Somali man's family says he is not a terrorist

But Abdifatah Isse admitted that he trained with al Shabaab and helped build a terror camp. AP

[F]amily members of Abdifatah Yusuf Isse say the former college economics major never wanted to be a terrorist but got in over his head after he accepted a plane ticket to Somalia so he could visit his grandmother.[...]

Jamal said family members were eventually allowed to speak with Isse, who told them he had been approached by unidentified individuals at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis who offered him money and a passport to travel to Somalia.

I regularly accept cash and plane tickets from strange people without question.

The Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis keeps popping up in the investigation of the missing Somali men who went to wage jihad in Somalia.

Sheik Abdirahman Ahmed of the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minneapolis, was placed on the national no-fly list back in 2008. Even members of the Somali community have accused the imam and mosque of brainwashing these kids to go fight jihad in Somalia.

Prosecutors said in their court filing that it was only after he arrived in Somalia that Isse learned he was brought there to work with al-Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist group.

"He always wanted to visit his grandmother in Somalia, but he was broke, so when they offered him cash and a passport, he took it," Jamal said. But after arriving in Somalia, Isse realized he was being closely watched and cooperated with the group until he could escape several weeks later, Jamal said.

Prosecutors said Isse spent "one to two weeks at the training camp" and then decided to leave with another person from Minnesota. Isse then visited family members in Somalia before returning to the U.S. in May 2008, their filing said. It appeared Isse had left the camp before the State Department in March designated al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization, it said.