Teen Somalis disappearing from US cities, Columbus included

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Teen Somalis disappearing from US cities, Columbus included

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Started 3 years ago by jazzypants
Latest reply from berdawn

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jazzypants
Eastmoor
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Last month, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan told his family he was catching a ride to school with a friend. He then vanished.
His mother spoke to her son just a few days ago over the phone. To her shock, she says, he told her he was no longer in the United States.
"Mom, I'm in Somalia! Don't worry about me; I'm OK," the mother quoted her son as saying.
Details of how he got there and what has transpired in his life since his November disappearance are sketchy. His mother, who agreed to be identified only as Amina, says her son has clearly changed.
"He was different," she said of his attitude on the phone. Watch a report on missing Somalis Â»
Hassan is one of more than a dozen young men of Somali descent -- many U.S. citizens -- to have disappeared from Minneapolis over the past six months, according to federal law enforcement authorities. Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio.
Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/12/minneapolis.somalis/index.html?eref=rss_us

Posted 3 years ago #
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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Wow. No disrespect to the family of Caylee Anthony, but I'm always shocked about how stories like hers get a mind boggling amount of press coverage, while dozen Somali boys being kidnapped get such little interest.

Posted 3 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
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Brewmaster wrote Wow. No disrespect to the family of Caylee Anthony, but I'm always shocked about how stories like hers get a mind boggling amount of press coverage, while dozen Somali boys being kidnapped get such little interest.
Not to mention a big WTF?!? to Homeland Security. It sounds like there's Somali Jihadi recruiting here in the heartland...and actually has the ability to then send those recruits back to the front lines.
In f'ing sane.

Posted 3 years ago #
catnfiddle
Giant Corncob District
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When I was still a gypsy educator (a classier term for substitute) I worked with a lot of Somali students. It breaks my heart to think of them headed back to a place their families had fled, only to be handed a gun and told to shoot indiscriminately. Yes, I'm being emotional about this, but damnit, I KNOW some of these boys.

Posted 3 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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Coremodels wrote Not to mention a big WTF?!? to Homeland Security. It sounds like there's Somali Jihadi recruiting here in the heartland...and actually has the ability to then send those recruits back to the front lines.
Right. No surprise that they'd miss the recruiting, in a closed, low-tech expat community. But the "getting them out of the country" part should be the weak link. I can't even smuggle a bottle of shampoo across the Atlantic in my bag, and these guys are smuggling whole Somalis?

Posted 3 years ago #
UncommonSense
Hilliard
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Where does it say the Somalis have been kidnapped or smuggled out of the country? It doesn't. Also, the CNN story includes Columbus as city that has seen these disappearances. The Dispatch has run a couple stories about this, but nobody has been reported missing from Columbus yet.
The Dispatch wrote FBI agents in Ohio have contacted the Columbus Somali community and have no knowledge of local terrorism links, said Michael Brooks, special agent with the FBI's Cincinnati division.
HERE
Homeland Security may have noticed, investigated and documented their trip abroad, but how would they stop it? Civil Liberties have taken a beating in this country, but we're not to the point where the Government can stop you from traveling abroad, without reason.

Posted 3 years ago #
Ndcent
OTE
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Bummer

Posted 3 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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UncommonSense wrote Where does it say the Somalis have been kidnapped or smuggled out of the country? It doesn't.
Sorry, shouldn't have been so glib. I didn't mean that they're literally hiding them in their carry-ons. I meant that they've probably established at least a minimal system for transporting people out of the country, and that I'd guess that sort of activity has to leave more of a footprint, if only because of the distances involved.

Posted 3 years ago #
Nitsud Regnifloh
Valerio Heights
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does this have anything to do with the surge in Somali Pirates?

Posted 3 years ago #
UncommonSense
Hilliard
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daholfinger wrote does this have anything to do with the surge in Somali Pirates?
No. Minneapolis has the Twins. You're thinking Pittsburgh. I don't believe they are surging. :wink:

Posted 3 years ago #
Nitsud Regnifloh
Valerio Heights
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UncommonSense wrote
daholfinger wrote does this have anything to do with the surge in Somali Pirates?
No. Minneapolis has the Twins. You're thinking Pittsburgh. I don't believe they are surging. :wink:
without - of course they aren't surging...

Posted 3 years ago #
Paul
Vancouver, BC
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There was a segment on NPR this morning. The concern is that these Somali boys are being trained as terrorists and will someday return on their American passports.

I didn't get to listen to the end of the segment. Did anyone else catch the whole thing?

Posted 3 years ago #
honavery
Arizona
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Paul wrote >>
There was a segment on NPR this morning. The concern is that these Somali boys are being trained as terrorists and will someday return on their American passports.
I didn't get to listen to the end of the segment. Did anyone else catch the whole thing?

I heard the whole thing this morning. Minneapolis was the focus of the story, but Columbus and Boston were mentioned at the end.

Here is the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99919934

Posted 3 years ago #
alison

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But were they mentioned because of reported disappearances, or merely because those cities both have a high somali population?

Posted 3 years ago #
shroud
Polaris
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alison wrote >>
But were they mentioned because of reported disappearances, or merely because those cities both have a high somali population?

Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio.

Posted 3 years ago #
UncommonSense
Hilliard
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shroud wrote >>

alison wrote >>
But were they mentioned because of reported disappearances, or merely because those cities both have a high somali population?

Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio.

And as I pointed out earlier, none of the Dispatch stories on this have cited any disappearances from Columbus. And the FBI has confirmed the same. I think CNN messed up, and they don't offer any further evidence to back up the claim.

Posted 3 years ago #
Paul
Vancouver, BC
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The part of the broadcast I heard only talked about teens disappearing in Minneapolis.

Posted 3 years ago #
honavery
Arizona
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FTA: The FBI believes this may be happening in other American cities as well. They have launched investigations in Boston and Columbus, Ohio.

Posted 3 years ago #
lazyfish

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Some of my Somali students are aware of some kids from Columbus going overseas...they claim it is to visit family, though they seemed sheepish and uncomfortable discussing the issue in depth. I would be willing to bet that many of these "missing" will have a real wake up when they return to Somali and see the dreadful condition it is in. A case of the grass is greener, one hopes...

Posted 3 years ago #
Tenzo
Chicago Lakeshore
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So if an average city has .1% boys that run away from home, and the boyhood samali population of Columbus is 50,000. Are more or less than 50 boys running away?

I think I would need to know that before I could start to draw any conclusions.

I'd also think that a high school graduating kid might want to get out and see the world. His hertiage would be pretty much on any list.

So a 17 year old boy leaves home without permission and calls his mom and says; "I'm fine". Mom (who has been in shock since releasing the umbilical) says; "My boy has changed!"
How is this a bad thing?

Posted 3 years ago #