Category: The Washington Free Beacon
Somali radical accused of sickening salivary assault on federal agents after bizarre ‘bananas with rice’ speech
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest on Wednesday of 16 anti-ICE rioters who allegedly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and/or interfered with federal agents while officers were engaged in official duties in Minneapolis.
Among the radicals charged under 18 U.S. Code Section 111 was Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old “Somali-American” whose bizarre speech about Somalis’ supposed affinity for bananas and rice recently went viral.
‘I will carry this on my shoulders.’
Ahmed, who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, held a press conference with Democrat state Rep. Samakab Hussein at the Minnesota Capitol last week, where she criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accused federal agents of roughing her up, and did her apparent best to provide some insights into Somali identity.
“I got kidnapped by ICE,” said Ahmed, wearing a bandage on a portion of her head not covered by her Islamic veil. “ICE came to my neighborhood, where — my neighborhood is a very Somali neighborhood. It’s a predominantly Somali neighborhood. There’s many Somalis that live here.”
Ahmed indicated that she saw a pair of Somali men running away from federal agents outside an apartment complex on Jan. 14 and decided to get involved. When asked for her ID, she allegedly complied.
Footage appears to show a woman believed to be Ahmed spitting in the face of a federal agent.
Following the apparent salivary attack, Ahmed was reportedly arrested, taken to the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, then briefly held on pending federal felony charges at Sherburne County jail in Elk River.
Speaking at the press conference several days after she was released without charges, Ahmed claimed both that an ICE agent used a racial slur in reference to her and that she suffered a concussion during the arrest.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“They arrested and detained me for two days, and I was put in county jail,” continued the anti-ICE radical. “Then there was this ICE agent who called me a racial slur.”
“I am proud to say I have survived ICE,” said Ahmed. “Many people are saying, including my family and friends, that I will go down in history, and I will carry this on my shoulders.”
While Ahmed’s sob story resonated with Democrats such as Rep. Betty McCollum and other anti-ICE liberals, the part of her monologue that went viral online was her commentary on Somalis and “eating bananas with rice”:
I’m Somali. I’m proud to be Somali. To me, being Somali isn’t just eating bananas with rice. It’s a, it’s a lot, it’s like a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s an interesting thing. It’s a — it’s very hard to describe what means to be Somali and what it means to be American, but it’s like a cultural fusion. It’s kind of like the bananas and rice, you know? People don’t really see like — you know it’s a, it’s a, it’s — you know, people don’t think, “Oh, you can eat bananas with rice,” but that’s what it’s like to be Somali and American. It’s like that combination of banana and rice, but you’re gonna get what I mean.
Despite the supposed fusion of bananas and rice, the U.S. State Department has paused immigrant visa processing from Somalia, citing it as one of 75 countries “whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.”
The Center for Immigration Studies indicated in a report last month that in Minnesota, approximately 54% of Somali-headed households received food stamps and 73% of Somali households had at least one member on Medicaid. By way of comparison, the figures for native households were 7% and 18%, respectively.
“Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars. Billions every year. Billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88%. They contribute nothing,” President Donald Trump said last month. “I don’t want them in our country; I’ll be honest with you. Some might say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.”
Ahmed is now hitting up sympathizers for cash, requesting $20,000 on GoFundMe “to support her in this difficult moment.” At the time of publication, she had raised nearly $2,000.
Regarding the arrest of Ahmed and other anti-ICE radicals, Bondi noted, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law.”
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Harvard Lecturer on ‘Women Leaders’ To Appear at Al Jazeera Conference With Hamas Chief, Iranian Foreign Minister
A Harvard lecturer who writes a column for Zeteo, the anti-Israel blog of former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, is slated to speak at a conference in Qatar next month with a top Hamas official and Iran’s foreign minister, who has denied the regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
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Hard times create strong men — at any age
I know this guy, Richard. He’s friends with a couple of different friends of mine. He’s in his late 40s. He’s had a successful microbrewery business going for many years.
Last year, I heard that his business was in trouble. And then, more recently, his wife filed for divorce. He is apparently having problems seeing his kids.
Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need.
I saw him recently at a large gathering. He was in pretty bad shape. He was getting screwed at family court. He was blaming Trump for his business problems.
His blaming Trump was no surprise. Many otherwise intelligent people do that automatically here in Portland. Everything is Trump’s fault. I don’t really hold it against them. The propaganda is so thick here. And if you own a public-facing business, you probably have to go with the flow.
More likely, the true cause of his business problems is the economics of Portland. Taxes are up. Insurance is skyrocketing. Homeless people have invaded your neighborhood. Drug addicts are lighting your dumpster on fire.
Hitting bottom
So I was at this event, and I ended up in a small group with Richard and a couple of other guys. I could see that he was upset. He looked terrible.
I could relate to his situation. I had gone through a similar compound disaster when my father died, right in the middle of my own divorce.
So I had felt that pain. But I didn’t have kids. Which probably makes Richard’s situation much worse.
Eventually, the other guys wandered off, and I found myself giving Richard a little pep talk. I told him what happened to me and explained how at the time, I tried to think of it as a test.
I thought to myself: How often in life will I have to face two life-changing crises, coming from two different directions, at the same time?
I tried to think of my situation as a challenge, a rare opportunity to test my mettle, as I faced a mountain of emotional stressors and practical problems.
I couldn’t tell if he was buying it. And I didn’t know him that well. So I left it at that.
The soft life
But in the days after, I thought more about Richard’s situation.
He was a solidly upper-middle-class guy. His parents were well off. He went to a good college. He was a successful businessman and a respected member of the local microbrew scene. His brewery had prospered for years, before Portland took its current downturn.
He had really had an easy time of it, all things considered. So really, my idea that this was a “rare opportunity” was not far off. His current problems were easily the worst thing that ever happened to him. And they were all happening at once!
This also might have been a good time to try to red-pill him on local politics. Bro, Trump isn’t the reason you can’t run a business in Portland. But he wasn’t going to change on that.
But the “test” thing. That was still a valid point. Richard had never been hit this hard. And like a lot of men, he wasn’t ready for it. He had lived a relatively soft life.
RELATED: The American dream lives where people still choose to build
CS0523183 via iStock/Getty Images
Into the wilderness
People have been saying for years that part of the problem with American men is they don’t have any form of initiation ritual.
There’s no rigorous coming-of-age process. We have no “rites of passage.”
You can live your whole life and never have to endure any true hardship or serious deprivation.
Other cultures make a point of creating those “rites of passage.” Growing up in the West, I heard about young Native American men going on “vision quests.” They ventured into the wilderness by themselves, with no food and no protection from the elements or predatory animals.
In this way, they proved themselves worthy of their people, both physically and mentally. They were pushed to the limits of their endurance.
This was not only a physical ordeal, but a chance for spiritual growth as well. Becoming a man was not just about strength and skill; it was about humility and understanding your responsibilities within your tribe.
Once you had experienced the difficulties of fending for yourself, you would forever appreciate the security of life within a stable and healthy community.
The new vision quest
I thought about Richard’s predicament, which is now fairly common in America. What was happening to him was happening to men all the time.
Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need by your own social class, because they’re progressive Democrats as well.
That’s how I would think of it if I were him. What else are you going to do? Cry to your lawyer? Complain about Trump? Whine to your Kamala-voting buddies?
Or are you going to grieve your losses, accept your situation, and then respond with a new resolve, a new clarity of mind, and perhaps a stiffer spine?
I mean, I feel for the guy. He’s going through hell. But these kinds of men have got to stop crying and focus on what is really going on around them.
Think of your present difficulties as the rite of passage you should have experienced when you were 14. Think of them as your overdue vision quest. You’re in the wilderness now. You have only yourself to depend on.
Liz Wheeler’s frame-by-frame takedown: 7 reasons the Ilhan Omar assault was probably fake
On January 27, during a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, a man sitting in the front row suddenly charged at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and sprayed her with an unknown liquid using a syringe-like device. The alleged suspect, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was immediately arrested on suspicion of assault, and Omar, unharmed, was able to continue her event. He faces charges of third-degree assault and is currently detained at the Hennepin County jail.
Some people, however, are convinced this assault was a hoax. They argue that certain details in the video footage indicate Omar staged the attack against herself, perhaps to deflect attention from controversies she’s involved in.
On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz delivers a frame-by-frame analysis of the attack, dissecting seven details she argues might confirm the growing suspicion that the entire ordeal was manufactured.
Reason 1: Security dropped the ball — or did they?
The first suspicious detail, Liz says, is that Omar’s attacker was “visibly a weirdo.”
“Look at this guy. He is clearly under the influence of something,” she says, rolling video footage from the town hall meeting that captures the up-close profile of the attacker prior to the incident.
At a “town hall event for a sitting member of the U.S. Congress — if there’s a weirdo seated in the front row, the security moves the weirdo. That’s standard procedure,” she adds.
Reason 2: Timing a little too perfect?
“It’s interesting to note that he jumped up right after Ilhan Omar said that Kristi Noem must resign,” Liz says.
“It was as if that was his cue.”
Liz says the timing of the attack makes her wonder: “Is this some kind of stage/hoax/hate crime in order to protect Ilhan Omar from any kind of enforcement of her questionable immigration activities?”
Reason 3: Suspicious head nod?
“There’s also a moment where it appears that Ilhan Omar gives him the head nod, like, ‘Go ahead,”’ Liz says, playing another video clip that captures Omar’s face immediately prior to the attack.
While Liz wants to give her “the benefit of the doubt,” when she closely analyzes the footage, she sees a definitive nod.
“She gave him a nod as if to give him his cue,” she declares.
Reason 4: Zero panic?
“Then, of course, when he does lunge at her and squirts this foul-smelling unknown substance on her, she barely flinches,” Liz notes.
She explains that if Omar was truly unaware of the attack, then surely she would’ve shown concern about the substance — perhaps a “poison chemical agent” — that was just squirted on her. Or perhaps she would involuntarily flinch, assuming that the attacker was wielding a firearm.
“And yet, she barely reacts,” Liz says.
Reason 5: Omar charges toward the danger?
Liz also finds it suspicious that Omar’s initial reaction to being sprayed was to move toward the perpetrator. Video footage captures her immediately storming away from the podium, where she was speaking in his direction.
“Instead of the kind of self-preservation move-away, she lurches towards him,” she scoffs.
Reason 6: Why spare the face?
“It’s also strange, by the way, that he didn’t aim this substance at her face. He aimed it at her sweater,” Liz observes.
If he was a genuine attacker, he likely would’ve aimed to cause true damage and thus wouldn’t have projected the liquid in a “harmless” place, she suggests.
Reason 7: No medical checkup?
The most convincing evidence that Omar staged this attack, however, is that she refused any medical testing, hazmat evaluation, or decontamination at the scene. On the contrary, she demanded to be allowed to finish her speech before examination.
“To decline to even test what this substance is or to go to the hospital and to continue speaking — these are the reasons why … so many people are asking: Is this an authentic attack, or was this a staged attack?” Liz says.
“Well, my answer to that would be this: It’s a good thing that he was arrested because if it was a real attack, he deserves to be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if it’s a fake attack, if this was some kind of hoax hate crime, then he deserves to be investigated, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
To hear more of Liz’s frame-by-frame breakdown, watch the full episode above.
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Trump Admin Joins Lawsuit Against UCLA Med School, Unveiling New Data on Race-Based Admissions
The Department of Justice on Wednesday joined a discrimination lawsuit against the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, unveiling new data that shows the extent of the school’s racial preferences. The filing is the latest setback for the elite medical school, which has endured an onslaught of scandals—largely due to the Washington Free Beacon’s reporting—since 2024.
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Columbia Tries To Distance Itself From New Pulitzer Board Member After Free Beacon Report
Columbia University attempted to distance itself from the Pulitzer Prize Board’s newest member, Harvard professor Vijay Iyer, after a Washington Free Beacon report revealed his strident anti-Israel activism and membership in a faculty group that published an anti-Semitic cartoon.
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Sad but True: Resistance Libs Are Showing MAGA Bros What Real Courage Looks Like
It’s time to admit the #Resistance is winning. Donald Trump’s MAGA loyalists have been outclassed by their liberal adversaries on every front. We might disagree with their politics, but that doesn’t mean we can’t applaud their unyielding passion and remarkable courage in the face of adversity.
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Soros-Backed DAs Launch Group To Prosecute Federal Immigration Agents: ‘Hunt You Down the Way They Hunted Down Nazis’
A coalition of left-wing district attorneys largely funded by billionaire George Soros launched an initiative to prosecute federal immigration agents in their jurisdictions, setting the stage for a potential showdown with the Trump administration. Many of those same prosecutors oppose mandatory minimum prison sentences for violent crimes and have released murderers back on the streets.
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Qatar Is Pushing for ‘Social Justice’ Lessons and Arabic Classes in US K-12 Schools
Foreign rulers should not have a say in what children learn in our nation’s K-12 schools, which is why we should be alarmed by the state of Qatar’s under-the-radar activities in American primary and secondary education.
Public documents from Georgia reveal that Qatar Foundation International (QFI), the Qatari royal family’s charity arm in the United States, is funding multiple education initiatives in the Peach State: K-12 teacher trainings, Arabic textbooks for young students, and student trips to Qatar.
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The Spectacle Ep. 319: Exploring Venezuela’s Crisis and Canada’s Chinese Influence
A couple of weeks have gone by since the U.S. captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, leaving the country’s future potential…
