Omar Hammami, Alabaman Al Shabaab commander

Americans have risen to the fore in the Somali al-Shabaab terrorist leadership. That doesn’t surprise us. We have written extensively about Somali naturalized citizens recruited through fundamentalist Mosques in major émigré centers like Minneapolis, Columbus and Nashville. Then there are Kurdish immigrant naturalized citizens like Jehad Mostafa from San Diego, California and Omar Hammami, a son of an American Baptist mother and Syrian immigrant father from Daphne, an upscale community on Mobile Bay, Alabama’s Eastern shore. See our major NER piece, “Foot Soldiers of Islam”.

Earlier this month a former US soldier and Muslim convert was arrested for attempting to give material support to Al- Shabaab. He was captured in Kenya on his way to Somalia. Note this FoxNews report on January 9^th:

Craig Benedict Baxam was arrested Friday upon return to his home state of Maryland after he was captured in Africa during an alleged attempt to reach Somalia, where the terror group is based.

Baxam, 24, joined the Army in 2007 and served in Baghdad and Korea. During his enlistment, he completed eight months of advanced intelligence and cryptology training, the Justice Department said in a press release.

According to court papers, Baxam secretly converted to Islam days before leaving the Army, one month ahead of completing his deployment in Korea. He returned to Maryland in July 2011 and reportedly sought to move to Somalia to join al Shabaab.

Baxam allegedly flew to Kenya using money from his retirement savings account, and carried several hundred dollars in cash to give al Shabaab as an offering after crossing the border into Somalia, the Justice Department said.

"The complaint alleges that Craig Baxam intended to travel to Somalia and join the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement. "Mr. Baxam was caught in Kenya before he reached Somalia, and there is no allegation that anyone assisted him."

These excerpts from the most recent FoxNews report, “Americans Rise Inside Somali Jihad Group”:

A handful of young Muslims from the U.S. are taking high-visibility propaganda and operational roles inside an Al Qaeda-linked insurgent force in Somalia known as al-Shabaab. While most are from Minnesota, which has the largest Somali population in the nation, al-Shabaab members include a Californian and an Alabaman with no ancestral ties to Somalia.

"They are being deployed in roles that appear to be shrewdly calculated to raise al-Shabaab's international profile and to recruit others, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries," said Anders Folk, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted suspected al-Shabaab supporters in Minnesota.

Officials fear another terrorist attack in East Africa. Kenya announced on Jan. 7 that it had thwarted attempted al-Shabaab attacks over the holidays. The same day, Britain's Foreign Office urged Britons in Kenya to be extra vigilant, warning that terrorists there may be "in the final stages of planning attacks."

More than 40 people have traveled from the U.S. to Somalia to join al-Shabaab since 2007, and 15 of them have died, according to a report from the House Homeland Security Committee. Federal investigations into al-Shabaab recruitment in the U.S. have centered on Minnesota . . . .

At least 21 men have left Minnesota to join al-Shabaab in that same time. The FBI has confirmed that at least two of them died in Somalia as suicide bombers. A U.S. citizen is suspected in a third suicide bombing, and another is under investigation in connection with a fourth bombing on Oct. 29, 2011 that killed 15 people.

The star of the Al Qaeda video was Jehad Mostafa, 30, a Californian who handed out food using the name Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir, according to the SITE Monitoring Service. The Washington Post reported last year that Mostafa served as top lieutenant to Saleh Nabhan, a senior Al Qaeda operative killed by Navy SEALs in a helicopter attack inside Somalia in 2010.

Mostafa and the Alabaman, Omar Hammami, 27, are among about a dozen men who have been charged in federal court in the U.S. and are believed to be in Somalia.

The Americans appear to have been motivated by the Ethiopian army's intervention in Somalia in 2006, which they saw as an invasion. However, many experts believe it's only a matter of time before al-Shabaab turns its wrath on the U.S., which in February 2008 designated it as a terrorist organization. The group killed 76 people in terrorist bombings in Uganda in 2010 during the World Cup final.

U.S. military commanders fear that Americans inside al-Shabaab could train as bomb makers and use their U.S. passports to carry out attacks in the United States.

[. . .]

Mostafa grew up in San Diego and graduated from the University of California San Diego. Imam Abdeljalil Mezgouri of the Islamic Center of San Diego, the city's largest mosque, said Mostafa was a respectful teen and good student.

"He was a very quiet, very loving boy. He didn't talk too much but when he did talk, people liked him," said Mezgouri.

Mezgouri said Mostafa got married in his early 20s to a woman he believed was from Somalia.
Public records show Mostafa was the president of the now-defunct Muslim Youth Council of San Diego, or MYCSD. The former organization's Web site says the group was "dedicated to showing the world that Islam is a religion of peace and Muslims are a peaceful and productive part of society."

Mostafa's father, Halim Mostafa, a Kurdish Syrian, is a prominent figure in San Diego's Muslim community who has tried to build bridges with non-Muslims.

[. . .]

The Alabaman, Hammami, 27, has taken on the role of jihadi lecturer and Islamic scholar. After U.S. Navy SEALs killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this year, Hammami threatened to avenge the killing at a news conference near Mogadishu.

Al-Awlaki's death by a U.S. drone in Yemen in September left Hammami as the most influential U.S. English speaker in the jihadi propaganda sphere, said terrorism expert Ben Venzke. Hammami is also known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki or "the American."

"His more accessible image and manner of speaking may prove a growing and significant threat to not just the region around Somalia but for future attacks on U.S. soil," said Venzke of the Washington-based IntelCenter.

[. . .]

Hammami went to Somalia in 2006. He was indicted in 2007 on terrorism charges, and faced more charges in 2009 for providing material support to terrorists.

Hammami, who wears a long beard and often raps in al-Shabaab videos, released a nearly 50-minute lecture in October to commemorate five years with the group. He spouts hatred for "Western oppression." In the video, provided to AP by the IntelCenter, he compares his upbringing in America with his life in Somalia, where he says a microwave -- "or even a normal oven" -- is a rarity.

The English speaker serves as a recruiter and fundraiser and is one of the top people in charge of al-Shabaab's foreign fighters, Kohlmann said.

Hammami attends morning fighting drills and motivates new recruits, former al-Shabaab fighter Abdi Hassan told AP. Hammami avoids mobile phones for fear intelligence agencies will trace him, and uses pseudonyms on the Internet.

What has always concerned us has been that many of these American Jihadis fighting for Al Shabaab were welcomed to the US as humanitarian refugees under the Refugee Act of 1980.  This multi-billion dollar program administered by the State Department Bureau of Population, Migration and Refugees and the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services has been fraught with massive immigration fraud. Fraud  discovered by roving Homeland Security Immigration Control Enforcement teams working in Kenyan refugee camps.  Our other concern reflected in comments in this FoxNews report is about returning al Shabaab operatives who might organize and lead swarming attacks against civilian targets such malls in the US Heartland.  While there have been both US Senate and House Homeland Security hearings on these home grown terrorists, to our knowledge not much has been done to both combat them in Somalia and control their spawning grounds of legal refugee immigration. Time for Congress to order a Government Accountability Office audit investigation of the abuses of the legal refugee program to establish a factual baseline for development of appropriate remedies.