Today or tomorrow, an 18-year-old Somali-American is expected to be transferred from jail to a halfway house in Minnesota—to await trial on federal charges of terrorism. The goal is to keep him out of prison—where hardened prisoners might radicalize him further. We look at the risks of a new approach toward homegrown extremists.
A Minneapolis neighborhood is known as “Little Mo,” short for Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. It’s home to the nation’s largest population of Somali-Americans, some 30,000 people. Abdullahi Yusef, is 18, had a job at Best Buy and planned to attend community college. Then, he was arrested by the FBI—on the way to the airport for a flight to Turkey.