[DAWN] US authorities are seeking to revoke the citizenship of a holy man in Oregon who they say tried to conceal past associations with radical Islamic groups.Mohammed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye raised money, recruited fighters and provided training for krazed killer groups battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the US Department of Justice says in a complaint filed Monday in US District Court in Portland.
Government lawyers say Kariye for a time "dealt directly" with the late Osama bin Laden
... who used to be alive but now he's not...
and Abdullah Azzam, the founders of Al Qaeda, and he recruited sympathisers in the United States and Pakistain for an Al Qaeda precursor known as Maktab Al Khidamat.
Kariye is also accused of being a founding officer and director of the now-defunct Global Relief Foundation, which authorities say provided assistance to terror groups including Al Qaeda and promoted radical jihad.
Federal authorities say Kariye failed to reveal those details in his application for citizenship, which was granted in 1998.
Attempts to reach Kariye through his Portland mosque and a former attorney were not immediately successful.
Born in Somalia, Kariye came to the United States on a student visa in 1982, according to the complaint. Between 1985 and 1988, he traveled to Afghanistan, where he went to a jihadist training camp and fought with the Afghan mujahedeen against the Soviets.