Two Somali American Women Included In 14 Charged With Supporting Somali Terror Group Al Shabaab

I don't know how many times I have to put up stories here about the Somali connection in America here and the support of the al Qaeda linked terror organization, al Shabaab, located in Somalia before there's going to be a serious gutting of Somalis in this country. Every time the FBI or another agency looks into Somalis living in Minnesota and other areas of the country, there are new charges brought forward. This time, 14 people have been charged and in this case, two women living in Minnesota have been included in the charges of providing aid and support to a terrorist organization.

From the story at Boston.com:

But she and another woman, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, were actually using the pretense of charity to send money to a violent terrorist group in the African country, prosecutors allege. They also claim the women made direct pleas in teleconference calls for others "to support violent jihad in Somalia."

The two women, both U.S. citizens living in Rochester, are among 14 people named in indictments unsealed Thursday in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala. -- accused of being part of what the government called "a deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to al-Shabab. The Somali insurgent faction embraces a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.

Both women said they are innocent. "We are not terrorists," Ali said after she and Hassan made their first appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

At what point is Homeland Security and the Justice Department going to get serious about this situation? We have dozens of confirmed cases of Somali men, living in Minnesota, who have left to return to Somalia and fight for al Qaeda - hell, we've even had some die in the fighting down here (one as a suicide bomber) and to make it even more ludicrous, some of them have fought with the jihad down there AND RETURNED HERE!

And now, we have these women sending money to the terrorists, helping to support islamic terror jihad.

There is a mosque in Minneapolis that has been the center of nearly all of the connections of the al Shabaab recruitment of Somalis back to Africa - that's right, a mosque. It's basically a terrorist meeting place and about the only violation not yet associated with this mosque has been the actual storage of munitions in its basement.

2 Minn. women among 14 charged in terror probe


ST. PAUL, Minn.—Amina Farah Ali had become the go-to person for Somalis in the southern Michigan (supposed to be Minnesota) city of Rochester wanting to donate items to refugees displaced by violence in their homeland.

But she and another woman, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, were actually using the pretense of charity to send money to a violent terrorist group in the African country, prosecutors allege. They also claim the women made direct pleas in teleconference calls for others "to support violent jihad in Somalia."

The two women, both U.S. citizens living in Rochester, are among 14 people named in indictments unsealed Thursday in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala. -- accused of being part of what the government called "a deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to al-Shabab. The Somali insurgent faction embraces a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.

Both women said they are innocent. "We are not terrorists," Ali said after she and Hassan made their first appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

The indicted also include Omar Hammami, an Alabama man now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American" -- who has become one of al-Shabab's most high-profile members and appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009. The group's fighters, numbering several thousand strong, are battling Somalia's weakened government and have been branded a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida by the U.S. and other Western countries.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the indictments reflect a disturbing trend of recruitment efforts targeting U.S. residents to become terrorists. He credited Muslim community leaders in the United States for helping combat radicalization.

Of the 14 people named in indictments Thursday, at least half are U.S. citizens and 12 of them are out of the country, including 10 men from Minnesota who allegedly left to join al-Shabab. Seven of those 10 Minnesota men named had been charged in earlier indictments or criminal complaints.

Ali, 33, and Hassan, 63, are the only two people indicted Thursday who remain in the U.S. They are both charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Ali faces multiple counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and Hassan faces three counts of lying to the FBI.

Abdifatah Abdinur, a Somali community leader in Rochester, said many knew Ali as a religious speaker who preached to women, and as a person who would collect clothes for refugees, telling many people to drop off donations at her garage.

"I know a lot of people might send money or goods, without knowing the consequences of what they were doing," said Abdinur said.

"If you have clothes, you give them to her," said Abdinur. "If you have shoes, give them to her." Abdinur said. "I was surprised, as almost everybody was (to learn) that she was sending clothes to al-Shabab."