‘FBI Brainwashed My Son’ Says Osman Barre

Osman Barre, the father of Oregon terrorism suspect Mohamed Mohamud, commented on Monday ‘the FBI brainwashed my son’.

It was Barre who contacted the FBI in 2009 that he was concerned for the safety of his son.

Via HuffPost:

Barre said Mohamud told him he was planning to fly to Yemen to learn Arabic at a time when Barre was frightened by news accounts of Somali-American teenagers joining the mujahedeen in Somalia.

The stories led him to contact the FBI and say he feared his son was being brainwashed by al-Qaida recruiters.

On Monday, however, Barre testified that everything was an elaborate FBI operation that brainwashed his son. Thus, prosecutors rested their case as Barre was the first defense witness.

During cross-examination by prosecutors, Barre was asked why he used the word “brainwashed” when speaking about his son to FBI agents. Barre interrupted Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight to say, “Can I tell you, the FBI brainwashed my son.”

“That’s not the question I asked,” Knight responded.

Mohamed Mohamud was charged with one count of trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction at the city’s holiday tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 26, 2010.

Via Oregon Live:

Lawyers defending Mohamud contend he was set up by undercover FBI agents posing as terrorists who pushed him to commit a crime he couldn’t have accomplished on his own. The bomb, presented to Mohamud as part of an elaborate FBI sting, was a harmless fake.