Christof Live Tweets "American Jihadi"

Correspondent Christof Putzel tweeted live commentary during the East Coast premiere of "American Jihadi."

+ @KajLarsen and I arrived in Mogadishu before the airport opened by hitching a ride from Nairobi on a World Food Program plane.

+ I was surprised to learn that a lot of people we met in Daphne had never heard of Omar Hammami. [Watch Christof's behind the scenes commentary.]

+ I hopped around bars + restaurants in Daphne for 3 days before I finally met someone who remembered Omar.

+ I hooked up with Bernie after meeting a waiter at a restaurant who had run into him at a Wal-Mart a few weeks earlier.

+ Omar had a reputation in Model UN of only choosing Muslim countries (such as Pakistan and Indonesia) to represent.

+ McMeans also included Omar’s name on tests she would give to her students, comparing Omar to Richard Reid, “the shoe bomber.”

+ Omar Hammami goes by the name Abu Mansour Al-Amriki. Al-Amriki means “the American.” [Watch a video about Omar's messages posted to internet forums.]

+ Bernie’s friends were disappointed that he’d found a new friend and was no longer interested in smoking pot and skipping school.

+ After 9/11, Omar condemned the terror attacks.

+ Omar and Bernie spent all their time studying Islam, sparking other Muslims in the community to mock them, nicknaming them “the Dixies.”

+ Since there were so few pictures of Omar we relied heavily on a few pictures of him we found in a Daphne High School yearbook.

+ Canada has one of the largest Somali populations in the West, with the census reporting 37,785 people claiming Somali descent.

+ I was surprised when after this interview the owner called me asking permission to sell bootleg copies of Mogadishu Madness in his store.

+ One of the best parts about hanging out with Bernie in Toronto was that he knew all the best Somali spots to eat!

+ Andrea Elliott wrote an excellent profile on Omar in the New York Times.

+ Sadiyo is an incredibly charming woman and we were honored that she granted us her first on-camera interview.

+ Sharon serves up a mean key-lime pie. While we were filming in Daphne, a Muslim gentleman from Toronto who Sharon had met online flew down to meet her and propose.

+ In Mogadishu Madness, you can see our first encounter with guys from Al Shabaab back when they were the military wing of the ICU. 

+ Omar’s first hip hop track, “First Stop Addis,” can be heard in its entirety here: http://tinyurl.com/27gbl7c

+ In April, Omar released another video with Al Shabaab entitled, “Festival for the Children of the Martyrs.” [Watch an extended version of one of Omar's recruiting videos.]

+ Almost nobody in Toronto’s Somali community was willing to talk on camera about the men who allegedly left to join Al Shabaab.

+ Shirwa Ahmed earned the unique distinction of becoming the first American suicide bomber.

+ We were with Bernie and Sadiyo when news broke that one of the missing men was killed in Somalia fighting with Al Shabaab. [Watch a video about Al-Shabaab recruiting Westerners.]

+ Moe spent six months fighting alongside Al Shabaab in Somalia. He is starting an organization entitled Generation Islam dedicated to radicalizing young Muslims.

Watch a trailer for "American Jihadi" after the jump.