A Plymouth man who went to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab gave jurors a detailed accounting of his recruitment, indoctrination and training Wednesday morning, Oct. 10.

But he told them little that incriminated the man federal prosecutors had called him to testify against, Mahamud Said Omar.

Kamal Said Hassan, 27, testified that he’d heard another man say that Omar had contributed money to buy AK-47 assault rifles while in Somalia, and that he spoke to Omar briefly once on the phone while he was in the country.

“He said he was going to join us later on when we go to the training camp,” Hassan said. Omar never went to the camp, which a group of almost 100 al-Shabaab recruits had to clear out of a jungle.

Hassan is the third and last “traveler” — a man who left the Twin Cities to take up arms for al-Shabaab — to testify against Omar. Omar, 46, of Minneapolis, is accused of three counts of conspiracy and two counts of providing aid to terrorists.

The State Department’s February 2008 designation of al-Shabaab as a foreign terrorist organization made it a crime to aid the group.

Testimony in Omar’s trial in federal court entered its sixth day Wednesday. Hassan is the 13th witness prosecutors have presented.

Omar is the only one of the 18 defendants in the FBI’s “Operation Rhino” investigation to go to trial. The government investigated the exodus of almost two dozen men with Twin Cities ties to return to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab.

The group seeks to oust Somalia’s government and impose its own brand of militant Islamic theocracy on the East African country.

In his testimony, Hassan said an al-Shabaab leader in Somalia told the recruits that the group’s aim was to conquer Somalia’s neighbors and keep going “all the way to Jerusalem.”

Justice Department attorney William Narus had called Hassan to the stand late Tuesday, and as the witness took the stand at the start of Wednesday’s court session, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis seemed to express some unease about vagueness in the man’s testimony the day before.

Hassan had told jurors about various planning meetings he and other Somali men had had in Minneapolis before “travelers” started leaving for Somalia, and while he reeled off names of those at the meetings and where some took place, he gave few other details.

“I’d like to know, and I think the jury has a right to know, what happened at those meetings,” the judge told him. Davis also reminded the witness — who has pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case — that he would be the judge who sentenced him.

When Hassan began to say that some meetings were held secretly at a local mosque, Davis interrupted him.

“I know where they’re at,” the judge said. “I’d like to know what happened at those meetings. You’re going to have to tell me what happened at those meetings.”

Hassan began a reply. “At one of the first meetings….”

“This is not like going down to Valleyfair,” Davis said, referring to the amusement park near Shakopee. “How did you get convinced to join?”

Hassan’s family left Somalia in 1991, the year a coup left the country without a government. He explained that during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in 2007 (from mid-September to mid-October that year) a group of men began meeting at a Minneapolis mosque.

They met without the mosque’s leadership knowing about their plans, he said.

He told the judge that at those gatherings, Salah Osman Ahmed — who has also been charged and has testified — recruited him and the others by telling them about the Ethiopian troops that had been called in by Somalia’s transitional government to recapture the capital of Mogadishu, which the Islamic Courts Union and al-Shabaab had seized.

The courts union dissolved (its leader later became the transitional government’s president) but al-Shabaab soldiered on. When the transitional government called in Ethiopian troops, many in the country viewed them as invaders and non-believers. (Somalia is officially Muslim; Ethiopia is predominately Christian.)

Ahmed told the group about alleged atrocities committed by Ethiopian soldiers. Hassan said Ahmed and others told the men it was their religious duty as Muslims and patriotic duty as Somalis to fight the Ethiopians.

Davis was still unconvinced how speeches in a meeting in Minneapolis could persuade a man with a junior-college education to kill.

“Tell me how you can make a leap from talking to somebody to going over and killing somebody,” the judge asked.

Hassan began answering and then said, “Your honor, I can’t explain.”

“Well, you’re going to have to tell me,” the judge told him.

The witness said Ahmed told him it was his duty to fight “and I decided to go.”

“And kill,” the judge said.

Hassan replied that he knew he’d be going to Somalia and would be involved in “fights and battles.”

“And kill,” the judge pressed.

“Yes, your honor.”

Hassan said it wasn’t just one conversation that persuaded him to go.

“I thought it was going to be an adventure, traveling around Somalia,” when Narus resumed his questioning. “It felt like it would be nice to go back and see the country. I thought it would be an adventure.”

Davis jumped back in, asking the witness who seemed to be the ringleader of the group. Hassan identified him as Omer Abdi Mohamed, 27, of St. Anthony. Confusingly, he was known in the Somali community as “Mohamed Omar.”

Hassan said that while Mohamed played up the religious aspects of why the men should fight, another man, Khalid Mohamed Abshir, appealed to their sense of Somali nationalism.

“I thought I was being a good Muslim and Somalian by joining these men and going over there,” Hassan said.

Hassan was charged in February 2009 with providing material support to terrorist, providing support to a foreign terrorist organization, and making false statements to federal agents.

A week later, in a plea deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to the false-statements charge; the other two crimes were dropped. He’s been in jail awaiting sentencing since then.

Omer Mohamed was indicted in November 2009 with two counts of conspiracy and a single count of providing material support to terrorists. In July 2011, he pleaded guilty to one of the conspiracy counts and he is awaiting sentencing.

Of the 17 “Rhino” defendants other than Omar, seven have entered guilty pleas, eight are considered fugitives, one is confirmed dead and another is believed to be dead.

Hassan’s testimony continues Wednesday afternoon.

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Pioneer Press

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.

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