Al Shabaab Alert on the Border

by IPT News  •  May 26, 2010 at 3:50 pm

http://www.investigativeproject.org/1972/al-shabaab-alert-on-the-border

Federal and local law enforcement officials in Texas are being advised to watch out for possible Al-Shabaab terrorists trying to cross the U.S. border with Mexico, FOXNews.com reports.

The Fox report cites an official who saw the Department of Homeland Security memo. It follows a recent indictment of a Somali man in Texas who is accused of running a smuggling ring that brings Somalis into the United States at the Mexican border. According to the Fox report:

"The DHS alert was issued to police and sheriff's deputies in Houston, asking them to keep their eyes open for a Somali man named Mohamed Ali who is believed to be in Mexico preparing to make the illegal crossing into Texas. Officials believe Ali has ties to Al Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization aligned with Al Qaeda, said Joan Neuhaus Schaan, the homeland security and terrorism fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, who has seen the alert.

In the Texas smuggling case, Anthony Joseph Tracy, of Virginia, who admitted to having ties to Al Shabaab, is currently being prosecuted for his alleged role in an international ring that illegally brought more than 200 Somalis across the Mexican border. Prosecutors say Tracy used his Kenya-based travel business as a cover to fraudulently obtain Cuban travel documents for the Somalis. The smuggled Somalis are believed to have spread out across the United States and remain mostly at large, court records show."

Dozens of young Somali men from the U.S. and Canada are believed to have left North America in the past two years to join Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group aligned with Al Qaeda. One is believed to have become the first American suicide bomber.

Law enforcement officials have expressed concern that some of the recruits could come back to America after receiving terrorist training. Read the full Fox story here.

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