SOMALIA AND AL-QAEDA

Analysis: Somali terror suspects multiplying in U.S.

By Jim Kouri
Sunday, November 28, 2010

In a statement that came as no surprise to U.S. security and law enforcement experts in January 2010, the Somali-based Muslim terrorist group Al-Shabaab announced that its fighters are aligned with al-Qaeda’s global terrorism campaign.

U.S. law enforcement nailed a Somali national after he attempted to blow up an improvised explosive device at a Christmas tree lighting celebration at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon.

FBI agents and Portland cops thwarted the teenager’s plot to blow up a van full of explosives at a crowded venue. According to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police’s Terrorism Committee, the Somali teen’s IED was a fake device supplied by undercover agents and civilians were never in danger.

The terror suspect, 19-year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, was captured on late Friday afternoon after dialing a cellular phone he believed would detonate a large explosion at the Christmas ceremony. At that point, FBI agents and local police officers swarmed the suspect.

The FBI report that described the counterterrorism investigation reveals that the suspect plotted the attack for months, going as far as mailing bomb components to FBI undercover agents who told Mohamud they would build a deadly explosive device for him to use in his terror plot.

In their report, FBI agents stated that the Somali teenager was warned several times about the seriousness of his plan, that women and children could be killed, and that he could back out, but he told agents: “Since I was 15 I thought about all this;â€