FBI searches Rochester homes in Somali probe

Rochester, Minn. — Earlier this month, FBI agents raided the apartments of two Rochester women who say they were collecting used clothing for poor people in their native Somalia.
One of the women says the agents told her they received a tip that she was supporting violent insurgents in Somalia. It's a claim she adamantly denies. Amina Ali, a U.S. citizen for five years, said the experience left her feeling shaken and violated. Ali says when she came home from shopping on the afternoon of July 13, she found FBI agents and a translator in her apartment. "The guy explained that they got a search warrant from the court, and they had the right to search my house," said Ali. "I was surprised at that moment that it was happening in my own home." Ali lives in a sprawling complex of powder blue apartment buildings on the north side of Rochester. Her husband works as a lab assistant at the Mayo Clinic. She says when the agents came, her two young daughters, ages 6 and 7, waited in fear in a bedroom while the men searched under the beds and rummaged through cabinets. She says they took her laptop computer and several Islamic books, including the Quran. ..more..http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/31/somalis-fbi/?refid=0