The case against Ilhan Omar, part 1 — 2018 Ilhan Omar documentary prints her father’s name as ‘Nur Said’ — three times

The legal case against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) may seem difficult to follow, but the facts are actually clear and compelling. As Rep. Omar campaigns for her third election, TheBlaze will be publishing exclusive new evidence while getting readers up to speed on the four years of already-public facts.

First, learn the simple heart of the case: During her 2009-17 marriage, Omar seemed to have a father AND a father-in-law named Nur Said — a name so rare that in the U.S./U.K. only one man alive seems to fit both descriptions.

Rep. Omar has likely committed the most extensive spree of federal and state felonies by an elected official in American history. It may also be themost well-documented.

Several dozen pieces of verified evidence support the case against her. None support her defense. And unlike, for example, the complex case against the Steele dossier's legitimacy, the facts implicating Rep. Omar are clear, accessible, and seemingly beyond a reasonable doubt.

This latest find, described below, may be the best example yet of the case's simplicity.

***

On Aug. 9, 2016, Ilhan Omar defeated 44-year incumbent Phyllis Kahn to win the DFL primary for Minnesota House District 60B. Filmmaker Norah Shapiro was present to capture Omar's celebration, and for several months, she documented Omar's first campaign. Shapiro's "Time for Ilhan" would premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival nearly two years later — just six weeks before Omar unexpectedly announced a 2018 run for federal office.

On Aug. 12, 2016, Minnesota journalist Scott Johnson published proof that Omar was legally married to a British citizen. Johnson also published compelling evidence that the same man is Omar's sibling. The husband's name — Ahmed Nur Said Elmi — was the immediately apparent red flag. Online and in public, Omar had been referring to her father as Nur Said.

Near-universally, Somali naming tradition does not use family surnames. Somali children receive a first name followed by the first names of the father, paternal grandfather, and paternal great-grandfather.

It's that simple. Ilhan's father and father-in-law seemed to be "Nur Said."

Try searching online: Only a small handful of people living in the U.S. or U.K. have a name that includes "Nur Said." One, according to Ilhan herself, is her father. Incredibly, she married one of the very few others. And no "Nur Said" seems to fit the name and age range of her father-in-law — except for her own father.

Shortly after the publication of Scott Johnson's article, posts on Omar's verified social media accounts that identified her father as "Nur Said" were deleted.

Several additional rounds of deletions have occurred in the three years since.

***

Below is a screenshot from Norah Shapiro's "Time for Ilhan," which is now available to stream on Amazon:

Image source: "Time for Ilhan" screenshot

That title card — "Nur Said: Ilhan's Father" — doesn't leave much wiggle room.

Shapiro also prints "Nur Said" in the film's credits — twice. Here:

Image source: "Time for Ilhan" screenshot

And here:

Image source: "Time for Ilhan" screenshot

In this second screenshot, note that a member of "Ilhan's Campaign Team" in 2016 — Ali Isse "Ganey", who is also a key member of Omar's 2020 campaign — receives quotation marks signifying a nickname.

In September 2019, Mohammed Tawhidi spotted one still-active 2013 tweet on Omar's account in which she refers to her father as "Nur Said." Predictably, Omar deleted the tweet that evening. She also responded with a facially absurd explanation: That "Said" is her father Nur's life-long nickname because "Nur Said" means "happy light."

Of course, "Said" — alone, and in its multiple spellings — is a common name worldwide. It would make for a bizarre nickname, especially when appended to a given first name. ("Hi, I'm George. But my friends call me George Steve.")

Clearly, Norah Shapiro uses quotation marks to signify a subject's nickname, and does not use them for Nur Said.

***

Since 2016, Johnson, Minnesota reporter Preya Samsundar, and I have published dozens of verified pieces of evidence — including court documents, school records, and address records — which establish Omar's familial relationship to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. In 2019, I published a U.K. marriage certificate that seemingly refers to Omar's father as "Nur Said Elmi." I also detailed how the totality of the verified public evidence appears to eliminate any other reasonable explanation.

Rep. Omar's 2009-2017 marriage appears to have been an attempt to facilitate immigration fraud, student loan fraud, and several other serious crimes.

No other explanation, reasonable or otherwise, which takes all of the verified public evidence into account has been offered by Rep. Omar — or anyone else.

In January, I published that the FBI had shared evidence of Omar's massive legal exposure with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Dept. of Education inspector general. Since then, an original 2016 source of Scott Johnson's reporting came forward in the U.K. outlet Daily Mail, despite previous threats against his safety. He received additional threats immediately thereafter.

I do expect this saga to conclude in the coming months, likely before August's primary elections in Minnesota. In the coming days and weeks, I will be publishing a series of articles here at The Blaze detailing extensive new evidence behind this reasoning.