Somali president: Recruiters likely still in U.S. | Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ.
St. Paul, Minn. — The president of Somalia said today he believes that recruiters who lured Minnesota men to fight with a terrorist group remain in the United States.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has been meeting non-stop this weekend with Somali-American community leaders in Minnesota as well as elected officials, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Ahmed arrived in the Twin Cities Friday night as part of a stateside tour of communities with sizable Somali-American populations, of which Minnesota is the largest.
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio News, Ahmed, who is an Islamic scholar, distanced himself from radical Islamists who are trying to oust his government.
Through a translator, Ahmed expressed sympathy for the young Minnesota men who returned to Somalia to fight. Six are believed dead.
“I’m very sorry about these people and how they’re misled,” he said. “The problem, I believe, is these people have little education about their religion. They have been misinformed. They do not know what is happening on the ground in Somalia. And the people who are providing this information to them are misleading them, and intended to do so.”
Ahmed says he has not been approached by the FBI, which is leading the investigation into the fighters.
Spoken like a true Islamist – believing jihadists are simply misinformed about their religion. Ahmed was educated in Libya. Could those be among the reasons the FBI has not contacted him?
The FBI does believe, however, that al Qaeda linked Somali’s could return to the U.S. to wage jihad:
FBI Director: Al Qaeda-Linked Somali Group Could Attack U.S. | Fox News
During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller was asked if members of al-Shabaab, which translates as “mujahideen youth,” would send American recruits back to the U.S. to launch attacks.
“I would think that we have seen some information that the leaders would like to undertake operations outside of Somalia,” Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Mueller said he is “absolutely” concerned that Americans who traveled to Somalia to train as terrorists would have U.S. legal status and would therefore be able to return to the United States and carry out attacks.
And this bit of unrelated information regarding al Shabaab’s American mouthpiece:
In early September, FOX News exclusively identified the American mouthpiece for al-Shabaab as a native of Daphne, Ala. Born Omar Hammami, the big-eared and bright-eyed teenager now goes by the name Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or simply “The American.”
After FOX News uncovered al-Amriki’s identify, his family told a local TV station in Mobile, Ala., that their son traveled to Somalia with his wife but lost his passport there, where he became indoctrinated by al-Shabaab. One source within Mobile’s Muslim community said that, after dropping out of college, Hamammi travelled to Toronto, where he eventually married a Somali woman and became indoctrinated there by “angry” individuals.
