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January 22, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-crm-060.html Foreign National Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Smuggling East Africans to the United States WASHINGTON – A Ghanian man was sentenced today in the District of Columbia for his role in smuggling East Africans into the United States, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Rita M. Glavin, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor and Acting Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Torres announced. Mohammed Kamel Ibrahim, a/k/a Hakim, 27, a native of Ghana and naturalized citizen of Mexico,...

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that federal law enforcement sources believe that a Twin Cities man blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Northern Somalia last month. The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating whether Shirwa Ahmed had developed a terrorist recruiting network in the area. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS learned that Ahmed came to the Twin Cities in 1996 and graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent, mostly in their 20s, from the Minneapolis area have recently disappeared, U.S. law enforcement officials tell 5...

Mr Kiir, Sudan's vice-president, has warned of a return to war Former southern rebels in Sudan have suspended their involvement in the national unity government.The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said its northern partners had failed to implement parts of a 2005 deal that ended a 21-year civil war. These include boundary demarcations and the redeployment of northern troops from the south. South Sudan's President Salva Kiir warned recently there could be a return to war if the deal was not kept to. Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict - Africa's longest civil war - which pitted...

Mr Mubarak wants to change election and terror laws Egyptians have begun voting in a key referendum on constitutional changes which the opposition criticise as paving the way for a police state.The 34 amendments include a ban on the creation of political parties based on religion, and sweeping security powers. The government says the changes will deepen democracy in the country and help in the fight against terrorism. Secular and Islamist opposition groups have called on supporters to boycott the referendum. If approved, the changes will allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation...

About 300 Sudanese have sought sanctuary in Israel Three years ago, David, a 26-year-old corn farmer, fled his burning village in the Darfur region of Sudan. Janjaweed - Arab militiamen loyal to the Khartoum government - rode into the village on horseback armed with machineguns and began killing the inhabitants. They torched his family home. "The fire ate my father," said David. His brother was also killed in the attack. David escaped to Egypt but was afraid that the authorities would send him back to Sudan. He then took the extraordinary step of paying Bedouin smugglers to take him...

1/9/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) -- Air Force AC-130 gunships struck al Qaeda targets in Somalia Jan. 8, news sources reported last night. The operation allegedly hit al Qaeda concentrations in the southern part of the country, but Pentagon officials did not comment. The Navy 5th Fleet moved the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower into the waters off Somalia in an effort to capture al Qaeda terrorists attempting to flee the country, a 5th Fleet spokesman said. Officials of the United Nations-recognized Somali government said the strikes were aimed at al Qaeda terrorists who planned the attacks against the U.S....

US navy patrols Somalia's coast Somali soldiers may struggle to maintain order in Mogadishu US naval forces have deployed off the Somali coast to prevent leaders of defeated Islamist militias escaping. Kenya has also significantly tightened border security to stop an influx of fleeing fighters, as aid agencies called for help for genuine refugees. Uganda's president is travelling to Ethiopia to discuss forming an African force to stabilise the country. A two-week advance by Ethiopian troops swept the Islamist militias from areas they had controlled for six months. Location of militias and US Navy patrols The militias - known...

Somalia is officially an Islamic state and conversion is prohibited. The country has a population of approximately 8.3 million, nearly all of them Sunni Muslims. There is a small, extremely low-profile Christian community. According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2006 issued by the US State Department last Friday, proselytizing for any religion except Islam is prohibited in Puntland and Somaliland and effectively blocked by informal social consensus elsewhere in the country. Somalia has had no government since the fall of Siad Barre in 1991. The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which grew out of individual courts' efforts to establish...

May 21, 2003, 8:45 a.m. Trails Lead to SaudisA Virginia terror probe continues. By Matthew Epstein In March 2002, Federal terrorism investigators descended upon a group of Saudi-backed executives operating out of northern Virginia. The government hauled away truckloads of files and computer hard drives from the "SAAR Network," a web of dozens of related companies with interlocking officers, directors, and corporate headquarters. The Treasury Department suspected the group was laundering money for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Now over a year after the raids, many are asking whether the Justice Department will hand down indictments or clear the...

The United States and 11 African countries Monday opened in Nairobi a regional center to coordinate response to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The new center is the headquarters for "Golden Spear," a United States-led operation to help east African countries deal more effectively with natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Operation "Golden Spear" coordinates disaster relief among the 11 participating African nations and the United States Central Command, which has a large presence in Djibouti. Among the government officials attending the opening ceremony was Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori, who read a speech by President Mwai Kibaki. He said programs...

Today: February 16, 2004 at 8:55:08 PST U.S. General Warns of Africa Terror ThreatBy ANTHONY MITCHELLASSOCIATED PRESS ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - A clear terrorist threat still exists in East Africa, and greater military cooperation is needed to defeat it, a top U.S. general warned on Monday during a visit to Ethiopia. Gen. John Abizaid, whose Central Command is responsible for Afghanistan, Iraq and East Africa, said closer "military and intelligence cooperation" was needed between East African governments to prevent extremist groups like al-Qaida from gaining an "ideological foothold" in the region. "The threat is clear, but the threat can...

Nairobi THE UNITED States has begun implementing a $100 million anti-terrorism initiative in five countries in East Africa involving tighter border controls and intensified efforts to lessen anti-American sentiments among Muslims in the region. Kenya will receive the largest portion of the assistance, which will also be shared by Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti, said a State Department official. The division of the aid reflects "Kenya's importance in the region and the fact that it has already suffered two terrorist attacks," added the official, who spoke to The EastAfrican on condition that he remains anonymous. He declined to specify the...

THE United States has warned citizens of possible new terrorist threats in East Africa from affiliates and sympathisers of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. The State Department "continues to receive threat information pertaining to this region", it said today. The statement renewed an existing January 4 alert and added seaports to a lengthy list of possible targets. "Supporters of al-Qaeda and other extremists are still active in East Africa," it said. The department "believes it is prudent to alert American citizens that such information is being received so American citizens can make an informed decision whether to travel to or...