Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Jihad draws young men across globe back to Somalia


Photos left to right: Zakaria Maruf, Burhan Hassan, Jamal Bana, Shirwa Ahmed. Somali men from the Twin Cities who have died in Somalia.

Recruitment efforts that lured Somali men from the Twin Cities are also at work in Europe and Australia, investigators say


They slipped away quietly, not telling family or friends where they were going or why.
Days later, the young Somali men turned up in their homeland to bear arms with Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaida. Counterterrorism officials worried that they might return to carry out an attack on U.S. soil.A year ago, that was the disturbing scenario unfolding in Minneapolis. It spurred the largest federal anti-terrorism investigation since Sept. 11, and investigators spent months connecting the dots to determine who recruited about 20 local Somalis to jihad.Now it's clear that the Twin Cities disappearances were far from an isolated case.From Sweden to Australia, officials are beginning to grapple with the reality that young Somalis in their countries have been doing the same thing.Dozens of Somali men from Great Britain reportedly received terrorist training in Somalia during the past year, with some returning recently to London. Twenty more left Stockholm in the past six months to join the Islamist insurgency in Somalia. A handful have been killed.
Last spring, four Australian citizens were arrested and charged with plotting to attack an army barracks after at least some were trained in Somalia. In the past few weeks, six young Somali men slipped away from their homes in Toronto, flagging officials worldwide that efforts to feed jihad in Somalia with Somalis living abroad have not stopped, and were not limited to the United States."The fact that it's overseas, I think, just says it's bigger than anybody imagined," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist at Georgetown University. "Every dimension of it seems to be larger and more complex than we originally assumed. More youths went than we originally thought. It's more clear that there is an Al-Qaida link with Al-Shabaab than initially assumed. And it's not just Somali youths from America who are going there. It's every dimension."
Fear in TorontoIn Toronto, families still await word on where their sons have gone, said Ahmed Gure, who owns the Somali website Hiraan Online.One young man called his family to say he was in Kenya, but gave no other details. All of the families fear their boys have followed the Minneapolis example, Gure said.Unlike Minneapolis, where community activists representing parents of the missing spoke out for answers, parents in Toronto have not spoken publicly, deferring to mosque officials, he said.
A statement on the website of a Toronto mosque where many of the missing men prayed urged people to come forward with information about their disappearance.
Canadian intelligence officials would not comment on their investigation. But Stewart Bell, a counterterrorism reporter with the National Post in Toronto, said investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service are canvassing the Somali community for information.
In a recent interview with the National Post, Peter Van Loan, Canada's public safety minister, said: "Speaking in general terms, I find it very alarming that people who are Canadians who grew up in this country with all of the benefits and freedom that we have would then potentially choose to go elsewhere and turn against their country."Special agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office said officials in Canada, Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere have been working with the FBI, tapping the agency's longer experience with Al-Shabaab."We know that they've got some similar concerns," Wilson said.Recent indictments of eight more Minnesota Somalis on terror-related charges were announced, bringing the total charged to 14. Six men from Minnesota have been killed in fighting in Somalia.Motives for going The reasons why some young Somalis are returning to join Al-Shabaab are complex and ever changing, counterterrorism experts say.Documents recently filed in federal court in Minneapolis indicate the first wave of Twin Cities men to leave for Somalia in December 2007 was inspired by the occupation of their homeland by Somalia's archrivals -- the Ethiopians. Some saw themselves as patriots.James Ostgard, an attorney representing a local Somali who has pleaded guilty to terror-related charges, has said that the sales pitch used on young Somalis who left after mid-2008 likely changed.By spring 2008, Al-Shabaab controlled much of the country and was designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization with ties to Al-Qaida. By late 2008, the Ethiopians were pulling out.Still, young Somalis from the Twin Cities and around the world were heading back to the war zone. That fall, investigators discovered that Somalis from the United States were carrying out acts unrelated to driving out Ethiopians.Foremost was the October 2008 suicide bombing by Shirwa Ahmed, 26, of Minneapolis, who drove a truck bomb into an intelligence headquarters in the port town of Bosasso, part of coordinated attacks that killed 20 people.To counterterrorism experts, it was evidence that motives had expanded beyond the fight with Ethiopians. Recruiters knew it, too, Hoffman said."The people recruiting them are skilled at this, and they will use the messages they think will be most effective and they are going to tailor those messages to different people," he said. "It may be patriotic motives, it may be some purpose in life [the recruit is] not finding otherwise. It may be rebels with a cause. A good recruiter will identify whatever will work with that person."After Ahmed's death, he added, "it became jihad and not patriotism. Even if people went over for patriotic motives, once you get involved in suicide attacks, this goes beyond patriotism or hatred toward Ethiopians."Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College in North Carolina, agrees: "To the extent people are still being recruited to Shabaab from other countries, I think they'd be more likely now than pre-March of 2008 to have fairly strong pro-Al-Qaida leanings, because that is how Shabaab has branded itself in the past year."Not over yet Somali immigrants have been returning to the homeland ever since civil war erupted nearly 20 years ago. Some go to see family, others to conduct business, relatively few to train to fight with Al-Shabaab."In the eyes of true Somalis, Al-Shabaab doesn't have much legitimacy," said Cawo Samatar, a Somali sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied the Somali diaspora. "They terrorize people. And they terrorize Somalis more than they terrorize anybody else. ... So it's very difficult to grasp what would convince a young man in Toronto or Ottawa or Minneapolis, for that matter, to go and fight."Hoffman suspects the flow of Somalis to fight for jihad may have been slowed -- but not stopped -- by recent revelations about their fate there.
"I was amazed after all the attention focused on Somali-Americans going over there that someone still had the temerity to sneak people out" of Toronto, he said. "I don't think it's over yet."

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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