Bomber in Somalia Was ‘Radicalized’ in U.S., FBI Says

A Somali-American man, who died in what is believed to be the first terrorist suicide bombing carried out by an American citizen, appears to have been “radicalized” in the U.S., said FBI Director Robert Mueller.

The suspect, identified in news reports as Shirwa Ahmed of Minnesota, perished in a bombing in northern Somalia in October. He was recruited while in the U.S. and other Somali-Americans may have been “radicalized” as well, Mueller said today in a speech in Washington.

The recruiting in the U.S. “raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home, and, if so, what they might undertake here,” Mueller told the Council on Foreign Relations, a research group.

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, young men from communities in the U.S. have been recruited to travel to other countries, including Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan, Muller said. They were sought out to participate in fighting or suicide bombings, he said.

Attacks in Mumbai in November were a reminder that terrorists “with large agendas and little money,” can use basic weapons to “maximize their impact,” Mueller said. The attacks, which killed 164 people, raise the possibility of similar incidents in the U.S., he said.

‘Pockets of People’

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is increasingly concerned about “pockets of people” around the world that identify with the terrorist group al-Qaeda, Mueller said. Authorities also should focus on less well-known terror groups, “homegrown terrorists,” and extremists who don’t need visas to travel to the U.S., he said.

“We need to know where the threat is moving, and we need to get there first,” Mueller said.

Authorities have said they are monitoring Somali-Americans who disappeared from Minneapolis and other U.S. cities in the last year and a half. Some may have traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, a militant Islamic organization linked to al-Qaeda and considered a terrorist group by the U.S.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security previously said they investigated the threat of an attack by al-Shabaab that could have been directed at Washington, possibly coinciding with President Barack Obama’s inauguration last month.

The FBI returned the remains of Ahmed to his family in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the Washington Post reported. Members of the community where he lived said Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen, blew himself up in the October bombing in Somalia, the Post has reported.

“It appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota,” Mueller said.

Source: Bloomberg.com