California terror 'recruiter' behind bars in Somalia

The Somali-American refugee who investigators believe helped inspire the attacks on Garland, Texas, and San Bernardino, California, has turned himself in to authorities in Somalia, according to reports.

Mohamed Hassan, also known as "Miski" on Twitter, was one of the Islamic State's most prolific terror recruiters.

He came to the U.S. as a refugee and was enrolled at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. It was during his senior year in 2008 that he boarded a plane and left for Somalia to fight for al-Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliated terrorist organization.

Hassan is one of at least 50 Somali refugees since 2007 that the FBI suspects have come to America and then left the country to fight for terrorist organizations in the Middle East or Africa.

"Miski" surrendered Nov. 6 to Somali government authorities in Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu, the U.S. Department of State told KSTP TV in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to the largest Somali refugee community in the U.S., but Somali refugees are also sent in large numbers to Ohio, Maine, southern California, North Dakota, Tennessee, Georgia and Washington state.

The U.S. has resettled about 110,000 Somali Muslim refugees since 1991. And Hassan is far from the only concern among that community. On Jan. 29, the FBI announced, as reported by WND, it had added Somali refugee Liban Haji Mohamed of Virginia to its "Most Wanted Terrorist" list after he left his job as a cab driver near Washington, D.C., to join al-Shabab in Somalia and is known as another avid terrorist recruiter.

Dozens of other Somalis brought to the U.S. have been charged with sending money or aid to overseas terrorists groups.

Born in Somalia, Hassan "is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and is in the custody of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency in Mogadishu," a State Department spokesman said Monday. "The U.S. Mission to Somalia is discussing this case with the Somali federal government. The United States does not have an extradition agreement with Somalia."

Like most news outlets, KTSP didn't report that Hassan came to the U.S. as a refugee. WND remains the only major news outlet to have reported this information, first in May and again last week when it was revealed in a Fox News report that he played a role in recruiting Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters who killed 14 and wounded 21 at an office Christmas party.

Hassan is one of the FBI's nine most wanted terror fugitives from Minnesota and is charged with providing support to terrorist organizations, KSTP reported. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Minnesota in 2009, a year after he left Minnesota to return to Somalia.

The Counter Extremism Project reports that his Twitter account has been suspended at least 30 times, and attributes various tweets to Hassan, including one calling for a female Jewish prisoner in Syria to be executed.

The nonprofit also attributes a tweet to Hassan that references the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January and states, "It's time for brothers in the US to do their part." As WND reported last week, this tweet was posted 10 days before the attack in Garland, Texas. It was followed by another tweet giving a link to the Garland cartoon contest event.