Former Minnesota prosecutor to testify on Al-Shabaab (Updated)

A pair of Minnesotans will testify Wednesday before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, which is holding its third hearing in domestic Islamic radicalization. One is William Anders Folk, a former federal prosecutor in the Twin Cities, who was invited by the committee's Republican chairman, Peter King of New York. The other is St. Paul Police Chief Tom Smith, who was invited by committee Democrats. The earlier hearings featured Abdirizak Bihi, director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a Muslim who gave emotion testimony in opposition to the hearing, which he branded a witch-hunt. Folk was the lead prosecutor in more than a dozen high-profile Al-Shabaab terrorism cases originating in the Minneasota, where more than 20 Somali youths have disappeared only to turn up in Somalia fighting with the terrorist group. Folk, who once served as a JAG officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, is expected to testify specifically about Al-Shabaab's means of recruiting in the U.S., the focus of the new hearing.