Minn. US Attorney Calls Terrorist Recruitment in Minnesota a 'Daily Battle'

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

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Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger sat down with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS for an exclusive interview about fighting terrorist recruitment in the Twin Cities.

In a candid talk, Luger acknowledged terrorist recruitment is a "daily, ongoing effort by my office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C."

"Minnesotans should not live in fear of a terrorist attack in their own backyard, but it is a reality that there are certain people being recruited here by foreign terrorist groups to fight overseas," Luger said. "We do not have any direct evidence that there is an effort right now to target the Twin Cities, or other locations in Minnesota."

Luger says terror groups, such as ISIS, have become "very sophisticated with social media campaigns and they use slick production to lure disenfranchised young people to come join them in their terror campaign on foreign soil."

Since 2007, there have been 22 young men from Minneapolis who've been recruited to join terror groups in foreign countries.

"We monitor things on a daily basis with very sophisticated FBI agents and attorneys in my office to make sure Minnesotans are kept safe from any terror threat here, or abroad," Luger said.

Luger is part of a Minnesota delegation meeting with President Obama at the White House this week to share information about useful techniques to keep young men and women from falling for the indoctrination of terrorists.

Members of the Somali community from Minneapolis will also attend the "White House Summit on Combating Extremism." The Somali contingent has expressed a strong desire to help government investigators find potential recruitment targets. At the same time, they also want the USDOJ and the FBI to respect their civil rights as U.S. citizens.

Luger says he has "any available resource from Washington to combat terrorist recruitment" and he hopes to talk further with Obama about any opportunity to get even more help.

When asked if Minnesota had the highest number of people on the nation's terror watch list, Luger responded, "I cannot comment on that information." But, he did not deny Minnesota was high on that list. Luger concluded by saying, "We are definitely a focal point of the terrorist recruitment efforts here in Minnesota, but we have the resources to defeat it."

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