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MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The head of the FBI says a Minnesota Somali man, who blew himself up in Somalia last year, was "radicalized" in Minnesota.
"A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first U.S. citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing," Robert Mueller said of Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen.
According to ABC News, Mueller did not say who or how the Minneapolis man was recruited.
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have confirmed to ABC News that some of the individuals who have fought in Somalia have returned to the United States. The FBI has looked at possible cases in Minneapolis; Boston; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle; San Diego; and Washington, D.C.
In a question and answer session moderated by ABC News' Terry Moran after his speech, Mueller said about Ahmed, "We believe he was recruited here in the United States and that others may have been radicalized."
Mueller said cities like Minneapolis are at risk because of failed third-world states. "World politics often shape terrorist and criminal threats against the United States... A crisis in the Horn of Africa may well have a ripple effect in Minneapolis," he said.
"It raises the question of whether these young men will one day come home, and, if so, what might they undertake here," Mueller said.
Up to two dozen Somali men have disappeared from the Minneapolis area.
Source: MPR, Feb 24, 2009