Grand jury looks into missing Somali men

St. Paul, Minn. — The investigation into about a dozen Somali-American men missing from Minnesota has reached the level of a federal grand jury investigation. A number of men from the Twin Cities are believed to have gone back to to Somalia to fight along with a terrorist group.
The head of a mosque in Minneapolis says at least a dozen people who worship at his mosque have been called before a grand jury meeting in Minneapolis. One witness who testified before the grand jury says he had only scant knowledge about the men who have apparently vanished. The young man says a few months ago, he received a phone call out of the blue from the FBI. The agent asked him if he had five minutes to talk at a coffee shop. Minnesota Public Radio News agreed to protect the man's identity and alter his voice, because he feared reprisal from the federal government for talking about a sensitive investigation. The man says after receiving the phone call, he agreed to meet with investigators. "I knew my right to say I need a lawyer, but when they said it was five minutes, I'm thinking, 'Hey, talk to the guys and see what they're looking for.' But that five changed to about45 (minutes) to an hour," said the young man. The young man, who is a college student living in the Twin Cities, says the agents first asked him questions about his own background -- where he went to school and what he did for a living. And then the questions shifted to the missing. The agents showed him a couple dozen pictures of men who appeared to be in their teens or 20s. He was able to pick out about five or six. By the end of the interview, the man says the agents began to, in his words, "interrogate" him. "We know something is going on. You believe you're not telling us the truth, so you might want to tell us the truth. Is there something you're hiding from us?' I was like, no there isn't anything I'm hiding from you. I'm telling you all I know, and that's it,'" said the young man. ..more..http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/22/grand_jury_looks_into_missing_somali_men/