NYPD experts eye Somalia group as U.S. terror threat

With the U.S. government issuing cautions about possible terror attacks in Europe, NYPD investigators believe al-Qaida allies in Somalia are increasingly fueling a homegrown terrorist threat.

While not a current threat to the city, the jihadist group al-Shabab in Somalia is becoming a growing international terror problem for the West, including the United States, security experts were told Tuesday during a special meeting at NYPD headquarters.

Zahra Nawaz, an NYPD intelligence researcher in the counterterrorism bureau, said al-Shabab has thrown its support behind al-Qaida. Al-Shabab has been embroiled in a fight with the Somali provisional government for control of the country and with other African nations, he said.

To accentuate the point, NYPD expert Peter Patton phoned into the "Shield Conference" from Uganda, whose government he is assisting in a probe of recent bombings that killed civilians viewing the World Cup. Patton said al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which three Kenyans were arrested.

Nawaz said about 20 Somali immigrants from Minnesota are believed to have traveled to Somalia to join up with al-Shabab there. One U.S. immigrant has been killed in the fighting, noted Nawaz.

Mitch Silber, director of NYPD intelligence analysis, told the conference that in recent years more than 50 Americans have become radicalized by al-Qaida and have joined various conspiracies to commit violence in the United States and abroad.

Silber noted the recent Times Square bombing case involving Faisal Shahzad and the arrest in June of two New Jersey people who allegedly wanted to fight in Somalia as more indications of the homegrown terror threat.