Muslim who wanted to join the Islamic State once worked as baggage handler at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/12/muslim-who-wanted-to-join-the-islamic-state-once-worked-as-baggage-handler-at-minneapolis-st-paul-airport

December 23, 2015 6:50 am By Robert Spencer 2 Comments

Imagine what would have happened if those in charge of hiring at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had attempted to determine whether or not Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame had jihadist sympathies. The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would have been all over them in a hot New York minute, and CNN and the New York Times would be filled with tut-tutting articles about “Islamophobia” in airport hiring practices. They’re lucky no one got killed this time, but even if Warsame had pulled off a jihad mass murder attack, no one would have dared call to account the organizations responsible for the attitudes that made it possible for him to gain the necessary access.

“Minnesota man who wanted to join ISIS once worked as baggage handler at airport,” Associated Press, December 22, 2015:

MINNEAPOLIS – A Minnesota man who faces terrorism-related charges once boasted that he was capable of building rockets that could threaten planes landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and also once worked at the airport as a baggage handler, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.
FBI Special Agent Daniel Higgins spoke at a hearing for Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame, 20, of Eagan. Warsame was the 10th young man from Minnesota’s Somali community to be charged since April with terrorism-related counts accusing them of plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. He was arrested and charged Dec. 9 with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing such support….
Higgins’ testimony added details that weren’t in the criminal complaint against Warsame, which included an affidavit from another FBI agent, Vadym Vinetsky, who wrote that Warsame was appointed “emir,” or leader of the local group, by Guled Ali Omar, who was planning to leave for Syria but was thwarted and is now among those awaiting trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter told the court Warsame’s time as emir was brief, but it showed his leadership role in the alleged conspiracy, helping one defendant with money for an expedited passport and helping another alleged co-conspirator make contact with Islamic State facilitators in Turkey.
Recordings secretly made by an FBI informant included a conversation Warsame had with Omar about weapons, Higgins said. They discussed a propaganda video about a “tank hunter” who used rocket-propelled grenades. “The defendant indicated he would like to take such a role and said he quote, loved RPGs,” he testified.
In another conversation recorded by the informant, while walking around Lake Nokomis, which is under one of the airport’s main flight paths, Warsame said he could build “homemade rockets” that could reach 2,000 feet, Higgins testified. He suggested that was enough to hit a descending plane.
And from April to August of 2014, Warsame worked as a baggage handler at the airport “with access to the airplanes,” Higgins testified.
Under cross-examination from defense attorney Robert Sicoli, Higgins acknowledged that he wasn’t aware of any evidence that Warsame ever tried to build such a rocket. Sicoli then asked why, if Warsame was such a threat, authorities didn’t arrest him earlier. Higgins replied that that decision wasn’t up to him.
The agent also acknowledged that he wasn’t aware of Warsame doing anything suspicious, planting bombs or doing anything else illegal at the airport….
About a dozen Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to join jihadist groups since late 2013. In addition, more than 22 young men from Minnesota’s Somali community have left the state since 2007 to join the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab in Somalia….