FBI pays informant $41,000 to radicalize Minneapolis Somalis into joining ISIS
Esme Murphy
Minnesota.CBSLocal.com
September 2, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – There is now a trial date for seven Minnesota men accused of plotting to join ISIS.
Supporters and family members packed a court hearing Wednesday and the judge once again ruled that, at least for now, none of the seven would be released from jail to halfway houses.
The trial for the seven men, who range in age from 19 to 21, will begin next February.
The informant in this case is a friend of the seven men who prosecutors admit was part of the plot before becoming an FBI informant.
So far, the informant has been paid $41,000 by the FBI, a fact that has outraged the defendants’ family and friends.
The confidential informant was a close friend of the seven men, but they did not know was he was secretly recording their conversations for the FBI.
The latest damaging recording revealed in court quotes Zacharia Abdurahman as saying, “ISIS is amazing” and telling the informant he “desir[ed] to achieve martyrdom.”
Abdurahman’s attorney argued Abdurahman “is not radicalized” and that “he is redeemable.”
Supporters of the young men insist they were set up and manipulated by the informant.
“The families believe the informant was leading these young men,” said Sadik Warfa, a director of the Global Somali Diaspora “He was leading them to do things.”
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