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Somali immigrants in U.S. provided support to al-Qaeda affiliate

Jim Kouri

three
FBI/USDoJ

Three Somali immigrants in San Diego, Calif., were sentenced on Monday afternoon by a federal judge for their involvement in providing material support to the al-Qaeda-linked, Somali Islamist group Al Shabaab, according to law enforcement officials.

Basaaly Saeed Moalin, who worked as a city taxi driver and was convicted by a federal jury of providing material support to Al Shabaab in Somalia, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller to 18 years in prison.

Also sentenced at the same time were Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, a Muslim cleric for a popular mosque attended by the city’s sizable Somali population, to 13 years in prison; and Issa Doreh, who worked at a money transmitting business (“Hawala”) that was the conduit for moving the illicit funds, to 10 years in prison. A Hawala is an alternative remittance channel that exists outside of traditional international banking systems. It is a method of transferring money without any actual movement.

Before pronouncing sentence on Moalin, Judge Miller mentioned the Somali terrorist-supporter’s high-regard by the Somali community, his childhood filled with pain and violence in war-torn Somalia, and his philanthropy as a naturalized American.

However, the judge then said that Moalin’s virtuous behavior “is substantially offset by his collaboration with Al Shabaab and one of the terrorist group’s most prominent leaders—Aden Hashi Ayrow.

Judge Miller told Moalin and the court that he imposed part of the sentence consecutively — making it three years longer — because Moalin went beyond financial assistance and provided a hideout to Ayrow. Judge Miller described that action as “an offense of a different magnitude,” noting that Moalin personally offered the home in Mogadishu to advance the agenda of Al Shabaab and to help hide weapons.

“This count went beyond financial support and entered into another realm,” Judge Miller said.

At trial, the prosecutor played for the jury an audiotape of a telephone conversation in which Moalin gave the al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Somalia permission to use his house, telling Ayrow that “after you bury your stuff deep in the ground, you would, then, plant trees on top.”

Prosecutors argued at trial that the conversation was evidence that Moalin was offering a violent terrorist organization a place in which they could hide their weapons from the Somalia police and security forces.

“These men willfully sent money to a terrorist organization, knowing Al Shabaab’s extremely violent methods and knowing the U.S. [State and Treasury Departments] had designated it as a foreign terrorist organization,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

“Months of intercepted phone conversations included discussion of suicide bombing, assassinations, and jihad. We are satisfied that because of this investigation and prosecution, we have furthered our mission to safeguard national security by blocking financial support to this dangerous group,” she said.

Moalin and his fellow terrorist-supporters were all found guilty following a three-week trial in February 2013. The U.S. prosecutor presented evidence that Moalin, Mohamud, Doreh, and a fourth defendant, Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, conspired to provide large sums of money to Al Shabaab, a violent and brutal militia group that engages in suicide bombings, targets civilians for assassination, and uses improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

During the trial, the jury heard dozens of the defendants’ intercepted telephone conversations, including many between Moalin and Ayrow. In those calls, Ayrow implored Moalin to send money to Al Shabaab, telling Moalin that it was “time to finance the jihad.”

Ayrow told Moalin, “You are running late with the stuff. Send some and something will happen.” Ayrow was subsequently killed in a missile strike on May 1, 2008.

According to evidence at trial, the defendants conspired to transfer the funds from San Diego to Somalia through the Shidaal Express, a now-defunct money transmitting business in San Diego.

The fourth defendant, Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, a cabdriver from Anaheim, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 31, 2014, before Judge Miller.

Source: Examiner.com

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