An emerging threat to America comes in the form of Somali jihadists

The headline in The New York Times said, “Al-Qaeda moves to Somalia”. 1  Unfortunately, Americans are a part of that move.

In July of 2007, Daniel Maldonado, (a.k.a. “Daniel al-Jughaifi” 2), a father of three from Houston, was sentenced for his participation in a training camp run by the Somali jihad group Shabaab al Mujahideen, which taught him homicide bombing, building IEDs and hand-to-hand combat.

The Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation warns, “We are now seeing a disturbing pattern of lone-wolf style individuals — such as Maldonado — who have been inspired to join Shabaab in order to do their part in confronting the newest ‘crusader battlefront.’” 3

As of June 14th, 2009, 14 ships and more than 200 sailors were being held for ransom by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. 4  According to James Madison University professor, Dr. J. Peter Pham, “In return for allowing pirates to operate out of ports south of the city of Mogadishu, which are all controlled by Shabaab, it is receiving [a portion] from the ransom the pirates demand for hijacked ships.” 5

Some young men in America are being hijacked, too.

Seventeen year-old Burhan Hassan, a Somali boy who had immigrated to the U.S.  with his mother when he was four years old, attended the youth group at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, the largest mosque in Minnesota.6  He is one of many Somali immigrant teens who are alleged to have become part of jihadist groups in Somalia after abruptly leaving their U.S. homes with no word to anyone. 7
When Hassan’s body was found in an open area of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, with a single gunshot wound to the head, his uncle Abdirizak Bihi said, “We believe he was killed because he would have been a key person in the investigation into the recruitment (of young Somali men) here in Minneapolis.” 8

Andrew Liepman of the National Counterterrorism Center says: “In the last few years, a number of Somali-American young men have traveled to Somalia, possibly to train and fight with al-Shabaab. … However, we are concerned that if Somali-American youth can be motivated to engage in such activities overseas, [their] fellow travelers could return to the US and engage in terrorist activities here.” 9

Tennessee native Carlos Bledsoe, a.k.a. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, studied jihad and traveled to Yemen in 2007 10 where he was arrested and jailed for using a Somali passport. 11
The FBI interviewed him in his Yemeni jail but did not get an answer as to why he was using an illegal Somali passport when he had his own valid United States passport in his possession. 12

After he was deported back to the U.S., Bledsoe/Muhammad attracted no further law enforcement attention until he shot two Army recruiters, killing William A. Long and wounding Quinton Ezeagwula as the two soldiers were standing outside the Army-Navy Career Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas. 13

The 23 year-old Bledsoe/Muhammad told investigators he had converted to Islam as a teenager, and when he saw the two young soldiers enjoying their smoke break, he fired upon them with the assault rifle he had in his vehicle “because of what they had done to Muslims in the past.” He told detectives “he would have killed more soldiers had they been in the parking lot.” 14

From his Pulaski County jail cell, Bledsoe/Muhammad called an AP reporter, collect, and told the reporter, “I do feel I’m not guilty. I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.” 15 

Bledsoe/Muhammad told the AP reporter that, “I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others, are going to [attack].”  16

1  http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/1729591.htm
2  p.31, http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefashabaabreport0509.pdf
3  McGevna, Allison A. “Somalian Terror Organization Shabaab al Mujahideen Looks to ‘Throw the West Into Hell’” November 25, 2008 FOXNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457226,00.html
4  “Pirates strike off Oman coast” The National (Abu Dhabi), June 14, 2009 http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090614/FOREIGN/706139974/1041/rss
5  McGevna, Allison A. “Somalian Terror Organization Shabaab al Mujahideen Looks to ‘Throw the West Into Hell’” November 25, 2008 FOXNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457226,00.html
6 “Minn. Teen Found Murdered In Somali”,  CBS News, June 9, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/09/national/main5074732.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_5074732
7  Death of Somali Teen a Mystery to Minnesota family, By JEFF BAENEN and STEVE KARNOWSKI – June 9, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghoabVp0OzgdNAhrdglTlyAdcHQwD98NCMF83
8  Death of Somali Teen a Mystery to Minnesota family, By JEFF BAENEN and STEVE KARNOWSKI – June 9, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghoabVp0OzgdNAhrdglTlyAdcHQwD98NCMF83
9  p. 43,  http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefashabaabreport0509.pdf
10  AP “Arkansas recruiter shootings spark fears of homegrown American jihadists”, The World Link (So. Oregon coast) June 15, 2009 http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2009/06/15/news/doc4a368c40e74b0674150023.txt
11  Recruiting Center Shooting Suspect Pleads Not Guilty, Held Without Bail” Fox News, June 02, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,524405,00.html
12  Temple-Raston, Dina, “FBI Encountered Accused Ark. Shooter In Yemen”, NPR, All Things Considered, June 8, 2009 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105128523&ft=1&f=1001
13  “Recruiting Center Shooting Suspect Pleads Not Guilty, Held Without Bail” Fox News, June 02, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,524405,00.html
14 Jonsson, Patrick, “Shooting of two soldiers in Little Rock puts focus on ‘lone wolf’ Islamic extremists” Christian Science Monitor, June 10, 2009,  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0611/p02s01-usju.html
15  Kissel, Kelly “Suspect in soldier shooting says he was justified”, Juen 9, 2009, http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/4604761
16  Jonsson, Patrick, “Shooting of two soldiers in Little Rock puts focus on ‘lone wolf’ Islamic extremists” Christian Science Monitor, June 10, 2009,  http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0611/p02s01-usju.html