Charity allegedly used to fund Somali terrorists

St. Paul, Minn. -- Amina Farah Ali had become the go-to person for Somalis in the southern Minnesota city of Rochester wanting to donate items to refugees displaced by violence in their homeland.But she and another woman, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, were actually using the pretense of charity to send money to a violent terrorist group in the African country, prosecutors allege. They also claim the women made direct pleas in teleconference calls for others "to support violent jihad in Somalia."

The two women, both U.S. citizens living in Rochester, are among 14 people named in indictments unsealed Thursday in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala. -- accused of being part of what the government called "a deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to al-Shabab.The Somali insurgent faction embraces a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practiced by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime.Both women said they are innocent. "We are not terrorists," Ali said after she and Hassan made their first appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.

The indicted also include Omar Hammami, an Alabama man now known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "the American" -- who has become one of al-Shabab's most high-profile members and appeared in a jihadist video in May 2009.

The group's fighters, numbering several thousand strong, are battling Somalia's weakened government and have been branded a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida by the U.S. and other Western countries.