FBI probe biggest plot since 9/11

BBC ^ | Nov. 18, 2009 | Sima Kotecha

[AuntB]

The FBI is worried a group linked to al-Qaeda is training up a new generation of terrorists.

They're thought to be targeting young Somali immigrants, radicalising them to carry out attacks on their home country and possibly the US in the future.

The grey high rise flats in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, are clustered together and are home to hundreds of Somali immigrants.

It's not clear why teenagers like these are giving up their comfortable lives in America and returning to their war torn homeland.

But over the past three years, authorities believe 20 young Somali men have gone back to fight in the bitter civil war, which is reported to have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Illegal refugees

According to census figures there are 35,000 Somalis living in America but the figure is almost certainly a massive underestimate as many live in the country illegally.

Now an extremist Muslim group, which America calls a terrorist organisation, is trying to gain control.

The US believes al-Shabaab has ties to al-Qaeda. It's a shadowy organisation which is made up of radical Islamists.

The FBI were reluctant to spell out the threat, but they do believe something sinister is happening in the local Somali community.

They're calling it their biggest terror investigation since 9/11.

Agents won't say if mosques or religious leaders are involved but they do think victims are being radicalised in America before being trained as fighters in Somalia.

An 18-year-old Somali man, who refused to give his name, said: "I am very scared and I feel uncomfortable in this country. I just hope the government know what they're doing here and they don't mess with the wrong people."

As for the American people, many of them are scared too. Their biggest fear is another 9/11.

[hennie pennie]

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