January 27, 2009
Somali Arrested at Canadian Border
I'll send you over to Dinah Lord, who found this, and just reprint a little teaser below. But can all of these things be coincidences?
A) Homeland Security announces an non-specific threat against President Obama from Somalia's al Qaeda affiliate, the al-Shebaab. Possibly a threat conveyed through the internet?
B) The al Shebaab's U.S. hosted website was ordered shut down, after over a year of operating openly, by the federal government. Bill Warner tells me he was tipped that the website would be shut down last week and some activity trying to archive pictures showing the faces of jihadis in Somalia from the website before it went down.
C) 15 Somalians, some of them reported as American citizens and the rest reported as living in the United States for some time, were arrested in Somaliland -- an autonomous region in Somalia with no sympathies to the Salfi insurgents.
Coincidence? Maybe, but my gut says no. It's a bit of a connect the dots, but all indications are that the Shebaab website (and some affiliated message boards) was doing more than simply conveying information from the mujahideen in Somalia. It was being used to recruit Somalis to the battlefield. With its closure there is no doubt that others will take its place, but for me I say good riddance to a website which has been a thorn in our side for some time.
The down side, of course, being that the website was an obvious boon for intel. Ambiguity. Get used to it.
48 hours before the inauguration, US Customs officials arrested Bile Abdullahi, a resident alien from Minnesota at the Canadian border near Detroit.Please keep those tips about Somalia coming.According to federal charges, Abdullahi was trying to sneak into Canada using his brother's passport....
Abdullahi told officials he was going to Canada for a vacation, but intelligence officials fear it could've been some kind of dress rehearsal for leaving the country in a hurry.
By Rusty at January 27, 2009 11:40 AM | | l digg this
