Thursday, February 26, 2009

Fears Somali-Americans being recruited for terrorism

In the United States the FBI is investigating the disappearance of dozens of young Somali Americans who authorities fear may have been recruited by a terrorist group.

The FBI believes one of the men was responsible for a bombing in Somalia last year - the first known suicide attack by a US citizen.

Washington correspondent Kim Landers reports.

KIM LANDERS: Just hours before Barack Obama took the oath of office last month, the FBI got word of a possible terrorist attack. The threat was linked to a Somali militia group called Al Shabab, or 'The Youth', which is suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda.

Nothing happened but the FBI believes the same group is recruiting young Somali-American men and FBI director Robert Mueller says that one of them has become the first US citizen to carry out a suicide bombing, which killed 30 people.

ROBERT MUELLER: A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first US citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing. The attack occurred last October in northern Somalia. But it appears that this individual was radicalised here in the United States in his hometown in Minnesota.

KIM LANDERS: About 40,000 Somalis live in the state of Minnesota, many in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St Paul. In the past year about two-dozen young men have disappeared and the FBI is worried that they're training in Somalia and could return to the US to launch an attack.

ROBERT MUELLER: The parents of many of these young men risked everything to come to America to provide their children with a brighter, more stable future. And for these parents to leave a war-torn country only to find their children have been convinced to return to that way of life is indeed heartbreaking and it raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home and if so, what might they undertake here.

KIM LANDERS: A Minneapolis mosque has strongly rebuffed rumours its leaders are connected to the disappearances. Osman Ahmed is the uncle of 17-year-old Burhan Hassan who vanished on election day and is now understood to be in Somalia. He says the leaders of the mosque have to be held accountable.

OSMAN AHMED: They have youth programs. Before we trusted those youth programs. Now we are questioning about what they're teaching the kids.

KIM LANDERS: Ibrahim Hooper is a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations. He says the FBI director should visit the twin cities to help clear the air.

IBRAHIM HOOPER: We're concerned that the remarks, just as they are, tend to stigmatise the entire Somali Muslim community in Minnesota and you know can just create more fear and apprehension.

KIM LANDERS: The body of the Somali-American man involved in last year's suicide bombing has been returned to Minnesota with the help of the FBI.

Source: ABC

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