With clear, straight answers, a St. Anthony man admitted to a federal judge Monday that he lied to a grand jury when he denied knowing men who had returned to Somalia to fight Ethiopian troops who were occupying their homeland. Adarus Abdulle Ali, 25, said he was scared when he was called to testify before the grand jury in Minneapolis, and that's why he didn't tell the truth — that he knew the men and knew why they were going to Somalia.In pleading guilty to a single count of perjury, Ali became the fourth person to enter a guilty plea in connection with the exodus of young local Somali men back to Africa to take up arms for a group that the State Department says is a terrorist organization linked to al-Qaida.
A fifth man accused of lying to FBI agents investigating the case has pleaded not guilty.
A federal grand jury has been investigating the travels of at least 20 men — some in the Somali community say the number is higher — back to the African nation that has been a battleground of warring factions since a 1991 coup left the country of 7 million without a government.
In 2006, a transitional government brought in Ethiopian troops to oust Islamist forces from Mogadishu, the nation's capital. Some Somalis viewed the foreign soldiers as invaders; among the groups who fought the Ethiopians was al-Shabaab, which the U.S. government designated as a terrorist organization in February 2008 because it allegedly had ties to al-Qaida. ..more..http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_13698489?source=rss
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