A Call to Jihad, Answered in America

[Cruelbreed]

A very large article difficult to place here but it's worth the read if of interest. Do some Americans answer the call?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12somalis.html?pagewanted=1&em

[Cruelbreed]

Additional

Somali-American's family: Who sent son to die?



Story Highlights
Jamal Bana is third Somali-American to head to Somalia and die there
Bana's family want to know who recruited him to join Islamist insurgency
President Sheik Sharif Ahmed says U.S.-Somalis joining Islamist rebels
Many Somalis went to U.S. after 1992 American intervention in Somalia

(CNN) -- The family of a Somali-American man who died in Somalia have said they want to know who is responsible for recruiting him to join an al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency.
Jamal Bana is the third Somali-American from the city of Minneapolis to head to Somalia and die there. He is one of more than a dozen missing Somali-American men whose families believe have gone back to fight.
"Someone must have put something in his mind," Omar Jamal of Minneapolis' Somali Justice Advocacy Center said at a Sunday news conference with Bana's family.
"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all. So someone somewhere must be responsible for his disappearance." http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gifWatch as Bana's family seeks answers » (http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Somali-American%27s+family%3A+Who+sent+son+to+die%3F+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlID=406624032&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2009%2FWORLD%2Fafri ca%2F07%2F13%2Fsomalia.american.killed%2Findex.htm l&partnerID=211911#cnnSTCVideo)
The same day as the family's news conference, Somalia's president -- a former member of the Islamist movement himself -- issued a plea to Somali-Americans not to join the fight in his country.
"I call on the Somali-American community not to send their youth to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabaab (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Al_Shabaab)," President Sheik Sharif Ahmed said on Sunday.
"I am saying to those young men from abroad: 'Your families fled your home to America because of insecurity. You should not return here to ferment violence against your people.'"
Al-Shabaab, a group that is on the U.S. government's terror watch list, remains entrenched in the northeast and sections of the south of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. It has ties to al Qaeda and has recruited foreign fighters to join its battle to overthrow the Somali government.
The U.S. government announced last month that it is providing weapons to Ahmed's government as it tries to quell the insurgency. Fighting has uprooted more than 200,000 people in Mogadishu since early May, according to the United Nations.
Many of the missing Somali-Americans are believed to have left for Somalia when Ethiopian forces were still on the ground. The presence of these foreign forces was an outrage to most Somalis, and became a rallying cry of al-Shabaab. But the Ethiopians have now withdrawn.
Bana, who was one of those who heeded the call to return to fight, was only 1 when his parents left Somalia and eventually brought him to the United States.
The oldest of seven children, Bana was a top student at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was studying engineering at two area colleges before he went missing in November.
On Saturday, his family learned of his fate: a photo of his body appeared on a Web site, a casualty of the ongoing conflict in Somalia.
Jamal spoke for the family with one arm around Bana's distraught mother, who quietly wept, covering her face with her headscarf. He father was too upset to attend the news conference, Jamal said. The family is asking the United States government to help them bring his body back home.
In October, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, a Somali-American believed to have been radicalized by al-Shabaab, traveled from Minneapolis to Somalia (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Somalia) and blew up himself and 29 others.
The incident -- the first-ever suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI.
Burhan Hassan, a 17-year-old Somali-American high school student in Minneapolis, went missing eight months ago around the same time as Bana. Last month, his family learned that he was killed in Somalia.
Neither family has any idea why the young males left the United States -- where they came as young boys -- or who is responsible for their deaths. Bana's family believes he was being held against his will.
"Only one time he placed a phone call (in mid-November), he didn't say much," Omar Jamal said. "He spoke as if he was being held hostage. He couldn't be speak freely. They asked him to cut the conversation short.
"The mother was asking him, 'Where are you? Why did you (leave)?' He said, 'I cannot talk to you, I just called to tell you I'm here. I cannot tell you anything. I'll call you some other time. I'm sorry I cannot talk to you.'"
E.K. Wilson, an FBI special agent and spokesman for the Minneapolis field office, could not confirm the exact number of missing Somali-American men or confirm the recent deaths, citing the agency's ongoing investigation. But he said the number of missing men believed to be in Somalia is "in the 10s."
He said the possible recruitment of these men to fight alongside an al Qaeda-linked group is "a significant concern."
"Counterterrorism is our number one priority in the FBI and in this particular field division, and our efforts since 9/11 have been geared in that direction and with the goal of preventing future terrorist attacks," he told CNN in a recent interview. "So it is a significant concern and one that we're giving our highest priority."
Since Shirwa Ahmed's death in October, Wilson said the FBI has further expanded its outreach program to the Somali-American community around the United States.
So far, there is no indication that al-Shabaab is recruiting young men from Somali-American communities outside Minneapolis.
Asha Ali and her husband Ali Yusuf Omar help resettle Somali refugees in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.
They spoke to CNN on Sunday shortly after news surfaced of Jamal Bana's death, and said they are baffled by what is going on in Minneapolis.
"Of course I'm scared," Asha Ali said. "If that happened in Minneapolis, it could happen anywhere."
Asha Ali works for Refugee Family Services and Ali Yusuf works for Georgia Somali Community, Inc. They have five children, a 14-year-old daughter and four sons ages 10, 12, 20 and 22.
"I have seen mothers talking," Asha said, referring to what's going on in Minneapolis. "I open my eyes now more. I watch my kids more closely."
The couple came to the United States in their 20s in 1982, and all five of their children were born in America.
She said there have been no reports of any missing Somali-Americans among the tight-knit community which are centered in the towns of Stone Mountain and Clarkston, near Atlanta.
Asha and Ali Yusuf attend various mosques, or masjids, in the Atlanta area -- which are the centers of the Somali-American community -- and say they all preach tolerance and demand that young people stay out of trouble.
Asha said she cannot figure out what led the young men in Minneapolis to want to return to Somalia.
"What is this 'al-Shabaab'? What does this word mean?" she said. Their fight against fellow Somalis, she said, does not make sense to many members of the expatriate community.
Either way, Somali-Americans want to know why these young men and boys are going to the country that their parents struggled so hard to leave behind to provide a better life for their children.
"It's a question mark who's behind it," Asha Ali said. "I'd love more than you to find out."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/07/13/somalia.american.killed/index.html

[ghost]

I've heard about this. There was a case a couple years back, where an American left to Somalia to fight alongside the militia, and then he just came right back here..... I don't if anything has happened to him yet, but at the time we did nothing.

What the fuck? They are traitors, who are fighting alongside our enemies. This is treason, and treason is punishable by death.

[bobdina]

How a U.S. Marine Became a Warlord in Somalia
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- One of the many oddities in this battered capital is that a son of Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the Somali faction leader who humiliated the United States in 1993, was a naturalized American citizen, not to mention a U.S. Marine.

But that bizarre footnote took on a new dimension last weekend after the general died of gunshot wounds he had received in battle. His clan elders, meeting behind closed doors, selected the same 33-year-old son, Hussein Mohamed Farrah, to become the new president of Aidid's self-proclaimed republic.On Dec. 12 1992, Farrah was sitting in an engineering class when two Marine officers knocked on the door, interrupting the lecture, and said he was urgently needed in Somalia. The United States had just sent 28,000 troops to safeguard U.N. shipments of food to the starving country. The Marines needed translators.

For three weeks, Farrah served as an interpreter and a liaison between the American forces and his father. But the relationship between the United Nations and Aidid quickly soured, and the Marines sent Farrah home on Jan. 5.

By mid-1993, Aidid had become evil personified in the United States and at the United Nations. In addition to diverting food aid and relief supplies, his fighters had ambushed 24 Pakistani peacekeepers. The United Nations placed a $25,000 price on his head. Eighteen American troops were killed trying to capture him. Americans were shocked by the image of the body of one American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
Back in California, Farrah had resumed his life as a weekend warrior and a struggling engineering student. He also went back to work in the West Covina engineering department, updating water maps, counting cars in traffic, working on computers.

Last July, shortly after doing his two-week summer stint as a Marine at Fort Sill, Okla., he suddenly returned to Somalia with his wife and small son. He notified his commanders that he would miss drills for three months because he would be traveling outside the United States.

His life was about to change dramatically. He did not return to school in the fall. Instead, his father took him under his wing and began grooming him for a top spot in the clan's military organization, diplomats and U.N. officials said.

When Aidid's forces captured Baidoa in south-central Somalia in September, Farrah was given a large role commanding the forces and got his first taste of combat, diplomats said. Since then, he has been in command of all military operations around Baidoa, a dirty job of hunting down guerrillas who resisted the invasion.

Then, an unusual confluence of events propelled Farrah into his father's shoes. On Aug. 2, it was announced that Aidid had died after being hit by three bullets during a battle for a neighborhood in southern Mogadishu.

Many Somalis in the capital said they were elated that Farrah had come to power. Aidid was proud of having driven the United Nations out of Somalia, but despite his boasts about expelling colonialists, most high-paying jobs disappeared when the last U.N. troops pulled out last year. Some Somalis hope that Farrah's background will help him mend fences with the West.

"There were some people who hated Aidid but are now hopeful," said Osman Hassan Weheliye, a freelance journalist here. "Some think that because he is educated in America, he will be more open to the international community."

[ghost]

Ah yes, I forgot about that. Mohammed Farah Aidid's son. Is he still in charge of the militia there? What's the situation on that?

[bobdina]

Last thing on him I could find was Dec.2008 still looking though here's something from02 so maybe he's not in power if there is such a thing in Somalia

Today, he is a warlord himself, in exile in Ethiopia. He hopes to return to his Somali clan and is inviting the United States to come back, too, this time to root out suspected al-Qaida leaders in his homeland.

"I know what the U.S. wants, and I know what these terrorists can do," he says. U.S. officials recently warned Congress that the influence of terrorists may be spreading in Somalia and Washington cannot ignore them.

[ghost]

Last thing on him I could find was Dec.2008 still looking though here's something from02 so maybe he's not in power if there is such a thing in Somalia

Today, he is a warlord himself, in exile in Ethiopia. He hopes to return to his Somali clan and is inviting the United States to come back, too, this time to root out suspected al-Qaida leaders in his homeland.

"I know what the U.S. wants, and I know what these terrorists can do," he says. U.S. officials recently warned Congress that the influence of terrorists may be spreading in Somalia and Washington cannot ignore them.


Interesting. This is quite an ironic situation. 16 years ago, we were trying to kill his father. Then he went to Somalia, running a clan, and now he's asking the US to come fight Al-Qaeda in the country...... Very very complex.

[Cruelbreed]

Not to get off topic, but I placed an article on arrested Somali recruiters if interested.
http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/showthread.php?t=2403