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A Somali man is fighting extradition to the United States where authorities suspect him of supporting terrorism in his homeland from a base in Minneapolis. Mohamud Said Omar, 44, has appeared in an open session of a Dutch court for the first time since his arrest at an asylum-seeker's center here last fall. Lawyer Bart Stapert argues that Omar is innocent and the crimes he is accused of would not be punishable under Dutch law.

You’ve probably never heard of Brandon Darby. The former community organizer who saved American lives by undermining a left-wing terrorist plot at the 2008 Republican convention used to be a proud member of the radical left. He called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. He hated cops. He consorted with eco-terrorist tree-spikers, radical feminists and black nationalists. He was approached to rob an armored car and asked to commit arson to fight gentrification. He mouthed politically correct slogans about the Bush administration. Government didn’t care about people, and he thought the botched response to Katrina proved it. When he...

Law enforcement sources have confirmed to WCCO-TV that there is a lockdown at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Officials are evaluating security concerns and a partial evacuation of Lindbergh Terminal is underway. The bomb squad from the Bloomington Police Department has also been called to the airport.

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that Islam is "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham,...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Sarah Palin is bringing her book tour for "Going Rogue" to Minnesota. The former Vice Presidential Candidate and former Alaska Governor will sign copies of her new book at the Mall of America. Palin burst onto the national political stage last year after giving a speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Now Palin brings hundreds of her admirers out to get a glimpse of this maverick of a politician. The excitement surrounding her book tour hits the Twin Cities on Monday. "She seems more real world ... not an average politician," said Jason...

A south Minneapolis travel agency owner who is accused of swindling travelers out of airline tickets, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Hennepin County Court. Ali Mohamud, 35, is charged with six felony counts of theft by swindle. Mohamud owns Amana Travel Agency, located at 1841 Nicollet Ave. S. Mohamud is accused of taking approximately $40,000 from at least a dozen travelers by either failing to purchase their airline tickets or canceling them and keeping the cash. The FBI is also looking into Mohamud. In August, agents searched his business as part of an investigation into Somali men missing from the...

Note: Photo included. http://images.publicradio.org/content/2009/09/11/20090911_troykastigar_39.JPG # SNIPPET: "St. Paul, Minn. — A sixth Minnesota man is feared dead in Somalia after joining an Islamic extremist group there. But Troy Kastigar stood out from his fellow recruits, because the Minneapolis man was not Somali. Kastigar, 28, was a Muslim convert who apparently had no personal ties to the lawless east African country. Troy Kastigar's family received reports of his death within the past week, according to friends of the family. The circumstances of his reported death aren't clear, and the information could not be confirmed by the FBI."

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the counties that include Minneapolis and St. Paul, and says it has received a report of a tornado just north of downtown. The weather services say it received reports of the tornado at 2:11 p.m. Wednesday. Radar shows the storm is moving north at about 20 mph. It reportedly damaged a downtown church. The tornado warning covers central Anoka County, northeastern Hennepin County and western Ramsey County. It remains in effect until 2:45 p.m. Electric Fetus reported on their Twitter page that their building sustained damage and...

St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison said the U.S. government is trying to ensure the safe return of some of the young Somali-American men believed to be fighting with a terrorist group in their homeland. Ellison said he has been included in classified briefings about efforts to bring the missing men back to the Twin Cities. At least four Somali-American men from Minnesota who left to fight in the Horn of Africa have died there in recent months. One of youngest, a skinny teenager from Minneapolis named Burhan Hassan, was trying to leave the fighting and make his...

Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the Twin Cities Pride Festival for 11 years, but this year their free gifts got them arrested. After being told they couldn't have a booth at this year's festival, the family came anyway and ended up behind bars for trespassing. The Pride Festival started Saturday in Loring Park and is considered the third-largest GLBT celebration in the nation. Since the festival rented out the entire park, police said they could choose which vendors to allow in the park. The Johnsons are born-again Christians and believe homosexuality is a sin. Pride...

A group of individuals was recently denied the privilege of having a booth at the Twin Cities Pride Festival due to the fact that they believe what the Bible says about homosexuality. The following email correspondence has been posted as a result.

“Somalis, FBI in other U.S. cities on alert for terrorist recruiting” “While Minneapolis is the core of an investigation, leaders elsewhere want to keep youth from being drawn to violence.” COLUMBUS, OHIO - SNIPPET: “”No one has disappeared,” said Ahmed Hosh, who works with Somali youths in Columbus. “But if those who did the recruiting were individuals talking to someone alone, the scary thing is it could happen here.” The Twin Cities area has been at the center of the federal investigation ever since a 27-year-old from Minneapolis blew himself up in a suicide attack in Somalia last fall. But...

A young Somali man from Minneapolis believed to have been recruited by a terrorist group to travel to his war-torn homeland has returned to Minnesota, a community leader said Saturday. Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said Saturday that the 22-year-old man was recruited for jihad before a change of heart led him to return in recent months. Jamal wouldn't confirm the man's identity, saying that he and his family fear for their safety and are in hiding. Others identified him only as Kamal. The disappearances of perhaps a dozen young men from the Twin Cities...

Somalis in U.S. draw FBI attention War at home seen as lure The FBI is expanding contacts with Somali immigrant communities in the U.S., especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, fearing that terrorists are recruiting young men for suicide missions in their homeland. FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson, spokesman for the Twin Cities FBI field office, described the effort as community outreach. Many members of the Somali community are concerned over disappearances, he said.

A leader of a Minneapolis mosque today criticized testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing that indirectly linked it to a terrorist group's recruitment of young Somali men from the city. Farhan Hurre, director of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in south Minneapolis rebuffed what he called "finger-pointing and false allegations" at the hearing held Wednesday by the Senate's homeland security committee. Mosque leaders have repeatedly pushed back against rumors and news reports that have drawn a connection between it and the disappearance of as many as 20 Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities. During the hearing, a representative of the local...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said it will file suit today against a publicly funded charter school, alleging that it is promoting the Muslim religion and that its directors are using a holding company to illegally funnel taxpayer dollars to a Muslim organization. The suit was to be filed this afternoon in U.S. District Court against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, known as TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education, which the ACLU says is at fault for failing to uncover and stop the alleged transgressions. The suit names the department and Alice Seagren, the state education commissioner, as...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota said it will file suit today against a publicly funded charter school, alleging that it is promoting the Muslim religion and that it is leasing school space from a religious organization, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, without following state law.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – On the day Muslims around the world began to celebrate Eid al-Adha, Fatuma Mohamed was at the Mall of America (MOA), far away from where she would normally say her prayers. But she and other Muslims needed to take time from the activities of the mall and find a quiet area to pray as Muslims do during the festival that commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his only son for God. “I said my prayer right at that corner,” Mohamed said, pointing to the spot. Another Muslim, Amran Ali, did the same. “I had to say my prayer...

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (FOX 9)—One of the five men suspected to be a suicide bomber who killed himself and 29 others last October in Somalia, was buried Wednesday at a Burnsville Cemetery. FOX 9 has learned DNA tests have confirmed Shirwa Ahmed was one of five suicide bombers who killed himself and 29 others last October in northern Somalia. He is also a Minnesotan and a naturalized U.S. citizen. The FBI helped return Ahmed's remains to his family. At a Twin Cities cemetery in Burnsville Wednesday afternoon, the suspected suicide bomber was laid to rest. Shirwa Ahmed, 27, was given a...

The Somali community in the Metro has become fearful after reports that one of their own was a suicidal bomber. Federal sources say Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in a suicide bombing in northern Somali last month. They also believe he was a recruiter in the Twin Cities for a terrorist network. Government sources believe that as many as 40 young men who knew Ahmed, recently left Minnesota without telling their families. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS talked to Ahmed's family. They said they have not heard from him in weeks. The report was the talk of this busy Somali market on...