8 UNITED STATES V. MOHAMUD birth. And when they could not reach Mohamud, they called the FBI and asked an agent to stop their son from leaving the country. Eventually, Mohamud’s mother got in touch with her son, scolded him, and brought him home. Mohamud did not actually have a visa or plane ticket, and he returned his passport to his parents. A few days later, Mohamud’s father called the FBI agent back and told him that Mohamud had agreed to finish college and would not leave the country until he graduated. He also explained that his son had wanted to go to Yemen to study Arabic and Islam. Mohamud’s father forwarded the FBI an email from his son about a school in Yemen, which allowed the FBI to identify Mohamud as the user of the truthbespoken email account. B. Mohamud Attends College and the FBI Initiates Its Investigation In September 2009, Mohamud began studying engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis, where he had a “typical” college experience: he had a roommate, made friends, and attended parties (where he drank alcohol and used marijuana). His activities and religious principles often clashed, and in November 2009 he sought advice from a Muslim website on the difficulties of living a pious life on a college campus. After the urgent August 31, 2009 call from Mohamud’s father, the FBI opened an investigation into Mohamud. Agents conducted physical and electronic surveillance of Mohamud, but did not identify any overtly dangerous communications. The case agent believed that Mohamud’s communications lacked “the same radical speak that he had espoused early on when he was communicating with Samir Khan.” The agent opined that Mohamud had “left behind his