Christian organization targeted in frivolous libel lawsuit by jihadist front group
Jamaat al-Fuqra, an Islamist network operating in North America and Pakistan, has maintained a presence in the U.S. for decades through a commune-style sect known as The Muslims of America, Inc. and a shell company called Professional Security International. These entities have perpetrated a series of white collar crimes, especially workers compensation fraud, to finance terrorist activities overseas.
The Virginia-based Christian Action Network’s recent publication of a book documenting the history of investigations and successful prosecutions against employees of the syndicate prompted the lawsuit. CAN reports that Susan Fenger, a fraud examiner who spearheaded the investigations into MOA in the 1990s, has agreed to testify in CAN’s behalf if the defamation and libel suit goes to trial.
Muslim Terrorist Group Files $30 Million Lawsuit Against Christian Action Network
By Patti Pierucci
A Muslim terrorist group has filed a lawsuit against Christian Action Network seeking $30 million, following the publication of a book by CAN President Martin Mawyer entitled “Twilight in America.” The suit alleges that Mawyer, co-author Patti A. Pierucci and CAN defamed and libeled the group by publishing information about their crimes and ongoing illegal behavior.
The group, known as The Muslims of America, Inc. (MOA), has operated as a front group for Al Fuqra, which was at one time listed as a terrorist group by the State Department. Al Fuqra members have been convicted of and suspected in dozens of terrorist-related and white-collar crimes in the United States going back decades.
Forensics investigator Susan Fenger—who successfully prosecuted an American Muslim group in the 1990s on charges of terrorism and white-collar crime—has agreed to testify on behalf of Christian Action Network in a lawsuit filed by the same Muslim organization.
In an exclusive interview with Mawyer in 2006, Fenger said she had a $50,000 bounty on her head, placed there by the leader of MOA in Pakistan, Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani. The bounty was a form of payback from Gilani because he had to finance the defense of numerous MOA/Fuqra members who were prosecuted as a result of Fenger’s investigation.
Despite the threat to her and the price on her life, she has agreed to testify at the upcoming trial on behalf of CAN to help clear them of any charges.
“Susan Fenger spent years investigating The Muslims of America and its money trail, eventually proving that money scammed from taxpayers was going overseas to fund a known terrorist, Sheikh Gilani,” Mawyer said. “She is a hero because of her relentless pursuit of justice when no one else, not even the FBI, were willing to take on a powerful Muslim group with terrorist ties.”
Mawyer added: “There is such an abundance of official documentation of MOA’s involvement in terrorist activities that I am confident we will prevail in this lawsuit.”
The FBI was ordered by Congress to carry out an external review of its efforts to combat domestic radicalization less than a month before two Chechen-born terrorists bombed the Boston marathon.
Congress mandated last month that the FBI submit to an outside review of its “response to trends of domestic terror attacks since September 11, 2001, including the influence of domestic radicalization,” according to language contained in the 2013 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act passed to avoid a government-wide shutdown.
The funding bill was signed into law on March 26 and allocated $500,000 to the “comprehensive external review,” according to the bill.
“The timing of the review is important, given the reports about radicalization of the two suspects involved in the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks last week,” according of the office of Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.), who authored the amendment initiating the review.
The FBI was reportedly warned by Russian intelligence services that Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with the police, was suspected of having terrorist ties.
The FBI is said to have interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 following the tip but determined he did not pose a threat. Critics have called this a stunning intelligence failure in the wake of the Boston attack.
The external authority charged with reviewing the FBI will seek to determine if the law enforcement organization has improved its ability to detect and respond to domestic acts of terror.
“The motivation behind the language is to have fresh eyes on this constantly evolving threat and to improve practices within the Bureau, particularly in light of the terrorist attacks involving radicalized Americans, like the brothers suspected in the Boston attacks and Maj. [Nidal] Hasan at Ft. Hood,” Rep. Wolf said in a statement Monday.
Those reviewing the FBI will also provide “any additional recommendations with regard to FBI intelligence sharing and counterterrorism policy,” according to the legislation.
The Congressional Research Service has reported since the 9/11 terror attacks that “hundreds of individuals have been implicated in more than 50 homegrown violent jihadist plots or attacks,” according to Wolf’s office.
The FBI came under criticism from lawmakers over the weekend for what they say is its failure to have identified Tsarnaev as threat prior to last week’s terrorist bombing.
Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) warned, “this is the latest in a series of cases like this” during an interview Sunday on Fox News.
King said this is just the latest example of the FBI having been “given information about someone as being potential terrorist, they look at them, and then they don’t take action, and then they [the terrorists] go out and carry out murders after this,” King said. “I’m wondering if there’s something deficient here.”
Tsarnaev is suspected of having ties to Chechen Islamists and possibly al Qaeda.
It came to light over the weekend that Tsarnaev had traveled to Dagestan, a Russian territory that is the home to Islamic terrorists.
There have been at least five terrorists, including the Fort Hood shooter, who have gone on to carry out terrorist attacks following contact with the FBI.
Online retail giant Amazon.com is profiting from the sale of speeches and writings by one of the world’s most notorious terrorists despite objections from those who argue the website is facilitating the dissemination of jihadist propaganda.
The worksofterroristmastermind Anwar al-Awlaki are easily purchased in print, CD, and on Kindle e-readers via Amazon’s site.
Al-Awlaki’s materials are not being sold by Amazon directly but via third parties in the Amazon Marketplace, which acts as a clearinghouse for books, videos, and CDs. Amazon acts as an intermediary and facilitates the sale, taking a portion of the proceeds in the process.
Amazon has failed to remove the writings following multiple appeals from United States terrorism experts who argue that the international online store is aiding the spread of terrorism.
The man that federal prosecutors have charged in the bombing last Friday that rocked a Social Security Administration office in Casa Grande, Arizona appeared in federal court in Phoenix on Monday. The suspect, Abdullatif Aldosary, is a 47 year-old Iraqi refugee that was convicted and served eight months in prison in 2008 for making threats against his former employer.
New details have emerged from the criminal complaint filed against Aldosary based on information obtained by the FBI in a search of Aldosary’s home Friday evening.
The new case details include:
1) When they conducted the search warrant, they discovered his bomb making notes behind a photograph on the wall. He had been researching how to obtain ammonium nitrate and also how to make RDX, a powerful explosive favored by international terrorists.
2) They also found a handgun and a rifle with more than a thousand rounds of ammo, although he was prohibited from possessing a firearm after his felony conviction. Felony possession charges may be added to the existing charges from Friday’s explosion.
3) The FBI is also looking into where Aldosary received his income. When they checked his bank account, as recently as September he had $20,000+ in the bank, and yet had no visible means of support. He was a convicted federal felon and an occasional day laborer. He lived in a nice neighborhood in Coolidge, Arizona and bought his house in 2008.
4) During his court hearing yesterday, Aldosary refused to address the court, even refusing to state his name or a plea. His public defender also said that her client refused to speak to her. Aldosary will have another hearing on Wednesday.
Early Tuesday morning I spoke with a contact in the FBI Phoenix field office (who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the FBI) who said that the case is being handled by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The source added that they believe based on the materials found in the house and other items not in the complaint that Friday’s bombing was a “test run” for future attacks. Aldosary was arrested by police within 90 minutes of the bombing because workers at the Social Security office had got his license plate number at the scene.
Keep in mind that the national media had barely covered the incident and had not even identified Aldosary as the suspect until I noted the media blackout in an article I filed Sunday evening. Now the case is receiving national media attention.
We will bring you more details on this case as we have them.
Four Muslim men were charged in southern California last week in a terror plot to attack American targets overseas. Similar to other Islamic terror plots hatched in the U.S. in recent years, the suspects sought to join al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s Los Angeles office, attempted to minimize the significance of the arrests as it related to the American Muslim community. “It is important to keep in mind, that incidents of terrorism are rare, and thankfully this is not something that American Muslims have to deal with,” Ayloush told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
Ayloush characterized the threat of radicalization of American Muslims as minimal.
“The best way to prevent self-marginalization and disenfranchisement is to promote a culture of engagement within a community, especially within the most vulnerable, younger people in such communities and that empowers people and makes them part of a positive change with their society and community,” Ayloush said.
CAIR has a long history of apologetics and obfuscation when it comes to terrorism. The organization similarly has a history of attempting to thwart law enforcement counter-terrorism efforts.
Ayloush has his own history of disparaging law enforcement counter-terrorism efforts when they target Muslims and attacking America’s support for Israel and its posture toward Muslims.
A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report titled “Terrorist Arrests and Plots Stopped in the United States 2009-2012″ identified suspects in terrorism related cases charged by federal authorities. It cited three additional suspects that were not included in the reports “listed” findings; those were the arrests of Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan, Little Rock shooter Abdulhakim Muhammed, and attempted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who were not prevented from attempting or carrying out attacks by the FBI. However, with the identification of those additional three suspects, the total grew to 98.
An analysis of those 98 terror suspects/defendants from the 2009-2012 time period revealed 17 who were not Muslim and not connected to Islamic terror plots. Therefore, nearly 83% of the terror suspects involved in U.S. terror plots from 2009-2012 were, in fact, Muslim.
A report issued by the Department of Justice in 2011 relating to “National Security Division Statistics on Unsealed International Terrorism and Terrorism – Related Convictions 9/11/01 – 3/ 18/10″ identified, after analysis, more than 80 percent of all such convictions tied to international terrorist groups and homegrown terrorism involved defendants driven by a radical Islamist agenda.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report, that overlaps by 2009 and early 2010 with the noted DOJ statistical conviction report, clearly validates and continues the 80+% finding related to the post-9/11 case conviction analysis. These reports confirm that while the vast majority of Muslims in America are not terrorists, the clear and significant majority of terrorist plots and cases identified within the United States involve radicalize Muslims. For Ayloush and his organization to suggest otherwise diverts public attention from the truth.
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In this video of a segment done by Eric Bolling on Fox about the Peter King hearings last March you can see a vivid example of the kind of obfuscation CAIR dishes out. Starting at the 4:45 mark Frank Gaffney does a good job of answering CAIR Civil Rights Director Christina Abraham when she tries to minimize the Muslim role in homegrown terror. She also tries to discredit the findings of the Holy Land Foundation trial that implicate CAIR for it’s support of terror. She even threatens to sue him for defamation.
FOREST, VA—An informant with the New York Police Department (NYPD) , who worked for eight years undercover in Muslim American compounds, reveals that the group known as Muslims of the Americas has been training its members to wage jihad—holy war—against American citizens for decades, and has created a secret jihadi army within the United States.
The undercover informant, Ali Aziz of New York, was drafted by the NYPD to inform on Muslims of the Americas (MOA) as part of a long-term, ongoing surveillance program of potential Islamic terrorist activity conducted by the NYPD.
Aziz, who said he wants to tell his story and put an end to his double life, insists he has given enough information of criminal activity—including guerilla training exercises; stockpiling illegal weapons; welfare fraud; physical abuse of women, children and elderly MOA members; forced polygamous marriages—to law enforcement to shut down the camps.
Aziz’s story is told in a new book published by PRB Publishing, Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terror Training Camps in America, by Christian Action Network President Martin Mawyer. In it, Aziz reveals that MOA has established a secret army of well-trained Islamists who are ready to attack “at one word” from their leader in Pakistan, Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani.
“It’s very simple,” Ali says in the book. “MOA is asleep. They are asleep. They are a bomb.”
MOA was founded in the 1980s by Sheikh Gilani as a front group for the more radical terrorist network known as Jamaat Al Fuqra (“community of the impoverished”). The group has recruited mostly from the black community, beginning in New York City where Gilani began cementing power. Since then, Al Fuqra has been linked to at least 17 terrorist-related crimes in the United States going back to the 1980s, among them welfare fraud, white-collar crimes, gun running, firebombing, drug crimes, weapons crimes and murder.
An Al Fuqra member was convicted in 2009 of murdering a rival imam in Tucson, Ariz., in 1990, after stabbing him at least 19 times. The group was also involved in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and the Day of Terror plot in 1993—in which numerous New York City landmarks, including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, were targeted for attack.
In Twilight in America, Aziz describes his work as an undercover informant for the NYPD, how they promised to make his immigration problems go away if he would provide them with information about his associates within MOA.
“This is what the NYPD had wanted for the past 20 years,” Aziz said of his move to the Hancock, New York, headquarters of MOA. “They wanted someone living inside the Hancock camp who’s an undercover informant.”
Aziz’s martial arts skills were highly valued within MOA, and they drafted him to help train recruits and members. Because of his education and ability to speak both Arabic and English, Aziz worked closely with the MOA leadership, including Hancock leader Barry (Hussein) Adams, who Aziz says will one day become the leader of MOA worldwide.
Crimes committed by MOA members go beyond financial, drug running and thievery, Aziz revealed. “A lot of the children that grow up there become drug dealers. Some become murderers …
“I was providing information to the NYPD about people who committed some very serious crimes. I’m talking about … What is the worse crime you can commit?
“I have evidence … bad people. And people got hurt very badly. And guess what? The crimes haven’t been solved. The NYPD can solve these crimes. They could solve them. They have the evidence.”
It’s unclear how many MOA compounds are in existence today. At one time the State Department identified 35 compounds in rural areas of the United States, including: Philadelphia, Pa.; Fairfax, Va.; Redhouse, Va.; York, S.C.; Commerce, Ga.; Jessup, Ga.; Buena Vista, Co. (raided and shut down in 1992); Baladulla, Ca. (raided and shut down in 2002); and more.
As noted above, several compounds been shut down after law enforcement raids discovered illegal activity being conducted. Others have purposely disbanded, according to Aziz, with members assimilating into nearby neighborhoods. This is what Aziz meant when he said “they are asleep,” according to the author.
The most shocking revelation came when Aziz told the author of Twilight in America that MOA has formed a secret army within the United States ready to carry out Sheikh Gilani’s orders. Although he said MOA no longer does “mass military training” at its camps—because they know they are being watched by law enforcement—they still have members ready to be called up.
“It’s like a formed military squad,” Aziz says in the book. “It’s certain groups. Certain individuals. Certain names. Certain guys. It is a very, very select group they have. It’s a lot of people. But it’s not like they train every day. It’s various people training in different positions.”
Twilight in America also delves into the kidnapping, beheading and dismemberment in 2002 of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Pearl was in Pakistan investigating links between the shoebomber (Richard Reid) and Al Fuqra/MOA. Pearl was on his way to an interview in Pakistan with Sheikh Gilani when he was kidnapped. Although Gilani was briefly detained and questioned in 2002 in Pakistan following Pearl’s death, he was released and never charged. In his book, Mawyer researches the links between the self-confessed murderer of Pearl, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Gilani and other terrorists involved in the kidnapping.
“Muslims of the Americas pretends to be a peaceful organization of poor Muslims who want to live separated from the rest of the world, free to practice their religion away from American influences,” says author Mawyer. “Nothing could be further from the truth. There are so many connections to terrorist activity, not to mention connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and proven, prosecuted acts of terrorism, white-collar crime and outright murder, that law enforcement needs to shut these camps down.”
Mawyer believes the information provided by Aziz, as well as other undercover informants, is more than enough to raid the camps, rescue the abused members, and shut them down—but law enforcement at all levels is afraid to act against them for fear of being labeled anti-Muslim.
“I hope this book is a wake-up call to American citizens,” said Mawyer. “It is not a question of being anti-Muslim to investigate and shut these camps. It is a question of being anti-terrorism … and keeping America safe.”
Mawyer is the founder and President of Christian Action Network, a non-profit public advocacy and education group based in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mawyer has authored several books, including Silent Shame, The Pro-Family Contract With America and Pathways to Success. He has also produced a number of documentary films, including Homegrown Jihad,Islam Rising, Sacrificed Survivors and America’s Islamic Threat. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Larry King Live, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, NBC’s Today Show and Entertainment Tonight.
Co-Author Patti A. Pierucci is an award-winning journalist and documentary scriptwriter. She has worked as a ghostwriter for numerous national personalities, including members of Congress.
A congressional probe into the Fort Hood massacre is now directed at the top of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as questions brew over whether a senior FBI official misled lawmakers in testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science responsible for funding the FBI, had asked Director Robert Mueller to come testify at an Aug. 1 hearing on the Webster Commission report into the November 2009 shootings, but the bureau sent Mark Giuliano, the FBI’s executive assistant director for national security.
The trial of Army Major Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 at Fort Hood, is expected to begin next week. Proceedings have been delayed by the question of whether or not the court can force him to shave his beard for trial.
In a lengthy letter to Mueller yesterday, Wolf raised concerns that Giuliano “made comments to the committee that I believe were misleading or incorrect with regard to the nature of findings in the Webster Commission report and the FBI’s understanding of Anwar Aulaqi at various points over the last decade.”
In all, Wolf singled out six troubling statements from the FBI official as “potentially misleading, uninformed or incomplete.”
At the hearing, Wolf grilled Giuliano on whether political correctness led to agents being gun-shy about aggressively pursing Hasan’s links with Islamic extremists.
“The report did not find political correctness was in any way, shape, or form responsible for his lack of going forward with the interview,” Giuliano responded.
But the Webster Commission report, requisitioned by the FBI and led by former FBI Director William H. Webster, says on two pages that the San Diego officers who reported suspicions about Hasan were told by officials in Washington that “political sensitivities” were a factor in the office’s decision not to investigate Hasan further.
“I repeatedly asked Mr. Giuiliano to cite the section of the report that found that there was no political correctness ‘in any way, shape, or form,’ but he refused. When I confronted him about misleading the committee, he admitted that I was correct on that point,” Wolf wrote in the letter to Mueller. “Later in the hearing reversed again and said that he and I just ‘disagree’ on that point.”
Wolf also noted that Giuliano’s assertion that Hasan and al-Awlaki never met in Virginia has been countered by numerous media reports stating that Hasan met his mentor in 2001 when the cleric presided over his mother’s funeral. “Please confirm for the record whether or not Maj. Hasan and Aulaqi met while he served as imam for the Dar al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia,” Wolf asked. “If so, please provide a summary of the FBI’s full understanding of their encounters, including the funeral.”
The third point of contention involves the FBI official classifying al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who became a recruiter for al-Qaeda in Yemen, as a “propagandist.”
Giuliano characterized the terrorist as such when refusing to answer a committee question on whether violent Islamic extremism was at the root of the Fort Hood massacre.
Under questioning from ranking member Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), Giuliano said that al-Awlaki “changed and he changed a lot over the years. When he went to prison in Yemen in, you know, ’06, ’07 and as he came out and came back up online in early ’08, he still had somewhat of a moderate tone but – but began to be more of a propagandist, began to show more radical tendencies, but we could not and the [Intelligence Committee] did not see him as operational or in an operational role at that time.”
“This statement, quite simply, is fundamentally false,” Wolf wrote, citing a 2008 Washington Post article in which a U.S. counterterrorism official said there was good reason to believe al-Awlaki “has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States” — the same time period in which the FBI official said he “still had somewhat of a moderate tone.”
Al-Awlaki also had amassed a lengthy record of radical writings by this time, including praise of the 9/11 hijackers and Palestinian suicide bombers — far from a “moderate” tone. He even wrote of his own radicalization path, beginning with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, for al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine shortly before his death.
The Webster Commission report, Wolf pointed out, specifically notes that at least certain sections of the bureau perceived the threat posed by Awlaki around 2009 as more serious than a mere “propagandist” or radicalizer, and the Treasury Department noted al-Awlaki’s operational role in terrorist activities in announcing his July 2010 placement on the sanctions list.
Citing additional evidence from an NYPD analysis on al-Awlaki, which showed even more terror ties, Wolf said that as early as 14 years ago the FBI was keeping a sharp eye on the radical cleric — which made Giuliano’s assertions all the more confusing.
“Given this public information demonstrating Aulaqi’s long history with al-Qaeda-affiliated groups and multiple bureau investigations, please confirm for the record whether the bureau viewed Aulaqi only as ‘propagandist’ with a ‘moderate tone’ as late as 2008, or in fact regarded him as a more complex and substantial threat than Mr. Giuliano described?” Wolf wrote.
The German state of Lower Saxony has published a practical guide to extremist Islam to help citizens identify tell-tale signs of Muslims who are becoming radicalized.
Security officials say the objective of the document is to mitigate the threat of home-grown terrorist attacks by educating Germans about radical Islam and encouraging them to refer suspected Islamic extremists to the authorities.
The move reflects mounting concern in Germany over the growing assertiveness of Salafist Muslims, who openly state that they want to establish Islamic Sharia law in the country and across Europe.
The document states: “The threat posed by Islamic terrorist organizations continues apace, and the risk of radicalization and recruitment by Islamists continues unabated. Young Muslims are being courted by Islamist propaganda. The threat level in Western countries has escalated to a higher level. A particular risk increasingly stems from self-radicalized individuals or small groups without formal networks of connections. This poses special problems for law enforcement. The long-term strategic objective of these Islamist organizations is to destabilize democratically and liberally oriented states and to influence political decision-making.”
The document continues: “Islamist terrorism poses a significant threat to the internal security of Germany. National security authorities have identified at least 235 Islamists with German citizenship who have sought or received paramilitary training in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. It is assumed that more than half of these individuals have returned to Germany. Of these, approximately ten are currently in prison. There is a very real danger that these individuals have returned to Germany with the aim of committing acts of terrorism.”
According to the report, German security agencies estimate that approximately 1,140 individuals living in Germany pose a high risk of becoming Islamic terrorists. The document also states that up to 100,000 native Germans have converted to Islam in recent years, and that “intelligence analysis has found that converts are especially susceptible to radicalization…Security officials believe that converts comprise between five to ten percent of the Salafists.”
The document provides a frank assessment of political Islam. It describes Islamism as “a political ideology that disputes the constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany. Unlike secular extremist ideologies like Communism or National Socialism, which are not based on religious ideas, Islamism is based on the religion of Islam. At the core, Islamists advocate a politicized form of Islam. Religion for them is not only an individual matter of faith, but Islam is seen as a comprehensive political-religious societal concept. Islamist organizations and movements, despite their differences, all seek to create societies based on the legal system of Sharia. This law divides people according to their beliefs, their gender and their relationship to the Islamic state in different legal categories. It rejects the idea of democratically legitimized governance, particularly by non-Muslims over Muslims, because only Allah is recognized as a sovereign. Thus Islamism, with its strict commitment to Sharia, is directed against the Constitution and the rights and freedoms guaranteed therein, equality and respect for human rights. The Islamic idea of a theocratic state and social system is also opposed to the principle of popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.”
The document also includes a list of 26 “possible characteristics of radicalization processes” to help German citizens identify potential radicalization.
Some of the items on the list include: “critical questions about Islam are viewed as an attack on the addressed person or group; questioning certain views on the interpretation of Islam is interpreted as a betrayal of the group; increasingly stringent interpretation of religion; rejection or aggression against anything “Western;” Islam is the solution, the so-called Western world is seen as the cause for all the problems; dualistic worldview, applying a strict friend-foe schema; repeating Islamist slogans; religious strictness is required of the entire society; Muslims with different orientation (that is, Shiites) are called infidels.”
Other items on the list include: “visiting radical mosques or Islamic or preachers; participating in religious seminaries with radical preachers; solidifying contacts with other radical extremists and individuals; visiting Islamist websites; watching films that promote violent jihad; increasing willingness to aggressively and violently enforce religious or religiously colored political claims on others (possibly by also increasing interest in weapons); potentially criminal activity against property and persons with reference to the inferiority of the so-called infidels and/or committed to harm the alleged enemies of Islam; implementation of survival training, combat training or similar paramilitary activities; frequent and/or lengthy trips to countries with majority Muslim populations, particularly language classes, visits to paramilitary training camps; preoccupation with life after death or martyrdom; changes in financial position (no verifiable income or sudden debt).”
Not surprisingly, the document has been greeted with outrage by Muslims, who have accused the government of Lower Saxony of “scare-mongering.” The opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) has described it as “absurd” and “outrageous.”
Interior Minister Uwe Schünemann has rejected the criticism; he says he has no intention of withdrawing the document, which is part of a concerted strategy by German officials to step up their monitoring of Salafist groups after a series of violent clashes with police.
Soeren Kern is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI was too concerned about political correctness and did not launch an investigation into a man who was later charged with killing 13 people in the 2009 attack in Fort Hood, Texas, despite significant warning signs that he was an Islamic extremist bent on killing civilians, according to a lawmaker briefed on a new report about the terrorist attack.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
In emails to a known terrorist, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan expressed his support for suicide bombings and killing civilians, while the terrorist, Anwar al-Awlaki, encouraged Hasan to stay in touch, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told The Associated Press Wednesday after he was briefed on the findings of a new review of the attack.
The review was done by former FBI Director William Webster and was more than two years in the making. FBI Director Robert Mueller asked that Webster conduct an independent review, and the bureau is expected to release an unclassified version this week.
Much was already known about the series of oversights and missteps the government made leading to the terror attack at the Fort Hood Army post. Soon after the attack, it was revealed that members of two FBI anti-terrorism task forces saw emails between the Army psychiatrist and al-Awlaki beginning in December 2008. Those task forces reviewed the communications and decided they were in keeping with Hasan’s research at the time, and as a result, no formal investigation of Hasan was opened. Hasan was writing a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But McCaul said Webster’s report offers some new details that show the FBI was concerned about investigating an American Muslim in the military, and that is why an investigation was not pursued.
The FBI in San Diego had been investigating al-Awlaki, a former San Diego resident, for his possible connections to the 9/11 hijackers. When agents saw emails between Hasan and al-Awlaki, they asked the FBI‘s Washington office to talk to Hasan’s bosses, according to a government official briefed on the findings who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the Webster report. But the Washington agents thought that interviewing American Muslims who visit extremist websites was a sensitive issue and did not reach out to Hasan’s bosses at the Defense Department, the official said.
“It shows you the length of the political correctness stuff going on,” McCaul said after he was briefed on the findings of the independent review Wednesday.
On June 1, 2009, William “Andy” Long was murdered at an Army recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas by an Islamist terrorist named Carlos Bledsoe. In a new, heart-wrenching and jaw-dropping film titled Losing Our Sons by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, you see the real story of how this happened. The bottom line is this: The Islamists are operating in our midst, we’re refusing to recognize it, radicalization is no accident and any family can be victimized by it.
The process of Islamist radicalization unfolds before the viewer as the story is told through the eyes of Melvin Beldsoe and Daris Long, the father of the Islamist terrorist and the father of his victim, making the film a powerful emotional journey. Both of them lost their sons at the exact same moment, they explain. The attack wasn’t the result of statistics. Beldsoe wasn’t the inevitable “bad apple” in a large group. This was the fruition of a jihadist process that continues in Nashville and around the world today.
Beldsoe was exposed to radical Islam at Tennessee State University. The school allowed an organization called the Olive Tree Education to host lectures about Islam on campus. The organization’s website promoted sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki and its leader teaches that Muslims must oppose “progressive Islam” that believes Islam isn’t a “state matter.” Muslims are not allowed to have opinions and must form a “reaction to Westernization” that involves implementing Sharia Law. In one clip, the leader is asked whether homosexuality is punishable by death under Islam. He replies in the affirmative.
Bledsoe began going to the Islamic Center of Nashville (ICN). He began following the medieval rules of Sharia Law in his own life, viewing them as applicable to today. He was a dog-lover but abandoned his dog in the woods. He loved hip-hop but stopped listening to it. He took down his picture of Martin Luther King, lest Allah view that as a sign of idolatry.
It’s easy to see why that happened when you see the clips of the ICM’s imam in the film. He preaches that the U.S. is the “worst country on earth,” that “the greatest lie of all time” is that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that Jews believe everyone was solely created to serve them and that Islamic prophecy about a “mass battle and war against the Jews” is coming to pass. The mosque’s library has pro-jihad hate literature funded by the Saudis.
He also attended the Al-Farooq Mosque. Its leadership preached similar extremism to its congregation consisting of mostly Somali refugees. In 2009, I broke a story about counter-terrorism expert Dave Gaubatz’s research into child abuse at the mosque. The former imam of the mosque is the one who provided the required recommendation for Bledsoe to go to Yemen where he was further radicalized and joined Al-Qaeda.
Over 40 Muslim-Americans, almost entirely Somalis, have been recruited by Al-Qaeda. In places like Shelbyville, T.N., where there is a large Somali refugee population, there is tremendous resistance to assimilation. A former CIA case officer’s study of terrorist profiles found that exclusion from society is one of the largest factors in Islamist radicalization. Bledsoe likewise became reclusive and rejected Western society. The film takes aim at the State Department’s $1 billion refugee program and granting of visas to visiting extremist clergy as facilitating the problem.
One part of the film that will enrage viewers is when it shows how government officials are refusing to recognize the Islamist ideology as the problem. The two fathers were excited to speak at Rep. Peter King’s hearings on Islamic radicalization but were condescendingly talked to by several members of Congress. Bledsoe, frustrated with the political correctness in dealing with the Islamist issue, says, “We’re worried about stepping on their toes and they are worried about stamping us out.”
The part of the film that made me shake my head in bewilderment was about how interfaith leaders are embracing the Islamist networks in the Nashville area. One rabbi stood with them against a counter-terrorism law and said Muslim-Americans are in the same position now as Jewish-Germans were when Hitler first came to power.
Ryan Mauro is Family Security Matters’ national security analyst. He is a fellow with RadicalIslam.org, the founder of WorldThreats.com and a frequent national security analyst for Fox News Channel. He can be contacted at ryanmauro1986@gmail.com.
Stakelbeck on Terror Show: Losing Our Sons to Jihad – CBN.com
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The Virginia-based Christian Action Network’s recent publication of a book documenting the history of investigations and successful prosecutions against employees of the syndicate prompted the lawsuit. CAN reports that Susan Fenger, a fraud examiner who spearheaded the investigations into MOA in the 1990s, has agreed to testify in CAN’s behalf if the defamation and libel suit goes to trial.
