Harafa Hussein Abdi: Feds charge Minnesota man who they say aided ISIS and threatened to attack New York

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Federal prosecutors announced on Friday, February 16, that a naturalized citizen who had trained with ISIS in his home country, Somalia, and then rapped about flying to "shoot New York up" was being charged with aiding a terrorist group.

According to the US Attorney's Office in New York, Harafa Hussein Abdi, 41, of Minneapolis, was detained in East Africa and brought back to the US. After his initial appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Friday, he was placed under arrest.

Harafa Hussein Abdi allegedly worked in ISIS' media wing

As per a recently released criminal complaint, Abdi relocated to Somalia in 2015 and enlisted in ISIS, joining a group of fighters at a training camp.

In addition to receiving weapons training over the next two years, he supposedly worked in the group's media wing, creating and featuring in a recruiting video that was distributed by a pro-ISIS outlet.

The complaint cites lines from a 2017 audio recording in which Abdi is purportedly heard rapping about causing violence in New York City against the backdrop of automatic gunfire and an explosion.

"We going to carry on jihad; fly through America on our way to shoot New York up. They trying to shut this thing. We ain’t going. We going to come blow New York up," stated the shocking lyrics. 

However, Abdi clashed with the leads of the ISIS group, which had him jailed, and he left the camp in 2017. After his eventual escape, he proceeded to Hargeisa, Somalia, where he was apprehended.

Harafa Hussein Abdi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years

In a news release, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen stated, "Mr Abdi left his country to join ISIS, trained as a fighter, and actively aided the group’s propaganda efforts to spread its vile ideology."

It was not clear if Abdi had legal counsel available to comment on his behalf. According to authorities, he was born in Somalia in 1982, came to the US in 1999, and obtained citizenship in 2006.

He is accused of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, for which he can face up to 20 years in prison. Additional charges include conspiring to receive military-type training from a terrorist organization and receiving military-type training from a terrorist organization.