Thursday, September 29, 2016
By Jessica Heslam
‘Pain I will have to take to my grave’
‘WE CAN BE A HELP TO YOU’: Julie Boada and Deqa Hussen, above from left, speak about being parents of young men who they say were brainwashed into participating in acts of extremism during a National Security Conference at MIT hosted by U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. (Credit: Angela Rowlings)
Their children were Americans who grew up to be terrorists — and yesterday the anguished parents shared their nightmare of homegrown jihad.
On a gray morning at MIT, where three years ago the Boston Marathon bombers executed officer Sean Collier, three parents told of how the sons they raised were brainwashed to wreak havoc at home and abroad.
Law enforcement officers attending U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s National Security Conference sat quietly as the parents shared how naive they were, what they would have done differently and the love they had — and still have — for their children who went horribly awry.
Melvin Bledsoe raised his son, Carlos, in Tennessee. After spending a night in jail for having weapons and marijuana, he wanted to get on the right path. He visited mosques and converted to Islam. He went to Yemen to teach English and study the Koran. He changed his name to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.
But when Muhammad returned to the U.S., he was a changed man. He was angry about Muslims dying in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reportedly received training from al-Qaeda. On June 1, 2009, he shot and killed an Army private and wounded another in a drive-by shooting at an Arkansas military recruitment office.
“I am not hiding from what happened,” Bledsoe said. “I want to help here in America and the world, to try and understand how not to let this happen to your child, your son, your daughter.”
He didn’t know that his son had been radicalized in Yemen and that the FBI had met with him. If he had, Bledsoe said, he would have done everything he could to prevent a tragedy.
“Had I known what I know now, I feel for sure that I could have intervened,” Bledsoe said. “I’m very sad how it turned out. The pain that myself and my family go through today, (is) pain that I will have to take to my grave. I love my son.”
Julie Boada’s son, Troy Kastigar, grew up in Minnesota, and also converted to Islam.
“When he found Islam, it opened his heart,” Boada, an artist, said. “Everything I saw was really positive.”
She used to sing her son an African lullaby when he was a baby. So when he made plans to go to Africa, she wasn’t surprised, although she thought it was odd that the trip was free. She chalked it up to a missionary journey, but her son had actually joined the global jihad. In September 2009, he died fighting alongside the Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Before he left, he asked her to forgive a debt he had. In Islam, Boada said, you’re not supposed to die owing any debt. “In hindsight,” Boada said, “he was aware that he could pass away.”
Boada said she was unaware. When her son called or emailed from Somalia, he said he was exercising and outside a lot. “Now I’m sure that was military training,” she said.
Another mom, Deqa Hussen, spoke about how her son, Abdirizak Warsame, was recruited by jihadis in Minneapolis. He’s now behind bars for plotting to join ISIS.
All three parents said their kids were brainwashed. Bledsoe and Hussen expressed hope that their sons could be de-programmed and help others, like terrorist-turned-security expert Jesse Morton, an ex-jihadi who was slated to speak today at the MIT conference.
“We need to let the parents know when their child is going down that dangerous road,” Bledsoe said. “We can be a help to you.”