8 more Minnesotans charged in terror case

November 24, 2009|Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS - Promising both “true brotherhood’’ and “fun,’’ several Somali men persuaded fellow immigrants in Minneapolis to return to their East African homeland and take up arms with a terrorist group, according to federal charges unsealed yesterday against eight individuals.

The charges are part of an unfolding federal investigation into the disappearance of as many as 20 young Somali men from Minneapolis over the last two years - most of them US citizens who federal authorities say are guilty of terrorism.

Federal prosecutors say most of the men traveled to Somalia to join the terror group al-Shabab, which the State Department says has links to Al Qaeda.

Ralph S. Boelter, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, called the latest round of indictments a “tipping point’’ in the more than yearlong investigation. “We have reached momentum, and reached a point where we will have full resolution of this case,’’ Boelter said at a news conference with Minnesota’s US attorney, B. Todd Jones.

Fourteen people have been charged in the investigation.

The eight charged yesterday are accused of a mix of recruiting and raising funds for the trips, and of engaging in terrorist acts in Somalia, a nation torn by civil war.