Okay, okay, I’m at least thankful that a national cable news outlet is finally getting around to the US Somali refugee radicalization problem that has been going on for at least twelve years, but I want to scream about how long it takes for the national media to catch up with serious issues like this one.
And, I guess we should be thankful that Ilhan Omar was elected to Congress, because her words and actions have become a focal point (a news hook) for stories like this one.
I honestly think she does us a great service by being in Congress—let her keep talking!
I can’t and won’t write a book here, but everyone should take time to read the Fox story, and to read about my trip to Washington in 2009 when I attended a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the radicalization of Minnesota Somalis.
You will see that the FBI brushed off the idea of any Islamic connection and spokesmen testifying were fixated on their main point—the poor disenfranchised refugee “youths” were going back to defend Somalia from Ethiopian aggression (Move along, nothing to see about a broader reason for jihad recruitment).
Who headed the FBI in 2009? Robert Mueller.
And, by the way, Senator Amy Klobuchar never set foot into that hearing room that day even though she had constituents testifying!
Not a surprise that Klobuchar wants nothing to do with any suggestion that her Somali voters could be terrorists or have a radical agenda. Watch her pander!
Here is how the Fox News story begins,
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.
FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined. And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS. Both numbers are far higher than those of alleged terrorist wannabes who left or attempted to leave the country from other areas in the country where Muslim refugees have been resettled.
In the case of the Somalis, it’s no longer just the men. Early last year, a female was apprehended by authorities on charges of supporting providing material support to Al Qaeda and arson.
So what has made the area such a hotbed for such activity? And what has been Rep. Ilhan Omar’s record in addressing the issue – either before she was elected, or since?
The answers matter because federal authorities say they remain “highly concerned” about the terrorist connection with the Minneapolis Somalis – even though al-Shabab is struggling against the Somali government, and the so-called ISIS “caliphate” has crumbled under a sustained U.S.-led military campaign.
“We are very conscious that there may still be fertile ground for that, and that is could re-start at any time,” one federal official told Fox News. “Based on historical experience, we had (an uptick) in 2007 and 2008 going for al-Shabab, then a lull. Then, as ISIS came back, we saw a whole bunch of people no longer headed for Somalia. They were headed for Iraq and Syria. That really caught us off-guard, we didn’t see that coming. It didn’t make sense to us. We understood why kids were going back to Somalia, but going to Syria was another we (sic) issue.”
I can’t tell you how much that last paragraph above pisses me off!
The reason they were surprised is that they had completely focused, during Robert Mueller’s tenure at the FBI, on the idea that the kids were only going home to fight for Somalia, not as jihadists for Islam!
Read the rest of the Fox story, here.
And, again, here is the link to my post on attending that Senate hearing a decade ago! If you are really ambitious, you can read dozens of my posts (beginning in 2008) on the “missing Somali youths” here at RRW.
Now what do you do? Help spread the Fox News story and while you are at it send out the 2-minute video showing Klobuchar pandering to her Somali fans.