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December 8, 2010
Few Hints of a Hidden Life
c o n t i n u e d f r o m front
become radicalized and was bent on
holy war.
In a cell phone video obtained
and aired by Portland station KPTV
last week. Mohamud rants against
the West.
"You know what the whole West
thing is? They want to insult our
religion," he says in the video, which
the station says was recorded May
22 in an OSU dorm room. "They
want to take our lands. They want to
rape our women."
KPTV won't reveal how it ob­
tained the video, which lasts less
than a minute. It is not known who
recorded the video, clips of which
were provided to KPTV, or what led
up to Mohamud's words. His attor­
ney, the police and the FBI have
refused to comment about it.
The words don’t make sense to
friends, who recognized Mohamud A cell phone video obtained by KPTV shows 19-year-old Somali-
born Mohamed Osman Mohamud ranting against the West.
in the video.
Shelby Turner, a former OSU pick up his wife. The boy, then about dercover FBI agents.
classmate, said she remembers "Mo 5 years old, was shy; he hadn't seen
During his senior year, in 2009,
Mo" as a funny if awkward student. his father in years. Eagan said she while he was writing for a school
"I remember him always saying did not know what the family may magazine and interested in poetry,
'hi' and giving me nicknames like have gone through in Africa before he also was writing articles for an
'S helbs,'" Turner told the AP. "He their arrival in Portland.
online magazine called "Jihad Rec­
was smart when he wanted to be.
"I know he had big hopes for his ollections" under the pen name Ibn
But socially, he never fit except with son and was very proud of his ac­ al-Mubarak, the FBI said. The ar­
a few other kids like him."
complishments in school as he was ticles advise holy warriors how they
M oham ud was born
in growing up," Eagan said. "I'm sure can outlast the enemy — including
Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1991. His this is devastating, as it would be for tips for staying fit in faraway places.
family was torn apart by the civil any parent."
T hat S ep tem b er, M oham ud
war, and his father, Osman Barre, a
M oham ud's parents have re­ started attending Oregon State
computer engineering professor at fused to comment to media. They University, taking classes that could
the University of Mogadishu, ended split up while Mohamud was in high lead him to be an engineer, like his
up in the Kenyan refugee camp, school, according to a neighbor who father. Those who lived in his dorm
unsure if his family was alive.
was also a family friend, though said Mohamud spent his freshman
Portland pastor Sylvia Eagan they remained married.
year studying, playing basketball
helped Barre and about 20 family
By the age of 15, Mohamud had and partying.
members resettle in the Portland area already started talking about en­
He seemed to have two groups of
in 1993.
gaging in a holy war, according to friends: one composed of African
He told her about his struggle to the FBI affidavit. During Ramadan students, the other older, white stu­
find his wife, Mariam, a business­ in 2006, someone told him about the dents with whom he played video
woman, and toddler son. A year or virtues of martyrdom and he de­ games and the collecting-card game
two later, Eagan said she took an cided then he was willing to sacri­ "Magic: The Gathering."
"overjoyed" Barre to the airport to fice for the cause, he later told un­
The FBI had begun to monitor
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Mohamud's e-mail, acting on a tip. works show," Mohamud said in a
Officials have not revealed who covert recording. "New York Times
turned him in, but in a video will give it two thumbs up."
Mohamud recorded several days
By Oct. 6, Mohamud had dropped
before his arrest, he complained that out of Oregon State. But many
his parents "held me back from friends didn't even know he'd
Jihad."
dropped out — he even participated
He was developing a rapport with in a poem-reading at the university's
a former friend who had moved from student union ballroom on Nov. 23.
the U.S. to Pakistan's Northwest
Yosof Wanly, imam at the Salman
Frontier Province, a haven for fun­ Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis,
damentalist Muslims who cross the said he noticed Mohamud growing
Pakistan-A fghanistan border to increasingly distant, but nothing
fight U.S. and NATO forces.
more.
In August, the friend, who isn’t
On Nov. 4, undercover FBI agents
named in the FBI affidavit, sent took Mohamud to a remote site in
Mohamud a link to a religious school Lincoln County, where he pressed a
— a coded invitation for Mohamud button on a cell phone and watched
tojoin him in Pakistan, the FBI said. an explosion — a supposed test for
"That would be w onderful," what was to come. The whole event
Mohamud said, according to the was set up; the explosion was re­
affidavit. "Just tell me what I need to motely triggered by the FBI.
do."
They returned to Corvallis, where
Mohamud was capable of sub­ Mohamud recorded a video state­
terfuge, but still shockingly inno­ ment: "A dark day is coming your
cent. When he wanted to board a way. For as long as you threaten our
flight to Alaska in June 2010 he was security, your people will not re­
turned away and interviewed by the main safe."
FBI. In that interview with FBI
On Nov. 26, in the seconds be­
agents, he mentioned his friend in fore 5:40 p.m., Mohamud's secret
Pakistan by name. He said he was life was about to unravel.
going to Alaska for a summer fish­
At Portland's Union Station, he
ing job, but also said he had wanted pressed a button on a cell phone.
to go to Yemen. Federal officials Sixteen blocks away, thousands of
have not said how Mohamud got people gathered on the bricks of a
onto the no-fly list.
downtown plaza, cheering on the
Less than two weeks later, FBI appearance of Santa Claus and the
undercover agents set up the first in illuminating of a tall Douglas fir tree
a series of meetings with Mohamud, laced with 50,000 tiny lights.
who began to talk about a dream in
There was no explosion. Agents
which he led a group of fighters into from the FBI arrested Mohamud after
Afghanistan against "the infidels." he pressed the cell phone button a
The agent suggested Mohamud second time, and the teen — who
c o n sid e r p ray e r, stu d y or friends described as more likely to
fundraising, but also offered the be seen playing basketball on cam ­
option for Mohamud to "become pus than praying at a Corvallis
operational."
mosque — was taken to a waiting
In a July 30 meeting, Mohamud car as he kicked at authorities,
told the agent he wanted to kill, the shouting "Allahu Akhbar," God is
FBI says. Mohamud later picked the great.
place and time for an explosion:
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