Three life sentences in Ft. Dix terror plot

Three Albanian brothers convicted in a plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey received life prison sentences Tuesday. Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka were convicted along with two others in December of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers at the base.

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler told a packed and heavily guarded Camden courtroom that "Nothing has a greater impact on society than the crime of terrorism."

Dritan Duka, an ethnic Albanian, was arrested in May 2007 while attempting to purchase automatic rifles from an FBI informant. In court on Tuesday, he proclaimed his innocence, asserting that he had nothing to do with a terror plot and that he and his co-defendants were victims of a government conspiracy.

The plot unraveled after a Circuit City employee in Mt. Laurel, N.J, became worried while transferring a video made by the conspirator video onto DVD. Prosecutors said the video showed a group of young men at a January 3, 2006 training session shooting assault weapons at a firing range while shouting, "Allahu Ahkbar."

The employee informed the FBI, which launched a 15-month investigation leading to the indictment of the three Duka brothers and co-defendants Mohammad Schnewer and Serdar Tatar, who will be sentenced Wednesday. More details about the sentencing can be found here.

CAIR/FBI Saga Plods On

Readers of this site know we have more than a few lingering suspicions about the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Its roots in a Hamas-support network and its reflexive condemnation of virtually all terror-financing investigations prompt skepticism about the self-purported civil rights organization's true objectives.

One thing we never thought, though, is that these guys are stupid. So we're a little surprised that CAIR's "aw shucks, did we do something wrong?" act in the face on FBI freeze-out is treated credibly. To recap, FBI officials decided last summer to break off communication with CAIR. Evidence in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) showed CAIR's founders were active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. Two CAIR founders, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, are listed on this phone list of "Palestine Committee" members.

Transcripts from a secretly wiretapped 1993 meeting of Hamas supporters in Philadelphia indicate CAIR actually is an outgrowth of that effort. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.

FBI officials haven't discussed the evidence or offered an explanation of their decision to break off communication with CAIR. Instead, they repeatedly have said that CAIR national leaders must address "certain issues" before access is restored.

CAIR officials say that FBI officials have failed to tell them what those issues are and, good gosh, they can't imagine what they could be. The latest example came Monday from Detroit News reporter Greg Krupa:

"Officials of CAIR, which has 35 field offices in 19 states, say they have not been informed of the concerns."

Krupa focuses on the Philadelphia meeting, saying FBI officials privately "say the FBI would be hard-pressed to explain why it would continue to engage as a partner an organization with two leaders who attended such a meeting."

This isn't that complicated. The Philadelphia meeting had one objective – to develop a strategy to undermine U.S.-led peace efforts that culminated in a historic White House lawn handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. The men who met in Philadelphia didn't like it for two reasons; it empowered the secular Fatah movement over the Islamist Hamas, and it paved the way to a peaceful, two-state solution to the conflict. Read the transcripts and it is clear that lies and deception were at the heart of the opposition strategy and that Ahmad and Awad were in sync with the group.

That included talk from an unidentified speaker of forming "a new organization for activism which will be neutral because we are placed in a corner…It is known who we are."

Awad, Ahmad and others in Philadelphia were then a part of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), another leg of the Hamas support structure known as the Palestine Committee, and an organization which frequently sponsored rallies and fundraisers with Hamas officials and glorification for Hamas terrorists.

During the meeting, HLF Executive Director Shukri Abu Baker agreed with the concept of a new organization, summarizing "It will be made up of some of our people, our beloved ones, and let's not hoist a large Islamic flag and let's not be barbaric-talking. We will remain a front so that if the thing happens, we will benefit from the new beginnings instead of having all our organizations classified and exposed."

In his article, Krupa casts doubt on the connection between the new organization described by Abu Baker and CAIR, writing that the goal was "to establish a low-profile group, not readily identified with Muslims, which would work quietly to promote the concerns of Hamas in 1993."

This misses the point. It would be impossible any of the assembled 25 Muslim activists to create an entity "not readily identified with Muslims." The discussion was not about whether or not the "new organization" could be labeled as a Muslim group, it was about minimizing its "Islamist hue," something arguably achieved by emphasizing civil rights over the Palestinian cause as CAIR has done.

In a 2000 interview with The Link, Awad described how he and Ahmad left IAP and started CAIR:

"Omar suggested to me that we leave the IAP and concentrate on combating anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide. He proposed that I move to Washington, D.C., where any effective national effort would have to be based, while he tried to raise the seed money for the project."

In sum, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad used to lead the IAP, an overt supporter of Hamas. They went to Philadelphia, where two dozen Hamas supporters talked about ways to "derail" the Oslo Accords while not appearing to be terror supporters. Creation of a toned-down political arm was among the ideas generated. Less than a year later, Ahmad and Awad created CAIR.

Finally, in Krupa's article, he quotes CAIR-Michigan director Dawud Walid minimizing CAIR's work for the Palestinian cause:

"Probably not even 1 percent of CAIR's work in the past 15 years has been related to the grievances of Palestinians. This does not reflect the work of an alleged front group for people in the Gaza Strip."

CAIR's work can't be quantified. But it has gone to bat for Mousa Abu Marzook, the Hamas deputy political director, after U.S. authorities arrested him in 1995. Its 1996 report "The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States" included Marzook's arrest among its list of incidents of anti-Muslim bias and violence. It has spent years defending Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian, hosting fundraisers for his legal defense and sponsoring screenings of a sympathetic documentary. Earlier this year, CAIR seemed to be doing little else but organizing demonstrations against Israel's effort to defang Hamas in Gaza while Awad went to the National Press Club to issue demands that U.S. policy change.

Sounds like a continuation of the Philadelphia plan, doesn't it?

Pete King's Wise Words

The following editorial appeared Wednesday in the New York Post. To see the original, click here.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has slammed Rep. Peter King for his alleged "bigoted" remarks, but the Long Island Republican is standing his ground.

Good for him -- because what motivates King is a legitimate concern for the security of Americans, and he's not going to let such allegations silence him.

King was commenting Friday on the Department of Homeland Security's inflammatory report on "right-wing extremism." He noted that DHS "never put out a report saying . . . look out for Islamic terrorists in our country" or "that very few Muslims come forward to cooperate with the police" on terrorism.

"If they sent out a report like that," he added, "there would be hell to pay."

No doubt. Even the Obama folks seem to go out of their way to avoid mentioning Islam and terror in one sentence.

King rightly acknowledges that most US Muslims are loyal and oppose terrorism. But he also says too many won't come forward and cooperate with law-enforcement agencies investigating terrorist threats.

He's made similar remarks before, basing them on talks with law-enforcement officials and other information.

CAIR, it should be noted, was named an unindicted co-conspirator by prosecutors in 2007 in connection with a plot to support the terrorists of Hamas.

Far from bigotry, King understands that the world is still a dangerous place, that America still has terrorist enemies -- with ties to radical Islam. He deserves to be praised -- not bashed.

Must be a Ratings Sweep on Hamas TV

Readers of this site know we tend to be leery about interfaith dialogue as a way of diffusing radical ideology. It's like a dinner party with the boss. Everyone behvaves their best and obsequiousness fills the void of true debate. Not much else gets accomplished.

So you've got to love Ziad Abu Alhaj, a Hamas cleric and past participant at an international gathering of "Imams and Rabbis for Peace." Palestine Media Watch notes that the imams and rabbis pledged at their last gathering to condemn any religious misrepresentations. Then PMW shows Alhaj giving a sermon on Hamas television in which he said Jews "are naturally disposed to" hate the Prophet Muhammad, invokes the anti-Semitic fraud known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and looks forward to the day "no Jew or Zionist will be left on the face of this earth."

This comes on the heels of report by Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, showing that a Hamas-sponsored play which was broadcast on Al Aqsa television which portrayed Jews as blood drinkers.

It puts the fascination with reality television in a new light, doesn't it? Now how about some of Alhaj's fellow conference attendees standing up, loudly and clearly, to denounce his hatred.

Litigating Criticism Away

A recent commentary by Maria Giovanna Maglie for the Italian daily Il Giornale notes how the Italian Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII), has begun to mimic various other branches of the Islamist movement around the world by waging "another kind of jihad, one that takes place in court and achieves the goal of scaring people on a personal and financial level."

As such, various individuals have been sued, threatened, and bullied into silence. As Maglie's article states, "[a]nybody dealing with Islam – journalists, politicians, and academics – risks being sued for 'offending a group of people because of their religion.'"

This same pattern has been clearly evident on this side of the pond with another Brotherhood offshoot, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR's historical links to the Brotherhood have been detailed at length on this website, and as recently as last year were confirmed by a senior Egyptian Brotherhood leader. As a result of these connections – particularly those to the Brotherhood-linked HAMAS terror group – the FBI recently decided to sever ties with CAIR.

Maglie makes a particular note of CAIR's past attempts to silence opposition through the U.S. legal system, telling how the group sued Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR in 2004 for statements made on his website that were critical of CAIR's documented Islamist roots. The case was settled out of court two years later without an apology by Whitehead.

On yet another occasion, CAIR sued U.S. Congressman Cass Ballenger for defamation for comments he made to a reporter about the group, characterizing it as the "fund-raising arm for Hezbullah." In an attempt to wage the other "kind of jihad" that Maglie refers to, CAIR sought to silence Ballenger and to scare others from speaking about the group's troubling links to terror and extremism. The case was eventually "dismisse[d]…with prejudice."

The pattern is clear for Muslim Brotherhood affiliates around the world and other Islamist sympathizers: bully until submission. Luckily for those in the U.S., these efforts have so far been largely held at bay.

Islamist Attempts to Influence Obama's Administration

Two writers we highly respect are worried about an American-Islamist attempt to influence the Obama Administration.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, takes note of a resume book prepared by a Muslim congressional staffers organization. The group is tied to Islamists, or people who want more than the freedom to practice their faith. They want their faith to influence, and ultimately govern, society. The whole concept of an organized effort to place Muslims in government jobs offends Jasser, who argues anyone is free to apply and be judged on individual qualification:

"At AIFD we have a mantra, which is that 'we are Americans who happen to be Muslim rather than Muslims who demand to be American.' My parents came to the United States in the 1960s because they understood our nation to be a meritocracy and not one plagued with the inequities of political correctness which are more concerned with immutable characteristics of individuals such as race or religion than with real equality and merit. Islamists thrive on identity politics and the deceptive collectivization of Muslims into one 'bloc'. This resume book and the Islamist interests of the CMSA feed into that mentality where the faith identity of Muslims is not a private matter of concern only in the mosque and at home. Their resume book is all about influence for Islamists under the banner of 'being Muslim.'"

Read the whole essay here.

Meanwhile, journalist Douglas Farah writes about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's acceptance of an invitation to be a keynote speaker at the 10^th anniversary conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), which he describes as "a sort of umbrella organization for many of the [Muslim Brotherhood] groups in the United States."

Some CSID officials have long been suspected of terror financing and Muslim Brotherhood ties. As an organization, CSID advocates for American support for Islamist movements in other countries. About Muslim Brotherhood-tied groups in the U.S., Farah writes:

"To be clear: these groups have a clearly enunciated and never renounced policy of toppling the government, hollowing out the institutional structures, and imposing the caliphate here, where Sharia law is the law of the land. As I have often said, if they want to openly join the political process and espouse this, they are welcome and they will be marginalized, even within the Muslim community."

He also points to Dalia Mogahed's appointment to the President's Advisory Council Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships as a disturbing sign. Mogahed is a protégé of Georgetown University Professor John Esposito, and the two work together at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. Esposito was a defense expert witness at the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a consistent defender of admitted Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian and worked with a think tank that was part of a U.S.-based Hamas support network.

Esposito also is a frequent speaker at fundraising banquets for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identified as a Hamas front by an FBI agent in the HLF case, and listed among the entities in the Hamas-support network – which was called the Palestine Committee.

CAIR issued a press release to congratulate Mogahed on her appointment.

Farah's article can be seen here.

Hamas Employs The Blood Libel

Since its foundation in 1987, Hamas has invoked classical European anti-Semitism merged with elements from Islam to mobilize Palestinians against Israel. The Hamas charter invokes Jewish control of the media and blames Jews for wars throughout the world.

Last month, Hamas marked the fifth anniversary of Israel's assassination of is founder, Ahmed Yassin, with a play that portrays Jews as blood drinkers. Details are provided in a report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli research organization based in Herzliya.

Al-Aqsa television broadcast the play, the report said, which aired April 3. Days earlier, veteran Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar gave a speech in Damascus in which he asked rhetorically why Jews have been massacred throughout history. Their behavior provokes others to kill them, he said. Israel's recent war on Hamas in Gaza was an example.

Three days after airing al-Zahar's speech, al-Aqsa TV showed the play called "The House of Sheikh Yassin", which was presented at the Islamic University in Gaza City. In the play, a man dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew preaches hatred and fear of Arabs to his son, saying:

"We Jews hate Muslims. We like to kill Muslims. We Jews drink the blood of Muslims and Arabs." He then turns to the audience, asking: "Are you Arabs? Are you Muslims? I hate you. I hate you for the sake of [our] God's will." The father adds: "We have to conspire against Muslims to satisfy God. We will destroy the Arabs and the Muslims."

The report notes that the play ended with a well-known Hamas song, "A Hamas fighter does not fear death." The full report IICC is available here.

Hizballah Targeted Israelis, Plotted To Destabilize Egypt

Egypt's claim that it broke up a Hizballah plot to attack Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula is triggering an interesting debate. Last week, Egypt announced it had arrested about half the members of a 49-man cell with links to Hezbollah, seizing explosive belts and other bomb-making materials in the process.

The cell leader told authorities that his group wanted to launch simultaneous attacks against Israeli tourists at three different locations. The plot was designed to be retaliation for the 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyah, a senior Hizballah operative in an attack blamed on Israel.

Hizballah leadership has denied the allegations, with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah saying any of the group's people in Egypt were trying to help Hamas leaders over the border in Gaza. Similarly, Deputy Chief Sheikh Naim Qassem called the allegations "fabricated" and "worthless" in an interview with the Agence France Presse news service.

A Hizballah operative was among the men arrested, he acknowledged, but the explosives found were supposed to be smuggled into Gaza and not used in any attack on Egyptian soil, he said:

"We have one enemy called Israel and as far as we are concerned Egypt is not an enemy. Egypt's accusations are in revenge for our position on Gaza and our demand that the Rafah border crossing be opened."

Meanwhile, an Egyptian official is threatening Hizballah with "a heavy price" for plotting against Egyptian sovereignty. Another official blames Iran for the conspiracy, which the official claimed also sought a broader power shift in the region which would have undermined Egypt. He promised that surprising revelations soon will emerge.

Guess Who's Coming to the White House? Obama Invites the Wrong Muslim Leader

The official website of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) reported this week that Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had briefly met with President Obama on April 6, 2009 at an official reception in Istanbul. "President [Obama] reiterated to the Secretary General the willingness and readiness of the US Administration to explore areas of cooperation with the Organization of the Islamic Conference," according to the website. In addition, President Obama extended an invitation to Prof. Ihsanoglu to visit the White House in Washington D.C.

We can only hope that Ihsanoglu misinterpreted courtesy expressions on the part of President Obama as an open invitation to visit. Otherwise, Obama must not be reading his briefing books as closely as he should.

In the one-month period before the Istanbul meeting, Ihsanoglu:

• "Called upon Palestinian parties to expedite ... national reconciliation."[1] These parties include the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, which is fighting the Palestinian Authority. Ihsanoglu has held a joint press conference with Hamas political director Khaled Mishal, at which he said, "With its win, Hamas begins a new stage in the development of the Palestinian issue. We assure that Hamas will deal with all national and international requirements in a practical and logical way." According to the OIC's 2002 Declaration on International Terrorism, "We reject any attempt to associate Islamic states or Palestinian and Lebanese resistance with terrorism."[2]
• Met with Sudanese President Al Bashir in Khartoum where he "stressed the rejection of the OIC of the double standards pertaining to the issue of justice, particularly in regard to the extradition of those accused of committing war crimes in Darfur."[3] This was in reference to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• Spoke of "the suffering of Muslims as a consequence of ... defamation campaigns unraveling in the West."[4] The OIC has been a major force behind a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution calling upon member states to provide legal "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

The resolution could make defamation of Islam a criminal offense.

Perhaps the President should plead prior commitments when Ihsanoglu decides to visit Washington DC, and avoid any further direct contact with a leader with such views on free speech and human rights.

---

[1] http://www.oic-oci.org/topic_detail.asp?t_id=2005&x_key=

"OIC Secretary-General Ihsanoglu Stresses In Gaza The Need For Palestinian Reconciliation"

[2] http://www.oic-oci.org/english/conf/fm/11_extraordinary/declaration.htm

"Kuala Lumpur Declaration on International Terrorism"

[3] http://www.oic-oci.org/topic_detail.asp?t_id=1995&x_key=

"Ihsanoglu calls for avoidance of double standards in dealing with the Sudanese crisis"

[4] http://www.oic-oci.org/topic_detail.asp?t_id=2061&x_key=

"OIC Secretary General cautions at Doha Summit against Al-Quds judaization"

Iranian nuclear plot foiled, say Manhattan DA, Treasury

The Manhattan district attorney's office Tuesday announced it had thwarted a plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran. Prosecutors unsealed a 118-count indictment accusing Li Fangwei, a Chinese national, of settling up a number of companies to conceal the fact that he was selling millions of dollars worth of illicit nuclear materials to Tehran.

Also on Tuesday, the Treasury Department (which worked closely with the Manhattan DA to unravel the alleged plot) announced it was designating Lee and six Iranian entities under federal Executive Order 13382, which freezes the assets of weapons of mass destruction proliferators and those who support them. It also identified eight aliases used by LIMMT Economic and Trade Company Ltd., a Chinese company designated in 2006 for providing material support for Iran's missile program.

"This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran, and it shows how they are going full steam to get a nuclear bomb," a law-enforcement source close to the case told the New York Daily News. "We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran." In all, according to the indictment, the financial conspiracy involved more than 58 different transactions that occurred between 2006 and late 2008, including the shipment of numerous banned items between China and Iran.

In all, the government alleges, more than 150,000 pounds of material used in uranium enrichment, missile guidance systems and the production of long-range missiles went to a recipient who is believed to have been a subsidiary of the Iranian Defense Ministry.

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