Why did this take so long?
Via Clarion Project:
After many years in process, the U.S. government revoked the U.S. citizenship of the former imam of the largest mosque in Portland.
As part of a settlement deal, Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye, 57, agreed to acknowledge that he had given false information to immigration officials in July 1997 when he applied for U.S. citizenship.
In return, even though he was on the no-fly list, the government arranged for him to fly to Somaliland, where he arrived last week.
Kariye became a naturalized citizen in 1998.
The government made a case that Kariye failed to reveal his past associations with Islamist extremists in his application for U.S. citizenship.
Specifically, government lawyers said Kariye, originally from Somalia, had direct dealings with Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, the founders of al-Qaeda, and that while in the U.S., he recruited members for the radical group Maktab Al-Khidamat (a precursor to al-Qaeda).
U.S. authorities also said that Kariye was a founding officer and director of the Global Relief Foundation, which funded al-Qaeda and other terror groups.