Justice Department exhibit depicts photo of Harafa Abdi.
He traveled over 8,000 miles from the suburbs of Minneapolis to join Islamic State terrorist fighters in Somalia where, according to recently unsealed federal charges, 41-year-old Harafa Hussein Abdi received military training, got a gig promoting ISIS on social media and rapped about nefarious plans to shoot at and bomb the people of New York.
Abdi was arrested abroad last week by U.S. authorities before he was hauled back to the United States to face a magistrate judge. The Justice Department said in a statement unveiling the indictment that Abdi had been jailed in Somalia after he had a falling out with ISIS leadership. He escaped and made his way to East Africa but the FBI was waiting.
According to the previously sealed complaint, starting around 2015, prosecutors say Abdi left Minnesota for a region in Somalia known as Puntland. He joined an ISIS camp there where he received “military-type training” for two years using AK-47 assault rifles.
During an FBI interview following his arrest, agents say he identified himself in the footage and admitted that he actively urged other people to join the group and fight on its behalf as soldiers for their “almighty God” chosen to fight the “cause of Evil” in the west.
By 2017, Abdi had allegedly helped the network beef up its “media wing” by filming footage of their training camp sessions for pro-ISIS media outlets, federal prosecutors said.
In the complaint, the FBI noted clips Abdi allegedly posted on social media celebrating his departure from the U.S. and declaring that he had joined the Islamic State in “hijra,” an Arabic term used among members of ISIS to describe a long trek overseas to join fellow jihadists.
FBI agents also listened carefully to threatening audio clips featuring lyrics where he rapped about laying waste to the people of New York City.
“Specifically, Abdi stated, ‘hollow tips put a hole in your Catholic vest, and chop his head off let it rest on his Catholic chest.’ Abdi further stated, ‘We going to carry on jihad,’ and ‘Fly through America on our way to shoot New York up. They trying to shut this thing. We ain’t going. We going to come blow New York up,”” prosecutors said.
Those messages went out to 20 individuals though the Justice Department did not disclose their identities or their relationship to Abdi, including whether the recipients were based in the U.S. or abroad.
In one of those messages, the Minnesota man could allegedly be heard saying “Fighting back the kuffar who’s at war with Muslims if [that] is not islam then I don’t know wats Islam.” [sic]
A detention hearing was held before Magistrate Judge Valerie Figuerdo on Feb. 16, the same day federal prosecutors requested the charges be unsealed.
A paperless order on the docket shows Figuerdo also ordered Abdi receive medical attention.
He has retained counsel and is detained as he awaits his preliminary court date in New York on March 19. As of Wednesday, a federal judge had not yet been assigned to his case and no plea has been entered.
Abdi is charged with conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; conspiring to receive military-type training from a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of five years; and receiving military-type training from a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine, or both.
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