Nor/AP
An Al-Shabaab fighter displays weapon during military exercises in northern Mogadishu, SomaliaWASHINGTON - The Obama administration put Somali shipments on the no-fly list Monday, declaring the war-torn country's militants a direct threat to the U.S. homeland.
"The ban on air cargo from Yemen will continue and has been extended to all air cargo from Somalia as well," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
Napolitano said toner cartridges over 1 pound won't be allowed to be shipped, either, because Yemen's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula tried to conceal a PETN bomb in some last week to blow up cargo planes.
Somalia's increasingly influential al-Shabaab "youth movement" is causing new jitters for U.S. terrorism fighters.
The group, boasting alliances to AQAP in Yemen and Osama Bin Laden's Pakistani-based terror network, has up to 3,000 fighters - and a batch of American recruits.
There have been several prosecutions in New York City federal courts since last year of wanna-be Shabaab jihadis, including Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen from Brooklyn charged with trying to join up.
"If you make the assumption that the thousands of Shabaab adhere to the same ideology as their leadership, then that's the strongest Al Qaeda force we have on the planet," a defense official told the Daily News.
"If they are able to leverage those thousands, that is not good," the official said. "Just think about what a thousand people could do - a crazy amount of bad stuff."
Topping the list is the potential of a U.S. plot, though none has been detected beyond a threat to President Obama during his inauguration. A recent Shabaab attack in Uganda killed an American.
"The ban on air cargo from Yemen will continue and has been extended to all air cargo from Somalia as well," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
Napolitano said toner cartridges over 1 pound won't be allowed to be shipped, either, because Yemen's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula tried to conceal a PETN bomb in some last week to blow up cargo planes.
Somalia's increasingly influential al-Shabaab "youth movement" is causing new jitters for U.S. terrorism fighters.
The group, boasting alliances to AQAP in Yemen and Osama Bin Laden's Pakistani-based terror network, has up to 3,000 fighters - and a batch of American recruits.
There have been several prosecutions in New York City federal courts since last year of wanna-be Shabaab jihadis, including Betim Kaziu, a U.S. citizen from Brooklyn charged with trying to join up.
"If you make the assumption that the thousands of Shabaab adhere to the same ideology as their leadership, then that's the strongest Al Qaeda force we have on the planet," a defense official told the Daily News.
"If they are able to leverage those thousands, that is not good," the official said. "Just think about what a thousand people could do - a crazy amount of bad stuff."
Topping the list is the potential of a U.S. plot, though none has been detected beyond a threat to President Obama during his inauguration. A recent Shabaab attack in Uganda killed an American.
U.S. officials didn't think the Pakistani Taliban or AQAP were capable of attacking the U.S. - until each did.
They don't want to make that mistake with Shabaab, given that "at least two dozen Americans" have joined the group in Somalia, FBI Director Robert Mueller recently told Congress.
In a new tape, AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki praised Shabaab "brothers."
Shabaab was put on Treasury and State Department global terrorism lists in 2008.
The government worries about "who we don't know about" in Shabaab.
"There's always been a concern, particularly after Shirwa Ahmed, that these people could come back here and do something," said another counterterror official.
Ahmed was a Somali-American from Minneapolis who carried out a 2008 suicide bombing against the Somali government.
jmeek@nydailynews.com
NYDailyNews.com
They don't want to make that mistake with Shabaab, given that "at least two dozen Americans" have joined the group in Somalia, FBI Director Robert Mueller recently told Congress.
In a new tape, AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki praised Shabaab "brothers."
Shabaab was put on Treasury and State Department global terrorism lists in 2008.
The government worries about "who we don't know about" in Shabaab.
"There's always been a concern, particularly after Shirwa Ahmed, that these people could come back here and do something," said another counterterror official.
Ahmed was a Somali-American from Minneapolis who carried out a 2008 suicide bombing against the Somali government.
jmeek@nydailynews.com
NYDailyNews.com
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