5-Month Old Federal Terror Indictment of Suspects From Somalia Unsealed

Federal prosecutors indicted two Somali immigrants living in Minnesota on terrorism-related charges and accusing one man of lying to federal agents. One suspect allegedly told an FBI agent that:

"he did not know anyone on his flight to Somalia in December 2007 when, in fact, he traveled to Somalia together with an individual he knew so that they could fight jihad in Somlia."

A federal grand jury indicted Abdifatah Yusuf Isse a/k/a Omar, and Salah Osman Ahmed a/k/a Salman in February 2009, but the indictment (below) remained sealed until yesterday.

Both men are accused of providing material support to terrorist, and "conspiring to kill, kidnap, maim, and injure" people outside of the United States. 

Prosecutors filed a formal notice in U.S. Distric Court in Minnesota today that they intend to prove their case against Ahmad, in part, by using "information obtained or derived from electronic surveillance and/or physical searches" under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) involving warrant applications submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, D.C.

This suggests that a formal request was made to eavesdrop and/or intercept e-mail communication involving Ahmed, and that such communication helped form a basis for the indictment.

You can read the FISA notice here:

Related Resources:

• Minn. grand jury indicts 2 in missing Somalis case, (AP)
• U.S. Attorney's Office, Minnesota
• Paul Engh, Isse's Defense Lawyer
• James Ostgard, II, Ahmed's Defense Co-Counsel
• Office of the Federal Defender, Ahmed's Defense Co-Counsel
• A Call to Jihad, Answered in America, (The New York Times)
• Shahab's Latest Propaganda Video, (The New York Times)
• Joining the Fight in Somalia, (The New York Times)
• Designation of al-Shabaab as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, (U.S. State Dept.)
• Somali Justice Advocacy Center (St, Paul, Minnesota)
• Terror-Related Cases
• Terrorism Laws
• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)