I have been working over the past week on an article recounting the case of Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, the Somali Minnesotan who has now pleaded guilty to aiding ISIS and who will participate in the experimental pre-sentence program adopted by Judge Davis. I hope the article will be out this Friday.
Yesterday I went to the federal courthouse in Minneapolis to check one of the Warsame case filings in the clerk’s office and found the lobby full of local Somalis and armed DHS security officers. The local Somalis were obviously out supporting a favorite son, one Khaalid Adam Abdulkadir. Abdulkadir is the friend of Warsame who tweeted out terroristic threats against FBI agents and the judge (unnamed, but that would be Judge Michael Davis). Ten “Minnesota men” have been charged with offenses related to their support of ISIS; Warsame was the tenth man charged. Abdulkadir is a sort of plus-one.
In response to Warsame’s arrest this past December 9, Abdulkadir publicly posted two tweets on his Twitter account:
1. F*** them FBI I’m kill them FEDS for take my brothers.
2. More brother get locked up the cops body they will find on the floor body’s dropping fast #kill them F B I and f*** as judge.
Need I add [sic]? Probably not.
Abdulkadir’s case was set for trial yesterday morning. Instead, he entered into a plea agreement with the United States Attorney. He has agreed to plead guilty to the Class A misdemeanor offense of attempting to intimidate a federal judge and federal law enforcement officers. The US Attorney has agreed to recommend that Abdulkadir be sentenced to time served, that he be placed on supervised release for one year, and that the following conditions should apply to his supervised release: GPS location monitoring, drug testing at least once a month, chemical dependency assessment, no possession of a firearm, and no application for a passport. In short, Abdulkadir is to be set free and remain at large. The Star Tribune story on events in court yesterday is here.
Given the threat against Judge Davis, South Dakota federal district court judge Karen Schreier is handling Abdulkadir’s case. She is not obligated to accept the recommendations made in the plea agreement, but I think it is fair to say that she is likely to do so (and happily return home to South Dakota).
Minnesota’s large (100,000 plus) Somali community is problematic in two respects illustrated by Abdulkadir’s case. It produces young men who seek to join the jihad and the community shows no visible support for American law enforcement. Here I would cite the testimony of Kyle Loven, the Minneapolis FBI’s chief division counsel and media coordinator. Speaking about Somali-related law enforcement issues to the National Security Society in suburban Minneapolis this past fall, he conceded that the Somali community gave rise to special challenges for law enforcement. “We walk a tightrope” with this community, Loven observed. “Every time we have to indict somebody, you should see the remarks we get. … Every time we have to make an arrest, it is a setback [in our relations with the Somali community].”
The immigration of Somalis to Minnesota continues unabated. The wisdom of Junie B. Jones doesn’t apply exactly, but it is among the printable thoughts I have this morning: “Boom! Do the math.”
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