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A one-time janitor at a Minneapolis mosque was found guilty Thursday of conspiring to help a terrorist group recruit young Minnesota men for a holy war in their native Somalia. A federal jury in Minneapolis deliberated about 8 1/2 hours before convicting Mahamud Said Omar, 46, in a case that provided the clearest picture to date of a worldwide investigation into the recruiting of at least 20 young men to fight in Somalia with Al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terror group. Omar, of Minneapolis, rocked gently in his seat and studied the jurors dispassionately as the verdict was read. Guilty on count...

Historically a city of French Canadian immigrants, Lewiston, Maine is now also home to some 6,000 Somalis, including shop owner and father of five Mohamed Heban, who moved to Lewiston in 2002. But in a recent BBC documentary, Lewiston's mayor, Boston native Bob Macdonald, sounded less than welcoming. "When you come here, you accept our culture and leave your culture at the door," he said in the documentary...

If a Muslim woman wasn't punished for refusing to stand when a federal judge entered the courtroom, others would have been emboldened to show disrespect for the court, the judge has ruled. Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis wrote that defendant Amina Farah Ali's silent gesture -- which she said was rooted in religious principle -- could have led to chaos during her trial on terrorism-related charges last year. "If Ali were allowed to sit while court is called, it may have been possible that her many sympathizers would have begun to emulate her in a show of support," Davis...

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Gunmen shot dead a well-known comedian known for poking fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials and colleagues said Wednesday. Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale, in his late thirties or early forties, was killed late Tuesday, minutes after leaving Kulmiye radio station, where he worked as drama producer and performer. (Snip) The shooting of Marshale, who also worked for the London-based Universal TV station and who reported having received death threats on several occasions, is the latest in a string of apparently targeted killings against media

There is a first-hand undercover investigation being done in Al-Farooq mosque in Nashville, TN. What has been exposed is unthinkable. This is video footage of a first-hand undercover investigation done in Al-Farooq mosque. Listen to a 7 year old talk about her husband and how they are beaten during shariah class. The video is just the sound, as these kids are in tremendous danger and the undercover person inside needed to hide the camera deeply. We are working on the sound quality. Listen to the girl stating how kids are beaten as she begins to cry.The teachers, "they hit...

A family of Somali benefits claimants living in a £2million home courtesy of the taxpayer admitted they couldn’t believe their luck yesterday. To the anger of neighbours, the family of ten are allowed to live in a six-bedroom end-of-terrace Georgian townhouse in one of London’s most fashionable areas, populated by high-flying lawyers and stockbrokers. The family use housing benefits to pay a heavily discounted rent for the four-storey house in Islington – close to Tony Blair’s former home – which boasts a variety of period features, including chandeliers and wood flooring. The family are understood to pay the council just...

The new skirt length policy was instituted for safety reasons, but as far as these Muslim employees are concerned, safety be damned. It is all about forcing accommodation, in line with the principle that wherever Islamic law and practice conflict with American law and practice, American law and practice must give way. "New skirt length policy prompts Muslim walk-out at Minn. business," from KMSP TV, June 6 (thanks to all who sent this in): LE CENTER, Minn. (KMSP) - More than 30 Somali employees walked out in protest of dress code changes at a privately-owned business in Le Center, Minn....

AFP - A French court on Wednesday jailed five Somali men for between four and eight years for taking a French couple hostage on their yacht in the Gulf of Aden, and acquitted a sixth. In France's first prosecution of suspected Somali pirates, prosecutors had asked for the men, aged between 21 and 36, to be sent to jail for between six and 16 years on charges of hijacking, kidnapping and armed robbery. The six allegedly seized the yacht and its crew, Jean-Yves Delanne and his wife Bernadette, both aged 60, off the coast of Somalia in 2008 and demanded...

Freedom Radio, November 2, 2011 Wednesday morning at 10 AM EST has the distinct honor and pleasure to welcome Colonel Frank Ryan, USMC, retired. Col. Ryan has more military, business and professional experience than any or all of the current Presidential candidates. Col Ryan is a retired Marine and CPA who served on General Tommy Franks staff in Iraq, as an expert in economic warfare. When forming his staff, Gen. Franks said, "Get me Ryan". His decades of public service have not ended with his retirement from the military. For nearly twenty years, Frank Ryan has been president of the...

Mogadishu, Somalia - An al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group on Sunday posted a tape allegedly made by an American citizen who blew himself up during an attack on an African Union base in Somalia's capital that left at least 10 people dead. The young man, who would be at least the fourth American to become a suicide bomber in Somalia, urges other young people not to "just chill all day" and instead fight nonbelievers around the world.The website Somalimemo.net, often used by the al-Shabab militia, said Somali-American bomber Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah had emigrated to the U.S. when he was 2 years old.

British ships are to be allowed to carry armed guards to protect them from pirates, David Cameron has announced. A legal ban on weapon-toting protection staff will be relaxed so that firms can apply for a licence to have them on board in danger zones. The Prime Minister said radical action was required because the increasing ability of sea-borne Somali criminals to hijack and ransom ships had become "a complete stain on our world". ... Under the plans, the Home Secretary will be given the power to license vessels to carry armed security, including automatic weapons, currently prohibited under firearms...

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A team of suicide bombers and gunmen disguised as soldiers assaulted an African Union base in the Somali capital on Saturday, sparking a two-hour gunfight that left at least 10 people dead, security officials said. The al-Qaida-linked Islamist militant group that claimed the attack said one of the bombers was Somali-American. The attack underscored the militants' ability to carry out complex and deadly operations even after AU troops forced them from most of Mogadishu and a famine in their strongholds weakened their forces. Earlier this month, Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a string of cross-border...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to a terror-related charge for helping recruit men to travel to Somalia to take up arms with the terror group al-Shabab. Twenty-six-year-old Omer Abdi Mohamed pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

This is how you do it:  nab the perps, tie 'em up, put them back on their own boat, then set the whole kit and kaboodle on fire and.... pooof, no more pirates. The video below shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somali pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker. A number of commands directed at the prisoners are heard from from an English-speaking Russian, i.e. when the commandos find a weapons stash ("WTF??!")- and "This is not a fishing boat!"The soldiers immediately freed their compatriots and the Russian oil tanker. They moved the pirates...

President Obama is extending full constitutional due-process rights to a Somali terrorist. This sets a troubling precedent. Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was captured sometime in April on a boat traveling between Yemen and Somalia. He was detained on board a U.S. warship for two months and interrogated by intelligence officials. He reportedly revealed a great deal of valuable information regarding his connections to the Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group and the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. So far, so good. (Snip) The Warsame indictment is an end run around Congress, which last year voted to bar the transfer of terrorist

Republicans are blasting the Obama administration for detaining a Somali terror suspect for two months aboard a U.S. warship before flying him to New York over the July Fourth holiday to face charges in a civilian trial. Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, who has ties to the Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab, was captured April 19 in the Horn of Africa region, possibly in Yemen. At his arraignment in New York Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to the nine charges he's been indicted on by a federal grand jury, including providing material support to a terrorist organization. "The Obama administration won't detain terrorists...

Another Somali man is charged in Minnesota in connection with the travels of young men who are thought to have joined a terror group in their homeland. Ahmed Hussein Mahamud was arrested Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and made his initial appearance in federal court there on charges of providing material support to terrorists. An indictment unsealed Thursday says that from April 2009 to July 2009, Mahamud provided money and personnel to al-Shabab.

Abdirahman Warsame at Terror Free Somalia informed us late last night that messages appearing on known al-Shabaab websites indicate that a suicide bomber who carried out on attack on AMISOM forces in Mogadishu on Monday was a Somali-American from the Minneapolis area. A twenty-two minute audio was posted on the Somali Memo website (article and audio have since disappeared) that included a segment of an English-speaking Somali speaker — apparently the suicide bomber — who encourages Muslims in the West to “die for their religion.” Another article on Somali Memo identifies the speaker as Asadullahi Axmed “al-Imriiki” (“the American”), a...

A retired couple who were enjoying a luxury cruise fought off Somali pirates with deck chairs as they attempted to storm the ship and kidnap them. John and Barbara Jeffery had been enjoying the trip of a lifetime when the violent pirates tried to take over the ship they were sailing on. As gun shot rang out, the couple defiantly armed themselves with deck chairs, tables and whatever came to hand as they helped to beat off the outlaws. terror struck just one week in, when the MSC Melody was off the coast of Somalia, a spot haunted by pirates,...