An emerging threat to America comes in the form of Somali jihadists
Published: June 30, 2009
Updated: June 30, 2009
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
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Reader Reactions
Doesn’t anyone but me wonder why OW likes to throw around words like “lie” and “hate” without really understanding either, but is quick to go after anyone else using the terms about her hero? What world of delusion she lives in to think she took TIPPs work apart when it’s obvious to any rational person that she really didn’t?
It really sickens me to read her posts asking someone else if they can’t “Just say that you and Sharman disagree on some issues” when she is the worst to start spewing words like lie and hate as soon as someone takes issues with ANYTHING Sharman writes.
She was asked multiple times to produce proof of something she claimed Sharman had written but she never has. Instead her response is to claim someone never answered one of her questions or to just ignore the question entirely.
The part of this I do really like is that she said she was going to quit responding to me. I get to say what I want and she has to take it, or look like she might have told… a lie!
Tipp, you can accuse people of lying all you want using whatever difinition you choose to use at the time. And you did give it a good try on your “treatise” a few articles ago. But when taken apart after you posted, (by me), you proved nothing just like on this articles postings, except that you don’t build “your” truth in an ethical way.
Why can’t you just tell the truth? Just say that you and Sharman disagree on some issues. The same type of issues that often divide people based on their different morals. But no, you think you’ll get more political pull out of it if you can find a way to make him out to be some kind of sinister person. There is no power in negative politics anymore, that was in time past, remember, just like the scenarios you gave us from history?
Fact also is, Tipp, he has every right to his beliefs, just like you do. And I think the both of you would defend each other’s right to be different. But you can’t seem to accept that. Yet you have no proof he is the liar or an evil intentioned person you try to make hime out to be. You think if you do it with more elequent speech than your peanut gallery or sheep can, that it will look more legitimate…but again…you have to be able to back up what you say.
I do thank you for trying so hard, you certainly have put a lot of effort into it.
EPILOGUE:
I neglected to provide attribution to “rjma” as the author of the posting, “Should be the ‘alleged’ victim. $570k for 2 touches? Why can’t these lawyer diploma mills be shut down?”, to the Culpeper Star-Exponent 3/12/09 Article “Suit alleges fraud, teen sex abuse”; “rjma” quotation appears in page 4 of 7 of my posting yesterday.
I did not note Bob Schieffer (anchor of CBS Face the Nation) experience on 11/22/63 at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Schieffer was holding down the desk while the staff was out covering President Kennedy’s visit to Fort Worth and Dallas. Schieffer received an urgent telephone call from a woman seeking transportation to the Dallas Police Headquarters. She had no car. She was Marguerite Oswald. Her son was Lee Harvey Oswald. Schieffer drove her to Dallas, gained entry to Police Headquarters, interviewed both Marguerite and Marina Oswald and telephoned his scoops to the Star-Telegram. When the Dallas Police discovered he was not a detective, Schieffer was thrown out of Headquarters. The rest is history. Timing is everything not only in politics but also journalism.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2009 provides 2 definitions of the word “lie (verb):
1. to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive, or
2. to create a false or misleading impression.”
Sharman is guilty of the second definition of the verb “to lie”. Sharman has lied and lies by deliberately using half truths, taking words or statements out of context, innuendo, etc. in order to create false and/or misleading impressions. Sharman’s intent is to deceive. Truths and Lies are moral issues which arise from the Heart, the intention. Sharman has lied and does lie in his columns in order to deceive the Public.
The rural areas of the Midwest, Southwest and Northwest have been traditional and loyal Republican areas for a century and a half. While the Democrats have recently made gains in these areas, the Republicans will come back. Virginia is not a Traditional Republican area. Virginia has only been Republican since the mid 1960’s due to the Civil Rights laws of the President Johnson administration. The Traditional Republican areas would not accept J Michael Sharman as a Republican Spokesperson or Leader due to his bigoted hate speech. The Republicans of Iowa would be ashamed to be associated with Sharman’s columns and actions. Sharman does not represent the new, better and successful Republican Party which will serve the best interests of the U.S. again as it has done in the past. He is more representative of the Old Traditional Democratic Party in Virginia which based its policy on hate quite successfully for decades before the 1960’s.
My posting yesterday is my treatise on J Michael Sharman and the Culpeper community.
TobyKat-
The religion of the Holocaust Museum shooter was atheist.
He is a self described atheist and socialist.
I don’t care if anyone likes my posts or not. They make me happy and right after that everyone else likng them comes in a distant second.
OW is an egotistic harpy who thinks she “educates” people with her shallow analysis. It is entertaiing that she can recognize a snotty tone in other people’s posting but not her own. Her simpleness is clarified when she does stuff like ignoring that David Koresh could have been nabbed on the street at any time and instead they killed children to save them
Sharman is a partisan hack that is a perfect example of why the GOP is losing traction in Virginia and the rest of the US as well. However, in defense of Sharman I must say he doesn’t write flat-out lies. He takes takes facts, half-truths and innuendo to make an a “point” that is nt logically supportable and then sacrifices OW’s credibilty while she points out things that Sharman “said” that no one can actually find in his words.
Agree TobyKat, I’ll keep you out of the politician stuff. I just assumed you knew that we have a Homeland Security, FBI and a more organized homefront than we used to, and thus your comment/question was trying to say that we don’t “watch” white supremacists, when in fact we do. But I did mean the question, as a question.
Correct, there wasn’t much we could do about the 88 yr-old man, (long detached from his white supremacist group), that went into the DC museum and shot the guard, and the guard did the right thing to shoot him and not let him kill many others. However, if anyone, his son-wife, anyone..would have told the authorities just how deranged he was, and about his verbalized threat, just maybe…maybe he could have been stopped.
This has happened in school shootings too. These troubled kids that shoot people up, are not part of an organized terrorist group that the authorities, (Homeland Security) are to keep up on. Instead, teachers, therapist, parents…people in the know, should help out in these situations.
So you can’t lump a random killer into a terror group that must be “watched”.
The cry and big hue, over the Napolitano report was not because of the white supremacist groups, it was because of her discussion of the vets and military folks to be coming home being accused of being easy prey for these type of groups. That was an insult, she got the message, and was sorry. But it’s that kind of assumption that is wrong to do while you are “watching”.
We rightfully watched the David Koresh group in TX, as they were bringing in arms and raping young girls as part of their cult behavior, and that was taken care of. Little aggressively, but trying to do what was right. As the cult actually burned themselves up.
I believe you stated, OW, that there wasn’t much we could could about rogue shooters, eg, the Holocaust Museum. Yes, I read the Janet Napolitano report, and if memory serves, there was a big hue and cry about searching home grown terrorists, like there wasn’t really any threat here at home…which I do believe there is. And which we should be paying attention too more than we are. I’m not saying you were a part of that dissension, but I really just wondered about “watching” one group over another. You said there wasn’t much we could do about Holocaust Museum type shootings?
I’m hardly a politician, just a casual observer, so really, stop trying to make me one.
I’m actually quite curious and enjoy reading opinions…..even yours. 
TobyKat, is that a question or a statement? We certainly can and do “watch” home-grown possible terrorist, and I believe we have been to the extent we have knowledge to, for quite some time. Didn’t you see the report Janet Napolitano put out recently?
What kind of question is it to ask “Why should we “watch” one and not the other?“ Just so you don’t have a problem “reading OW”, I’ll say again…you should “watch” these types of people and never let our guard down so as to try to prevent any and all kinds of groups that discusses, approves or has made clear signs of aggressive actions towards “wiping” another off the face of the earth.
Of course, I think you knew that, I really believe you thought you could twist my words and act like a politician.
Without commenting on the overly caffeinated “someone” this morning, I wonder….I’m reading OW as saying we need to “watch” these people. But we can’t “watch” white supremacists or any other home grown possible terrorist? Why should we “watch” one and not the other?
(Sorry, I am new to this).... for about a year and it has been fun reading and gleaning from you all, especially OW.
I do wish people would keep their personal problems with others to themselves, and stick to the issues related to the articles.
And just to let you know where I stand, I can not think of a thing that Sharman has wrote that is a flat-out lie like a couple of you always suggest, nor something he did not have a right to say based on his beliefs and research.
So, if we are to all start following Mr. Tipps advice, let us address the articles at hand or issues related when it comes to talking to each another. However, Mr. Tipp, you have put together some bizarre stuff below, and I’d like to see you too stick to your own advice too.
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