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The following are excerpts from a report by the Committee on Homeland Security:
Al-Shabaab in Somalia -- al-Qaeda’s major ally -- is radicalizing and recruiting Muslim-Americans inside the U.S.
Shabaab has an active recruitment and radicalization network inside the U.S. targeting Muslim-Americans.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab indictments account for the largest number and significant upward trend in homegrown terrorism cases
U.S. Somali communities have been known to operate on behalf of top Shabaab leaders, and in some cases these operatives used American mosques to cover and conceal their activities. In San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, imam Mohammed Mohamud and three other Somali-Americans sent cash to the top Shabaab leader.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab recruiters have used mosques as cover and as safe places to meet to discuss recruitment and radicalization efforts
There is considerable travel by Somali-Americans between enclaves of immigrants in Minneapolis, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Columbus and Lewiston, Maine... Shabaab recruiters operating in those cities are targeting susceptible individuals for radicalization and recruitment.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Given the volume of travel of Somali-Americans between the U.S. and East Africa, some senior U.S. counterterror officials increasingly fear that they have not identified all the American travelers to Somalia who have come into troubling contact with or joined Shabaab, and that some of those individuals could return to the U.S. to recruit a cell or conduct a lone wolf attack inside the homeland.
One of Shabaab’s rising combat commanders is Alabama-raised Omar Hammami, a Southern Baptist convert to Islam who has become a star of Shabaab propaganda videos. Hammami poses a direct threat to the U.S. homeland with his ability to assist Shabaab, core al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with plots, but he also has become a source of inspiration for jihadis.
Two terror defendants in New York, Betim Kaziu and Salujah Hadzovic, were inspired to travel to Egypt for violent Islamic jihad by watching Hammami tapes.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American Muslims recruited by Shabaab have been trained to commit terror by senior al-Qaeda operatives, including some with ties to AQAP in Yemen – now al-Qaeda’s most dangerous franchise targeting the U.S. homeland.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab is cementing operational links with Yemeni- American AQAP leaders, which has claimed credit for attacking the U.S. homeland several times since 2008. U.S. counterterror experts fear the American Shabaab fighters could be taught by AQAP’s expert bomb-makers to conduct attacks against the United States.
Internet chatrooms frequented by the Somali diaspora – estimated at 1.5 million Somalis worldwide – are “full of Shabaab commanders” reporting news of warfare in southern Somalia and encouraging the Somali diaspora to fight jihad.
Some of Shabaab’s recruiters, facilitators and fundraisers working between isolated Canadian and U.S. Somali communities have been known to operate on behalf of top Shabaab leaders, and in some cases these operatives used American mosques to cover and conceal their activities.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American recruits in Shabaab are leveraged by the group in its propaganda to inspire Westerners to carry out violent jihad, including suicide bombings, thus raising the danger of attacks inside the U.S. homeland.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American Muslims recruited by Shabaab have been trained to commit terror by senior Al Qaeda operatives, including some with ties to AQAP in Yemen – now Al Qaeda’s most dangerous franchise targeting the U.S. homeland.
In 2009, Osama Bin Laden told Somalis, “You are one of the important armies in the Mujahid Islamic battalion” and encouraged Somali diaspora “to rally around and help their brothers the honest Mujahideen.” Shabaab pledged loyalty to Bin Laden that year in a statement: “At Your Service, Osama.”
Ties between Shabaab, Al Qaeda and AQAP in Yemen are increasingly apparent:
• Shabaab also has pledged a public and ideological alliance with Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American atop the leadership ranks of AQAP in Yemen, and more recently cemented the relationship by forging operational ties with AQAP.
• Shabaab operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was charged for providing support to AQAP including “personnel,” receiving explosives training and for attempting to orchestrate a weapons deal between Shabaab and AQAP.
• Shabaab and the Islamic Courts Union harbored Al Qaeda operatives such as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was in Mogadishu during the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” battle with U.S. Special Operations Forces, helped mastermind the 1998 U.S. embassies bombings and was reportedly an Al Qaeda middleman between Shabaab and AQAP in Yemen.
• Shabaab leader Saleh Ali Saleh al-Nabhan was also an Al Qaeda senior operative who orchestrated the 2002 Mombasa attacks on Israeli targets, personally trained recruits from Minneapolis, and reportedly had ties to Al Qaeda allies throughout the Horn of Africa.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab is cementing operational links with Yemeni-American AQAP leader Anwar al-Aulaqi and his growing terror network, which has claimed credit for attacking the U.S. homeland several times.
U.S. counter terror experts fear the American Shabaab fighters could be taught by AQAP’s expert bombmaker to conduct attacks against the United States.
Note: Much has developed since 2011 when this report by Homeland Security was written. Islamic radicalization in America has intensified and Muslim immigration has risen dramatically. The situation has worsened since this report.
Al-Shabaab in Somalia -- al-Qaeda’s major ally -- is radicalizing and recruiting Muslim-Americans inside the U.S.
Shabaab has an active recruitment and radicalization network inside the U.S. targeting Muslim-Americans.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab indictments account for the largest number and significant upward trend in homegrown terrorism cases
U.S. Somali communities have been known to operate on behalf of top Shabaab leaders, and in some cases these operatives used American mosques to cover and conceal their activities. In San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, imam Mohammed Mohamud and three other Somali-Americans sent cash to the top Shabaab leader.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab recruiters have used mosques as cover and as safe places to meet to discuss recruitment and radicalization efforts
There is considerable travel by Somali-Americans between enclaves of immigrants in Minneapolis, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Columbus and Lewiston, Maine... Shabaab recruiters operating in those cities are targeting susceptible individuals for radicalization and recruitment.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Given the volume of travel of Somali-Americans between the U.S. and East Africa, some senior U.S. counterterror officials increasingly fear that they have not identified all the American travelers to Somalia who have come into troubling contact with or joined Shabaab, and that some of those individuals could return to the U.S. to recruit a cell or conduct a lone wolf attack inside the homeland.
One of Shabaab’s rising combat commanders is Alabama-raised Omar Hammami, a Southern Baptist convert to Islam who has become a star of Shabaab propaganda videos. Hammami poses a direct threat to the U.S. homeland with his ability to assist Shabaab, core al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) with plots, but he also has become a source of inspiration for jihadis.
Two terror defendants in New York, Betim Kaziu and Salujah Hadzovic, were inspired to travel to Egypt for violent Islamic jihad by watching Hammami tapes.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American Muslims recruited by Shabaab have been trained to commit terror by senior al-Qaeda operatives, including some with ties to AQAP in Yemen – now al-Qaeda’s most dangerous franchise targeting the U.S. homeland.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab is cementing operational links with Yemeni- American AQAP leaders, which has claimed credit for attacking the U.S. homeland several times since 2008. U.S. counterterror experts fear the American Shabaab fighters could be taught by AQAP’s expert bomb-makers to conduct attacks against the United States.
Internet chatrooms frequented by the Somali diaspora – estimated at 1.5 million Somalis worldwide – are “full of Shabaab commanders” reporting news of warfare in southern Somalia and encouraging the Somali diaspora to fight jihad.
Some of Shabaab’s recruiters, facilitators and fundraisers working between isolated Canadian and U.S. Somali communities have been known to operate on behalf of top Shabaab leaders, and in some cases these operatives used American mosques to cover and conceal their activities.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American recruits in Shabaab are leveraged by the group in its propaganda to inspire Westerners to carry out violent jihad, including suicide bombings, thus raising the danger of attacks inside the U.S. homeland.
COMMITTEE FINDING: American Muslims recruited by Shabaab have been trained to commit terror by senior Al Qaeda operatives, including some with ties to AQAP in Yemen – now Al Qaeda’s most dangerous franchise targeting the U.S. homeland.
In 2009, Osama Bin Laden told Somalis, “You are one of the important armies in the Mujahid Islamic battalion” and encouraged Somali diaspora “to rally around and help their brothers the honest Mujahideen.” Shabaab pledged loyalty to Bin Laden that year in a statement: “At Your Service, Osama.”
Ties between Shabaab, Al Qaeda and AQAP in Yemen are increasingly apparent:
• Shabaab also has pledged a public and ideological alliance with Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American atop the leadership ranks of AQAP in Yemen, and more recently cemented the relationship by forging operational ties with AQAP.
• Shabaab operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was charged for providing support to AQAP including “personnel,” receiving explosives training and for attempting to orchestrate a weapons deal between Shabaab and AQAP.
• Shabaab and the Islamic Courts Union harbored Al Qaeda operatives such as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was in Mogadishu during the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” battle with U.S. Special Operations Forces, helped mastermind the 1998 U.S. embassies bombings and was reportedly an Al Qaeda middleman between Shabaab and AQAP in Yemen.
• Shabaab leader Saleh Ali Saleh al-Nabhan was also an Al Qaeda senior operative who orchestrated the 2002 Mombasa attacks on Israeli targets, personally trained recruits from Minneapolis, and reportedly had ties to Al Qaeda allies throughout the Horn of Africa.
COMMITTEE FINDING: Shabaab is cementing operational links with Yemeni-American AQAP leader Anwar al-Aulaqi and his growing terror network, which has claimed credit for attacking the U.S. homeland several times.
U.S. counter terror experts fear the American Shabaab fighters could be taught by AQAP’s expert bombmaker to conduct attacks against the United States.
Note: Much has developed since 2011 when this report by Homeland Security was written. Islamic radicalization in America has intensified and Muslim immigration has risen dramatically. The situation has worsened since this report.
Source
1. Committee on Homeland Security. Majority Investigative Report: Al Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American Community and the Threat to the Homeland. U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC: July 27, 2011.
See also:
Muslim Brotherhood in America
Why the FBI and police don't investigate mosques
Muslim Brotherhood in the Biden administration
Al-Qaeda has intensified its operations worldwide
1. Committee on Homeland Security. Majority Investigative Report: Al Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American Community and the Threat to the Homeland. U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC: July 27, 2011.
See also:
Muslim Brotherhood in America
Why the FBI and police don't investigate mosques
Muslim Brotherhood in the Biden administration
Al-Qaeda has intensified its operations worldwide
For factual information on Islam, and much more, including details about U.S. involvement in the Islamic takeovers of Egypt, Syria and Iraq, read An American Woman Living in Egypt: Life during an Islamic takeover.
Available at Amazon or order it from your local bookstore.
Read the INTRODUCTION to Cheri's book
Read the Jacket Back
Available at Amazon or order it from your local bookstore.
Read the INTRODUCTION to Cheri's book
Read the Jacket Back