in Somalia like Eritrea are threatend with economic embargo.

 

Obama's Executive Order is now fully enforced. This sends an implicit message to the Northern seperatists that, in hopes of seeking an international recognition, fuel the crisis in Mogadishu.

 

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-concerning-somalia