CAIR Blasts Investigation for Not Agreeing with Them

Leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Michigan chapter are blasting a Justice Department review of last year's shooting death of a Detroit imam after the review found agents acted appropriately.

CAIR officials have spent the past year trying to cast the shooting as unjust and excessive. They were joined at a news conference Thursday by leaders of several community groups and Imam Luqman Abdullah's son. Dawud Walid, CAIR's Michigan director, called the DOJ review "superficial and incomplete" and demanded the Justice Department examine the tactics used in the arrest, which featured SWAT teams and officers from numerous agencies.

The DOJ investigation, as probes by the Michigan Attorney General and Dearborn police before it, made it clear that Abdullah's history of threatening law enforcement and other inflammatory rhetoric was at the forefront of agents' thinking. Still, Walid and CAIR attorney Lena Masri cast the "military-type operation" as excessive and something that should be reserved for terrorists or drug kingpins.

"We pray that not a single American will ever again lose their life at the hands of law enforcement officers in an overblown military type raid," Walid said.

Though he was not charged with terror-related crimes, Abdullah preached offensive jihad and dreamed of creating a break-away Islamic nation inside the United States, the criminal complaint against him said.

None of the speakers at Thursday's news conference acknowledged that Abdullah's decisions not to peacefully surrender led to his death. Nor did they acknowledge that four other suspects did comply with agents' commands during the arrests and were unharmed.

Videotapes show Abdullah first tried to run off as agents moved in. When he did lie down as instructed, he kept his hands under his torso despite repeated instructions to show them, agents' statements said. The video then shows one agent release an FBI dog, then flinch – indicating when Abdullah opened fire – then showed the agents fire back. The dog was shot in the chest three times by 9 mm bullets.

Agents found a Glock 9mm handgun next to Abdullah after the shooting. It had three bullets missing from its 17-bullet clip. When they searched Abdullah's home, agents found "the same brands of 9mm ammunition" which killed the dog.

Masri, however, cited the absence of fingerprints on the gun among factors that she said left that version open to question: echoed. "There is absolutely no evidence that the imam even held a gun, let alone fired it," said Masri, who also represents the Abdullah family.

That begs a question none of the assembled reporters thought to ask: If your suspicions are correct, who killed the dog?

For there to be wrongdoing, agents would have had to shoot their own dog without being seen on video and plant the gun next to Abdullah's body without the other suspects seeing. The suspects arrested that day still face prosecution and have refused to answer investigators' questions.

That's a pretty sophisticated scam for agents who, the report notes, never have "been the subject of a civil rights complaint nor had any previously fired his weapon at another person."

For CAIR's outrage to be justified, the Dearborn Police Department, Michigan's attorney general and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice all have conspired to conceal wrongdoing by FBI agents. Or maybe, a man who made repeated threats to shoot police officers rather than go peacefully tried to live up to his word.

More Problematic Congressional Prayer Leaders

When it comes to leading prayers on Capitol Hill, the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association doesn't seem to discriminate. Published reports and the group's own leaders indicate they have allowed at least three Muslim clerics with radical or terrorist ties to lead prayers for up to 100 staffers.

Prayer leaders have included Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen who is now preaching violence against America from his hideout in Yemen; Anwar Hajjaj, a leader of the Taibah International Aid Association, a charity shut down by the Treasury Department for supporting al-Qaida; Esam Omeish, a former head of the Muslim American Society who preached "the jihad way."

Also appearing at some of these prayer sessions were Nihad Awad, leader of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which was named as unindicted coconspirator in a Hamas-funding case; and Ahmed Bedier, the past director of the CAIR chapter in Tampa. Prosecutors say CAIR was "a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew."

The New York Post reported last month that Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., supported Hajjaj when he complained about scrutiny of his activities by the Department of Homeland Security. That story mentioned Hajjaj's preaching on the Hill. The Investigative Project on Terrorism supplied information to the Post for that story and also has video from Awlaki's 2002 session before CMSA.

Patrick Poole reported Thursday that Hajjaj led prayers on Capitol Hill as recently as April.

In April, the newspaper Roll Call reported that Omeish had led prayer services at the Capitol. In 2007, Omeish was forced to resign from a Virginia immigration panel after IPT video surfaced which showed Omeish, a leader of the Dal al-Hijrah Mosque in Fairfax, Va., praising Palestinians for choosing "the jihad way" to liberation in a 2000 speech.

IARA Money Prompts Request for Fellowship Foundation Probe

The Fellowship Foundation, a religious group that sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast, received money six years ago from the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), a defunct Islamic Missouri-based group that was raided by federal agents in October 2004, the Washington Post reports.

A group of Ohio pastors, part of a group called Clergy Voice, wrote a letter to the IRS commissioner on Wednesday requesting an investigation into the Fellowship Foundation for violating its tax-exempt status. The Foundation, based in Arlington, acknowledged that it received two checks for $25,000 in May and June 2004 from the Islamic American Relief Agency.

IARA and several of its former employees were indicted in March, 2007 for illegally transferring money to Iraq, falsely denying that an associate of Osama Bin Laden was an employee of IARA, among other charges. Mubarak Hamed, IARA's former chief executive, pled guilty to three counts of the federal indictment in June of this year. His guilty plea reveals that Hamed sent a $25,000 check to the International Foundation in May, 2004. Richard E. Carver, president of the Fellowship Foundation, said the International Foundation is another name for his group.

The check covered the lobbying work of former Congressman Mark Deli Siljander (R-Michigan). In January 2004, a United States Senate Finance Committee list identifying charities suspected of funding terrorism included IARA. Hamed hired Siljander a few months later to try to get IARA removed from the list. Hamed transferred money from IARA to non-profits, including the Fellowship Foundation, which was then given to Siljander.

Siljander pled guilty in July to obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of IARA. He was an "associate" of the Foundation, Carver said, and it has been the practice of the organization to process donations for its associates and affiliated ministries.

The money given to the Foundation "probably came in at a time when nobody thought there was a reason for Mark to do something" wrong, Carver said.

Clergy Voice questioned whether some of the money the Foundation received from IARA could have been used to fund overseas trips by members of Congress. But Carver sent a statement to the Department of Justice by the group's accountant saying that "100 percent of the funds [from IARA]…were distributed" in Siljander's wages and benefits.

The Foundation has tightened its vetting of the group's donors and "hopefully, we would not see a repeat of this kind of experience," Carver said Wednesday.

Reza Kahlili: The Islamic Revolution's Victory Lap

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's trip to Lebanon is a victory lap for the Islamic regime in his country, observes former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member turned CIA agent Reza Kahlili. In an op-ed column for the Washington Times, Kahlili notes that the tour is a "historic point for the Islamic regime in Iran" and "its victory over Israel and the West in gaining control of Lebanon. This reinforces for the Iranians that their philosophy of radicalism and strategy of terrorism have big payoffs."

Kahlili goes on to describe his personal experience as a member of the Revolutionary Guard, the elite force of Iran tasked with liberating Islamic territories and spearheading the advance of the revolution throughout the Muslim and non-Muslim world. As he puts it, the Guard was dispatched by supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "to take the fight to the Americans and Israelis and expand their operation in Lebanon." Its order was to recruit and train a fighting force more "committed to martyrdom and the destruction of Israel and America" than the preexisting Shiite militia of Amal.

With planeloads of arms, explosives, and officers, Kahlili claims that it was Iran who forged the terrorist movements Islamic Jihad and Hizballah. These resources would start several wars between Israel and Lebanon, lead to the 1983 bombing of the US Marine headquarters in Beirut, and project Iranian influence into Lebanon, the Middle East's most pluralistic but fragmented nation.

The departure of American forces from Lebanon, following the deaths of 241 Marines in the Beirut bombing of their military headquarters, emboldened the clerics and the Guard. With this symbolic victory of the American superpower, Iran expanded its terror networks and infused them with the martyrdom ideology that would lead to the terror of suicide bombings. The Guard "either committed or abetted the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1989; the 1994 Jewish Community Center bombing in Buenos Aires; and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia." The suicide bombings also successfully derailed the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and gave Iran the ability to distract the West through its proxy, Hizballah. According to Kahlili, this was the plan of the regime when it pushed Hizballah to launch a war with Israel in 2006, in response to President George Bush's decision to take action against Iranian forces.

Kahlili's conclusion is stark. As long as "the West continues to provide legitimacy to terrorism and the terrorists' criminal activity by maintaining its policy of appeasement and negotiation," the Islamic Revolution will become "more emboldened … in raising the flag of Islam in all corners of the world." The signs of this range from the successful repression of Iranian moderates, to the arming of Shia populations in Yemen, and the undermining of security in Iraq and Bahrain. Iran has even allied itself with non-Islamic regimes such as Venezuela, and built an alliance of anti-Western powers. To Kahlili, the West can no longer "move its lines in the sand" or "turn our backs on our principles in an effort to negotiate a solution with the Islamic regime in Iran." Ahmadinejad's photo op in Lebanon should be a wake-up call, before Iran realizes its ambitions of a new world order built on nuclear weapons.

To read Khalili's full column, click here.

Ahmadinejad Fulfills Anticipated Controversy in Lebanon

Lebanon is a "university of Jihad," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a Hizballah General Assembly meeting held in his honor Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad's comments during the visit have so far been split between provocation and conciliation, in speeches addressed as much to the adoring Shia Lebanese crowds as to Israel and its Western allies. According to ABCNews, "Analysts believe Ahmadinejad's visit is designed to boost Hezbollah's standing and send warning signals that Iran's allies in Lebanon enjoy powerful backing from Tehran."

In an opening speech with Lebanese President Michael Suliman, Ahmadinejad addressed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning that "The United States supports the integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. We reject any efforts to destabilize or inflame tensions within Lebanon." He declared that, "we [Iran] seek a united, modern Lebanon, and we stand by the Lebanese government and people."

However, he stated in reference to the West and Israel, "our region does not need the interference of regional or outside powers." He also repeated controversial statements calling for a "neutral investigation" into the "truth" of the September 11 attacks, noting that "these events were merely a pretext for presence in the region and pursuing colonial goals."

In addition, Ahmadinejad's tone during an evening speech before Hizballah's General Assembly was markedly more aggressive. He attacked Israel as the "Zionist regime" that had carried out "the massacre of innocent people" and "violations of international law." His comments were followed by those of Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who defended Iran's support of Lebanon and the Palestinian resistance that was being vilified by the West.

Nasrallah said Ahmadinejad's "guilt is that he expresses this with transparency and honesty, in the UN and wherever he goes… The West has set itself against him because he says that Israel is an illegitimate state and must disappear."

Ahmadinejad's visit continues Thursday, when he is expected to travel to historically important sites of conflict between Lebanon and Israel. In addition to traveling to Qana and Bint Jbail, Hizballah's so-called "capitol of liberation and resistence," Ahmadinejad is anticipated to symbolically throw stones at the border with Israel.

DOJ Civil Rights Investigation Clears FBI in Abdullah Shooting

A year of allegations and innuendo surrounding the fatal shooting of a Detroit imam has been refuted by a Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation. In a statement issued Wednesday, the DOJ said it found no civil rights violation occurred in the shooting death of Luqman Abdullah and determined no criminal investigation is warranted.

It's the third such review to reach the same conclusion in the past two weeks. Two weeks ago, the Dearborn Police Department and Michigan attorney general's office issued similar findings.

The imam and nearly a dozen followers had been charged with conspiracy and weapons charges. Four other suspects with Abdullah were arrested unharmed after surrendering to an advancing FBI SWAT team. Abdullah, however, initially tried to run off and concealed a handgun from advancing agents, the Michigan attorney general's report found.

Agents released a dog to subdue the suspect, who fired three shots killing the dog. The shots were fired in the agents' direction, prompting them to return fire, the report found. The review included a video capturing much of the scene, forensic evidence and interviews with people who both heard the shooting and the agents who participated in it. "We are unaware of any witnesses or evidence that contradicts the material facts," the report said.

Abdullah's allies, led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter in Michigan, have waged a campaign alleging the shooting was excessive and unnecessary. Even after the two reports cleared law enforcement, advocates still demanded an "independent" review. That has been completed. According to the DOJ statement:

"The department conducted a complete, thorough, and independent review of this matter. The review included examining all documents witness accounts, forensic evidence and reports, and operational plans and procedures that were generated by an FBI Inspection Division inquiry, a Dearborn Police Department investigation, and the Wayne County Medical Examiner's office. Additionally, a senior Civil Rights Division prosecutor consulted with Dearborn detectives and forensic experts and interviewed critical witnesses, including the FBI agents who shot Imam Abdullah and who voluntarily agreed to be interviewed."

In promoting the theory that agents acted improperly, CAIR and others ignored Abdullah's long history of statements threatening law enforcement and a 1981 incident in which he reached for a gun and struggled with a police officer during a traffic stop. It's unclear whether the DOJ report will finally lay the issue to rest.

Read the full DOJ report here.

Hamas PM Reiterates: No Recognition of Israel

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh provided a direct answer Tuesday about the militant Islamist group's willingness to compromise its hard line position on its Jewish neighbor, the Ma'an News Agency reported.

"We will not recognize the Israeli state," said Haniyeh at a conference held in support of Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He stood firm, if not defiant, that Palestinians will never compromise by allowing a Jewish state in Israel, or to waive their claim to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The Mosque lies at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the site is claimed by both sides.

Haniyeh's most recent pronouncement is unsurprising. Though Hamas has outwardly softened its rhetoric at various times—ostensibly due to political motivations—the group has long called for Israel's destruction, and has repeatedly returned to its rigid refusal to make meaningful concessions for the sake of peace.

Over the past few weeks, Hamas officials have said they would be open to a border deal based on the 1967 armistice line. The plan, though, would still exclude recognizing Israel's very existence.

U.S. Papers Spike Mohammad Cartoon Depiction

The Washington Post is among at least 20 newspapers, including these, which are under fire for refusing to publish a "Non Sequitur" cartoon alluding to the Prophet Mohammad.

Wiley Miller, whose cartoon appears in close to 800 newspapers, said he was not surprised by the papers' decisions because editors are "petrified" to run material containing the Prophet's name.

The spiked "Non Sequitur" cartoon, which had been scheduled to appear earlier this month, shows a park scene with a skateboarder, a cyclist, frolicking children, a giraffe, and a hippopotamus. An accompanying caption reads: "Picture Book Title Voted least Likely To Ever Find a Publisher. Where's Muhammad?"

It's an obvious play on the "Where's Waldo" books. Miller said he intended the cartoon to be a satirical reference to the international furor that followed the 2005 decision by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten to publish editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad. Violent protests followed throughout the Muslim and Western worlds, resulting in more than 100 deaths.

Miller said Post editors failed to grasp that the Non Sequitur cartoon in question was intended to satirize newspaper editors who were intimidated by threats against news organizations and staffers over depictions of Mohammed.

"[Editors] didn't see the satire was on them, of being petrified to run anything related to him," Miller said. "But this whole thing has just gotten so silly over the years. It's something I can't lay off. It's my job as a satirist to point out the stupidity in the world. And the editors fell right in line with proving how stupid it is."

Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander reported that the paper's Style section Editor Ned Martel decided to yank the cartoon after consulting with others, including Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli. Martel suggested the cartoon was "a deliberate provocation without a clear message."

Alexander disagreed, calling it "a powerful and witty endorsement of freedom of expression." The Post's decision to not to publish it "can be seen as timid. And it sets an awfully low threshold for decisions on whether to withhold words or images that may offend," the ombudsman added.

Read Alexander's op-ed here.

European Threat Dispels Terror Theory

The recent news that al Qaida and its affiliates were planning Mumbai-style attacks on European cities has caused many to once again consider the root-causes of terrorism. In an editorial titled "Why Do Radical Muslims Want to Kill Europeans," Khaled Abu Toameh evaluates one of the most frequently cited triggers of terrorism—the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Evaluating how the new threat fits into the historical danger posed by international terrorist organizations, Toameh explains:

"If the Americans deserve to be murdered because of Washington's 'bias' in favor of Israel, why are countries such as France, Britain, and Germany—which have, generally speaking, been very supportive of the Palestinians—now on the black list of radical Islamic groups?"

We asked similar questions recently, concluding that attempts to portray the destruction of the State of Israel as a panacea for world peace was at best, "academically dishonest, ignoring a laundry list of grievances used to justify terrorism." And while we hinted at ongoing threats posed to other Western countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Australia, Canada, Toameh shows how the recent plot indicates that "al Qaida was established with one goal in mind: to defeat all the non-believers, including the US and its Arab, Muslim, and Western allies."

Recognizing the threat, we concluded that whether or not Israel exists as a nation-state, terrorism will remain a threat. That's because, as Toameh explains, the problem isn't our support or refusal to support other countries, but our beliefs and democratic government:

"the Europeans are being targeted for the same reason the Americans are: for being 'infidels' and enemies of Islam and for the Western values they represent. They are being targeted because of their failure to transform into Islamic countries."

A Terror Network of a Different Kind

Al-Qaida is becoming a media organization that engages in terrorism, rather than the other way around, said counterterrorism expert Jarret Brachman Wednesday at a seminar conducted at the University of Maryland.

Brachman noted how As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media arm, has become more visible than the terror group itself. On this new digital battlefield, we are monitoring them and they are watching us, said Brachman, and by effectively using our own words against us, they are doing it better.

The event, entitled "Technology, Crime, & Terrorism," brought together a wide array of experts—from academia, the intelligence community, and public office—to discuss the role that technological advancement has played in shaping the threats we face. These are as diverse as international terrorism to local street gang activity. The event was hosted by the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, with coordination from the START Center.

More than 9 years since September 11, 2001, the global jihad movement has adapted and grown from a top-down organization with a defined group of core-leadership, to today's fragmented model that has "transcended individuals," said Brachman.

He pointed to Osama bin-Laden's most recent audio release about relief work and humanitarian causes to highlight the jihadist media's growing use of what he termed "frame extension"—the piggy backing on other grievances to build support from otherwise disconnected camps.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler gave the keynote address, highlighting the double edge of living in the digital age and how it both helps and hinders law enforcement. "Technology is way ahead of where we are in the law," said Gansler.

As many of the day's panelists suggested, closing that gap is going to be a challenge for years to come.

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