“Is there anything in the government’s eyes that through their investigation … he should not be released?” asked U.S. District Judge Michael Davis.
“No, your honor, none whatsoever,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Docherty.
Let’s hope the government is right. If they aren’t, the consequences could be explosive.
“First of Minnesota’s ISIS defendants wins release from federal halfway house,” by Stephen Montemayor, Star Tribune, November 9, 2017 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):
Abdullahi Yusuf, one of nine young men arrested in a sweeping FBI probe of ISIS recruitment in Minnesota, on Thursday became one of the few Americans to be allowed back in society after trying to join the terror group.
A federal judge in Minneapolis granted Yusuf, 21, supervised release from the federal halfway house where he has been held since his sentencing in November 2016.
Escorted to the federal courthouse in Minneapolis on Thursday morning by FBI agents, Yusuf left the building with his parents. He will return to their Burnsville home for the first time since his arrest three years ago.
“We’re just very glad to meet again our son,” Yusuf’s father, Sadiik Yusuf, told reporters after Thursday’s hearing. “We will be ready to help him.”
Yusuf cooperated with federal authorities during the investigation and was the first of the nine co-defendants eligible for release — albeit under intense federal supervision. He was sentenced last year to time served after spending nearly two years in detention and has been staying at a federal halfway house in the Twin Cities.
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who oversaw last year’s landmark ISIS recruitment trial in Minneapolis, granted Yusuf’s release after spending 45 minutes closely questioning both the young man and officials from the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services office in Minnesota. As part of his sentence, Yusuf must remain under supervision for 20 years.
Eric Hermes, Yusuf’s probation officer, testified that while in the halfway house, Yusuf earned his high school diploma, underwent counseling and participated in community service. Yusuf even became a role model for other residents, Hermes said, and recently gave up his own room for another resident who suffered a stroke.
“He continues to set goals for himself as he moves forward,” Hermes testified.
Before making his decision, Davis acknowledged a complicated path ahead, partly because of Yusuf’s decision to testify against three former friends who stood trial last year. Yusuf’s extensive cooperation led to a substantially lesser sentence but also provoked an outburst by a spectator while Yusuf was at the witness stand last year.
“Are you ready to come out? You understand that you’re going to have a lot of difficulties. You’re going to be ostracized by your own community — at least a certain part of it — you understand that?”
“Yes, your honor,” Yusuf replied….
Yusuf was the first of nine Twin Cities men arrested in 2014 and 2015 for their roles in attempting to follow multiple friends overseas to fight alongside ISIS militants. It was Yusuf’s suspicious interview with a passport specialist, in April 2014, that touched off a yearlong investigation into the group as the friends made plans to travel to Turkey and cross into Syria.
The next month, FBI agents stopped Yusuf at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from boarding a flight to Istanbul. Abdi Nur, a friend who was later charged in absentia, avoided FBI detection and left the country the next day. One of several Minnesotans confirmed to have joined ISIS, Nur is now believed dead….
Federal agents and prosecutors in Minnesota have taken an interest in Yusuf’s rehabilitation, occasionally visiting him over the past year and sharing books with him. The federal prosecutors who led the government’s case raised no objections to Yusuf’s release on Thursday.
“Is there anything in the government’s eyes that through their investigation … he should not be released?” Davis asked.
“No, your honor, none whatsoever,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Docherty.
StacyGirl says
Nothing=Everything. The USA is being controlled by technical legal “experts” and it matters not, for the most part, who appointed them. When I read things such as this, I understand more completely why crusades and inquisitions were done.
RICHARD CANARY says
It’s Minnesota. It’s a judge. What else do we need to know ?
St. Manuel II Palaiologos says
Wow, that makes me feel unsafe.
Wellington says
Sorry, but a Somali Muslim in Minnesota can lead to no good result for liberty UNLESS the Somali Muslim renounces Islam. Not a single exception here since so-called moderate Muslims, Somali Muslims in Minnesota or any Muslims elsewhere in America, are gutless, clueless and ignorant people whom no one of sense in the US should rely upon.
Oh yes, I fully grasp that some Somali Muslims in Minnesota will be more of a danger than others to non-Muslims, for instance respecting the respect of non-Muslim women who, per Sura 33:59, if they don’t “cover themselves” deserve what they “get,” or that general inclination of so many Muslims world-wide to just blow things up for their non-existent Allah (and if Allah really exists then let this cosmic bastard strike me dead tonight———no, not Muslims hoodwinked into thinking there really is an Allah but Allah himself striking me dead tonight——–be back tomorrow, will I, all you Muslims out there reading this, as well as that most pathetic group of people, i.e., subservient dhimmis {gee, I wonder why the current Pope comes to mind first and foremost here?}).
But getting back to the matter du jour, ALL Somali Muslims in Minnesota are parasites taking advantage of the many freedoms Western Civilization and, more specifically, America’s Founding Fathers established which the Islamic world can’t even remotely match. Indeed, Islam is a mortal enemy of the freedoms the West and America’s Founding Fathers developed and thus any Somali in Minnesota who remains a Muslim, or any Muslim who remains a Muslim in any Western country is, at best, a clueless, parasitical human being; at worst, someone intent upon destroying Western liberty in the name of the totalitarian religion which is Islam.
I detest Islam. No one who prizes freedom can do otherwise. Might as well speak up for Nazism as stand up for Islam. Yes, NO ONE can say they admire Islam while at the same time honestly, sincerely and knowledgeably assert that they admire freedom as well. It’s an “either/or.” As with Nazism.
gravenimage says
Minnesota: Muslim who tried to join the Islamic State is released from federal halfway house
……………………………
Oh, boy–does this judge have any reason to believe that Abdullahi Yusuf has given up his goal of waging violent Jihad–and that he won’t just target Minnesotans now?
More:
“Are you ready to come out? You understand that you’re going to have a lot of difficulties. You’re going to be ostracized by your own community — at least a certain part of it — you understand that?”
……………………………
What part of his community might *that* be? Certainly not pious Muslims.
And that fact that even this clueless judge basically admits that not all of his community is apt to ostracize him for trying to join the Islamic State shows that he understands–no matter how vaguely–that there is a significant number of Muslims who support Jihad.
Wellington says
Clueless American judges, gravenimage, from the county level the whole way up to the Supreme Court, function right now as one of the greatest weaknesses, if not the greatest, respecting the preserving of our free Republic established well over two hundred years ago.
As bad as many executive and legislative branches in America are out there (and I don’t mean to rub it in, knowing you are a Californian, which state I have visited many times and which has spectacular beauty), Governor Brown and the California legislature have almost become parodies of themselves like no other Governor or state legislature has. Here in Pennsylvania we have a terrible Governor (Wolf) but at least the legislature (both houses controlled by Republicans) have retained at least a modicum of sense. But then there is the state judiciary, be it in Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, et al. Here resides the single weakest link in the preservation of freedom in America. No doubt. And which is why I want judges, whether appointed or elected, to serve not for life but only for a term (at most ten years).
gravenimage says
Sadly, you are right about my otherwise lovely state of California, Wellington.
Did you know that Governor Brown is actually pretty much considered a moderate here?
There are a few conservative areas of the state, but they are pretty badly outnumbered–and conservatives in the San Francisco bay area would, generally speaking, be considered left-of-center in most parts of the country.
Geoffrey Britain says
Should this guy ever return to terrorism… Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Davis and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Docherty should be held accountable and charged with the same crime(s). If they are not held accountable, at some point patriots will hold them accountable. There’s a great storm building on the horizon.
abad says
Deport this 21 year old Yusuf to Syria, he does not belong in the USA
mummymovie says
How Somalis seem to have acquired for themselves perpetual, never-ending “refugee” status, allowing them, with the help of chain migration to continually invade western countries en masse, selectively clustering into, colonizing, and populating across the globe only in western societies with generous welfare benefits and abundant social programs which teach them how to get on the dole and milk our systems for everything they possibly can, now additionally as of late being pointed to organized legal groups that pursue action and prosecute any criticism to ensure they have unfettered access to these things without any pushback whatsoever, is truly mind boggling and desperately needs to be looked into. This is an absolute travesty! These largely polygamous Somalis have absolutely no interest in contributing or assimilating, or any such thing, none whatsoever except to stay on welfare for generations, and perhaps organize into violent predatory criminal gangs and/or use our resources to populate and spread islam and/or engage in jihad if all forms. This is civilizational jihad warfare, folks, plain and simple. Though most new Somali arrivals have never seen a flush toilet or a fire hydrant, they not only have a propensity for mindless rage and are capable of extreme barbaric violence (mall stabbings, campus vehicular/stabbing attacks, rape threats, etc.) but are grossly underestimated in terms of cleverness; They sure seem to have figured out how to take advantage of our open democracies, haven’t they? Bringing these parasites into our countries will do us no good whatsoever, not now, not ever. We must wake up to this hard fact.
IanB says
We have learnt all this the hard way in the UK. Somalis are the worst of mohammedans.
Glyn Davies says
a long time friend of mine has a daughter who has a child from a somali here in South Australia…she has moved to Tasmania to get away from him…he just like the rest …would rather rob steal and intimidate or scrounge out an existence before getting a real life or a job…but he is gangsta…so he thinks
gravenimage says
Somalis overall tend to be especially bad because Somali is pretty much 100% Muslim–there is no even slightly mitigating societal factor. It is pure Islam.
mummymovie says
This is true-
Pretty much every Somali you will ever meet will be a muslim.
Very unfortunate stuff.
MFritz says
Another dindu who willdu if he couldu. Just give him more time. Prison time (later).
boakai ngombu says
“He continues to set goals for himself as he moves forward,” Hermes testified.
memorize the koran …
IanB says
“… the consequences could be explosive”. (Quoting Robert above).
The grim truth is that this could literally become reality. Explosive indeed.
Rob says
Nothing could possibly go wrong after releasing him.
Juanita says
Yusuf must remain under supervision for 20 years??? if he is not a threat why are they watching him for 20 years? that is the problem with judges and lawyers, they think no one could be so evil in wanting to kill someone because their ideology is different. We need to kick out all the Muslims…I used to think that there would be some that are decent, however; now when I see them smiling at me in the store I wonder what plot they are brewing up. that is not raciest that is a fact!!
Cheer Bear Girl says
Anyone who wants to join the Islamic State is any enemy of civilization and should be treated as such.
He’s a traitor to the US if he is a citizen.