40 Americans join Somali terror group, rep. says

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King, D-N.Y. presides over the committee's hearing on Islamic radicalization in the US, focusing on recruitment within the Muslim American community, Wednesday, July 27, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. / AP Photo/Evan Vucci

WASHINGTON - An al Qaeda-linked terror group in war-torn Somalia has been recruiting and radicalizing more Americans to join its cause than counterterrorism officials have publicly acknowledged, the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee said Wednesday.

More than 40 Americans have been recruited by al-Shabab and gone to Somalia to join the fight, and at least 15 of them have been killed, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. said. The figures are based on his committee's investigation into the threat.

The findings come during the third in a series of hearings on the threat of Islamic radicalization in the U.S. Some feel the Republicans are unfairly singling out Muslims. They say focusing too closely on Islam and the religious motives of those who have attempted terror attacks threatens to alienate an entire community.

The majority of the recent terror plots against the U.S. have involved people espousing a radical and violent view of Islam.

The U.S. government has said at least 21 people are believed to have traveled from Minnesota to Somalia to join the terror group, which began as a push to expel Ethiopian soldiers, and at least four young men have been confirmed dead. Others are feared dead. Al-Shabab has expanded its focus over the years, and it has aligned itself with other anti-Western terror groups.

The top Democrat on the committee, however, said the threat posed by al-Shabab to the U.S. has been overstated.

"Al-Shabab does not appear to present any danger to this homeland," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

Testifying at the hearing, former assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota W. Anders Folk said a significant threat is posed by men and women who leave the U.S. to be trained by terror organizations and adopt an interpretation of Islam that justifies violence, and who then return to the U.S.

[Gimmeafb]

Fifteen killed already? Only twenty-five to go!

[GTR5]

The US State Department is to blame for bringing in tens of thousands of these Somalis to the US in the first place. The US tax payers had to pay for their transportation, food, housing, training, etc and these Muslims practice female circumcision, chew khat and support their pirate cousins. They should all be sent back to Somalia. The State Department is responsible for this mess.

[you_MAY_be_right]

If they leave the USA and go to Somalia or one of these countries, don't let them back into the USA.

Simple problem, simple solution.

[ky1946]

To my knowledge, the u.s.a. is not currently deployed or envolved in anything in somolia. As stated in the article these zealots are joining up with Al-Shabab and fighting the somolia government and the somolia army. Probably some of them want to be pirates and act like johnny depp.
I would like to see every radical islamic idiot join up and leave the u.s.a. It would seem this cesspool of a country, no government, poverty, hunger, heat, drought, no human rights would be the ideal spot for someone wanting to go back in time 6 hundred years.

[rocketjl]

Hey Mr. Congressman, the knowledge these people take with them and their contacts back home, are something to be concerned about. Are these naturalized African-Americans?????