SurveillanceNSA surveillance leads to San Diego conviction of al-Shabaab supporters
Three Somali men residing in San Diego were sentenced to prison on Monday for aiding al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization. The sentencing hearing in a San Diego federal court came four days after the men lost their bid for a new trial, requested after discovering that the charges were supported by evidence from theNational Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program.U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller denied the defense’s request to dismiss the NSA surveillance-generated evidence, saying the collection of the evidence did not amount to a warrantless search, and that while the agency’s surveillance programs were controversial, the protocol that was followed aligns with the law.
Three Somali men residing in San Diego were sentenced to prison on Monday for aiding al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization. The sentencing hearing in a San Diego federal court came four days after the men lost their bid for a new trial, requested after discovering that the charges were supported by evidence from theNational Security Agency’s (NSA) electronic surveillance program.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Basaaly Moalin, a 36-year-old San Diego cabdriver, led the local effort to raise $10,900 in support of al-Shabaab. Moalin was sentenced to eighteen years. Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, a 41-year-old Imam in City Heights, San Diego used his influence to solicit financial support from members of the community, and was sentenced to thirteen years. Issa Doreh, 56-years-old, operated a money transfer business the men used to transfer funds to al-Shabaab, and was sentenced to ten years. A fourth defendant, Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, an Orange County cabdriver, will be sentenced in January.
The sentences by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller were lower than the maximum term and what prosecutors recommended, and analysts said this was probably due to the overwhelming community support for the men. Judge Miller did, however, want the sentences to send a strong message against any support of terrorism, saying that “seeds of this kind of thinking cannot be sowed here in the United States.”
The men have already served three years and will be required to serve at least 80 percent of the full terms.
Numerous letters and signatures from community members, tribal leaders, government officials, and family members from San Diego and Somalia requested leniency for the men. The Union-Tribuneo reported that defense attorneys said Moalin sponsored numerous students, Mohamud helped open a school, and Doreh volunteered at the same federal jail where he is now being held. The defense attorneys requested Judge Miller to consider the charges in the context of the unstable political climate in Somalia, in which “today’s warlord is tomorrow’s national consensus president,” wrote Joshua Dratel, Moalin’s lawyer.
“These men willfully sent money to a terrorist organization, knowing al-Shabaab’s extremely violent methods, and knowing the U.S. had designated it as a foreign terrorist organization,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement. “Months of intercepted phone conversations included discussion of suicide bombing, assassinations and Jihad. We are satisfied that because of this investigation and prosecution, we have furthered our mission to safeguard national security by blocking financial support to this dangerous group.”
The case was built on hundreds of intercepted phone calls obtained from wiretaps authorized by the U.S Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. The calls captured conversations Moalin had with al-Shabaab leaders regarding raising funds for the terrorist group. Some of the conversations played in court were between Moalin and Aden Hashi Ayrow, a top al-Shabaab leader later killed in a U.S. missile strike in May 2008.
The use of warrantless surveillance in the case was revealed when FBI deputy director Sean Joyce testified publicly before Congress and shared details of the Somali case as an example of the NSA program’s success. Joyce said Maolin had been investigated in 2003 for suspected terrorist links but lack of evidence closed that investigation. Later, in 2007, the NSA informed the FBI that a phone number in San Diego had been in “indirect” contact with an “extremist” in Somalia.
The defense lawyers argue that the NSA surveillance violated constitutional rights and as a result, evidence from the surveillance on which the case is partly based should be dismissed. Judge Miller denied the defense’s request to view the intelligence from the NSA surveillance. The defense attorneys plan to appeal the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in which they will question the use of warrantless surveillance by the NSA.
