U.S. trial may open window on recruiting for Al Shabab
Minnesota man accused in Somalian conspiracy
MINNEAPOLIS— A Minnesota man accused of helping to recruit and finance U.S. fighters for an overseas terror group heads to trial Monday in a case that’s expected to show how some young Somali expatriates in Minneapolis were persuaded to risk their lives for insurgents back home. Mahamud Said Omar, 46, faces five terror-related counts as part of a much broader investigation into recruiting by Al Shabab, a U.S.-designated terror group linked to Al Qaeda that is at the centre of much of the violence in Somalia.
Since 2007, more than 20 young men are believed to have left Minnesota for the East African nation, presumably to take up arms with Al Shabab. The departures shook the Somali community in Minnesota — the largest in the United States.
While prosecutors don’t consider Omar a mastermind in the Minneapolis pipeline, they allege that he was far more than a bit player: They say he encouraged young men to fight, helped some get tickets for travel to Somalia and helped pay for weapons.
Omar, who came to the U.S. in1993 and is a permanent resident, insists he is innocent of the charges, which include conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He could face life in prison if convicted.
Eighteen men have been charged in the Minnesota case, but Omar is the first to go to trial. Seven men pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors say Omar gave money to men who travelled to Somalia in 2007 and went there himself in early 2008. In their account, Omar stayed at a safe house in the city of Marka with other Minnesotans — including Shirwa Ahmed, who the FBI said was “radicalized” in Minneapolis and would later become the first known U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing.
Omar’s brothers, Mohamed Osman and Abdullahi Said Omar, have described their brother as shy and easily led, lacking the brains to be a terrorist and the money to buy weapons.
They say his trip to Somalia in early 2008 was to get married and that he went overseas in November of that year to make the Hajj pilgrimage.
At least initially, many of the Minnesota men appeared to have been motivated by patriotism. In late 2006, Ethiopian soldiers were brought into Somalia by its weak UN-backed government, and many Somalis saw that as an invasion. By fall 2007, some were holding meetings at Minneapolis mosques and homes, plotting ways to fight the Ethiopians, court documents said.
Authorities have said early plays on patriotic feelings were eventually supplemented with more radical appeals.
Abdirizak Bihi, a member of Minnesota’s Somali community whose 17-year-old nephew, Burhan Hassan, travelled to Somalia and died there, said the trial shows “justice is slow, but it’s coming.” Prosecutors say Hassan was among the travellers Omar helped.
“Everyone wants to see the details, how (recruiters) do it,” Bihi said. “A lot of families are afraid and they want to know what happened so they can be educated in the future and watch out for the young ones.”