We came to this country looking for peace’: Families of Minnesota ISIS suspects accuse FBI of setting them up

The families of four Minnesota men charged with trying to join the Islamic State have accused the FBI of paying an informant to set them up.

The suspects, all of Somali descent, were detained after months of being monitored by the government agency through one of their former allies.

On Thursday, there were audible gasps in the court room as a government official revealed the informant, who once planned to travel to Syria himself, has been paid at least $13,000 for providing tip-offs.

The suspects’ families screamed from the packed public gallery as their lawyers questioned the reliability of the mole.

However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Becky Thorson maintained there was probable cause to believe a crime was committed, and ordered the four men to remain in custody while the case proceeds.

They are among six men of Somali descent who were charged over the weekend with conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization and with attempting to support a foreign terrorist organization.

Authorities allege some of the men made repeated attempts to get to Syria, and had developed a plot to get fake passports and travel overseas through Mexico.

Slamming the allegations, local imam Hassan Mohamud told CBS: ‘The majority of the community was expecting those young people would be released because they did not show any threat to the public safety while they were here.’

Weeping, the grandmother of two of the suspects – who are brothers – told the station: ‘We ran away from Somalia’s problems. We come here and again we get a problem. We need peace.’

According to an FBI affidavit, the government’s months-long investigation was aided by recordings made by a man who once planned to travel to Syria himself, but then decided to cooperate.

 

More than 200 people tried to get into the court room for Thursday’s hearing, which was for Guled Omar, 20; Adnan Abdihamid Farah, 19; Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, 19; and Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19.

Two other men, Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21, and Abdurahman Daud, 21, faced hearings in San Diego, where they were arrested.

Daud’s mother, Farhiyo Mohamed, told the Wall Street Journal: ‘My son is a good kid.’

She explains they moved over to the U.S. from Somalia in 2003, adding: ‘We came to this country for peace.’

In ordering the four men detained, Thorson said she was looking at the weight of the evidence and other factors.

Her ruling prompted one community member in the courtroom to shout: ‘You cannot weight anything but evidence, ma’am. We are the community! You should ask us!’ He was led from the courtroom.

The hearing was tense for Somali community members. Afterward, Imam Hassan Mohamud said the community is angry, and some blame the informant. He criticized a Department of Justice pilot program designed to stop recruiting for terror groups before it starts, saying it will cause division.

‘Some members of the community are looking @ other members of the community (as) spying to each other and sending them, their kids, to jail,’ Mohamud said. ‘That’s why they are all angry. These four, all of them, are innocent until proven guilty.’

The U.S. attorney’s office said the pilot program is an outreach effort that ‘is and always has been completely separate from the investigative and prosecutorial responsibilities of this office.’

 

In court, defense attorneys questioned FBI Special Agent Harry Samit about the government’s payments to the informant. Musse’s attorney, Andy Birrell, asked whether his compensation was related to the number of people charged.

Defense attorneys also questioned how the FBI could take the informant’s word when he previously lied about his own involvement. They also asked why only some of his conversations were recorded, and whether it was the informant’s idea to pursue fake passports to get to Syria.

Samit testified the informant was paid nearly $13,000 for expenses and ‘services’ and the amount wasn’t related to the number of people charged. Samit said the informant was being asked to gather evidence against people involved in ‘the most violent terrorist group in the world.’

‘He’s exposing himself to a certain element of danger,’ Samit said.

Samit also said the investigation was broader than just the informant’s evidence, and agents verified some details through their own surveillance.

As for why not all conversations were recorded, Samit said some early conversations happened before the informant was given recording equipment. He also said some conversations weren’t recorded because of equipment failure or poor sound quality.

The fake passports were initially Abdurahman’s idea, Samit testified, but when that fell through, the FBI suggested the informant come up with his own way to get fake passports.