{"id":11914,"date":"2015-05-12T17:23:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T00:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11914"},"modified":"2015-05-12T17:23:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T00:23:01","slug":"al-shabaab-members-guilty-of-helping-terrorist-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11914","title":{"rendered":"al Shabaab Members Guilty of Helping Terrorist Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"BBC<\/a>
(Photo: BBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three al Shabaab terrorists on Tuesday plead guilty to trying to help a terrorist organization and are facing up to 15 years in prison, according to federal authorities.<\/p>\n

Court documents indicate Madhi Hashi, 35, Ali Yasin Ahmed, 30,<\/strong> and Mohamed Yusuf, 32,\u00a0<\/strong>between December 2008 and August 2012, were members of al-Shabaab in Somalia and agreed with others to support al-Shabaab.<\/p>\n

Hashi is from Somali and Ahmed and Yusuf are from Sweden, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

In early August 2012, officials said the defendants were arrested in East Africa by local authorities while on their way to Yemen. On November 14, 2012, the FBI took custody of the defendants and brought them to the Eastern District of New York for prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants were committed supporters of al-Shabaab, a violent terrorist organization that has demonstrated its capabilities and motives in numerous terrorist attacks overseas, and has publicly called for attacks against the United States,\u201d stated Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie<\/strong>. \u201cWe will use every tool at our disposal to combat terrorist groups, deter terrorist activity, and incapacitate individual terrorists around the world. Today\u2019s convictions demonstrate that criminal prosecution is an effective tool in our efforts to combat international terrorism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

al-Shabaab recruits people from around the world to come to Somalia and join the organization. Those who join are known as \u201cforeign fighters\u201d and muhajireen, who live, train, and often fight separately from other al-Shabaab fighters.<\/p>\n

They were also especially valuable to al-Shabaab for several reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, al-Shabaab frequently made Western foreign fighters the face of its fund-raising and propaganda efforts as part of a broader strategy of emphasizing that the conflict in Somalia was part of a global jihad aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate.<\/p>\n

One of the defendants, Mohamed Yusuf, is featured in an al-Shabaab propaganda video in which he encouraged young men to travel to Somalia and join al-Shabaab. He threatened a cartoonist who had depicted the prophet Mohammad.<\/p>\n

In addition, Yusuf and defendant Ali Yasin Ahmed fought in battles in Somalia against African Union forces.<\/p>\n

Defendant Madhi Hashi was a close associate of American-born al-Shabaab leader Omar Hammami.<\/p>\n

Report last month by the BBC on Shabaab
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