ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2013 Two women were convicted today of terrorism crimes related to their material support of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
Muna Osman Jama, 36, of Reston, and Hinda Osman Dhirane, 46, of Kent, Washington, were found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Jama and Dhirane sent money to financiers of al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya, which they referred to respectively as the \u201cHargeisa side\u201d and the \u201cNairobi side.\u201d The defendants also organized what was called a \u201cGroup of Fifteen,\u201d which included women from Somalia, Kenya, Egypt, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada, as well as Minneapolis, Minnesota.<\/p>\n
The \u201cGroup of Fifteen\u201d met regularly in a private chatroom that Jama established to organize and track monthly payment of money to the \u201cHargeisa side,\u201d which was used to finance al-Shabaab military operations in the Golis Mountains in northern Somalia, and the \u201cNairobi side,\u201d which was used to fund two al-Shabaab safehouses. One of the safehouses was used by al-Shabaab to store weapons and to prepare for attacks. The other was used to treat al-Shabaab fighters who had been wounded in battle.<\/p>\n
A substantial part of the government\u2019s case consisted of recorded telephone calls and other communications among the \u201cGroup of Fifteen.\u201d These recordings demonstrated that the women had close connections with al-Shabaab leadership and were privy to non-public, inside information concerning al-Shabaab activities. Jama and Dhirane were recorded as they laughed as the carnage at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi was still taking place. Dhirane and co-conspirator were also recorded as they laughed at the Boston Marathon Bombing before it became known who committed the attack.<\/p>\n
Jama and Dhirane each face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison when sentenced on January 19, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2013 Two women were convicted today of terrorism crimes related to their material support of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Muna Osman Jama, 36, of Reston, and Hinda Osman Dhirane, 46, of Kent, Washington, were found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and providing material support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":60370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1,31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n