Two Minnesota Men Face Charges for Providing Support to ISIS

Corwin Parks | November 25, 2014
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In Minnesota today, two men will be charged with “providing material support for terrorism.”

 

Of the two men slated to be charged, Abdullahi Yusuf has already testified before a grand jury. Yusuf will be arraigned today at 2 pm. Abdi Mohamad Nur however, will be charged without actually being present as he left the Middle East to fight for ISIS. Abdullahi Yusuf is said to be making an in-person appearance.

 

Per federal investigation charge documents, here is a timeline of Yusuf’s movements.
 

April 28, 2014: Yusuf went to the Minneapolis passport office and applied for an expedited passport for a vacation to Turkey. He applied for the passport using a junior high school ID card, high school ID card and his certificate of U.S. citizenship.

When the passport specialist sought more details about his travel plans, Yusuf said he was meeting a friend he "met on Facebook not too long ago." He didn't provide any other details and became visibly nervous, more soft-spoken and began to avoid eye contact.

When asked how he could afford to take the trip, Yusuf said he was "tutoring" and had "saved up.” He said he had never been to Turkey and had no family connections to Turkey. When asked if he was traveling anywhere else, he said, "I don't know yet. I don't think so."

The passport specialist noted that Yusuf didn't seem excited or happy to be traveling to Turkey for vacation. He also thought the entire interaction was odd enough to report to his supervisor, who then alerted the FBI.

May 5, 2014: FBI surveillance watched Yusuf get dropped off at Heritage Academy. After his father drove away, Yusuf did not enter the school, but instead walked to a known mosque located two blocks away from the school. Later that morning, Yusuf walked from the mosque to a bus station and took the bus to a Cedar Riverside apartment complex. HE then boarded a light rail train for the passport office.

Later that day, Yusuf used his new passport to open a Wells Fargo checking account.

May 23, 2014: Yusuf deposited $1,500 in cash into his newly-opened checking account, making 4 separate deposits at an ATM near the intersection of Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue. ATM surveillance images confirm it was Yusuf who made the deposits.

May 24, 2014: Yusuf used his Wells Fargo debit card to purchase a $1,427.05 airline ticket on Kayak.com. His flight departed May 28 from Minneapolis to New York's JFK airport, with a 23-hour layover before a flight to Moscow and a final flight to Istanbul.

May 28: FBI surveillance watched Yusuf's father drop him off at Heritage Academy, then tracked Yusuf to a nearby mosque. Yusuf entered then mosque, then emerged one hour later and got into a blue Volkswagen Jetta. The car took Yusuf to the intersection of E. 45th Street and Hiawatha Avenue, where Yusuf changed out of a sweatshirt and into a pink button down dress shirt. While Yusuf was changing clothes, the driver of the Jetta moved objects from a red duffel bag to a black duffel bag. The black duffel bag and a black backpack were given to Yusuf, who was then driven to a light rail station 5 blocks away, where he boarded a train for the airport.

 

The two will be charged with one count each of “conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization -- the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).”

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