Page 10 - MARRIOT April 21, 2015
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U.S. NEWSTuesday 21 April 2015

Six from US charged with trying to join Islamic State 

AMY FORLITI                      when they were stopped.      stretching back months into       United States Attorney Andrew Luger, right, and FBI special
Associated Press                 Charged are brothers Mo-     the recruitment of Western-       agent Richard Thornton explain the criminal complaint charg-
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP)         hamed Abdihamid Farah,       ers by IS.                        ing six Minnesota men with terrorism at a news conference in
— Six Minnesota men have         21, and Adnan Abdihamid      Authorities said earlier that     Minneapolis, Monday April 20, 2015.
been charged with terror-        Farah, 19; Abdurahman        a handful of Minnesota
ism in a criminal complaint      Yasin Daud, 21; Zacharia     residents have traveled to                                                       (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King)
unsealed Monday, the lat-        Yusuf Abdurahman, 19;        Syria to fight with militants in
est Westerners accused of        Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19;     the past year, and at least       It also said when agents       the newest complaint —
traveling or attempting to       and Guled Ali Omar, 20. All  one has died.                     went to the younger            Mohamed Farah, Abdu-
travel to Syria to join the Is-  are Somali-Americans, au-    The Minneapolis area is           Omar’s house after he was      rahman and Musse — were
lamic State group.               thorities said.”             home to the largest con-          stopped in San Diego in        stopped at a New York City
The six, whom authorities        These were focused men       centration of Somali im-          November, another broth-       airport in November along
described as friends who         who were intent on joining   migrants in the  U.S. Since       er, Mohamed Ali Omar,          with 19-year-old Hamza
met secretly to plan their       a terrorist organization,”   2007, more than 22 young          threatened them.               Ahmed, but they were not
travels, are accused of          Minnesota  U.S. Attorney     Somali men have also trav-        Three of those charged in      charged until now.q
conspiracy to provide ma-        Andy Luger said at a news    eled from Minnesota to
terial support and attempt-      conference Monday.           Somalia to join the militant
ing to provide material sup-     The six were arrested Sun-   group al-Shabab.
port to a foreign terrorist      day in Minneapolis and San   Omar’s older brother,
organization.                    Diego and are scheduled      Ahmed Ali Omar, was
The complaint says the men       to make initial appearanc-   among those who joined
planned to reach Syria by        es in federal court on Mon-  al-Shabab, leaving Minne-
flying to nearby countries       day.                         sota in December 2007, ac-
from Minneapolis, San Di-        They are the latest peo-     cording to the complaint.
ego or New York City, and        ple from Minnesota to be     Ahmed Omar remains a fu-
lied to federal investigators    charged in an investigation  gitive.

                                                                                                New York man who plotted to
                                                                                                join terror group gets 25 years

                                                                                                FRANK ELTMAN                   United States. Once home,
                                                                                                Associated Press               prosecutors say, Zea con-
                                                                                                CENTRAL ISLIP, New York        tinued participating in the
                                                                                                (AP) — A suburban New          conspiracy. He was arrest-
                                                                                                York man who was thwart-       ed in October 2013.
                                                                                                ed in his attempt to fly to    U.S. District Court Judge
                                                                                                Yemen to join a Middle         Sandra Feuerstein rejected
                                                                                                Eastern terrorist group and    an appeal for lenience
                                                                                                then admitted continuing       from Zea’s attorney, Marc
                                                                                                to plot with others to assist  Bogatin, who argued that
                                                                                                them was sentenced Mon-        despite the guilty plea,
                                                                                                day to 25 years in prison.     his client had not actu-
                                                                                                Marcos Alonso Zea, 26,         ally committed any violent
                                                                                                pleaded guilty in Septem-      acts that would require him
                                                                                                ber to attempting to pro-      to receive the maximum
                                                                                                vide material support to al-   penalty. Had he gone to
                                                                                                Qaida in the Arabian Pen-      trial, Zea could have faced
                                                                                                insula, also known as Ansar    up to life in prison. Bogatin
                                                                                                al-Sharia, and obstruction     suggested that Zea be sen-
                                                                                                of justice.                    tenced to about 10 years in
                                                                                                Federal prosecutors said       prison.
                                                                                                the man flew to London on      Feuerstein appeared du-
                                                                                                his way to Yemen in Janu-      bious at that contention,
                                                                                                ary 2012. He was rejected      noting that Zea admitted
                                                                                                by customs officials in Lon-   wanting to assist the terror
                                                                                                don and returned to the        group.q
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