Free Republic

SNIPPET: "While these various elements of the jihadist network are distinct, the Internet brings them together, especially at the grassroots level. Videos, websites and online magazines indoctrinate aspiring militants in the jihadist ideology and provide a forum for like-minded individuals and groups."

A former US Army soldier has been charged with trying to help Somalia's al-Shabab militant group. Craig Baxam, 24, was arrested by Kenyan authorities in December as he tried to cross the border into Somalia. An affidavit released by US prosecutors alleges that he planned to offer several hundred dollars to the militant group, which has links to al-Qaeda, and to serve as a fighter. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors say. … Mr. Baxam joined the army in 2007 and was trained in intelligence and cryptology. He previously served in Iraq, returned home and...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — By the time U.S. military forces left Somalia in 1994 after entering the lawless nation more than a year earlier to stop a famine, 44 Army soldiers, Marines and airmen had been killed and dozens more wounded. Thus ended America's last large-scale military intervention in Africa. But the U.S. has come back, using special forces advisers, drones and tens of millions of dollars in military aid to combat a growing and multifaceted security threat. This time the United States is playing a less obtrusive role but is focusing once again on Somalia. While putting few U.S....

The girl’s voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck. Her friend had made the mistake of refusing to marry a Shabab commander. Now she was about to get her head bashed in, rock by rock. “You’re next,” the Shabab warned the girl, a frail 17-year-old who was living with her brother in a squalid refugee camp. Several months later, the men came back. Five militants burst into her hut, pinned her down and gang-raped her,...

Garbaharey -- The administration of Gedo region in southern Somalia for the Transitional federal government disclosed that Al-shabab fighters in the region were hugely defeated by air strikes in El Adde Township, which is some 65km south of Garbahaarey town. The governor Gedo region for the Somali interim federal government, Mohamed Abdi Kalil said an exclusive interview with Shabelle media that nine Al-shabab fighters were seriously injured by on Friday air raids on the Islamist militant training camps in El Adde Township in his region. The governor also made further comments and details during the interview with Shabelle media about...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.fbi.gov/sandiego/press-releases/2011/san-diego-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-provide-material-support-to-al-shabaab San Diego Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab U.S. Attorney’s Office December 01, 2011 Southern District of California SAN DIEGO—Nima Yusuf, 25, a resident of San Diego, pleaded guilty today in federal court in San Diego to conspiring to provide material support to al Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy announced. Yusuf entered her plea before Magistrate Judge Ruben B. Brooks, and the plea is subject to final acceptance by U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz at or before sentencing. As part of...

Terrorists operate in Namibia: NamRights‎ Informante - Nov 2, 2011 Written by Hilma Ndapandula Himotha The human rights organisation NamRights claims that some of the country’s highest political office holders tolerated and protected operations of at least two militant Islamic terrorist groups n Namibia. NamRights director Phil ya Nangoloh claims that his organisation is in possession of credible information that members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militias as well as Somali al-Shabab jihadists have been operating in Namibia for several years. In a press release that NamRights published yesterday, ya Nangoloh demands from President Pohamba to clearly deny or confirm such...

Quote: www.fbi.gov/stlouis/press-releases/2011/local-man-pleads-guilty-to-providing-material-support-to-terrorist-organization Local Man Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to Terrorist Organization U.S. Attorney’s Office November 03, 2011 Eastern District of Missouri ST. LOUIS—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, 31, pled guilty to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to court documents, from February 2008 through at least July 2009, Yusuf, conspired with others to provide money to al Shabaab, which was designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2008. Yusuf transferred money to al Shabaab under fictitious names and telephone numbers utilizing money remitting...

A federal jury Thursday convicted two Rochester women of conspiring to help an Al-Qaida affiliate in their native Somalia under the guise of raising money for the poor. Amina Farah Ali, 35, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 64, were the first people to go on trial in connection with a sweeping federal investigation into alleged recruitment and fundraising activities in Minnesota for Al-Shabab -- classified by U.S. authorities in February 2008 as a foreign terrorist organization. Under U.S. law, it is illegal to support a foreign terrorist group. Both were found guilty on all counts. Al-Shabab and other militia groups are...

As the jury in the trial of two Rochester Somali women accused of supporting terrorists overseas began deliberations late Monday, a large group of the women's supporters held a court of their own outside the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. They decried the charges and the surveillance methods FBI agents used in their investigation of Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, both U.S. citizens who are the first to be tried in connection with one of the most extensive counterterrorism inquiries since the Sept. 11 attacks. "All Somalis around the world are listening to this case," shouted Abdinasir Abdi, who...

After an extensive search, Christians in the Bakool region of southwestern Somalia discovered the decapitated body of kidnapped Christian Juma Naradin Kamil on Sept. 2, 2011. Kamil’s body reportedly bore the marks of an execution by the Muslim terrorist group al-Shabab. “It is usual for al-Shabab to decapitate those they suspect to have embraced the Christian faith, or sympathizers of Western ideals,” a local Christian told Compass Direct News. “Our brother accepted the Christian faith three years ago and was determined in his faith in God. We greatly miss him.” On Aug. 21, three suspected al-Shabab terrorists forced Kamil into...

An Islamist fault famine in Somalia (genocide) - Thousands perished because of Islamists' policies  BBC News - Somali Islamists maintain aid ban and deny famine - Jul 22, 2011 - Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists have denied lifting their ban on some Western aid agencies and say UN reports of famine are "sheer propaganda".The UN on Wednesday said that parts of Somalia were suffering a famine after the worst drought in 60 years.A spokesman for al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda and controls much of the country, accused the banned groups of being political.But the UN insists famine exists and it will continue...

Somalia is in the midst of a famine, suffering from the worst drought in 60 years. 29,000 Somali children have died within the past three months, and 100,000 Somalis are expected to die in the next few weeks. The al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab has destroyed the country, taking over much of the southern part of the country where it has imposed a strict version of Sharia law. The Taliban-like organization refuses to allow humanitarian organizations associated with the West to provide aid to the starving people. Al-Shabab expelled the U.N.’s World Food Programme, which had provided the bulk of the aid,...

The Islamist terrorist group al Shabab is intentionally starving Somali Christians in territory it controls. It’s just the latest incident in the terror group’s systematic efforts to eradicate all of Somalia’s Christians. According to the International Christian Concern (ICC), al Shabab’s intentional denial of humanitarian aid has resulted in the deliberate starvation of 18 Christians in the Somali cities of Afgoye, Baidawa, and Kismayo. As ICC spokesman Jonathan Racho said, “Any Somali that is suspected of being a Christian, or a friend of a Christian, does not receive any food aid.” Unfortunately, the ongoing and purposeful elimination of the small...

A recent suicide bombing by a Somali-American from Minnesota comes on the heels of 18 Somalis charged with recruiting young Somali-American men for al-Shabab, Somalia’s brutal Islamist terror group. Both incidents underscore the growing threat posed by al-Shabab’s pipeline into America’s Somali community. According to al-Shabab leaders, 25-year-old Somali-American, Abdullahi Ahmed, detonated himself last week in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, killing two African Union peacekeeping troops in the process. Ahmed was one of 20 Somali-Americans from Minnesota who disappeared in 2007. At the time, all of the men were suspected of having gone to Somalia to join al-Shabab in...

As I write this, Somalia is suffering its worst drought in 60 years. The lack of rain—combined with civil unrest and political interference from the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab group—has produced catastrophic results. Yesterday Nancy Linborg, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told a Congressional committee that more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 had died over the past three months in Somalia, thanks to the famine. If conditions worsen—and there's little reason to expected that they won't—upwards to 800,000 children may die of hunger and other causes. The violent political situation on the ground...

The World Food Program can't reach 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid in militant-controlled areas of Somalia, WFP's director said Saturday, meaning refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia are likely to continue seeing thousands of new refugees each week. SNIP Al-Shabab signaled in early July that it would accept aid groups it had previously banned, but changed course on Thursday, saying groups like WFP are not welcome. The group's refusal to accept aid from Western and "Christian" aid groups means millions could starve — or be forced to begin the hike to help to Kenya, Ethiopia or...

To Omer Abdi Mohamed, raising money to send other young men to Somalia, to train and arm them with assault rifles to fight there, had nothing to do with terrorism. In late 2007, he said, it was about defending his homeland against Ethiopians. One problem: It was still illegal, federal officials say. On Monday, Mohamed agreed, pleading guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to a single count of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap or maim" Ethiopian and Somali troops. His plea came of the eve of his trial. He would have been the first of 21 local people of Somali descent...

The UN has made its first aid delivery to drought victims in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militants since they lifted an aid ban. UN children organisation's Rozanne Chorlton said al-Shabab had given UN workers unhindered access and hoped this would encourage other agencies. It comes as the UK pledged £52.25m ($84m) in emergency drought aid. But the UK's overseas aid minister told the BBC the UK would not deal with al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia. Andrew Mitchell is touring the huge Dadaab camp in north-eastern Kenya to see the scale of the crisis caused by the drought,...

<p>A fight at Minnesota’s largest mosque is getting a lot of attention in the Somali community, with many saying it exposes a divide between those who want the mosque to take on a more political role while others want the mosque to stay out of politics altogether.</p>