Haitians in U.S. Illegally are Allowed to Stay 

Obama administration gives temporary reprieve because of deadly quake

Bodies of earthquake victims lie outside the morgue in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. (Gregory Bull / AP)

Jan. 15, 2010

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Friday it will allow Haitians who are in the United States illegally to remain because of this week’s catastrophic earthquake.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano granted the temporary protected status on Friday, two days after she temporarily halted deportations of Haitians, even those already in detention. The protection is available only to Haitians already in the country as of last Tuesday, when the quake struck their home island. They will be allowed to stay and work for 18 months.

Act of compassion

Napolitano told reporters that the temporary legal status is an act of compassion. …

Temporary protected status is granted to foreigners who may not be able to return safely to their country because of a natural disaster, armed conflict or other reasons.

Haitians in the United States illegally have pleaded for years for permission to stay, work and send money home to their loved ones in need after disasters at home, the treatment the federal government gave Central Americans in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch devastated their region.

The Haitians have been denied despite four tropical storms in 2008, massive floods almost every other year since 2000 and the long-running political strife that has prompted thousands to seek asylum in the United States.

 About 30,000 Haitians have orders to leave the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. Many others are appealing their cases. Thousands of others live underground. …

Federal law permits Homeland Security to grant [illegal] immigrants temporary protected status in the event of a natural disaster or civil war. …

‘Backdoor to granting amnesty’

Those who favor a stricter U.S. immigration policy have in the past vehemently opposed giving temporary protected status because they argued it is a backdoor to granting amnesty. TPS given to Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Hondurans following Mitch was extended repeatedly for more than a decade, presumably long after those countries were able to rebuild. About 350,000 Central Americans have the designation, as do about 950 Somalis and Sudanese in the United States since 2001 and 2004.

“TPS was invented for this kind of situation, but it has been turned into something much more permanent” said Mark Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies. “And while we probably should grant TPS to Haitians who were here before the earthquake, we really need to make sure it’s temporary.”

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1/25/10 Update

Debate Grows in Aftermath of Quake: Should U.S. Let More Haitians Immigrate?

A man stands in a crowd of several hundred people hoping to gain access to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. (Photo credit: Julie Jacobson / AP)

By Amy Goldstein and Peter Whoriskey

January 25, 2010

Excerpts

[...]

Now that the earthquake’s initial shock is giving way to the realities of trying to cope in the ruins, a growing number of Haitians — and their relatives in the United States — are starting to chafe under the Obama administration’s edict to resist, as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put it, “an impulse to leave the island and to come here.”

The tension between U.S. policy and the desperation to leave is spawning a debate in Washington over whether the government should let more Haitians in. Immigration advocates and several members of Congress have begun pressing the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to ease the rules. So far, the focus is on two groups: Haitians with relatives legally in the United States and a few hundred injured children who, in the judgment of doctors doing relief work in Haiti, could die without sophisticated medical care.

In the first days after the Jan. 12 quake, Napolitano announced that the government would admit Haitian children already on the cusp of adoption and that it would allow Haitians who were in the United States illegally to stay for 18 months. The administration has not eased restrictions for children newly orphaned or injured by the disaster, Haitians who had already been seeking U.S. visas, or any other earthquake victims who want to come. …

[A] groundswell is building in favor of letting certain Haitians emigrate. Advocates’ immediate focus is Haitians who, before the disaster, had applied — and in some cases been approved — for a kind of visa available to foreign relatives of U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents.

About 19,000 Haitians have pending applications for such visas, according to DHS. Nearly 55,000 Haitians have been approved for family visas but are on waiting lists to enter because Congress has set limits on how many may come each year, the State Department says. Given the quotas, “it can take years and years for families to be reunited,” said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

A spokesman for Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services said the agency would “put at the head of the line” applicants for relative visas from Haiti. But he and a State Department spokeswoman acknowledged that quicker visa approvals would not mean those Haitians could enter the United States more quickly unless Congress alters the quotas — something lawmakers are not discussing.

Lavinia Limon, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said that letting Haitians join U.S. relatives would relieve at least some of the humanitarian burden in Port-au-Prince. The United States, she said, has airlifted foreigners out of other emergencies, such as Albanians from Kosovo and refugees from the Vietnam War.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors tighter controls on immigration, countered that “poverty and underdevelopment can’t be criteria we use to pick immigrants. There are too many of them.” And he said that Haitian earthquake victims could consume U.S. social services and displace American workers — without generating enough income to send back to Haiti “to make a difference” there.

Still, Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser under President George W. Bush who is now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that if the United States doubled for the next five years the 25,000 Haitians who have been coming to the United States annually, it would substantially increase the remittances sent back, providing critical help as the nation tries to rebuild. Such help streaming home to families is more reliable and more likely to be spent efficiently than the ebb and flow of foreign aid, he said. Abrams suggested that to satisfy critics of increased immigration, the United States could offset the influx of Haitians by temporarily slowing immigration from elsewhere.

Among Haitians and their U.S. relatives, Limon predicted, pressure on U.S. immigration policy will escalate in the coming weeks and months. “You need a boat, a captain, money. Nobody has that,” she said. “But in two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, they will.” …

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Related report

Fear of chaos grows in Haiti’s capital … Looters roam streets of Port-au-Prince; death toll mounts …

Click for the latest news:

Gerald Herbert / AP

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — January 15, 2010

War on Terror ‘Mistaken’

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that British foreign secretary David Miliband said the phrase “war on terror” — though capturing the urgency of the situation immediately following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — is ultimately “misleading and mistaken,” because it gives the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

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Arrests Suggest U.S. Muslims, Like Those in Europe, Can Be Radicalized Abroad 

Video

FBI interrogates American Muslims (MSNBC, Dec. 11, 2009) – Five American Muslims accused of using the Internet to organize a plot to attack U.S. military forces in Afghanistan are interrogated by the FBI. (02:10)

By Mary Beth Sheridan and Spencer S. Hsu

December 12, 2009

A spike in terrorism cases involving U.S. citizens is challenging long-held assumptions that Muslims in Europe are more susceptible to radicalization than their better-assimilated counterparts in the United States.

Four investigations disclosed in the past 12 months, including the arrests of five Northern Virginia men in Pakistan this week, underscore what the Obama administration asserts is a domestic threat emanating from Americans training overseas with al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups in Pakistan. “We have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror,” President Obama said this month in announcing plans to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. …

Several U.S. and international terrorism analysts say that American Muslims, as a group, remain more prosperous, assimilated and moderate than those in Europe. But the analysts also note that immigration trends, the global spread of a militant Islamism and controversial actions by the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks increase the chances that U.S. Muslims could carry out a domestic attack.

“The U.S. is experiencing what countries like the U.K. have gone through several years ago,” said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a research organization in London. “The worry for the U.S. is there will be a similar blow-back of homegrown terrorism.” …

“As we continue to get enmeshed in these conflicts, it’s naive to think our population is not going to be affected by the global rhetoric surrounding this,” said Christine Fair, a Georgetown University professor specializing in Pakistan.

Worse in Europe?

Still, several analysts said the problem in the United States still appears to be an order of magnitude less than in Europe. For example, British domestic intelligence chiefs warned in 2006 and 2007 of 200 terrorist networks, at least 2,000 individuals who posed a direct security threat and perhaps 2,000 as-yet unknown would-be terrorists.

But just as British authorities identified disenchanted elements among its 800,000-strong Pakistani community, several Pakistani Americans have been detained this fall in cases linked to extremists in Pakistan. At least three of the five Virginia residents were in touch with a Taliban recruiter, according to Pakistani authorities. …

Najibullah Zazi, 24, a Denver airport shuttle driver and U.S. permanent resident who was born in Afghanistan and reared in Pakistan, was charged in September of testing explosives for an attack, possibly in New York.

The cases of radicalization are not limited to Pakistani Americans. In January, Bryant N. Vinas, 26, a Hispanic American convert to Islam, pleaded guilty to receiving training from al-Qaeda in Pakistan last year.

Daniel P. Boyd, a white Muslim convert who lives in North Carolina, was accused this summer of plotting to attack U.S. military personnel at Quantico, and of leading a group of seven men to fight in the Middle East after Israel’s 2006 war with the group Hezbollah.

Last month, U.S. authorities announced the latest of 14 indictments related to the alleged recruiting of more than 20 Somali American youths from Minnesota to join an Islamist insurgency in Somalia. U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces toppled an Islamist government in Somalia in 2006.

Concern about Somalis

Somali Americans are among the youngest, poorest and newest immigrants to the United States, with 60 percent having arrived since 2000 and 51 percent living in poverty.

“We have to look very hard at those who arrived in the last 10 or 15 years,” said Charles Allen, a veteran CIA officer and chief intelligence officer for the Homeland Security Department from 2005 until this year. “We’re having this problem with Somalis, and we’re having it with Pakistanis, and there will be other nations as well.”

U.S. authorities said the American Muslim community is central to countering extremism. In the Minnesota and Virginia cases, parents and community leaders sounded the alarm when the youths disappeared. …

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Related reports on this site

FBI Probing Somali Terror Link (March 12, 2009)

Minnesota Somalis Jihad-Bound? (Jan. 26, 2009)

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12/13/09 Update

Terrorist Recruiters Leverage the Web

By Griff Witte, Jerry Markon and Shaiq Hussain

December 13, 2009

Pakistani authorities on Saturday were searching for an insurgent figure believed to have aided five Northern Virginia men who allegedly tried to join al-Qaeda, saying the case could help unravel a growing network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men.

Investigators have identified the man, known as Saifullah, as a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban and said he contacted one of the American men on YouTube, exchanged coded e-mails with the group, invited them to Pakistan and guided them once they arrived.

But the men, all Muslims from the Alexandria area, failed to reach the remote tribal zone that is al-Qaeda’s home because the terrorist network’s commanders thought they were sent by the CIA to infiltrate al-Qaeda — and Saifullah could not convince them otherwise, a Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday. …

Full story

Obama’s War

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — December 12, 2008

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (center) with Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski (left), who was responsible for military jails in Iraq.

Rumsfeld Fingered on Abu Ghraib

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee found that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber struck a crowded restaurant near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders, killing at least 55 people and wounding about 120 in the deadliest attack in Iraq in nearly six months.

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The Washington Post reports in its Sunday edition that a NATO fact-finding team estimates that about 125 people, many of them civilians, were killed in a U.S. airstrike called in by German forces in Afghanistan, guided by a lone informant. Excerpts from that report will be posted here when it becomes available.

Afghans bury some of the victims of an airstrike in a mass grave near Kunduz on Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (Photo credit: Reuters)

Sole Informant Guided Decision on Afghan Strike

From left, Col. Georg Klein, left, commander of the German base in Kunduz, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, NATO’s chief of communications in Kabul, visit the site. (Photo credit: Anja Niedringhaus / AP – Washington Post)

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Sept. 6, 2009

Excerpts

HAJI SAKHI DEDBY, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 — To the German commander, it seemed to be a fortuitous target: More than 100 Taliban insurgents were gathering around two hijacked fuel tankers that had become stuck in the mud near this small farming village.

The grainy live video transmitted from an American F-15E fighter jet circling overhead, which was projected on a screen in a German tactical operations center four miles north of here, showed numerous black dots around the trucks — each of them a thermal image of a human but without enough detail to confirm whether they were carrying weapons.

An Afghan informant was on the phone with an intelligence officer at the center, however, insisting that everybody at the site was an insurgent, according to an account that German officers here provided to NATO officials.

Based largely on that informant’s assessment, the commander ordered a 500-pound, satellite-guided bomb to be dropped on each truck early Friday. The vehicles exploded in a fireball that lit up the night sky for miles, incinerating many of those standing nearby.

A NATO fact-finding team estimated Saturday that about 125 people were killed in the bombing, at least two dozen of whom — but perhaps many more — were not insurgents. To the team, which is trying to sort out this complicated incident, mindful that the fallout could further sap public support in Afghanistan for NATO’s security mission here, the target appeared to be far less clear-cut than it had to the Germans. [...]

In Kabul, the Afghan capital, relatives of two severely burned survivors being treated at an intensive-care unit said Taliban fighters forced dozens of villagers to assist in moving the bogged-down tankers.

“They came to everyone’s house asking for help,” said Mirajuddin, a shopkeeper who lost six of his cousins in the bombing — none of whom, he said, was an insurgent. “They started beating people and pointing guns. They said, ‘Bring your tractors and help us.’ What could we do?” [...]

The decision to bomb the tankers based largely on a single human intelligence source appears to violate the spirit of a tactical directive aimed at reducing civilian casualties that was recently issued by U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the new commander of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

The directive states that NATO forces cannot bomb residential buildings based on a sole source of information and that troops must establish a “pattern of life” to ensure that no civilians are in the target area. Although the directive does not apply to airstrikes in the open, NATO officials said it is McChrystal’s intent for those standards to apply to all uses of air power, except when troops are in imminent danger. [...]

The incident has generated intense disquiet among Afghans, many of whom say military operations since the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001 have resulted in an unacceptably high number of civilian casualties. Local media reports have been filled with people alleging — some with little proof — that scores of civilians were killed in the airstrike. [...]

Full story

9/6/09 Update

U.S.-German rift over Afghan deaths case (AP, Sept. 6, 2009) — An airstrike by U.S. fighter jets that appears to have killed Afghan civilians could turn into a major dispute between NATO allies Germany and the United States, as tensions began rising Sunday over Germany’s role in ordering the attack. … The German Defense Ministry, meanwhile, pushed back against a story published in the Washington Post that German officials said painted their commander in a poor light and played up the U.S. version of events. … More

11/26/09 Update

German military chief removed over airstrike (AP, Nov. 26, 2009) — The German military’s top official has been removed for failing to properly pass on information to political leaders about a September airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians. The new defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, told parliament that the military’s inspector general, Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan — the equivalent of chief of staff — had asked to be relieved of his duties. … More

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — September 5, 2008

On the Campaign Trail: Day 53

With two young supporters, Michael (6) and Steven (10), at Lakeside Memorial Park, Forest Lake.

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 53rd day of my campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported on my campaign stops the previous day north of the St. Paul metro in the cities of Wyoming and Forest Lake in Washington County on my way to the final night of the Republican National Convention, where I observed the action outside the convention hall. I also featured information from the St. Paul Pioneer Press voter guide regarding my campaign platform and issue positions.

Campaign SUV — my 1989 Jeep Cherokee in Wyoming, Minn.

On the Sidelines of the Republican National Convention

John McCain and George W. Bush impersonators in Rice Park, St. Paul, outside the Xcel Energy Center, venue for the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sept. 4, 2008.

The MSNBC outdoor set in Rice Park outside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, venue for the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sept. 4, 2008. 

Pioneer Press Voter Guide

Party: Republican Age: 52 Incumbent: No Occupation: Psychology professor, military/security consultant Address: P.O. Box 117 Sartell, MN 56377

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I recently had an interesting exchange with a writer on a progressive blog that put into sharp relief the challenges and travails, the trials and tribulations of mobilizing a cross-partisan majority in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District to defeat U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in the September 14, 2010 primary.

But first, for those eager to see Bachmann disappear from the political landscape but unfamiliar with Minnesota’s political system, it’s important to understand that Minnesota does not have party registration. Yes, that’s right — Minnesota has no registered Democrats or Republicans. Stated differently, on paper Minnesota has no Republicans or Democrats — only registered voters; party-political affiliation is strictly a matter of self-identification.

This has important practical implications, the most important of which is that in a primary election every voter gets an identical ballot, irrespective of personal party identification. The ballot has three colums, one for each political party with major-party status in the state of Minnesota: Republican, Democratic-Farmer-Labor, and Independence Party — and voters are free to vote in the primary of their choice. The only legal constraint is that they select one column and vote only in that column. 

Sample primary ballot. Click to see larger image.

The strongest weapon we have at our disposal to defeat Bachmann is Minnesota’s open primary system. Bachmann’s Achilles’ heel is the open primary, where nothing prevents self-identifying Democrats or independents from voting against Bachmann in the primary election.

The fact that Bachmann received only 47 percent of the primary vote in September 2008 shows just how vulnerable she is. If voters who marked their ballots for the unopposed Democratic and Independence Party candidates had voted for Bachmann’s primary challenger instead, Bachmann would have been defeated even before she made her October 17 “anti-American” remarks on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Back to the progressive blogger.

To defeat Bachmann, he proposed the “offbeat strategy” of endorsing former Independence Party lieutenant governor candidate Dr. Maureen Reed as the Democratic candidate for Congress in an effort to deter someone else from filing on the IP line and creating a three-way race, which would favor Bachmann.

Now, we know that that particular strategy is unlikely to work, because in 2008, when the IP chose not to run a candidate, cross-endorsing Democratic endorsee Elwyn Tinklenberg instead, political unknown Bob Anderson went and put his name on the IP ballot to create a three-way contest in which he won 10 percent of the vote in a race on which he spent just a few hundred dollars. (Bob Anderson has already expressed an interest in running again in 2010.)

In response the the blogger’s suggested strategy, I commented that “the only viable strategy to defeat Bachmann is to shut her down in the September Republican primary,” but that “that cannot happen if there are contested Democratic races in the 6th District U.S. House or Minnesota gubernatorial races.”

I added, “Bachmann’s Achilles’ heel is not her outrageous political rhetoric or delusional conspiracy theories,” which endear her to her base, but “Minnesota’s open primary system, which allows Democrats and Independents to vote along with reasonable Republicans against Bachmann in the Republican primary.”

Referring the blogger to my website for a more detailed analysis of how to beat Bachmann, I concluded: “In 2008, barely 19,000 of the 6th District’s more than 430,000 registered voters turned out for Bachmann. Anyone with the means and ability to mobilize 20,000 voters from across the political spectrum in the Republican primary can beat Bachmann.”

The progressive blogger responded by concurring that I’m correct that Bachmann could be eliminated by a coalition of anti-Bachmann Republicans, Democrats, and independents, but then summarily denounced it as “a strategy of election trickery” and “foolishness.”

I find it difficult to understand the thought process that it’s “trickery” and “foolishness” for voters outraged by Bachmann to break loose from the shackles of party politics and unite as Minnesotans to put country first and vote Bachmann out of office.

Indeed, the wise legislators who gave us open primaries had the foresight and judgment to recognize that occasionally the need might arise for a backup failsafe mechanism that enables us to form broad cross-partisan coalitions to recall rogue elected officials.

To be perfectly blunt, there’s no good reason for 6th District constituents to subjugate their own best interest to the dictatorship of partisan consciousness.

——

Related report

Aubrey Immelman Ponders Another Run Against Bachmann

By T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporter
Oct. 14, 2009

Aubrey Immelman, the Republican academic who trudged across the 6th Congressional District last year as part of his primary challenge to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll attempt to unseat the congresswoman again.

“I expect 2010 to be a Republican year, with the GOP taking back around 20 of the seats they lost to Democrats in 2006 and 2008 — a climate in which Bachmann will do very well if she advances to the general election,” said Immelman in a recent e-mail.

“I’m hanging around the ballpark, so to speak, in case an opportunity opens up for a walk-on,” wrote Immelman in part. …

Full report and alternative link

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SIDEBAR

Chuck Todd

MSNBC political director  Chuck Todd reports:

As first reported by the Watertown Daily Times, the Republican nominee in the New York 23rd Congressional special election, Dede Scozzafava, announced this morning she’s suspending her campaign. Her exit leaves Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, who had garnered plenty of national GOP support, as the favorite to win what was a hotly-contested 3-way race. …

(Posted: Sat., Oct. 31, 2009 at 11:09 AM on First Read)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — August 5, 2008 

On the Campaign Trail: Day 22

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Report: North Korea Willing to Hold Talks with U.S.

July 25, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has indicated its interest in holding direct talks with the United States, a news report said, after the two sides traded barbs over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs at a security forum.

“We are not against a dialogue. We are not against any negotiation for the issues of common concern,” Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted North Korean ambassador to the United Nations Sin Son Ho as saying Friday.

But the ambassador, speaking in New York, dismissed the possibility of a return to stalled nuclear negotiations involving the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia, saying “the six-party talks are gone forever.”

The U.S. has offered to hold talks with the North within the six-nation process if it returns to the negotiating table and takes irreversible steps for denuclearization.

Last weekend, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell indicated that the chances for direct talks between North Korea and the U.S. were slim. “Our bilateral negotiations are between the U.S. and South Korea about our collective approach” to the North, Campbell told reporters in Seoul. …

North Korea quit the nuclear talks in April to protest a U.N. statement condemning a rocket launch. North Korea insisted it sent a satellite into orbit, while the U.S. and its allies said it was actually a long-range missile test.

North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May and a barrage of missile tests in July, drawing international condemnation and new U.N. sanctions. …

The U.S. and North Korea engaged in a sharp war of words earlier this week over U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent comment likening the regime in Pyongyang to “small children” demanding attention.

At a regional security conference in Thailand, Clinton also said the North “has no friends left.”

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described her Thursday as “a funny lady” who sometimes “looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”

North Korea Escalates War of Words, Calls Clinton Vulgar, Unintelligent

By Glenn Kessler

July 24, 2009

PHUKET, Thailand, July 23 — The war of words between North Korea and the United States escalated Thursday, with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry lashing out at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in unusually personal terms for “vulgar remarks” that it said demonstrated “she is by no means intelligent.”

Clinton, who this week likened North Korea to an unruly child, has rallied international isolation of North Korea at a 27-member regional security forum here. She met with her Russian, Chinese, South Korean and Japanese counterparts — the other key partners in suspended six-nation disarmament talks on North Korea — and won strong statements of support from many delegations. …

“There is no place to go for North Korea,” Clinton told reporters after reading a nearly seven-minute statement outlining U.S. policy on North Korea. “They have no friends left.”

North Korean officials also are attending the conference hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on this resort island. In a comical scene, North Korean officials showed up at a news conference venue that had been set up for Clinton, who as usual was running late. Although the North Koreans had booked the space, they retreated to a nearby hallway to meet with reporters and denounce the United States.

“The six-party talks are over,” spokesman Ri Hung Sik said, because of the “deep-rooted anti-North Korean policy” of the United States. [AP Video] North Korea rarely holds media events, so the decision to speak to reporters was significant. [AP video: N. Korea says nuclear talks are 'over']

Clinton and other U.S. officials said the North Korean delegation made similar belligerent statements at the conference. “In their presentation today, they evinced no willingness to pursue the path of denuclearization, and that was troubling,” Clinton said.

The Foreign Ministry statement attacking Clinton also amply demonstrated the North Korean mood.

“We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to North Korean media. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.”

The fit of pique was apparently inspired by an interview Clinton gave ABC News while visiting New Delhi this week.

“What we’ve seen is this constant demand for attention,” Clinton said. “And maybe it’s the mother in me or the experience that I’ve had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention — don’t give it to them, they don’t deserve it, they are acting out.”

The Obama administration came into office with hopes that it could restart the talks that broke down in the final days of the Bush administration. President George W. Bush, who had originally taken a hard line, made substantial concessions to Pyongyang after it first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. Last year, he removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but the talks faltered nonetheless.

President Obama appointed a special envoy for negotiations with the hope of rebuilding the process. But after North Korea tested ballistic missiles and a nuclear weapon, the Obama team shifted course, viewing North Korea as a test case to demonstrate that substantial sanctions could be imposed on nuclear rogues while still holding out the promise of a better relationship. The administration even resurrected a demand for “irreversible” steps on denuclearization, language that had been banned by the State Department toward the end of Bush’s term. …

Michael J. Green, the former top Asia adviser to Bush, said Clinton’s statement was “a comprehensive and well-balanced statement of North Korea strategy,” noting that she also highlighted human rights abuses by North Korea and said she would name a special human rights envoy for North Korea. “The inclusion of human rights issues is important and striking, given some of the administration’s recent hesitation about raising these issues around the world,” he said. …

The Obama administration, however, insists it will not drop the sanctions, as Bush did, to win Pyongyang’s cooperation.

“We are open to talks with North Korea. But we are not interested in half-measures,” Clinton said. “We do not intend to reward the North just for returning to the table.”

Related report: Well, better barbs than bombs, eh?

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Kim Jong-Il Threat Assessment

Political Psychological Profile of Kim Jong-Il

By Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D.

Excerpt

A remote psychological assessment of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was conducted. … In summary, Kim Jong-Il may be characterized as fraudulent, self-indulgent, and conflict averse — preferring guile, craft, and cunning rather than force or confrontation in extracting or extorting from others what he considers his due; he is not a “malignant narcissist.”

The major political implications of the study are the following: First, although North Korea’s military capability undeniably poses a legitimate threat to regional stability, any claim by Kim Jong-Il with regard to his military capabilities are not to be taken at face value, but should be called into question and verified; second, Kim is relatively conflict averse and unlikely to employ military force without provocation; and third, Kim is relatively open to influence by carefully crafted diplomatic and economic means subjectively perceived as bolstering his self-serving ambitions.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — July 26, 2008 

On the Campaign Trail: Day 12 

One year ago today, on the 12th day of my 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I traveled to Minneapolis to tape an interview with Ken Avidor for The UpTake, focusing on my background, my reasons for running, and my core issues of national security, law enforcement/public safety, and border security/illegal migration. 

In discussing national security, I remarked on lost opportunities after 9/11, specifically the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq, which turned a country that had been militarily contained and led by a dictator hostile to Iran and to Islamic fundamentalism — both Shi’ite extremism and al-Qaida’s brand of radical Islam — into a foreign policy nightmare that has consumed our domestic political agenda and squandered our finite resources for more than five years. 

I wrote on my blog that whatever happens in Iraq, the incoming administration in Washington would face a situation in Iraq more fraught with danger in 2009 than did the Bush administration when it took office in January 2001.

I also lamented that for the foreseeable future the American people would see hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars pumped into the rebuilding and restabilization of Iraq.

I noted that al-Qaida which had no significant presence in Iraq prior to the March 2003 U.S. invasion would continue to pose a threat in post-Saddam Iraq, though not as lethal as it was before the “Sunni Awakening,” the 2007 troop buildup, and the successful counterinsurgency strategy instituted by Gen. David Petraeus. 

Finally, I expressed concern that the anti-American Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would bide his time until the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, with the intent of turning Iraq into a Shi’ite fundamentalist theocracy along Iranian lines after the U.S. leaves Iraq.

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Suicide Attackers Strike Southeast Afghan City

An Afghan police officer look at a guard post damaged in an attack in Khost, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, July 25, 2009. (Photo credit: Nishanuddin Khan / AP)

July 25, 2009

KABUL – For the second time in a week, Taliban fighters armed with suicide vests and automatic weapons attacked a provincial capital in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, triggering hours-long gunbattles that left seven militants dead, officials said. …

The assault in Khost began when at least six Taliban fighters carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the area around the main police station and a nearby government-run bank. All were shot and killed before they could detonate their suicide vests, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A  seventh attacker detonated a car rigged with explosives near a police rapid reaction force, wounding two policemen, the ministry said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said all the attackers were killed, but the Defense Ministry later said an eighth attacker may have escaped. The ministry said no government forces were killed but 14 people were wounded — 11 civilians and three police.

The attack came five days after Taliban militants launched near-simultaneous assaults in Gardez, about 50 miles northwest of Khost, and in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Six Afghan police and intelligence officers and eight militants died in the two attacks. …

U.S. troops helped provide security during the Khost attack but were not involved in the battle. …

Also Saturday, a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province, the focus of major offensives by U.S. and British forces. The soldier was the 20th British service member killed in Afghanistan this month and the 189th since the war began in 2001.

Fighting has increased sharply in Afghanistan this month after President Barack Obama ordered thousands more U.S. troops to the country, shifting the focus of the war against Muslim extremism from Iraq.

At least 66 international troops have died in July, the bloodiest month of the nearly eight-year war.

Related reports

Bomb attack kills 2 U.S. troops in Afghanistan

As deaths rise, so do doubts on Afghan war

Friends of slain serviceman Jimmy Backhouse react as hearses carrying the bodies of eight British soldiers killed during a 24-hour period in Afghanistan pass mourners on July 14 in Wootton Bassett, England. (Photo credit: Simon Dawson / AP file)

Bin Laden son thought killed in Pakistan

Video

Report: Son of bin Laden killed (NBC Nightly News, July 23) — A son of Osama bin Laden — the third eldest son of his 17 children — was reported to have been killed in Pakistan by a U.S. missile strike. NBC’s Brian Williams reports. (00:23) 

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — July 25, 2008 

On the Campaign Trail: Day 11 

One year ago today, on the 11th day of my 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported back on a local “Know Your Rights” immigrant forum that had raised concern among some residents.

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The tragedy of war came home to Minnesota this week with news that five service members with local connections had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On July 16, Spc. Daniel Drevnick of Woodbury, Spc. James Wertish of Olivia, and Spc. Carlos Wilcox of Cottage Grove were killed in a rocket attack on their base in Basra, Iraq. They served with  the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls.

On July 17, Air Force Capt. Thomas Gramith of Eagan was killed when his F-15E fighter jet crashed in Afghanistan. He served with the 336th Fighter Squadron out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

On July 18, Cpl. Benjamin Kopp of Rosemount died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center of wounds sustained July 10 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with small-arms fire. He was served with the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Benning, Ga.

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq 

As of Tuesday, July 21, 2009, at least 4,328 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,431 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally. …

Latest identifications: 

• Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon T. Lara, 20, New Braunfels, Texas, died July 19, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Army National Guard Spc. Daniel P. Drevnick, 22, Woodbury, Minn., died July 16, 2009 in Basra of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 34th Military Police Company, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard, Stillwater, Minn.
• Army National Guard Spc. James D. Wertish, 20, Olivia, Minn., died July 16, 2009 in Basra of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 34th Military Police Company, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard, Stillwater, Minn.
• Army National Guard Spc. Carlos E. Wilcox IV, 27, Cottage Grove, Minn., died July 16, 2009 in Basra of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 34th Military Police Company, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota Army National Guard, Stillwater, Minn.
• Army Pvt. Lucas M. Bregg, 19, Wright City, Mo., died July 8, 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan 

As of Tuesday, July 21, 2009, at least 670 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. …

On July 19, 2009, the Department of Defense announced the identity of a soldier listed as Missing-Captured on July 3 while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was declared Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on July 1 and his status was changed  to “Missing-Captured” on July 3. Pfc. Bergdahl is a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl

Latest identifications: 

• Army Cpl. Benjamin S. Kopp, 21, Rosemount, Minn., died July 18 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington of wounds suffered July 10, 2009 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.
  Air Force Capt. Thomas J. Gramith, 27, Eagan, Minn., died July 17, 2009 in a F-15E crash near Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 336th Fighter Squadron, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
• Air Force Capt. Mark R. McDowell, 26, Colorado Springs, Colo., died July 17, 2009 in a F-15E crash near Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 336th Fighter Squadron, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
• Army Sgt. 1st Class Jason J. Fabrizi, 29, Seffner, Fla., died July 14, 2009 in Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his mounted patrol was attacked by enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
• Marine Sgt. Michael W. Heede Jr., 22, Delta, Pa., died July 13, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Marine Staff Sgt. David S. Spicer, 33, Zanesfield, Ohio, died July 13, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties 

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Related reports on this site

3 Dead in Attack on Base in Iraq (July 17, 2009)

Captured U.S. Soldier Identified (July 19, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — July 21, 2008 

On the Campaign Trail: Day Seven

One year ago today, on the seventh day of my campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I worked on my national security position statement and studied a local controversy regarding illegal immigration.

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One year ago today, I launched my campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

On the first day of the campaign I issued my position statement on illegal immigration, one of the three core issues in my congressional campaign. My other key issues were law enforcement and national security (with a focus on my opposition to the Iraq war, which I believe weakened U.S. national security and which Rep. Bachmann enthusiastically supported).

Following is my blog post for the first day of the campaign. Over the next few months, I will regularly post “One Year Ago Today” excerpts from my 2008 campaign blog entries.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — July 15, 2008

On the Campaign Trail: Day One

Today, the first day of the campaign, I roll out my policy statement on immigration and am available to respond to constituent and media queries regarding my position.

Next week, I will address vital U.S. national security issues.

The following week, I will comment on pressing issues of law enforcement and public safety.  

After that, I will physically hit the campaign trail, traveling the district to meet with and listen to the concerns of constituents.

Please join me on this journey to restore the common-sense voice of reason of ordinary Minnesotans in our nation’s capital.

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RELATED MEDIA REPORTS 

KEYC TV 12, Mankato (July 4, 2008) — Sixth District congresswoman Michele Bachmann will face a challenge from a fellow Republican. Fifty-two-year-old Aubrey Immelman is an associate professor at St. John’s University. He says he’s running to restore conservative values, including fiscal responsibility and strong national security. Immelman opposes the Iraq war, saying it has further destabilized the Middle East, strengthened Iran and hurt the United States.” …

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SJU Professor Challenges Bachmann for Republican Nomination

By David Unze
St. Cloud Times
July 4, 2008

A St. John’s University associate professor of psychology plans to seek the Republican nomination for the 6th District congressional seat occupied by Michele Bachmann.

Aubrey Immelman, 52, announced his candidacy Thursday. He said he will run on a platform of restoring conservative values, which includes fiscal responsibility and national security.

Although he’s opposed to the war in Iraq — saying it has hurt the United States, further destabilized the Middle East and empowered Iran — he’s not an anti-war candidate, he said.

Immelman, who first came to the U.S. in 1968, was an infantry paratrooper in the South African military.

One of the courses he teaches is on profiling, and he has gained a national reputation for his personality profiles of U.S. presidential candidates, world leaders and terrorist leaders.

Immelman worked as a U.S. military consultant on nuclear counter-proliferation and reducing the weapons of mass destruction threat against the United States, he said.

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Bachmann Faces Primary Fight from Little Known Candidate

By Tim Budig
ECM Capitol reporter
July 7, 2008

Sixth District Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will be facing a primary election challenger.

Aubrey Immelman, of Sartell, has filed with the Secretary of State’s Office as a Republican and has a website proclaiming his candidacy for Congress.

A July 2 entry states that the candidate is currently in Europe to conduct military training and attend meetings.

It states Immelman’s campaign for the 6th District will begin on July 15.

Bachmann, whose heard that Immelman is an educator, indicated she welcomed the contest.

“I’m excited about that challenge,” said Bachmann of the primary tussle, speaking at Inver Grove Heights City Hall this morning (July 7).

“I look forward to the challenge. I believe it’s great. Welcome him,” she said.

“I haven’t met him. He’ll have to introduce himself to the public and let people know where he stands,” she said.

There has been indications that a candidate forum bringing Bachmann and her Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg to Monticello in late September has been in the offing.

But Bachmann Monday morning said she didn’t know anything about it.

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Bachmann Challenger: Sleeping in Paris

By Paul Demko
The Minnesota Independent
July 8, 2008 

The St. Cloud Times reported last week that Rep. Michele Bachmann now has a challenger in the Republican primary. St. John’s University psychology professor Aubrey Immelman has filed to run against the freshman legislator.

Immelman’s area of expertise is analyzing the personalities of politicians and criminals — two professions that conveniently overlap on occasion. He told the Associated Press that he’s opposed to the Iraq War and that he wants to restore conservative values and fiscal responsibility to Congress.

But little more is known about Immelman’s views on issues or how vigorous a campaign he intends to run. So I called him up to ask a few questions. Unfortunately, the professor is in Paris[*] all week. According to Immelman’s Web site, he’s there “to conduct military training and attend meetings.” The campaign will officially launch on July 15.

* Note: The military training was conducted in Brussels, following which I attended the annual scientific meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology in Paris.

Dr. David G. Winter of the University of Michigan delivers his keynote address, “Taming Power: Should We? Can We? How?” at the 2008 annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology in Paris, July 12, 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

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SIDEBAR

Twister Sisters Video of Tornado-Warned Storm

St. Cloud, Minn.
July 14, 2009

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Republicans Criticize Report on Extremists

Officials warn fringe right-wing groups may try to recruit GIs coming home

Hate groups including neo-Nazis and the Klan have grown in recent years, feeding on immigrant and economic distrust. Watch NBC News report. (Image: NBC News)

April 15, 2009

WASHINGTON – Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists. House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

The agency’s intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country’s first black president to recruit members.

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence. …

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published “to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States.”

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation. …

Related reports on this site

Obama, Economy Fuel Hate Groups (Feb. 28, 2009)

Obama Racist Backlash (Nov. 16, 2008)

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8/24/09 Update

Minnesota’s biggest talker, Bachmann fears ID cards for prolifers

Report: Militias on the rise, Bachmann stoking anti-government sentiment

Southern Poverty Law Center Report: Return of the Militias

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Car Blast Kills 10, Wounds 23 in Northern Iraq

April 15, 2009 

KIRKUK, Iraq – A car bomb that targeted police assigned to protect northern Iraq’s oil industry killed 10 people and wounded 23 on Wednesday, police said, the latest high-profile bombing in the country.

The casualties were piled into a police truck, and police traveling with the dead and wounded fired into the air to clear traffic on the road ahead, a Reuters witness said. …

It was unclear how many of the casualties were police and how many civilian. …

Police initially said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber, but some now say the attackers may have detonated an explosives-laden vehicle, targeting a bus carrying police in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

The oil-rich city is hotly disputed by Arabs, and by Turkmen and ethnic Kurds who consider it their ancestral capital. …

Most attacks in Iraq’s north are focused on the city of Mosul, where a truck bomb on Friday killed two Iraqi policemen and five U.S. troops in the single deadliest incident for U.S. forces for over a year.

A series of high-profile blasts and clashes between Shi’ite-led government forces and Sunni U.S.-backed anti-Qaeda militias in Baghdad during the same period have heightened tensions, which some analysts say could have political motives. …

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UPDATE

Suicide Bomber in Uniform Kills 16 in Iraq Base

April 16, 2009 

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber in army uniform detonated a vest packed with explosives at a military base in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Thursday, killing 16 people and wounding 50, the army and police said.

A Defense Ministry statement and Anbar’s military command center said no one was killed, and only 17 wounded. There was no explanation for the discrepancy, although official tolls often fall far short of those from unofficial army and police sources.

“We had a regular parade, and were about to go into the cafeteria when a huge noise made me fall to the ground … I saw fire, smoke and debris … I saw people without arms and legs,” said soldier Mokhaled al-Dulaimi.

All the casualties were soldiers, the army and police said. …

Thursday’s bombing was one of a string of high-profile attacks in Iraq in recent weeks, as provinces finalize new alliances and choose new governors after January’s vote. …

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Abortion: Human Right or Human Rights Violation?

Does pregnancy from rape justify abortion? What about poverty? Internationally known speaker and debater Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform will be on the campus of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., to speak on these and other current life issues.

When? Thursday,  April 16 at 7 p.m.

Where? Haehn Campus Center (HCC) Alumni Hall 

Admission free and open to the public

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FBI Investigates Somalis in Minneapolis

Suicide bombing by Twin Cities man increases scrutiny of Somali immigrants

Worshippers at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s largest mosque. The mosque is suspected by the families of some missing Somali men of having a role in their loved ones’ disappearance. (Photo credit: Craig Lassig / AP)

March 10, 2009

MINNEAPOLIS – Members of the Twin Cities’ thriving Somali community say they are being questioned by the FBI as it investigates whether some young men are being “radicalized” in Minnesota and recruited to fight with terror groups in their homeland. …

Why some would want to leave, especially to return to a lawless country, has confused many Somalis.

“Like most of the community, I had difficulty believing that anybody would go to Somalia after their own families left because of wars,” said Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed, a Minneapolis physician. “It stunned most of us, I think, when we heard a name of someone who went and died.”

The Senate’s Homeland Security Committee plans a hearing Wednesday on possible terror recruitment in the United States, and witnesses from Minnesota are expected to testify. …

‘Radicalized’ in the Twin Cities

[In] October, a Minneapolis man carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia. FBI Director Robert Mueller said last month that the bomber probably had been “radicalized” in the Twin Cities.

Now many Somalis say FBI agents have questioned them about recent travels abroad and asked which mosques they attended. …

The Oct. 29 bombing by Shirwa Ahmed was part of a series of coordinated attacks that targeted a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region.

The Oct. 29, 2009 bombing by Shirwa Ahmed was part of a series of coordinated attacks that targeted a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region. (Photo credit: CBS / WCCO)

U.S. counterterrorism officials have raised concerns that an extremist group called al-Shabab is recruiting young men in Minnesota and elsewhere. It isn’t clear if Ahmed was part of the group. Al-Shabab, a name meaning “The Youth,” controls much of Somalia and wants to establish an Islamic state there.

Many welcome investigation

Many Somalis in the Twin Cities welcome the federal investigation, including Abdirizak Bihi, whose teenage nephew left Minneapolis in November and called his family days later saying he was in Somalia.
The boy’s whereabouts are unknown.

“They did not decide to go back to the hell that their families fled from,” Bihi said of the young men who left. “There must be some group that has been brainwashing them.” …

Cawo Abdi, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, said the FBI has given “the impression that there were all these terrorist cells in our midst.”

“It is really unfortunate that everyone has to pay the price for the crime,” he said.

The families of some men who left suspect Minnesota’s largest mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, of having a role in their loved ones’ decision — something mosque officials have repeatedly denied. The mosque recently held an open house to try to address public concerns.

Director Farhan Hurre said mosque officials have noticed FBI agents conducting surveillance outside the mosque. …

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Previous report on this site

Minnesota Somalis Jihad-Bound?

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Updates

6/9/09: Mystery surrounds death of Somali teen

7/13/09: Fourth man from Minnesota killed in Somalia

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A car bomb near an Iraqi army patrol killed three soldiers and wounded 10 people, including two soldiers, in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Two policemen and one civilian were wounded when a militant threw a hand grenade at a police patrol in central Mosul, police said.

JALAWLA – Three policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in a village near the town of Jalawla, 70 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – Two people were killed and seven were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

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