| Minneapolis Star Tribune | - |
Shoppers
enter the Mall of America Sunday February 22, 2015 in Bloomington, MN. A
cautionary message Sunday from Jeh Johnson, the U.S.
Mall of America shoppers take terror alert in stride
- Article by: PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune
- Updated: February 22, 2015 - 9:02 PM
Al-Shabab video threat prompts vigilance but doesn’t deter shoppers.
Store clerks reported that Sunday was a typical weekend day at the Mall of America.
Photo: Richard Tsong-Taatarii • rtsong-taatarii@startribune.com,
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Federal officials warned Mall of America visitors to “be particularly careful,” but all appeared to be business as usual at the Bloomington megamall Sunday.
The
cautionary message came from Jeh Johnson, U.S. secretary of Homeland
Security, after the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabab released a video
calling for attacks on Western malls. The video specifically mentioned
the Mall of America, which gets an estimated 40 million visitors
annually.
“If
anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they’ve got to
be particularly careful,” Johnson said in a televised interview with CNN
Sunday morning. “There will be enhanced security there, but public
vigilance, public awareness and public caution in situations like this
is particularly important, and it’s the environment we’re in, frankly.”
Still,
by midafternoon, drivers were jostling for spots in the parking ramp
and the mall’s four levels were crowded with shoppers. Several store
clerks said it seemed to be a typical Sunday.
Another Homeland Security official later clarified that Johnson was not urging people to stay away from the mall.
“Secretary
Johnson didn’t say that they should not go to the mall,” assistant
secretary Tanya Bradsher told CNN. “He told shoppers to be extravigilant
and that security was increased.”
Just
one day before the video’s release, Al-Shabab militants attacked a
popular hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia with a car bomb and suicide bomber,
killing at least 25 people.
Late
Sunday afternoon, Bloomington police released a statement on behalf of
the mall and federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies that
said, “At this time, there is no credible threat associated with Mall of
America” in connection with “the recently released propaganda video.”
The mall remains “a very safe place,” and additional security personnel
have been enlisted, the statement said.
Johnson,
on CNN, said he was “very concerned” about the threat because “these
groups are relying more and more on independent actors to become
inspired, drawn to the cause … through their effective use of the
Internet.”
Johnson’s
concern no doubt is related to the fact that the Mall of America is
located in the metro area with the largest Somali population in the
United States. Just between 2007 and 2009, at least 22 young
Somali-Americans left the Twin Cities after being recruited to join
Al-Shabab. Officials say another 15 have left Minnesota in recent months
to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
In
2005, the mall started a special security unit whose officers look for
unexplained nervousness, people photographing such things as
air-conditioning ducts or signs that a shopper might have something to
hide, according to records.
An ordinary Sunday at MOA
From
outside the mall Sunday, there was no overt sign of intensified
security as visitors arrived. Mall spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said that
it unfolded just like any other weekend day at the destination popular
with tourists and locals alike.
One
visitor to the mall Sunday morning said it was 45 minutes before she
saw her first uniformed security officer, and a handful of other
shoppers seemed unfazed by the attention given the mall by terrorists.
Later, small groups of Bloomington police officers and private guards
were seen making the rounds of the mall.
“I’m
more afraid of the cold today than any terrorists,” Mary Lamminen, of
St. Paul, said on a day when the temperature remained below zero until
midafternoon.
Several store managers said they noticed no drop-off in crowds as of the afternoon, and the parking lots were crowded.
Nancy
Cashion was visiting Sunday with her daughter, Melanie Isabell. Both
said they were aware of the terror video. “There’s probably a lot of
threats we don’t even hear about,” Isabell said.
‘Pure evil’
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar
of Minnesota said she spoke Sunday morning with Andy Luger, the U.S.
attorney in Minnesota about the video and, “we’ve been in contact with
Homeland Security, and I know that everyone is focused on how to protect
the mall.”
In
an interview with WCCO-TV, Channel 4, the Democrat added, that “we’ve
seen [Al-Shabab] try to recruit people; they’ve done these sophisticated
videos before … showing plane tickets from Minneapolis to Somalia. … These groups are pure evil.”
Last
week, Luger led a Minnesota delegation, including law-enforcement
officials and Somali community leaders, to a White House summit on
extremism and radicalization. In remarks, Vice President Joe Biden
pointed to Minneapolis, Boston and Los Angeles as pursuing programs to
counter extremism locally.
In
a second Sunday morning news show interview, on ABC-TV, Jeh Johnson
said the threat against the Mall of America represents a “new phase [in]
terms of the global terrorism threat … that is more complex, more
decentralized, more diffused. … It encourages strikes with very little
notice to our intelligence community, our law enforcement community here
at home.”
Fighters urged to ‘hurry up’
The
Mall of America increased security Saturday after Al-Shabab’s video was
released. A statement issued by the mall Saturday said it was aware of a
video that mentions and shows images of the Bloomington megamall, and
that it has “implemented extra security precautions.”
“Some
may be noticeable to guests and others won’t be,” the statement read.
“We will continue to follow the situation along with federal, state and
local law enforcement and will remain vigilant as we always do in
similar situations.”
The
Al-Shabab video, circulating on Twitter, is more than an hour long and
focused on the September 2013 attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in
Nairobi, Kenya. At least 67 people died in that siege. The Mall of
America also increased security in the aftermath of that attack.
At
the end of the video, a masked man says: “If just a handful of
mujahedeen fighters could bring Kenya to a complete standstill for
nearly a week, then imagine what the dedicated mujahedeen in the West
could do to American — or Jewish-owned shopping centers across the
world? What if such an attack were to occur in the Mall of America in
Minnesota? Or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada? Or in London’s Oxford
Street?”
The
man, his face wrapped in a black-and-white kaffiyeh-type scarf and
wearing a camouflage jacket, spoke with a British accent. He urged
fighters to “hurry up.”
The
Mall of America and the West Edmonton Mall were both developed by the
Ghermezian family, whose members immigrated to Canada from Iran in the
1960s and are of Jewish background.
In
Alberta, Sgt. Brent Meyer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the
force is aware of the Al-Shabab video, but “there is no evidence at
this time of any specific or imminent threat to Canadians.”
Meyer
said authorities “take this threat to our national security very
seriously [and will] continue to monitor events” in concert with other
law enforcement agencies.
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