Inauguration terror threat debunked

Bartamaha January 27 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — A potential terror threat just before last week's presidential inauguration turned out to be a ruse, a top military commander said Tuesday.

However, Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of U.S. Northern Command, warned that ongoing security concerns still face the Obama administration during its early days.

Renuart, the military commander in charge of domestic defense, said reports pointing to a possible threat from an East Africa terrorist group were the result of claims by another faction and turned out to be untrue.

"It was more a function of two factions who didn't like each other setting the other up," Renuart told the Associated Press. He did not identify the other faction.

This is the Fox News Minneapolis Video Video: Inauguration Threat

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Federal authorities early last week issued a warning describing a possible threat from individuals associated with al-Shabab, a Somali Islamic extremist group that has now seized the city that houses Somalia's parliament. The group is on Washington's list of terror organizations.

The warning noted that the information came from an individual overseas whose credibility was still in question, and officials said the advisory was sent out as a precaution.

Renuart said that although that threat was ultimately debunked, the overall security concerns — particularly from terror cells or people working to create them within the United States — has not diminished.

"If you look back in our history, every time we change an administration there has been some event seen to challenge the new administration," he said. "So I wouldn't let down our guard to say we are past the period of vulnerability."

Authorities reported a rush of intelligence leads just before President Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president, but Renuart said officials did not see an accompanying uptick in reports that terror groups were planning operations or attacks.

U.S. intelligence was reportedly investigating a potential inauguration threat involving a Somali insurgent group. They believed one man to be connected with the missing Somali men from Minnesota.

48 hours before the inauguration, U.S. customs agents arrested the 32-year-old Bile Abdullahi, a resident alien from Minnesota, at the Canadian border near Detroit.

According to federal charges, Abdullahi was trying to sneak into Canada using his brother's U.S. passport. Both Bile Abdullahi and his brother are from Minneapolis, and until recently lived in the Cedar Riverside apartment complex.

Abdullahi told officials he was going to Canada for a vacation, but intelligence officials fear it could've been some kind of dress rehearsal for leaving the country in a hurry.

Fox News has learned Abdullahi's arrest was just part of the intelligence that led to a cryptic warning.

The FBI and Homeland Security were investigating information about a potential threat on inauguration day.The information was of limited specificity and uncertain credibility.

The threat reportedly involved Al Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda connected radical Muslim group, operating terror training camps in Somalia.

Al Shabaab is the same group that's believed to have lured as many as a dozen missing Somali men from the Twin Cities to fight in the jihad back in their homeland.

The remains of one of those men, Shirwa Ahmed, were returned to Minnesota, after he became a suicide bomber in Somalia last October.

U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether financial support for Al Shabab is coming from Minnesota and other cities with a large Somali population.