Former Defense IG Blasts Chaplain Vetting

A former Defense Department (DoD) inspector-general is urging Congress to reform the Pentagon's vetting process for military chaplains, calling current procedures a potential risk to national security.

In a letter sent last month to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and obtained by Fox News, former Inspector-General Joseph Schmitz raised concerns about the continuing role of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) as one of two endorsing agents for military chaplains. Schmitz pointed to ISNA's inclusion as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror case, saying that it "suggests that terrorist organizations can and do disguise themselves as charitable organizations."

Schmitz also noted that Louay Safi, ISNA's former endorsing agent, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism trial of Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to one count of raising funds for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization. Safi had appeared on the Defense Department's website listing ecclesiastical agents until approximately two weeks ago. He told FoxNews.com that he has "left ISNA and moved on to another career."

In his letter, Schmitz cited the case of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, currently on trial for the murders of 13 fellow soldiers at a Fort Hood, Texas military base last November. Observing that Hasan had acted as a Muslim lay leader and received training from an approved civilian religious group involved with the DoD chaplain program, Schmitz wrote that the case "demonstrates that international terrorist organizations can also try to disguise their agents as chaplains and religious lay leaders."

In 2004, Schmitz made a series of recommendations for vetting chaplain nominees which were not implemented by the Pentagon. In his Nov. 8 letter to Feinstein, he wrote that he had recommended establishing nonreligious criteria to justify removing religious organizations from the chaplaincy program. But his suggestions - which included barring groups that advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and those listed on a watch list as terrorist organizations - were rejected as "legally problematic" by the Armed Forces Chaplains Board.

A DoD spokesman said that some of Schmitz's recommendations have since been implemented. For example, religious organizations can be rejected if they are under indictment and or if they appear on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

But those changes don't go far enough, Schmitz says. "Somebody ought to challenge the DoD on precisely how it vets its chaplains as well as its chaplain 'endorsing agents' to ensure non-complicity in terrorism or criminal activities, and who, if anyone, vetted Major Nidal Hasan as a so-called 'Muslim lay leader' at Fort Hood," he wrote in his letter to Feinstein.

Read more about the military chaplain program here, here and here.

New Charges in NYC Subway Bomb Plot

The father of subway terror plotter Najibullah Zazi faces additional charges for his alleged attempts to cover up his son's crimes. The additional counts include obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and making false statements to the FBI.

According to federal prosecutors, Mohammed Wali Zazi was more involved in his son's plot against the New York City subway than previously disclosed. During the course of their investigation, federal investigators spoke with Zazi about his son's involvement in the case and the role that a local Imam may have had in tipping off the conspirators.

Zazi allgeedly lied to law enforcement officials about his contacts with both his son and Imam Afzali. He also allegedly destroyed evidence, including masks, chemicals, and other objects related to the plan to construct explosive devices for deployment throughout the subway system.

In February, Najibullah Zazi pled guilty to masterminding the plot and has since been cooperating with law investigators. His co-conspirator, Zarein Ahmedzay pled guilty in April of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization—namely al Qaida. Imam Afzali pled guilty to tipping off Najibullah Zazi. Following his plea, Afzali was deported.

The superseding indictment follows obstruction of justice charges filed in January. Zazi pled not guilty to those charges and is scheduled to appear in federal court on December 9 to be arraigned on the new charges.

Iranian Nuclear Fronts Designated

The United States Treasury has announced the designation and blacklisting of a number of businesses that have been serving as fronts for the Iranian government's nuclear program.

It is the latest in a continuing policy to identify and shut down the extensive network of front organizations that the Iranian government uses to surreptitiously fund and operate its illicit weapons program. The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and Bank Mellat have been previously designated for their roles in funneling weapons parts and financial resources to the nuclear program.

"As long as Iran uses front companies, cut-outs, and other forms of deception to hide its illicit activities, we intend to expose this conduct and thereby counteract Iran's attempts to evade U.S. and international sanctions," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. "Today's actions will help governments, banks, and other private companies around the world ensure that they do not inadvertently facilitate Iran's proliferation and support for terrorism."

A Muslim Call for Airport Profiling

Throughout her career, journalist Asra Q. Nomani has never shied away from challenging conventional wisdom among Muslims when it comes to Islamist extremism and the threat of terrorism.

In her latest article at the Daily Beast website, Nomani makes the argument for airline profiling based on religious and ethnic backgrounds. Citing academic research and nearly a quarter-century of Islamist driven airline bombing plots, including World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef's work with al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up a dozen airplanes to the attempted Christmas Day bombing over Detroit last year, the most likely threats to airplanes share certain traits, she said. It's an extension of an argument she made during a debate last week.

"In the debate, I said, 'Profile me. Profile my family,' Nomani writes, "because, in my eyes, we in the Muslim community have failed to police ourselves."

She acknowledges "this is an issue of great distress to many people," but points to emerging data shows that a large portion of terror cases involve Muslims who "trace their national or ethnic identity back to specific countries."

That shouldn't be ignored, even if it creates disproportionate attention on certain travelers.

According to audience responses, Nomani and her colleagues prevailed over an estimable trio which argued against religious and racial profiling for airline safety. Among them, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. They argued that such profiling is ineffective and counter-productive. Behavior is a better indicator, they argued.

After the failed Christmas Day attack, Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson advocated "smart screening," which would combine the two approaches by including factors such as behavioral signs and appearance along with ethnicity and religious identity.

You can read Nomani's full article here, and see last week's Intelligence Squared debate here.

Report Highlights Islamist Intimidation in French Schools

The secular nature of France's public school system is being undercut by some Muslim students and parents, according to a new report issued by the High Council for Integration (HCI), a French government agency which monitors the integration of foreign residents.

HCI officials visited more than 200 schools during the past few months and met with education staff involved in teaching foreign residents. The agency's French-language report, entitled "Taking up the Challenges of Integration in Schools," paints a troubling picture with regard to the education of Muslims in France. The report, summarized in this account published by Hudson-New York, suggests that an atmosphere of intimidation fostered by Islamists has rendered numerous important subjects off-limits in French schools.

Muslim parents and pupils are pressuring educators into silence about the Holocaust and Christianity, the HCI report said. "Teachers regularly find that Muslim parents refuse to have their children learn about Christianity."

According to the HCI report, "anti-Semitism surfaces during courses about the Holocaust, such as inappropriate jokes and refusals to watch films" about Nazi concentration camps. "Tensions often come from pupils who identify themselves as Muslims," the report added.

While teachers are able to discuss the trans-Atlantic slave trade without disruption, they face harsh criticism when they bring up the history of slavery in Africa or the Middle East. During Ramadan, some Muslim students harass others who fail to observe the daytime fast, and Muslim youths who reject French values harass girls who do well in class, calling them "collaborators" with the "dirty French."

Illiteracy is very high among Muslim immigrants, the report noted. Some of them begin primary school with a vocabulary of just 400 words, compared to 1,500 for children from native French families. Many immigrant parents arrive with little or no education and have little interest in having their children obtain a "French" education.

The study suggests that many teachers are demoralized by the knowledge that their classroom efforts to integrate Muslim children into French life are being undermined when the children go home at night. Teachers are forced to alter lesson plans due to threats and violence from children, undermining efforts to impose discipline in general.

Read the Hudson Institute's full report on the HCI findings here.

FBI Arrests Oregon Teen in Bomb Attempt

Federal law enforcement official thwarted an attempt Friday by a Somalia-born U.S. citizen to explode a bomb during a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., the FBI announced.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, of Corvallis, Ore., was arrested at about 5:40 p.m. PST after he attempted to detonate a van loaded with explosives in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. However, undercover FBI agents had been working with Mohamud during his months-long plot, and the explosives were inert, the FBI said.

Mohamud is expected to appear in federal court for the first time on Monday. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, the FBI said.

While Mohamud is from Somalia, the FBI affidavit said he was first noticed after he tried to contact an unknown associate in Pakistan by email in August 2009. Mohamud originally planned to travel to Pakistan to wage jihad, the FBI said, but those plans didn't pan out. In June, an undercover FBI operative contacted Mohamud in the guise of being an associate of the unknown Pakistani contact.

"At this meeting, Mohamud allegedly told the FBI undercover operative that he had written articles that were published in Jihad Recollections, an online magazine that advocated violent jihad," the FBI said. "Mohamud also indicated that he wanted to become 'operational.' Asked what he meant by 'operational,' Mohamud stated that he wanted to put an 'explosion' together, but needed help."

Friday's arrest is one in a recent string of cases involving homegrown terrorism plots. In October, Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Farooque Ahmed was arrested for plotting to blow up the Washington, D.C., Metro system. In May, Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested for trying to blow a car bomb in New York's Times Square. He was sentenced to life in prison in October.

Treasury Targets Lashkar-E Tayyiba Financial Network

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated three senior members and financiers of Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based terrorist organization, in a new effort to stem the group's funding.

The three members were Hafiz Abdur Rauf, a member of LeT's senior leadership and head of the group's Falah-i Insaniat Foundation (FiF); Mian Abdullah, the head of LeT's Traders' Department and former chief of the group's training camps; and Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan, a key financial facilitator for LeT through smuggling and international counterfeiting operations.

The move makes clear American intentions to expand its sanctions against groups like FiF, who blur the lines between independent aid groups and terrorist fundraisers. As pressure mounted on LeT following its major terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008, FiF's chief Hafiz Abdur Rauf raised money for the terror group under the FiF alias. In addition, Rauf operated in several senior leadership positions for LeT, including spokesperson, director of humanitarian eelief, and director of public service.

The designation of Mian Abdullah also provides a clear warning to Pakistan's business community to cease its connection with LeT. As leader of LeT's Traders' Department, Abdullah was a key liaison between Pakistani businessmen and the terrorist organization. He also headed the group's training camps in early 2009.

LeT has built a name for itself through its international campaign of terror and massacres, primarily on Indian and non-Muslim targets in the disputed Kashmir province and abroad. An IPT special report about the group can be read here.

Al-Qaida Threats Cause Rise in Security Level

A U.S. official has told CNN that security concerns have risen since the recent publication of an al-Qaida magazine outlining the construction of new explosives. Despite this, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) declares that there are no specific terror threats targeting holiday weekend travelers.

The latest issue of Inspire, al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) English language magazine and guide for aspiring terrorists contains an article, "Technical Details," in which AQAP explosives expert Ikrimah al-Muhajir outlines the construction of a relatively new type of bomb constructed from PETN. This material, along with other security evasion techniques, creates a device that is difficult to detect with traditional security measures. The magazine also boasts that the explosive has been tested in real terror attempts, namely the October 29^th cargo plane bomb plot and the downing of a UPS aircraft in September.

CNN's unnamed government official also expressed concerns about al-Qaida's new "strategy of a thousand cuts." The organization has expressed its desire to use a wider range of small-scale attacks, capitalizing on the use of small, cheap explosives sent through the mail.

Although AQAP's new strategy deliberately uses remote-controlled devices that Inspire magazine says "do not require us to put a mujahid on board a plane," TSA is taking no chances. Administrator John Pistole defended the enhanced use of body image scanners and full pat-downs. Recent restrictions also prevent passengers from flying with toner cartridges, the explosive casing used in the most recent plot.

An IPT article about Inspire magazine's recent threats can be accessed here.

CBC Report Goes Inside Hariri Investigation

Reports continue to indicate that the United Nations tribunal investigating the 2005 car-bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is poised to indict several Hizballah members before year's end.

A CBC documentary which aired this week offers insights into the investigation's sometimes troubled path and offers a pessimistic assessment of whether anyone will be brought to justice as a result.

Reporter Neil Macdonald interviewed a half-dozen sources tied to the tribunal, finding that a Lebanese security official considered a suspect was never fully investigated. And he spotlights the detective work by Lebanese police Capt. Wissam Eid. Working independently, Eid compiled a database of all cellular telephone use in Beirut in the weeks leading up to the bombing. He identified a core group of "red phones" belonging to members of a hit squad that had been tracking Hariri's movements.

"Eid's work would also lead to another discovery: Everything connected, however elliptically, to land lines inside Hezbollah's Great Prophet Hospital in South Beirut, a sector of the city entirely controlled by the Party of God," Macdonald reports.

A Hizballah official called Eid directly, telling him the telephones he identified were part of an effort to track Israeli spies "and that he needed to back off," Macdonald reports.

Tribunal officials lost their copy of Eid's work, which then was ignored for two years. They finally met with him in January 2008 and were impressed by his work. Eight days later, he was killed in a car-bombing.

UN officials reacted angrily to Macdonald's disclosures, saying they could have placed people at risk. They didn't say the stories were incorrect. That may have as much to do with the fact that sources inside the investigation criticized it for being at times timid and poorly managed.

There are concerns that Hizballah might react violently to any indictments. With the future uncertain, Macdonald's reporting stands out for its detail and the quality of its sourcing. It's worth reading and viewing as an objective assessment of what happened in the murder of Hariri and 22 others in 2005, and why, five years later, nothing has been done. See the CBC stories here.

Seda Sentencing Still Pending

A day-long sentencing hearing for a man convicted of tax evasion in a case linked to Chechen terrorists ended Tuesday without a ruling. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan indicated the hearing will resume next month after he researches some legal issues.

At issue is a government attempt to add a "terrorism enhancement" to Pete Seda's sentencing guidelines. Seda was convicted in September of filing a false tax return to hide $130,000 in traveler's checks routed through his Oregon charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, that may have ended up in the hands of Chechen militants.

During Tuesday's hearing, a Russian security official testified via video feed. Sergey Nikolayevich Ignatchenko told the court that Al-Haramain financed Chechen terrorist training camps. He also said he heard wiretapped telephone calls in which an Al-Haramain leader and a Chechen militant discussed shipping weapons including machine guns and an anti-tank grenade launcher.

But Ignatchenko acknowledged not knowing anything about Seda or the Oregon chapter of Al-Haramain.

Exhibits admitted into evidence during Seda's trial show Seda accepted a large donation intended to support "our Muslim brothers in Chychnia," and then surreptitiously shifted the money to Saudi Arabia in the form of difficult-to-trace traveler's checks. Officials could not trace the money's ultimate destination once it was sent abroad.

Seda could face eight years in prison if the terrorism enhancement is applied. Defense attorneys are asking for a sentence of six months in prison. Before the hearing adjourned, Seda told the court he did not support terrorism and that he "tried my best to keep my eye on the prize of coexistence."

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