NEWS DAY | Recruiting Somali youth as terrorists or patriots?

Federal officials charged eight people with recruiting Somali youth to return to their homeland and fight in the civil war from late 2007 to August 2008, reports the Pioneer Press. All eight of those charged on November 23 are out of the country, with one in custody in Netherlands. Ralph Boelter, the head of the FBI's Minneapolis office, "said there were no indications those charged planned to commit any violence on U.S. soil."

The cases unsealed Monday bring to 14 the number of people charged to date. Four of the previous six charged have entered guilty pleas and are awaiting sentencing, and newly unsealed documents suggest some of them have cooperated with government investigators.

MPR reported on the arrest of the sixth Minnesota defendant on November 19. Peter Wold, the attorney representing Omer Mohamed, talked to MPR.

"He didn't have a role," he said. "I mean, he knew people that went to Somalia, as did everybody else in that community. It's a tight-knit community. His country of birth was invaded by Ethiopia. That brought passion to a lot of people, as it would you or me."

Wold was referring to the climate in late 2007 in Somali communities around the globe, including the Twin Cities, during the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. Friends of the missing American fighters have said that the young men wanted to defend their homeland. But the hard-line Islamic group they allegedly joined, al-Shabaab, has continued down a violent path even after the Ethiopian soldiers pulled out of the country this year.

Nick Coleman raises some questions on Twitter, as he tweets: "Sixty MN volunteers fought against Fascism in Spanish Civil War. Others fought for Israel, Ireland. How exactly are Somali fighters unique?" and "USA must not  allow foreign-borns to leave American soil to fight in other lands! (Um, don't mention 1961 Bay of Pigs, OK?)" Coleman's point: "Absent evidence of plot vs. America (none so far), are the anti-Somali-fighter prosecutions over-zealous?"

Let's see: young men, recruited to return to the homeland of their parents, to defend that war-torn country against foreign occupying troops accused of human rights violations - is that an appeal that sounds more like patriotism or terrorism? And while al-Shabaab has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government, that designation did not come until some time in 2008 - after most of the young men had left Minnesota. It's possible to question the usefulness of the U.S. prosecutions without defending al-Shabaab.

News with attitude, mostly from MN but with occasional forays abroad. News Day summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to Minnesota news.

Mary Turck

Mary Tuck is the editor of the TC Daily Planet.