Al-Shabab: Loads of fund received from US
The terrorist organization al-Shabab, that carried out the attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, is believed to be getting financing from supporters in the United States, who funneled tens of thousand dollars via money transfer businesses to the terrorist organization and have often maintained direct contact with Al-Shabab leaders and fighters in Somalia.
Al-Shabab was designated as a terrorist organization by the US only in March 2008 with the aim to prevent a person in the United States to knowingly provide Al-Shabab with money, training, expertise, false documentation, communications equipment, weapons or explosives, or to join the group.
There are several examples, proving that the al-Shabab terrorist organization has been receiving money from the US citizens.
Two women from Somalia who had become naturalized US citizens, Hawo Hassan, 64, and Amina Farah Ali, 35, set up a dedicated teleconference line to raise funds for al-Shabab. On October 26, 2008, the two women received $2,100 in funds for Al-Shabab from 21 individuals. According to reports the two women also went door to door in Minnesota to raise contributions, often under false pretenses claiming contributions were for war orphans in Somalia.
Ahmed Hussein Mahamud, 27, raised money from Minnesota Somali community under the pretense that the money was going to a local mosque or to help orphans in Somalia. He managed to raise $1,500, which he sent to help Al-Shabab. Mahamud pleaded guilty last year.
Nima Ali Yusuf, 25, who pleaded guilty in December 2011, admitted she raised $1,450 to help fund al-Shabab. She also was in contact with some of the Somali-American men fighting in Somalia for al-Shabab.
Basaaly Saeed Moalin, a cabdriver, managed to send $8,500 to al-Shabaab between 2007 and 2008, with the help of three other men, members of the Somali-American community. All four were later convicted of providing support to al-Shabab.
Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, a cabdriver from St Louis, sent $21,000 to Kenya and Somalia for al-Shabab. Yusuf pleaded guilty to giving support to the terrorist group.
According to the New America Foundation, 12 induviduals were convicted for providing funds to al-Shabab, since the organisation was designated as a terrorist group. And since the attack at the shopping mall in Nairobi, the US authorities placed 40 Americans under substantial attention
