Minnesota Somalis receive subpoenas

(AP) - Some local Somalis have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury as authorities continue to investigate whether some young Somali-American men were radicalized here and recruited to fight with terror groups in their homeland.

Federal authorities won't confirm the grand jury investigation but the subpoenas - as well as questions by FBI agents and customs officials - have unnerved some in the community. Local Somalis have felt vulnerable since officials began looking into why these young men left, and why one carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia last fall.

Omar Hurre, director of Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minnesota, said about 20 young Somalis have come to him in the last few months, asking for advice about grand jury subpoenas.

"Most of them just come to me and say, 'Hey, I got this. What should I do?'" he said. "Some of them are even crying when they come to me and confused and scared because they think when they get a visit from any law enforcement agency ... that maybe they did something wrong."

The 23 members of a grand jury determine whether there is probable cause to charge someone with a federal felony offense. In most cases, prosecutors have a suspect in mind, and they present evidence to get that person indicted so they can go to trial.

An investigation can take months, and the proceedings are secret.

Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law, said it is mostly a "rubber stamping process." However, since the grand jury has subpoena power and can compel testimony, it can be used as part of an investigation.

"The prosecutor ... can walk into the grand jury and say, 'We have a general sense that something is going on here, we don't have a specific suspect yet,"' he said.

David Anderson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said he could neither confirm nor deny an investigation. Katherian Roe, federal public defender, said her office has helped "a number of folks" of Somali descent who have received subpoenas. She could not elaborate.

Several local Somalis say they've been questioned by the FBI, customs officials, or subpoenaed since a handful of young men left for Somalia on Nov. 4, possibly to fight for terror groups. Others left before that: Authorities say one Minneapolis man, Shirwa Ahmed, carried out a suicide bombing Oct. 29 as part of a series of coordinated attacks that targeted a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Hargeisa, capital of the Somaliland region.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said in February that the bomber had probably been "radicalized" in the Twin Cities. And U.S. counterterrorism officials have raised concerns that an extremist group called al-Shabab is recruiting young men in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Some Somalis are nervous. In Somalia, a visit from a government agent means someone was in "real trouble," Hurre said. Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator then turned on eacof the young men, and while they haven't called her directly, she has spoken to a couple of them about a year ago when her friends have been contacted.

Agents asked her if she knew anyone who planned to bomb President Barack Obama's inauguration.

"I said, 'I don't know and that is a very odd question,'" Ahmed recalled. "I am an American citizen ... this is my president ... and I don't see why they would come to me, a simple girl just in college, trying to live my life.

"I kind of felt like an outsider at that moment," she said.

Many Somalis hope the grand jury takes action soon so they can put this issue behind them.

Hurre, from the mosque, said he has been telling community members the investigation is normal, and there is no need for fear.

"We really hope that if there is some criminal elements amongst us that they will be brought out, and that they will be brought to justice," he said.