Congress Reviews Potential National Security Threat in Disappearance of Somali Youths

Reports of about 20 young Somali Americans disappearing from their homes in Minneapolis -- apparently recruited to go to Somalia to join jihadist causes -- has caught the attention of Congress, as a Senate committee began reviewing the case Wednesday.

Federal officials fear a group known as Al Shaabab, which has links to Al Qaeda, is recruiting these men. In fact, one of the men, Shirwa Ahmed, recently carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia.

Ahmed, who was radicalized in Minnesota, may be the first U.S. citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing.

The FBI has mounted an investigation in Minneapolis in an apparent attempt to find out who's persuading these young men to leave home -- in effect recruiting them -- and who's paying for their travel, FOX News has learned.

Somalis in Minneapolis told FOX News that the FBI has talked to about 50 people, some of whom have been called before a federal grand jury.

The FBI and counterterrorism officials say the young men appear to be going to Somalia to fight occupying Ethiopian forces, but no one can be sure they won't be radicalized and return to the United States.

In Washington, leading U.S. security authorities on Wednesday told a Senate committee probing the disappearances that the trend is a growing concern.

Philip Mudd, an official with the national security branch of the FBI, testified that extremist groups appear to target "radicalized clusters" of Somali-American youths "between, let's say, 17 and above."

He added however that in some instances, youths as young as 12 have been singled out.

"This is a priority for the FBI," Mudd told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "We are looking at individuals who are sending kids in the wrong direction."

Somalis began emigrating in large numbers to the United States during the beginning of the 1990s to flee civil strife at home.

Since then, they have come to number as many as 200,000, with the largest concentration having settled in the U.S. heartland city of Minneapolis, Minn.

Andrew Liepman, deputy director of intelligence for the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, stressed to lawmakers that for the most part, Somalis in the United States have adapted well. He said the radicalized members of the area are an exception.

"I'm describing a problem limited to a small fraction of the community, most of which came to America to get away from violence, not to commit it," he said. "We are not witnessing a community-wide radicalization among Somali-Americans."

But Liepman said the phenomenon is being seen in other parts of the world with concentrations of Somali expatriates as well, including Britain and South Africa.

"There are communities around the world of Somalis who feel very attached to their homeland, some of whom have expressed a desire to go back and fight, and I think that desire is being facilitated," he said.

Mudd added that the number of those leaving the United States for radical pursuits is still relatively small.

"I would talk in terms of tens of people, which sounds small," he said, "but it's significant because every terrorist is somebody who can potentially throw a grenade into a shopping mall."

FOX News' Jim Angle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.