Homeland Insecurity: Terrorist Fundraising in the Heartland
December 14, 2007 12:42 AM
 
 
Are America's enemies operating freely from inside the country?
Patrick Poole reports on one Somali terrorist leader's hassle-free
trip to Minneapolis.
 
 
By Patrick Poole
 
Nearly 15 years after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and 6 years
after 9/11, the federal agencies responsible for our domestic security
against terrorism appear to be entirely unaware, unequipped and
unconcerned about the continued operations of Islamic terrorists
inside the US.
 
Exhibit A in support of this thesis is the recent fundraising visit to
the US by major Somali terrorist leader Zakaria Mahmoud Haji-Abdi.
Abdi is deputy chairman of the Eritrean-based Alliance for the
Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS). The ARS is organizationally integrated
with the al-Qaeda-backed Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which is waging
the deadly terrorist insurgency in Somalia against the UN and US
recognized Transnational Federal Government (TFG). The insurgency is
responsible for the violence that has caused the deaths of nearly
6,000 Somalis this year in Mogadishu alone and forced at least another
half million refugees to flee from there.
 
Abdi was the keynote speaker at a fundraising event and conference
hosted by the United Somali Diaspora and held at the Crown Plaza Hotel
in Minneapolis on November 24. An article published the following day
by SomaliTalk (in Somali) features numerous pictures of the event,
documenting Abdi's attendance. (Minneapolis is home to the largest
Somali population in the country.) A follow-up conference was held the
following weekend at the Days Inn in Falls Church, VA, (right outside
Washington, D.C.) by United Somali Diaspora and several other US-based
Somali groups.
 
Some in the US Somali community, however, are actively speaking out
against the ARS terror campaign and their fundraising efforts in the
West.
 
Abdirahman Warsame, Executive Director of the Terror Free Somalia
Foundation, expressed his opposition to the conference agenda and
Abdi's terrorist fundraising mission. "This event was definitely
intended to organize and mobilize the extreme elements of the Somali
community here to support the armed struggle against the
internationally recognized Somali government and oppose US foreign
policy," Warsame said. "Abdi was openly calling for jihad and
directing supporters to use the underground hawala networks to
circumvent US controls to prevent terrorism financing overseas. These
funds will be used to support the insurgency that is killing
civilians, civil servants and anyone who works for or with the
government, in order to further weaken the country and open the doors
for foreign terrorists to take control of the country. Why would this
man be allowed in the US?"
 
According to one law enforcement source familiar with Abdi's recent
visit, the Department of Homeland Security was contacted more than a
week before the Minneapolis conference. The agency determined that,
since Abdi did not have a Social Security Number (he is neither a US
citizen or resident) and it was not known where he would enter the US
from, nothing could or would be done to stop his visit. Repeated phone
calls and emails from this reporter to the DHS public affairs office
asking for explanation on why Abdi was allowed in the country did not
receive a reply.
 
The failure of Homeland Security to act in any way to keep Abdi out of
the country prompted heated criticism of the agency by Steven Emerson
of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. "It is absolutely
scandalous that federal authorities cannot or will not stop jihadists
from entering the US. Homeland Security should be called Homeland
Insecurity," Emerson said.
 
He also noted that fundraising for terror is directly related to acts
of terror:
 
To paraphrase the president, there is no difference between those that
carry out acts of terrorism and those that protect them or enable
them. Jihadist financiers are just as culpable for blowing up buses of
children as those that strap bombs upon themselves. A jihadist is a
jihadhist, and they are killers who have no place being allowed to
operate in the US.
Equally as troubling is the fact that Abdi and the other guests at the
conference were warmly greeted by a member of US Senator Norm
Coleman's (R-MN) staff, Constituent Policy Liaison Mahmud Nuur
Wadheere. Wadheere's welcome was noted in the SomaliTalk conference
recap article.
 
Another ARS official, Abdirahman Haji Aden Ibbi, also joined Abdi as a
speaker at the Minneapolis conference. The ARS was formed back in
September during a conference held in Asmara, Eritrea to create an
international coalition between the ICU, which was forced out of power
in Somalia late last year by Ethiopian troops supporting the TFG, the
Eritrean government, Islamist leaders from around the Middle East and
the Somali diaspora community in the West. The US is currently
considering listing Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism for its
continued support of the insurgency in Somalia and for providing a
haven for the ARS leadership.
 
Abdi was selected as the deputy chairman and official spokesman of the
ARS, and the ICU's no. 2, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was appointed chairman.
Last year, when the ICU took control of the country and imposed its
Taliban-style of shari'a law, Abdi openly applauded their arrival.
"Yesterday the West was talking about lawlessness in Somalia. Today
everything is better because the Islamic courts have taken over," Abdi
said. "Let us give these people a chance."
 
The leader of the ICU, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, also appeared at the
Asmara conference, emerging from hiding following the ICU's flight
from Ethiopian forces. Aweys is wanted by the US and has been listed
as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. US Senator Russ Feingold
(D-WI) on Meet the Press last year described Aweys as "an al-Qaeda
operative or somebody that is connected to al-Qaeda."
 
During the Asmara conference, Abdi was quoted as saying that the
Ethiopian troops supporting the UN-backed TFG should "surrender now"
or face "extinction." He told the Associated Press : "We have enough
and well-armed forces in every village of Somalia and they are ready
to restore their sovereignty. We are in Eritrea to establish a control
and command system so as we avoid confusion after the liberation."
 
Abdi did not explain, however, the contradiction of "liberating"
Somalia from foreign domination while receiving Eritrean military
assistance and welcoming foreign Arab fighters (including known
al-Qaeda operatives) as part of the Somali insurgency.
 
This episode demonstrates that our national security in some areas is
no better than what it was prior to 9/11. If Homeland Security can't
or won't act to prevent terrorist leaders like Zakaria Mahmoud
Haji-Abdi from entering the US, especially when informed by other law
enforcement agencies beforehand, there may be very little standing
between us and the next 9/11.
 
Patrick Poole is a counter-terror consultant to law enforcement and
the Executive Director of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism.