Somaliland is once again pointing the finger at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), accusing her of leaking classified congressional information to Somali leaders, information that a former Somaliland minister says helped ignite a deadly armed conflict months later.
Ali Hassan Mohamed, Somaliland’s former minister of information, originally posted the accusation in early 2024. Now the @RepOfSomaliland account, which Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry has said is not an official government channel, is amplifying it again. Mohamed wrote that in December 2022, Omar visited Garowe and allegedly handed Somali leaders details about a meeting between Somaliland’s president and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a committee Omar sat on at the time. He says she didn’t stop at gossip. According to Mohamed, she “was very persistent and urged the Somalian leaders to take proactive actions against Somaliland as soon as possible.” One month later, the Las Anod conflict broke out.
The @RepOfSomaliland account put it even more bluntly on Sunday, writing that Omar “pressed Somalian leaders to act against Somaliland before relations between the Republic of Somaliland and the United States grows stronger,” and that months later, on February 6, 2023, the Las Anod conflict and Omar accusations erupted, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced. The account called it flatly: “This is how a foreign agent operates.”
Nothing about this should shock anyone who has followed Omar’s career. Somaliland is a pro-America breakaway republic that wants nothing to do with the Islamist chaos running the rest of Somalia. Omar’s father, meanwhile, is accused of participating in genocide in Somaliland. So naturally her sympathies don’t exactly lie with the good guys.
Then there’s the long-running federal investigation into Omar’s immigration history, which includes allegations she married her own brother to obtain immigration benefits, questions about her birth year, and the apparently missing record of her father’s naturalization as a U.S. citizen. Omar has claimed she became a citizen through her father while still a minor. If he was never actually naturalized, that raises a very uncomfortable question about whether a noncitizen has been casting votes in the United States Congress.
Democrats spent four years telling you that election integrity concerns were a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, one of their own members may have been leaking sensitive congressional intelligence to foreign governments and cheerleading armed conflict against a U.S.-friendly nation. Funny how that works. The facts here, if true, don’t describe a congresswoman doing her job. They describe a foreign asset with a congressional ID badge.
There’s no sign yet of any formal congressional or DOJ action against Omar over the Somaliland accusations specifically. But with the information getting a fresh round of attention, it won’t be easy to keep sweeping it under the rug. Omar still has a seat on the Hill and a megaphone on social media, which means the most dangerous thing in her possession may not be classified documents after all, it’s the vote she casts every single day.
