Somalia militia pledges allegiance to bin Laden

Washington Times:

A powerful insurgent group in war-ravaged Somalia has formally pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network for the first time in an apparent effort to accelerate recruiting among Somalis, including emigres in the United States.

The group, al-Shabab, made the pledge in a video called "Labaik ya Osama" -- "At your service, Osama" -- released on extremist Web sites Sunday and shown Monday at a public screening in a suburb of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after prayers at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"This is certainly the most overt gesture of support for al Qaeda that al-Shabab has made," a U.S. counterterrorism official, authorized to speak only on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Times on Tuesday.

In the 48-minute video, members of al-Shabab are shown training, taking part in firefights and chanting bin Laden's name.

The video features English-speaking commanders, including Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, according to IntelCenter, a firm that monitors extremist messaging for clients including U.S. agencies. Al-Amriki means "the American." His real name is Omar Hammami, and he was born outside Mobile, Ala.

The decision to pledge formal allegiance to bin Laden is increasing concern about new attacks by the group, which has been recruiting among Somali diaspora communities in the United States, Canada and Europe. Such recruits are valued by al Qaeda and its affiliates because they have passports that enable them to move easily among Western nations.

"U.S. and European counterterrorism officials are concerned about youths going [to training camps in Somalia] and coming back to stage attacks," said Karen von Hippel, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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I think that is their objective since they are getting so much heat in Pakistan right now. We will have to be more involved in thwarting their plots. We also need to get better intelligence on these people. Since they are so welcoming of foreign recruits it does offer us opportunities to infiltrate their operations.