Sunday, August 11, 2013
Three Minneapolis men who went to fight, and
later die, with a Somali Islamist milita were the subject of a
propaganda recruitment video released by the organization Thursday.
 A man identified as Mohamud Hassan is featured in a new al-Shabaab
recruitment video posted to YouTube Thursday, August 8, 2013. Hassan is
allegedly one of three Minneapolis men in the video who traveled to
Somalia and died fighting there.
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The
FBI called it a "propaganda piece" recruitment video and attributed it
to al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-endorsed militia in Somalia, said Special
Agent Kyle Loven, chief division counsel in Minneapolis.
He said it's one in a line of recruitment videos posted by the terrorist groupm but differs in its improved production values.
"Obviously,
it's an attempt to step up recruitment efforts," he said. "As far as
the video itself, I think it's just an attempt to glorify and make it
more appealing to young men."
Titled "The Path to Paradise: From the
Twin Cities to the Land of Two Migrations," the nearly 40-minute post
allegedly details the travels of Dahir Gure, Muhammad Al-Amriki and
Mohamud Hassan to Somalia over 2007 and 2008.
In one segment, Al-Amriki, born Troy Kastigar, likened his experiences to being at an amusement park.
"If
you guys only knew how much fun we have over here, this is the real
Disneyland," he said. "You need to come here and join us, and take
pleasure in this fun."
 A man identified as Muhammad Al-Amriki is featured in a new
al-Shabaab recruitment video posted to YouTube Thursday, August 8, 2013.
Al-Amriki, also known as Troy Kastigar, is allegedly one of three
Minneapolis men in the video who traveled to Somalia and died fighting
there.
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Eventually, he and Hassan are pictured next to each other, shrouded and dead.
The video was pulled from the video sharing site Thursday, Loven said, but a new version was available Friday morning.
Loven
would not confirm the identities of the men featured in the video or
whether men with their names had traveled to Somalia.
During the trial of former janitor
Mohamud Said Omar in 2012, federal prosecutors listed the three as
"killed in Somalia according to open news sources."
Omar was convicted of aiding Somali terrorists in October.
In
the video, a narrator speaks of the frustration the three men felt
living in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which he calls
"Little Mogadishu." Images of downtown Minneapolis are displayed as he
talks.
"And when the siren of jihad that was blaring out from
battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia reached their ears, it was
simply too melodious to ignore," he said.
Scenes of U.S. troops detaining people, along with dead children and adults, play as the narrator continues.
"In their crusade against Islam, the disbelievers unleashed their venom across the globe," he said.
It goes on to detail when each man left the West and made their way to Somali to fight.
Gure left in October 2007, and Al-Amriki and Hassan left from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in November 2008.
Footage
shot from the inside of a car shows parts of Bloomington, including
IKEA, and a handheld shot later leads viewers through the airport.
The
video also talks in detail about the circumstances under each man's
death — all died in gun battles, according to the video: Gure in June
2009, Al-Amriki and Hassan in September 2009.