Arrested way back in February in Columbus, Ohio, US citizen Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, who had recently returned from Syria, is now being charged with “material support for terrorism.”
Born in Somalia, the 23-year-old Mohamud became a US citizen in April 2014, but left the country for Syria almost immediately thereafter. He is said to have joined al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front while there. His brother Abdifatah Aden, also fought for Nusra, and was killed in June.
Mohamud’s trip to Syria shows a little more forethought than most. While most would-be jihadists buy plane tickets to Turkey, which inevitably raises a red flag, he bought tickets to Greece that had a layover in Turkey. He left during the layover and disappeared into Syria.
The charges include a lot of unclear allegations, but center around claims that he told two unnamed people that he was ordered by an unnamed cleric to carry out an attack, and that he wanted to kill US troops “execution style.”
Our immigration/refugee policies are insane.
Gotta keep the terrorism pot boiling.