Thread: Minn. ministry leader: U.S. susceptible to Kenya-style mall terror attack

One News Now
Chad Groening
9/24/2013

The ministry leader says in light of the Nairobi mall attack, she is fearful that the high-profile “Mall of America” in Minneapolis could be vulnerable to a similar attack, even though some in the state refuse to consider the possibility.

Minn. ministry leader: U.S. susceptible to Kenya-style mall terror attack

The head of a Minnesota-based messianic Jewish ministry says the liberal politicians who control her state should be held accountable for welcoming and subsidizing the Somali immigrant community that has been a fertile recruiting ground for Islamic terrorists.

At least two of the terrorists involved in this weekend’s horrific attack at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, had lived in the Twin Cities and were recruited by the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab. Congressman Peter King (R-New York) stated Sunday the group behind the attack recruited up to 50 people from Somali American communities across the U.S.

According to news reports, at least 62 people were killed in the terror attack that began on Saturday. Several of the estimated 10-15 attackers were killed by Kenyan soldiers.

Jan Markell, founder and director of Minneapolis-based Olive Tree Ministries, says the Somali community has been a real problem for the Twin Cities.

"A significant percentage [of them] maintain their clan ties to the terrorists in Somalia; they maintain their animosity,” she shares with OneNewsNow. “They make no attempt at integrating themselves into the general population. They are prone to violence. And the gangs of area Somalis are mugging area people on bicycles and other venues."

Minnesota sheriff reports to Congress on growing Somalia gang threat

The ministry leader says in light of the Nairobi mall attack, she is fearful that the high-profile “Mall of America” in Minneapolis could be vulnerable to a similar attack, even though some in the state refuse to consider the possibility.

"The liberal, twisted mind here in Minnesota cannot possibly conceive of some of these people as being evil,” she laments. “But I and many other conservatives here in Minnesota are very concerned that this Mall of America is going to be targeted eventually – and the casualties could be astronomical."

http://onenewsnow.com//culture/2013/...k#.UkKeET_1nbw

Minnesota Sheriff Reports to Congress on Growing Somalia Gang Threat in Hennepin County

July 25, 2012 - 5:05 PM

“According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment there are approximately 1.4 million gang members belonging to more than 33,000 gangs in the United States,” Sensenbrenner said. “It has been reported that the number of gang members in the U.S. has increased by 40 percent since 2009.”

Rich Stanek, sheriff of Hennepin County Minnesota, testified at a House hearing on July 25, 2012 about the growing threat of Somali gangs in his state. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – The sheriff of Hennepin County, Minn., told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on Wednesday about the threat of Somali gangs in his jurisdiction.
“I have been asked to testify today about the specific emergence of Somali gang-related issues we are having in my county,” Rich Stanek said in his prepared testimony.

Stanek represented the National Sheriffs’ Association at the hearing on “America’s Evolving Gang Threat.” He also serves on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inter-agency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group and is president of the Major County Sheriffs’ Association.

Stanek said Minnesota is a “designated U.S. Refugee Resettlement Area,” with a Somali population ranging from 80,000 to 125,000 in the state. As a result, Stanek said, while the African population in the U.S. as a whole is about four percent, 18 percent of the Minnesota population is African because of the large Somali presence.

Stanek said he wanted to “state for the record” that most Somalis are “law-abiding citizens” who contribute to the community, but those who have joined gangs are committing crimes across the state.
“Somali gangs are unique in that they are not necessarily based on the narcotics trade as are other traditional gangs,” Stanek said, adding that “turf” is also not a motivating factor in Somali gang criminal activities.

“Gang members will often congregate in certain areas, but commit their criminal acts elsewhere,” Stanek said. “Criminal acts are often done in a wide geographic area that stretches outside of the Twin Cities seven county metro area.

“Their mobility has made them difficult to track,” Stanek said.

Stanek listed five “typical crimes” committed by Somali gang members, including credit card fraud, cell phone and gun store burglaries, and witness intimidation. The fifth type of criminal activity is tied to international terrorism, Stanek said.

“In 2007, the local Somali community started to report that some of the youth in the area had essentially disappeared without warning,” Stanek said. “It was later learned that 20 young men had left Minneapolis to travel to Somalia to receive training and fight as members of al- Shabaab.

“One individual had moved to Minneapolis as a teenager in 1993,” Stanek said. Following a shoplifting arrest, he fell into the violent street gang called the ‘Somali Hot Boyz.’ After a short period of time, he emerged as a recruiter for al-Shabaab, which eventually led him to leave Minneapolis for the Horn of Africa in 2008.
“Later, it was learned this individual was killed in fighting between al-Shabaab and Somali government forces,” Stanek said.

“We are clearly faced with a challenge that requires an innovative approach including new investigative tools and focused resources,” Stanek said.

According to the Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Refugee and Resettlement, refugee programs and resettlement sites exist in 49 states and the District of Columbia and are operated through partnerships between the federal government and faith-based and other non-governmental refugee support organizations in those states and the District.

A spokesperson for the office told CNSNews.com that the United States admits on average about 70,000 refugees a year, with each required to be designated as individuals who face danger in their homeland. Every refugee has to be cleared by the Department of Homeland Security before being allowed to resettle in the United States, the spokesperson said.

A wide range of considerations about where to relocate individuals is considered, including family ties, language and available resources, the spokesperson said. But once they are living in the United States, refugees are free to live anywhere in the country.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the subcommittee, opened the hearing with statistics on the gang threat in the United States.

“According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment there are approximately 1.4 million gang members belonging to more than 33,000 gangs in the United States,” Sensenbrenner said. “It has been reported that the number of gang members in the U.S. has increased by 40 percent since 2009.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/minn...ennepin-county

Syrian Rebels To Christian Woman After Slitting Her Fiance’s Throat: “Jesus Didn’t Come To Save Him”

Trouble in the Heartland (It Could Happen Here)

Yet they also retain the worst aspects of the culture that they fled-the culture that is chiefly responsible for turning their homeland into the morass which makes them seek shelter within countries like the United Kingdom and the United States-which means that we are left to bear the cost.

The photograph you see above was, perhaps unsurprisingly, taken in the United Kingdom. However, it could just as easily have been photographed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lewiston, Maine, or Clarkston, Georgia. In fact, it could have been taken in any of the numerous, bucolic surburbs or thriving cities that have been the unwelcome recipient of thousands of Somali refugees who have been resettled inside of the United States in the wake of the post-1991 collapse of the Mohammed Siad Barre regime.

Contrary to glowing accounts of these newcomers coming from mainstream press organs, these Somalis are far from integrated into the American cultural fabric. The ones who’ve settled in Minnesota have been linked to interstate white slavery and recruitment of fellow Somalian immigrants for Al Qaeda affiiate Al Shabaab-including the participation of one Somali living here in a suicide bombing during the ongoing civil conflict in that country. Now, courtesy of a Fox News affiliate in that state, we have video evidence confirming what most of us have known all along, i.e. attempting to get tens of thousands of Somalis to adapt to a culture that’s poles apart from that found in a nomadic, sternly Islamic, third world country is virtually impossible.

As the brilliant Theodore Dalrymple has pointed out on many an occasion, these newcomers often wind up adopting the worst aspects of Western culture, e.g. glamorization of urban violence, disrespect for authority figures-regardless of the legitimacy of their demands-and complete indifference to, if not ignorance of, the rich bequest of Western civilization.

Yet they also retain the worst aspects of the culture that they fled-the culture that is chiefly responsible for turning their homeland into the morass which makes them seek shelter within countries like the United Kingdom and the United States-which means that we are left to bear the cost.

Whether it be flash mobs beating innocent Americans senseless, or young girls impressed into service as sex slaves, or Somalis who come here just to be trained in the art of death and destruction, it can no longer be argued that these refugees, in aggregate, are a net benefit to American society.

While I’m extremely proud that brave Dutch dissident, Islamic apostate, and member of the Darod clan Ayaan Hirsi Ali now makes her home in the United States, I don’t think that means every Somali refugee should be welcomed into the United States. The perils of superficial humanitarianism, which exacts traumatic costs in real world terms from American citizens, should not be forgotten when we’re exploring this nation’s immigration policy.

Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?

Posted by Ann Corcoran on January 21, 2011
That is the question asked by CBS Minnesota in Minneapolis this week. Hat tip: Lynn. The story, here, pretty much has it correct. First, there are a bunch of volags (silly name, voluntary agencies) paid by the federal government to resettle refugees. If you have a bunch of those in your town (or one aggressive one), you will have a larger number of refugees. And, the second reason is that the welfare benefits in Minnesota are so good.

Digressing slightly, I meant to post on the welfare magnet that is Maine awhile back where the new governor plans to limit services after 5 years to those on welfare. Maine has been a magnet to Somalis as well, most notably the city of Lewiston.

[Governor Paul] LePage supports 5-year lifetime limits on welfare programs and a tiered system to transition welfare recipients into the work force.

Back to Minneapolis and the WCCO report which begins:

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It is perhaps the least likely place to find tens of thousands of African refugees: the cold, snowy, middle of America. So why are there so many Somalis in Minnesota?

Reason number 1: Church “volags” brought them to welcoming Minnesota.
The Somalis are here as legal refugees, largely. The Somalis Minnesota story tracks to 1991, when civil war broke out in Somalia. Millions fled to refugee camps, many in Kenya.

Two years later, the first wave of Somali refugees were sent to Minnesota.

“In the beginning the U.S. federal government assigns people,” said Samatar [Dr. Ahmed Samatar, dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College].

To qualify as a refugee, there is a process. The U.S. State Department ultimately decides where refugees will live, but it has to do with the voluntary agencies, called VOLAGS, that contract with the State Department. [The volags play the largest role in deciding where refugees go, there is no careful analysis of your city, resettlement locations are just determined with pressure from the volags. If there is a problem and people in the community make waves, the State Dept. may step in and stop the resettlement to that city.---ed]

Minnesota has very active ones like Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities, and World Relief Minnesota.

Those agencies agree [and are paid by the US taxpayer---ed] to help the refugees get settled, to learn English, find housing, get health care, and begin a new life.

Reason number 2, and why refugees stay and more come, is that Minnesota, like Maine, provides handsome welfare programs.

But the Somalis have largely stayed, somewhere around 30,000 of them, partially because of the strength of the non-governmental VOLAGS, and partially because of the strength of governmental programs to help refugees begin a new life, according to Samatar. [Note how delicately this is worded, LOL!, "strength of governmental programs."---ed]

After the first wave is assigned here, the second wave of relatives and friends soon followed.
“As Somalis settle down, find a life, the good news spreads: ‘Hey this is a good place, you can find a life here,’” said Samatar.

Over the past 25 years, the United States has admitted about 84,000 Somali refugees [they've got that figure about right, but they don't include all those who got in through other immigration programs or who came in illegally and have disappeared---ed]. Close to 40 percent live in Minnesota.
“The institutions of this state, private or public, have an important place in the mind of Somalis,” he noted.
This is long but do not stop reading! The best part of this story from CBS is the comment section. I am posting one entire comment from a reader named Random Reader because I doubt it will be available for too long.

Random Reader:
I live in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, which is immediately adjacent to the Cedar Riverside neighborhood where the majority of the Somali population lives. We also have high-rise public housing that is predominantly Somali, along with many Somali businesses and the main public elementary school serving the Somali population. I regularly take my child to play in parks where we are the only non-Somali people, shop in the halal markets, and try to keep up with issues of importance to the Somali community by following the local and national websites catering to the Somali Diaspora (i.e. Bartamaha, Hiiraan, Camel Milk Threads…). All in all I would say that as an outsider I have about as much exposure to the Somali population as possible without being a social worker.

And I must say that I am very worried by what I see.

While many Somalis are hard working, law abiding, good citizens, there appears to be a significant percentage who maintain their clan ties and animosities, make no attempt at integrating themselves into the general population, and are prone to violence. Some of the violence is Somali vs. Somali- for example the triple murder at the Seward Market in 2010 and the daytime shooting a few weeks ago on Franklin Ave.

But a lot of it is more akin to the piracy which takes place off the Somali coast: gangs of Somalis have been mugging area bicyclists for years and the trail that follows the light rail. Residents of Minneapolis will also likely remember the youtube video posted by young Somali gangsters a year or two back showing them assaulting random pedestrians and bicyclists with no apparent motive other than laughs.

In addition to the violence, there seems to be other major “quality of life” issue with the Somali population. For example, rampant littering, uninsured driving, treatment of Somali women as chattel and sex slaves by the men, welfare fraud. Even little actions show great disrespect: II can say honestly that every person I have seen but into a line in the last few years has been a young Somali.

While it would be worrying enough that there is a group in the state with this apparent love of violence and disrespect of social conventions, what makes me even more scared is the growth of the community.

Although I have never been able to find any firm numbers, it appears that the local Somali community is maintaining the fertility rate of their homeland- somewhere around 5 or 6 kids per family. And likewise- although official numbers are not available a huge percentage of the Somali population relies on public money and social services for almost every facet of their lives (i.e. subsidized housing, food stamps, use of our public county hospital…). Honestly, I do not see how Minnesota (and Minneapolis/Hennepin County in particular) will be able to support this population in the future. And if public support ever goes away, the muggings seem sure to get even more frequent.

I welcome the fact that CBS opened a comment section on this story. Our local papers, the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press will almost never allow comments on articles related to the Somali community, and when they do the comments are heavily censured. Likewise the local community email list, e-democracy.org, will kill any thread which talks about crime related to the Somali community. While I understand not wanting to provide a space for ignorant racial ranting it also means that there is not a single open forum in Minneapolis where issues surrounding this issue can be discussed.

As a lifelong resident of Minnesota I have seen waves of immigrants come to our state, due to the work of Lutheran Social Services. And I welcome (for example) the Liberians, Hmong, Laotians, Cambodians and Ethiopians who arrived ready to work hard and make a better live. But being close to the heart of the Somali community, I think I am starting to understand why Somalia has not been able to maintain a government since 1991.

Note: this is an edited version of a comment submitted and published on the NYT website in regards to another article on the Somali Minnesota Population.

http://refugeeresettlementwatch.word...n-minneapolis/

Refugee Problems in Arizona (and everywhere else)