To Omer Abdi Mohamed, raising money to send other young men to Somalia, to train and arm them with assault rifles to fight there, had nothing to do with terrorism.
In late 2007, he said, it was about defending his homeland against Ethiopians.
One problem: It was still illegal, federal officials say.
On Monday, Mohamed agreed, pleading guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to a single count of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap or maim" Ethiopian and Somali troops. His plea came of the eve of his trial. He would have been the first of 21 local people of Somali descent to go to trial in connection with one of the largest U.S. counterterrorism investigations since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Instead, the 26-year-old became the sixth person to plead guilty in a case that has shocked, saddened and divided the local Somali community for the past four years. He pleaded guilty, his attorney said, because zero to 15 years in prison is a lot more palatable to a young father than the risk of 50-plus years behind bars if convicted by a jury. Mohamed has a 2-year-old son and another baby boy due in six weeks.
'Sleepless weekend'
"It was a very sleepless weekend," said attorney Peter Wold. "Omer and his family agreed to do this."
The case officials dubbed "Operation Rhino" began as Mohamed worked with several other men in what is considered the first wave of a Somali exodus to their homeland to fight for Al-Shabab, a terrorist group with ties to Al-Qaida. At the time, from September 2007 through December 2007, Wold said the motivation was to expel hated Ethiopians from Somalia. Ethiopian troops occupied Somalia after the ouster of its Islamic government in early 2007.
