Somali community claims police brutality in Dixon raids CBCNEWS

Outraged Somali-Canadian community members are accusing Toronto police and tactical squads of racial profiling and unnecessary abuse of innocent residents during last week's Project Traveller raids in the city's west end.   "These innocent victims include senior citizens, children, single mothers and youth who were forced to live through the traumatic experience through no fault of their own," Mahad Yusuf, the executive director of Midaynta Community Services, told reporters Tuesday at the Rexdale Community Hub.   The press conference was organized in response to alleged mistreatment and destruction of personal property by law enforcement on June 13, when police and tactical squads stormed an apartment complex on Dixon Road as part of a year-long sting operation targeting guns, gangs and drugs.   The investigation yielded 44 arrests and police said they seized $570,000 in cash, 42 firearms and 175 kilograms of drugs during the raids. They are seeking 10 more suspects.   But Yusuf said that what he heard about unwitting community members being allegedly roughed up were "shocking." He claimed that the Somali community was being unfairly targeted "due to the allegations levied against Mayor Rob Ford."

Mother of man arrested claims mistreatment

Ford has been linked in media reports to a high-rise in the area, at 320 Dixon Rd. An apartment on the 17th floor was identified in reports two weeks before the raid as a possible location where a purported video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine might be stashed. CBC News has not viewed the video and cannot verify its authenticity.   The mayor has denied the video's existence. Ford has also said that he does not use crack cocaine and also that he is not addicted to it.   Police have released few details about evidence gathered in the raids. They maintain the aim was to combat drugs, gangs and violence.   Yusuf said he feels the Somali-Canadian community is being used as a scapegoat.   "The African-Canadian community condemns in the strongest manner the racial profiling of the entire Somali community and call for Chief Blair and senior officials of the TPS [Toronto Police Service] to be held accountable for this unwarranted treatment," he said.   Among the more disturbing accounts, as told by another community member, was one from 64-year-old Saeda Hersi, who said she was kicked in the face by an officer who looked like a soldier.   Hersi's son, 29-year-old Siyadin Abdi, was arrested on weapons charges as part of the raids, but Hersi feels that she and her elderly mother were treated unnecessarily harshly.   Fosia Duale, who grew up at 330 Dixon Rd., read a statement describing the story on Hersi's behalf.

Grandma, 96, allegedly injured during commotion

Hersi had just finished her morning prayers in her unit shortly after 3 a.m. and was returning to bed when she was jolted by what sounded "like loud, repetitive thunder." She said she called for her daughter, believing she was hearing gunshots, but that a tactical officer crashed into the home, pinned her to the ground and secured her wrists with rubber handcuffs.   "My lower body was exposed and I begged him to cover me. I was embarrassed to be in a naked state," Duale read, quoting from Hersi's prepared remarks. "I wasn't given the dignity to cover myself, so I continued to beg: 'Please, I am Muslim, I am Muslim.'"   She was more upset, she said, when she saw that her 96-year-old mother, Fadumo Hersi, was bleeding after having tumbled from her bed during the commotion. An officer had attempted to handcuff her but later decided it was unnecessary. Hersi's mother has been hospitalized for injuries to her head, arms and legs, she said.   Mohammed Jama, a youth outreach worker who lives at the same address, said the massive Project Traveller raids robbed some community members of their sense of security.   "Although we are one of those hyphenated Canadians, we are Canadians nonetheless, human beings first," Jama said.   Mark Pugash, the director of corporate communications for Toronto police, said that Project Traveller targeted individuals that investigators believe have committed serious crimes.   He said the community should be pointing a finger at the individuals participating in a criminal lifestyle.   "There are people who seem to think that if thugs move in with their grandparents that they somehow have sanctuary, that it’s like a church or a foreign embassy," he told CBC News in an interview on Tuesday.   But Pugash said "the people who are putting everyone at risk are the people that we've taken out of the community" through the efforts of Project Traveller.   Project Traveller involved dozens of raids last Thursday across the GTA and in Windsor. One man arrested lives in Detroit.   According to police, a street gang known as the Dixon City Bloods, or Dixon Goonies, had links to areas surrounding Toronto, as well as in other parts of the province and in Alberta.

NSA surveillance used in Somali terrorism case SANDIEGO

SAN DIEGO — The National Security Agency surveillance programs that swept up information on domestic phone calls and Internet traffic from abroad played a key role in the prosecution of four Somali immigrants in San Diego for funding the terrorist group al-Shabaab.

Testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in front of the House Intelligence Committee, the head of the NSA and the deputy director of the FBI said the San Diego case was one of dozens of plots uncovered as a result of the controversial spying programs.

FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce said that the NSA gave the agency a phone number from San Diego that had been in contact with an “extremist” outside the U.S. That apparently was the start of the case that led to the indictment in 2010 of the Somalis for providing material support to a terrorism organization.

The four men — Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, the imam at a local mosque, cabdrivers Basaaly Sayeed Moalin and Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, and Issa Doreh, who worked at a money remittance business in City Heights — were convicted in February following a jury trial in federal court.

They were charged with funneling about $8,500 to al-Shabaab in 2007 and 2008. The Somali-based group has been accused of suicide bombings, beheadings, kidnappings, and attacks on U.N. peacekeeping and government forces in Somalia. It espouses a radical Islamist view and is aligned with al-Qaeda.

During the trial of the Somali men in San Diego, dozens of recorded phone calls among the men and people in Somalia were played for the jury.

Moalin’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel, said in court filings in December 2011 that the government intercepted a year’s worth of Moalin’s calls, eventually turning over 1,800 to the defense for trial preparation. In addition, he said investigators intercepted 680 pages of Moalin’s email traffic.

Court records show prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed three notices informing defense lawyers they planned to use information obtained through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.

The notices were filed in November 2010 and again in January 2011 and January 2012, and said the government planned to use “information obtained or derived from electronic surveillance and physical search” conducted under the act.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cole, the lead prosecutor on the case, confirmed Tuesday that Joyce was referring to the Moalin case. He declined to comment more extensively on how the information was used.

He said the FISA notices are required under the law to allow defense lawyers to know the source of evidence against their clients. The notice is distinguished from more common notices of wiretaps approved by federal judges in non-terrorism cases, Cole said.

None of those types of wiretaps were used in the Somali case, he said.

Before the trial started, the defense lawyers tried to get the phone calls disallowed as evidence, arguing they violated the constitutional rights of the defendants and FISA. The defense lawyers were not allowed to see the FISA warrants because they are secret. Those motions were denied, and the calls were used at the trial.

All four men were convicted of terrorism support charges and money laundering, and they each face at least 15 years in prison. The men are set to be sentenced in September.

Over 500,000 Somali refugees “ready to return home”

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed said on Monday that plans are at an advanced stage for Kenya to start repatriating Somali refugees to their country.

Mohammed said a major conference to agree on modalities of repatriating the over one million Somali refugees will be held in Nairobi in August.

“For now I am happy because about 50 percent of them [refugees] are willing to voluntarily return. I can assure you that we will do it in an orderly and most humane manner which upholds the dignity to our visitors,” she said at a breakfast meeting hosted in honour of ambassadors from Asian countries

“We hope you will all help us finalise this activity of taking the [Somali] refugees back to their country,” the Secretary asked the envoys

The conference will be organised by Kenya, Somalia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees..............The International Organisation for Immigration will also take part in the conference which follows another held in London last month and attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Mohammed explained that only 600,000 refugees are registered by the Kenya government although there are one million Somali refugees in Kenya. During the conference held at Lancaster House on May 7, Kenyatta said the refugees at the Dadaab camp were ‘untenable’ as he called for speedy resettlement.

He detailed that apart from the overwhelming number of refugees, there was a security threat in the East African region due to the situation in Somalia. Kenya in 2011 deployed about 5,000 troops to fight militia groups and help in restoring peace and stability in Somalia.

During the conference, Somalia appealed for support in security, justice and public financial management in which the international community agreed that political stability was the anchor point in securing the country that has experienced decades of instability.

There was also an agreement that the return of refugees and those displaced will be resettled once the security situation is improved. The delegates agreed that further details would be discussed during the Nairobi conference which will among other points focus on the resettlement process

Saudi cuts hajj numbers

Saudi Arabia has cut back the number of pilgrims that may perform the hajj this year due to construction work aimed at expanding the holy site of Mecca, the hajj minister said.