U.S. Charges 8 With Aiding Somali War Recruiting

JIM LEHRER:

And still to come on the "NewsHour" tonight: what next for health care reform; India's economy; and Dorothea Lange's photographs.

That follows new charges of terrorism.

Margaret Warner has the latest.

MARGARET WARNER:

Federal authorities today announced those charges against eight new suspects for taking part in recruiting dozens of young Muslim-American men to join an extremist insurgency in Somalia.

The indictments, unsealed in Minneapolis, accuse the eight of providing financing and recruits for the Al-Shabab group, which is fighting to unseat the Somali government. The U.S. calls Al-Shabab a terrorist organization and says it has ties to al-Qaida. This brings to 14 the number who have been charged in the yearlong probe.

And we get more on this story now from Devlin Barrett of the Associated Press. He covers the Justice Department in Washington.

Devlin, thanks for being here.

First of all, just tell us about this recruitment network. How did it allegedly work?

DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press:

Well, according to the charges, what was going on was, there were people moving in and around the Somali-American community, particularly in Minneapolis, drawing in young men, and saying, you should go fight for your native homeland.

In many cases, these are men who are either legal residents of the United States or, in some cases, citizens of the United States. And the reason why the FBI became so concerned is, it was a — it seemed to be a much broader attempt at attempting to radicalize people in the United States than they have really seen before.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, how did the Justice Department first get wise to this?

DEVLIN BARRETT:

It's an interesting facet of this. Essentially, the families of many of the young men came forward to ask that — for the FBI's help in finding them. You know, many of these older relatives of the young men were concerned that this was going on. They had inklings, but no concrete facts to base that on.

And they came to FBI asking for help to find their sons.

MARGARET WARNER:

Because these young men had just disappeared.

DEVLIN BARRETT:

In many cases, yes, they had just essentially packed up and gone. And the families feared the worst.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, has it been absolutely established that, as the charges lay out, that — that some of these young men at least have shown up in Somalia, they have gone to terrorist training camps, they have even engaged in combat?

DEVLIN BARRETT:

Yes, there is one particularly gruesome piece of evidence that the FBI has tested. And that is, the remains of one of the men were recovered from one of his suicide attacks.

And they conclusively…

MARGARET WARNER:

This is a suicide attack in Somalia?

DEVLIN BARRETT:

In Somalia, yes, exactly. There was a series of coordinated suicide attacks in Somalia. And one of the bombers, some of his remains were recovered and tested. And they proved conclusively that that, in fact, was the young man who had come from the United States.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, the eight men charged today who are accused of helping to do this recruitment and financing, were they American citizens? Were they residents of the Minneapolis area? Or I gather there were some others in Columbus, Ohio, that disappeared.

DEVLIN BARRETT:

They're — by and large, I think most of the descriptions I have seen describe them as legal residents. So, there may be a citizen or two in that mix, but I believe they're, by and large, essentially legal residents of the United States.

And that's obviously worrisome for investigators, who always think about, well, if you're training someone to conduct terrorism, and they have a legal right to return to the United States, that's something to worry about very much.

In this case so far, all they have seen are folks who are engaging in this activity and joining this group over in Somalia, but they are very cognizant of the notion that some of these people could come back. And they have a very dangerous skill set.