Prosecutors: Women talk of jihad in recorded calls

MINNEAPOLIS – Prosecutors building a case against two Minnesota women accused of funneling money to the terror group al-Shabab are relying on scores of secretly recorded phone calls.

The government's transcripts from a 10-month wiretap on Amina Farah Ali show Ali talking to her co-defendant, Hawo Mohamed Hassan, about raising money for jihad in Somalia.

The recordings include calls between Ali and al-Shabab members in Somalia, as well as teleconferences in which the women held religious lectures and then collected pledges. In one call, Ali says the money should go to the fighters, saying: "Let the civilians die."

The women have said they were fundraising for charity, and Ali's attorney has pointed to one call in which she directs $7,000 to go to causes including wounded and poor people.