If their pirates didn't scare you, wait until you read this!

My favorite magazine in the whole-wide world, Security Management, has just posted a new article on some scary testimony given to Congress. As al-Qaeda becomes more decentralized, splinter groups, inspired by the success of squad-level attacks such as Mumbai, are seeking new members to bring into their organizations to increase their operational reach and membership size. According to the article,

"Experts and Somali community leaders yesterday told Congress that a suicide attack carried out by a Somali-American youth in Somalia could mean that a terror group based there is recruiting in the United States, raising the specter of homegrown terrorism.

Last October, Minneapolis resident Shirwa Ahmed carried out a suicide bomb attack in Somalia. He is believed to be the first American suicide bomber ever.

“We are concerned that if Somali-American youth can be motivated to engage in such activities overseas, Ahmed’s fellow travelers could return to the U.S. and engage in terrorist activities here,” Andrew Liepman, deputy director of intelligence for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), told the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday.

In recent years a number of Somali-American youths and American converts to Islam have traveled to Somalia to fight with the al Shabaab militia. The Islamist insurgent group has used terror and guerilla tactics to fight the the country's weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Ethiopian forces, according to intelligence officials.

Even scarier is finding out there are 150,000 to 200,000 Somalis that currently reside in the United States.

Professor Ken Menkhaus of Davidson College told lawmakers that Somalia’s 9 million people, “almost all of whom are Muslims, have endured 19 years of complete state collapse, periods of civil war, chronic insecurity, lawlessness and warlordism, massive displacement, the destruction of major cities, disruption of already fragile livelihoods, and recurring humanitarian crises, including the 1991-92 famine in which 250,000 people died.”

So why are these radical groups looking at Somalis? Because since their migration, they've failed to do what most immigrants try to do - assimilate. According to the article, ".....intelligence officials worry that Somali immigrants are more prone to radicalization and recruitment."

The question you have to ask is "Is this happening now or we talking about a vulnerability?"
Osman Ahmed, a Somali community leader in Minneapolis, alleged many of the young man that fled to Somalia were indoctrinated at the city's Abu-Bakar As-Saddique mosque.

Here's where I tell you to put down your gun and step back a minute and read the rest of the article.

Liepman said he wanted “to emphasize that we do not believe we are witnessing any form of community-wide radicalization among Somali-Americans.”

How do we solve this problem before it grows bigger? What's the government doing about it? We learned after 9/11 that "actionable intelligence" was useless if you never acted on it.

Philip Mudd, associate executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said the agency has crafted extensive outreach programs to Muslim communities and have also initiated a pilot program in Minneapolis to help FBI field offices and the Somali community deal with young men leaving to fight in their homeland.

The DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has also organized roundtable discussions to engage Muslim community leaders, Liepman said.