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LAURA YUEN: Omar Jamal emerged years ago in Minnesota as the media's most prolific talking head on Somali issues. Recent developments in his Homeland have since catapulted him to a world stage. This week on CNN, he talked about the teenage pirate.

OMAR JAMAR: He's a kid. He doesn't know what he's getting into. As you see--

LAURA YUEN: And in the case of the missing Somali Americans in which the FBI believes young men from Minnesota have gone back to Somalia to fight with hardline Islamists, Jamal has become a mouthpiece for everyone's worst fears.

OMAR JAMAR: We have an active Al-Qaeda cells recruiting these people.

SPEAKER 1: You have active Al-Qaida cells in the Twin Cities?

OMAR JAMAR: Yes.

SPEAKER 2: What could happen if they try to come home, trained in urban warfare?

OMAR JAMAR: I don't see anything that would prevent from those kids to carry out suicide bombings right here.

LAURA YUEN: In between media interviews, Jamal stops by a South Minneapolis house that will become the site of a new legal clinic for his group, the Somali Justice Advocacy Center. As the only paid staffer, Jamal is the center, but he's not a lawyer. The father of four is balding with a booming laugh, wearing a dark pinstriped suit from Macy's. His new clinic is a sparse living room with a couple desks and computers. Omar Jamal is one of the first people reporters call after parachuting into Minneapolis from places like Los Angeles, New York, or even Dubai.

OMAR JAMAR: When they call us, we don't say, why do you call us? I'm a Somali person. I'm entitled to speak on Somali issues. Equally, every other Somali individual is entitled. If they choose not to do so, it's not my fault.

LAURA YUEN: But his command of the spotlight has infuriated his critics. Many assumed he would be deported or at least his star would fade after a jury convicted him of lying to immigration officials four years ago. Jamal left Somalia when he was young. On his US asylum application in 1998, Jamal marked no when asked if he had been granted asylum in any other country when, in fact, he had received permanent status in Canada. Jamal was sentenced to one year of probation. The conviction was supposed to trigger his deportation case. His file is now classified.

OMAR JAMAR: It's still pending. It's still pending. I'm still around.

LAURA YUEN: So he says he continues to be a watchdog using the media to keep government in check.

OMAR JAMAR: What we have learned is that the feds or the local police force tends to misuse their power in a very dark room. But when you switch the light on, they behave like humans.

LAURA YUEN: His center aims to help poor refugees navigate the legal system. Jamal came under fire this week from Minnesota House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, who says he'll make sure no taxpayer money goes to groups that support Pirates. Jamal says he simply wants to make sure the pirate gets a fair trial. He says his center receives about $80,000 in private donations in a good year. But because he hasn't filed the proper nonprofit paperwork with the IRS, it's not clear where he gets his money or how he spends it.

Most local reporters know that Jamal is controversial. Earlier this year, a group of journalists and Somali community members gathered at the University of Minnesota for a Frank discussion about news coverage. A local imam criticized the journalists in the room for turning to a so-called community leader who he said was doing more harm than good. Omar Jamal wasn't there, but everyone knew who the imam was talking about.

DUCHESNE DREW: Rather than talk around, I'll just say, yeah, you will see Omar Jamal's name in the paper.

LAURA YUEN: Editor Duchesne Drew of the Star Tribune.

DUCHESNE DREW: You will see him in the paper. You will see him on the air. Omar returns phone calls.

LAURA YUEN: And Jamal sends out press releases every few days. For reporters who lack deep inroads into the community, he's a gatekeeper of information. At a news conference he called earlier this month, he promised to get in touch with a group of Somali pirates who had captured a Nigerian ship.

OMAR JAMAR: They always pick up the phone right away. I don't know if it has something to do with the American ship there.

LAURA YUEN: Jamal couldn't reach the pirates, but he did give their phone number out to the gaggle of reporters. Then he reconsidered and made them promise that they wouldn't call the number. Back at his clinic, Jamal would be the first to tell you that Somali Americans are deeply divided, and he sees himself as a lightning rod for their differences. There's even a whisper campaign suggesting that the US government is allowing him to stay in the country because he's an informant for the FBI. Jamal strongly denies it.

He says, a lot of people don't like the fact that he supports the idea of a secular government in Somalia. And when it comes to the case of the missing men, he got grief for insisting that the leaders of a Minneapolis mosque, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, radicalized the youth. The mosque directors denied that they had any role in the recruitment. So it's a little surprising that his new legal clinic is right next door to the mosque.

OMAR JAMAR: There's the mosque--

LAURA YUEN: From his window, Jamal can see all of the men in long dress and sandals who filter out of the. building after prayer.

Is it awkward being so close to them?

OMAR JAMAR: No. It's a bit ironic, but not awkward.

LAURA YUEN: And it's also ironic that Jamal himself had early ties to radical Islam. While he was a teenager living in Toronto, he studied under a spiritual leader affiliated with Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya, a Somali extremist group that peaked in the 1990s. I just thought it was interesting that you were a--

OMAR JAMAR: Terrorist?

[LAUGHTER]

Is that right?

LAURA YUEN: Jamal says he parted ways because the imam discouraged questioning. And while Jamal seems eager to highlight the Minneapolis Somali community's problems, Somali insiders say he doesn't stick around to solve them. Abdi-Q Ahmed is an AmeriCorps volunteer who teaches leadership skills to at-risk youth. He looks up to some movers and shakers in his community, but Omar Jamal is not one of them. Ahmed has thought about what he'd like to say to Jamal.

ABDI-Q AHMED: I'd never met you, and I really don't know who you are, but I always see you on TV. What are you actually doing about it in the community? Show me something you're actually doing about it, and then I will come talk to you.

LAURA YUEN: Yet Ahmed may be too young to remember that Omar Jamal spoke up for Somali Americans and other Muslims following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Jamal's combination of English skills and impeccable news instincts made him a star.

ABDI AYNTE: Here you had a young, dynamic person who was on the rise, who was seen by the community as someone who can indeed speak for them.

LAURA YUEN: Somali born journalist Abdi Aynte covered the Twin Cities Somali community while working for the news site, now known as the Minnesota Independent. Now he's a reporter for the BBC in Washington, D.C. Aynte says Jamal's credibility took a turn in 2002. That's when Minneapolis Police fatally shot a mentally ill Somali man who was carrying a machete down Franklin Avenue. Jamal called the city a slaughterhouse for immigrants. Aynte recalls many Somali Americans were horrified.

ABDI AYNTE: They saw this as an unfortunate incidence. But to use such an inflammatory remark, it was a bit of a stretch. And a lot of people started to step back from him.

LAURA YUEN: On a Friday evening, Jamal invites me to a hookah bar at a strip mall in Columbia Heights. He orders the Apple flavor and smokes it in a water pipe.

OMAR JAMAR: I come here to get relief from that work stress.

LAURA YUEN: Jamal is quiet for once. He cradles a stem close to his chest. Smoke drifts out of his nostrils. He's more reflective. It seems exhausting to be Omar Jamal.

OMAR JAMAR: I can't solve the world's problem by myself. I learned that a long time ago.

LAURA YUEN: Here at this corner table, Jamal is as anonymous as he can be, until his phone rings again. Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio news, Minneapolis.