The former Minnesota man who left the USA years ago to join an al-Qaida affiliate, Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, denied he's a member of al-Shabab or the Islamic State in an interview with a news outlet. The New York-based Counter Extremism Project applauded Hassan's arrest, calling him a "prolific jihadi propagandist and recruiter" who "created a broad social-media presence on Twitter and other social media platforms to recruit and incite violence for al-Shabab and ISIS".