9/11 Victims Advocate for Bill Targeting Foreign Terror Financiers

As Americans pause to remember the dead from the 9/11 attacks 12 years ago, the Broward Bulldog reminds us that legislation to help victims and their families go after terrorist enablers in court is about to be introduced in Congress.

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act will be introduced by New York Congressmen Peter King, a Republican, and Democrat Jerrold Nadler in the House. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., offers the Senate version. It's the result of court decisions applying sovereign immunity to foreign governments and people who may have provided financial and other support to the 9/11 hijackers and therefore, U.S. courts have no jurisdiction.

If passed, however, it could be applied to any terrorist attack in which Americans are victims.

"The problem can best be understood by example," Terry Strada, whose husband died in the World Trade Center's North Tower, told the Bulldog. "If we discover someone intentionally gave aid or money to the Boston Marathon bombers and that money had been given to them outside our borders – no accountability from a civil action would be possible," she said.

Similar legislation was offered in 2009 and 2011 but did not get passed.

The Bulldog, a non-profit investigative reporting site, has uncovered connections between several hijackers and a Sarasota family which hastily fled the country in the weeks leading up to the attacks. It continues to fight in court to obtain FBI records that have not been released. The reporting indicates that the hijackers may have enjoyed additional support within the United States that was not previously known. In addition, former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who led the Senate Intelligence Committee and a congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, wants the government to declassify 28 pages from his inquiry.

Those classified pages likely point to Saudi support for the hijackers.

"The public still does not know the whole story about who bankrolled the attacks. It is still a secret," Strada told the Bulldog.

For more on the proposed legislation, click here.

Eyewitness Places ICNA Official at Bangladesh Mass Killings

A survivor of a 1971 Islamist killing spree in Bangladesh tearfully told a war crimes tribunal Monday that he saw a man who would go on to lead the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) giving orders during the kidnapping, torture and murder of intellectuals.

Delwar Hossain, 70, provided a dramatic eyewitness account against Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who remains on the executive board of ICNA's New York chapter and is a leader of the North American Imams Federation.

Prosecutors allege that Khan was the "chief executor" of a killing squad loyal to the Pakistani army during the closing days of Bangladesh's war of independence. It targeted intellectuals to rob the newly-liberated nation of leadership. Khan and prominent U.K. imam Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin are being tried in absentia. Court-appointed defense attorneys are cross examining witnesses.

Hossain, the 22^nd witness against Khan, is considered the only survivor of the attacks. He said that he saw Khan and Mueen-Uddin when he was kidnapped and heard them address each other by name. Later, he heard another captive beg for Khan to spare his as the bound and blindfolded prisoners were stabbed with bayonets.

Khan walked away, Hossain testified.

Hossain was able to free his hands and adjust his blindfold to see what was happening around him. He said he soaked his shirt in another victim's blood in hopes of fooling his captors into believing he already had been tortured. He showed the war crimes tribunal a scar on his head from the beatings he endured that day.

He took off running and made his escape swimming in the nearby river as gunmen fired at him. "I was adamant to be killed by shooting. I did not want to be killed by bayonets," Hossain said.

Hossain identified several other victims he saw at the killing site. Most of the other witnesses against Khan and Mueen-Uddin have been their surviving relatives, who have testified about seeing their loved ones taken away at gunpoint similar to what Hossain described.

"I witnessed the killings from the beginning to the end," Hossain testified. "Ashraf [Khan] and Mueen [Uddin] led the killings."

It is not clear what the United States would do about Khan, a naturalized citizen, if he is convicted. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly offered to assist Bangladesh's government in trying to repatriate Khan.

For more on Hossain's testimony, click here and here.

Treasury Targets Attempts to Evade Iran Sanctions

An Iranian businessman is among six people and four businesses identified by the U.S. Treasury Department Friday as running front companies to help Iran evade limits on oil sales.

Seyed Seyyedi runs Sima General Trading, which the Treasury Department says is part of a group of front companies working to get around existing sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Sima works with a Greek businessman named Dimitris Cambis in hiding Iranian interest in ships carrying $200 million in oil per month.

The Treasury Department has enacted a host of sanctions against Iranian-owned businesses, banks and other outlets in an attempt to persuade the Islamic Republic to end its nuclear weapons program.

"Our sanctions on Iran's oil sales are a critically important component of maintaining pressure on the Iranian Government, and we will not allow Iran to relieve that pressure through evasion and circumvention," Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said in a statement. "We will continue to target those individuals and entities that devise schemes to evade our sanctions."

Click here to see the full Treasury statement.

Iran Orders Retaliation If U.S. Strikes Syria

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force has ordered Shiite militias in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other American targets if the U.S. bombs Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

U.S. officials intercepted the order to Shiite militias in Iraq "in recent days," the Journal reported.

The delay in any U.S. action, triggered by President Obama's decision to seek congressional approval, is increasing "opportunities for coordinated retaliation by groups allied with [Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's] government, including Shiite militias in Iraq," the story said.

That could include Hizballah, Iran's terrorist proxy in Lebanon. The State Department ordered non-essential personnel to leave the Lebanon and is urging citizens stay out of the country, too, in case Hizballah tries to attack American targets.

Both Hizballah and Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued statements Thursday criticizing the American posture toward Syria. Hizballah leader Hassan Fadlallah said any attack would not be about Syrian chemical weapons use, but instead "aimed at mobilizing Israeli (strength) in the region in an attempt to impose the Western colonial grip." Khamenei was more threatening, saying the U.S. will "take the blow and definitely suffer."

The United States, along with France, the United Kingdom and others, say there is clear evidence the Assad regime used chemical weapons Aug. 21 in killing 1,424 people outside the capital city Damascus, including more than 400 children.

The Journal story included details about U.S. preparation for possible reprisal attacks, including systems capable of intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles and preparations for attacks by small, fast boats on American warships.

Congress has so far been skeptical about authorizing an attack. President Obama plans to address the nation Tuesday night in hopes of swaying public opinion.

Reid Reportedly Pledges Help Repatriating ICNA Official

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly pledged to help send the former head of a national Islamist group back to his native Bangladesh should the official be convicted by a war crimes tribunal.

Reid, D-Nev., met with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni this week in Las Vegas, the Dhaka Tribune reported. In the meeting, Reid pledged "extending all sorts of cooperation" to help repatriate Ashrafuzzaman Khan if he is found responsible for killing 11 intellectuals in the waning days of Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence.

Khan since became a U.S. citizen, and is president of the Imams of America association and past secretary general of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). He remains on the executive board of ICNA's New York chapter. His trial began in July, and a parade of witnesses testified that Khan was present as the intellectuals – academics, journalists, doctors – were taken from their homes at gunpoint and later found executed. Khan is accused of leading a killing squad called Al-Badr, which was an offshoot of the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami.

Some witnesses say they recognized Khan and a co-defendant in pictures later published in newspapers, and others cite statements by a man who drove the mini-buses used in the round-up. Authorities also say they recovered a diary from Khan's home that included a list of the victims.

The descriptions of Reid's meeting with Moni did not specify what kind of assistance Reid could provide. His office has not responded to a request for comment.

Egypt Charges CAIR-linked Imam With Inciting Violence

A radical cleric previously defended by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is among 14 people charged by Egyptian authorities with inciting violence against protesters opposed to then-President Mohamed Morsi outside the presidential palace last December.

Wagdy Ghoneim is charged along with Morsi, Deputy Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater, Freedom and Justice Party leader Essam el-Erian and others with encouraging the Muslim Brotherhood activists to murder, assault and torture opponents.

Ghoneim has a long history of incitement of hatred against Christians and Jews. Last December, he threatened Egyptian Copts with destruction if they failed to subordinate themselves to Egypt's Islamists.

According to a Gatestone Institute report, Ghoneim warned Copts that, "The day Egyptians — and I don't even mean the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafis, regular Egyptians — feel that you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the earth. I'm warning you now: do not play with fire! I want to remind you that Egypt is a Muslim country.... if you don't like the Muslim Sharia, you have eight countries that have a Cross on their flag [in Europe], so go to them. However, if you want to stay here in Egypt with us, know your place and be respectful."

He expressed joy when the Coptic Pope Shenouda III died in May 2012. "May God have His revenge on him in the fire of hell – he and all who walk his path."

Ghoneim referred to Jews as the "descendants of apes and pigs" during a CAIR co-sponsored rally at Brooklyn College in May 1998. "…Allah says he who equips a warrior of Jihad is like the one [who] makes Jihad himself," Ghoneim said. He also led the audience in a song with the lyrics: "No to the Jews, descendants of the apes."

He also has sanctioned suicide bombings, saying that those who blew themselves up fighting Israel were not committing suicide but rather were engaging in jihad.

After he was arrested by U.S. customs authorities in November 2004 on immigration violations, CAIR-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush defended him, saying: "The whole Muslim community today is under a microscope of scrutiny. Committing a mistake that would invite a slap on the wrist for anyone else could lead to prison or deportation for a Muslim."

Ghoneim agreed to leave the United States voluntarily a month later and was subsequently denied entry into Switzerland in 2005.

In February 2010, Ghoneim appeared on Hamas's al-Aqsa TV and prayed that Muslims should be "terrorists, if terror means jihad."

Syria Round-Up: Tests, Posturing and Politics

Threats and posturing seem to be filling the void as the world waits for Congress to decide whether to authorize an American military strike in retaliation for Syria's use of chemical weapons.

An unnamed Syrian military source, described as a lieutenant colonel, says dictator Bashar al-Assad is ready to send 1,000 missiles into Israel if Syria is attacked. Assad gave an interview to France's Le Figaro in which he predicted a "regional war" and "Chaos and extremism will spread."

While many Israeli officials doubt the threats, Israel has moved its Iron Dome missile defense batteries into population centers surrounding Tel Aviv to go along with Iron Dome bases near borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Early this morning, Israel tested a new missile defense system that officials claimed was planned before the latest tensions.

Reports out of Lebanon, meanwhile, indicate that Hizballah – which has been fighting alongside Syrian troops in defense of Assad's regime – has deployed its forces in anticipation of a possible conflict with Israel. Iran, Syria's key ally and Hizballah's patron, also issued threats, with a ranking parliamentarian vowing that "the flames of outrage of the region's revolutionaries will point toward the Zionist regime."

A nerve gas attack killed an estimated 1,400 people near Damascus Aug. 21. U.S. officials say hundreds of children were among the dead. Syria's civil war has left more than 100,000 people dead.

The chances of a U.S. strike increased Tuesday, with House Republican and Democratic leaders verbally endorsing the idea following a White House meeting. While President Obama has described a limited military action, a U.S. attack on Syria could mean more than cruise missiles launched at military targets. A new U.S. Cyber Command may target Syrian "electronic command and control systems," reports Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon.

Cyber attacks on American interests might be part of any Syrian response, as well. A group loyal to Assad is believed responsible for taking down the New York Times' website for 20 hours last week.

The FBI is stepping up scrutiny on Syrians and Assad supporters inside the United States to determine if there is a threat of domestic terrorist attacks in response to any American attack on Syria, the New York Times reports. Hundreds of Syrians are expected to be questioned this week, and advisories also have been sent to state and local law enforcement agencies.

That prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to issue an advisory claiming to "strongly support law enforcement," but recommending people not cooperate with the FBI without an attorney being present.

Syria's Christians Could Be Casualty Of U.S. Attack on Syria

Syria's ancient Christian population could become a major casualty of an American strike against the Assad regime in retaliation for last week's chemical-weapons attack, should any strike shift momentum in favor of the rebels.

Many Syrian Christians have held deep sympathies for Bashar al-Assad's secular Ba'athist Party since its founding in 1947. Michel Aflaq, one of the Ba'ath Party's co-founders, was a Christian.

The majority of Syria's Christians struggled to remain neutral in Syria's civil war or have backed Bashar al-Assad's regime fearing annihilation should his secular police state be replaced by an Islamist theocracy.

"Enough with the intervention," Patriarch Gregory III, who heads Syria's Damascus-based Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, told the Catholic News Service (CNS). "It is fueling hatred, fueling criminality, fueling inhumanity, fueling fundamentalism, terrorism -- all these things are the fruit of intervention. Enough!"

It would be better to try to help bring about reforms to the Syrian government, he said, "But not in this way, with blood," he continued.

Syria's Christians have found themselves under assault by the U.S. and European-backed Free Syrian Army since Syria's civil war broke out in March 2011 and from the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra.

Christian villages have been wiped out, and the rebels have confiscated Christian land. Churches around Homs and Aleppo have been destroyed.

On May 27, the Free Syrian Army raided the Christian village of al-Duvair in Syria's western province of Homs, massacring most of the village's Christian population. The peril faced by Christians was highlighted this spring when the Syrian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo were kidnapped. Their fates remain unknown; however, rumors suggest they may have been murdered.

All of these atrocities against Syria's Christians raise the specter of a repeat of what happened in Kosovo in the 1990s after Western troops intervened, and Albanian Islamic extremists ethnically cleansed the Christian population.

Russia's concern for the welfare of Syria's Christians has factored into its calculus for supporting Bashar Assad's regime.

"[I]n those places where the authorities are being replaced by rebel groups, Christianity is being exterminated to the last man: Christians are expelled or physically destroyed," Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow spokesman Metropolitan Hilarion told the U.K. –based Christian Voice.

They could face an even worse fate should Assad fall, reminiscent of Iraq's ancient Christian population in the wake of the U.S. invasion in 2003.

"The policy that is used today in Syria, under the excuse of getting rid of the regime, is very dangerous," Yonadam Kanna, member of the Iraqi National Assembly and secretary general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement told Christian Today in June. "If the state collapses, then the jihadists are in power. If the jihadists are in power, it's a huge risk, not only for Christians, but also Muslims of that region — not only in Syria, but in the rest of Middle East and then Europe, too."

IPT Rebuts Apologist for Radical Cleric's Column in The Hill Newspaper

Earlier this month, Ufuk Gokcen, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's permanent United Nations observer, took issue with the Investigative Project on Terrorism's report exposing the radical record of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah.

Bin Bayyah is vice president of radical, virulently anti-Semitic Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi's International Union of Muslim Scholars. But that connection, and Bin Bayyah's statements in support of terrorists, was not enough to dissuade the Obama administration from welcoming Bin Bayyah to the White House in June.

In a column published by The Hill, Gokcen argued Bin Bayyah is really a moderate, and an appropriate outreach partner for the White House. Gokcen's column can be seen here. The Hill published our reply Wednesday:

Bin Bayyah is no moderate

By Steven Emerson and John Rossomando - 08/28/13 02:44 PM ET

We were amused by Ufuk Gokcen's recent defense of Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah as being "among the leading moderate voices in the Muslim world." It was in response to our reporting showing bin Bayyah's radical record – a record that was apparently overlooked in the White House when it welcomed the sheikh to a meeting in June.

It is worth noting that Ambassador Gokcen serves as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's Permanent Observer to the United Nations. Among the OIC's key ambitions is an international blasphemy law – a concept which could not be more at odds with American ideals of free speech codified in the First Amendment. Criminalizing speech critical of a religion may not be violent, but in American society it is radical.

In his column, Ambassador Gokcen didn't challenge any of the examples showing bin Bayyah's radicalism in our original reporting. Rather, other people said nice things about him, so that must be true.

But this is the same sheikh who advocates that Muslims satisfy their charitable obligations by giving their money to "fighters in the cause of Allah" (those undertaking a military jihad) to "buy weapons." Lest anyone think he meant some kind of last-ditch line of defense, bin Bayyah also has issued a blanket condemnation of terror-financing prosecutions, calling them "sham propaganda."

The largest terror financing prosecution in U.S. history targeted the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. While the charity and its defenders echoed bin Bayyah's sentiments, saying they sought only to aid needy widows and orphans, a federal judge who presided over the charity's prosecution came to a different conclusion.

"The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas," U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis said in 2009.

Bin Bayyah personally endorsed having "Muslim rulers" support Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza militarily, in addition to other ways.

"Muslim rulers are required to rescue their fellow Muslims in many ways, through financial, military and diplomatic support. Everything should be done to stop this terrible, ongoing massacre in Gaza," Bin Bayyah wrote in April 2013. The posting was removed from his website following the release of IPT's June 26 report about Bin Bayyah's White House visit.

"I also call upon our Palestinian brothers to unite all resistance movements in the same name and under the same banner. And it is the duty of all Arabs to help them in the name of Islam, logic, pan-Arabism and humanity," bin Bayyah said.

In 2011, bin Bayyah criticized Western terrorist designations for placing "Palestinian resistance" groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the same classification as "intercontinental terrorist organizations" like al-Qaida.

And, as we reported in June, this ideology fits in well with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), where bin Bayyah has served as vice president for nine years. The IUMS welcomed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to its ranks last year. It is headed by Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered so radical he has been denied entry into the United States.

Qaradawi has cast the Holocaust as Allah's punishment against Jews and prayed for the chance to "shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews," before he dies to "seal my life with martyrdom."

During bin Bayyah's tenure, the IUMS issued a 2004 fatwa calling "resistance" – or attacks on American troops -- a "duty" for able Muslims in and outside Iraq. A 2009 IUMS fatwa prohibited any political, economic and cultural interaction between Muslims and Israel as "a form of loyalty to the enemy, which is religiously prohibited."

These are but a few examples of the radical ideas promoted by bin Bayyah and the IUMS. Despite this record, Ambassador Gokcen insists to The Hill's readers that bin Bayyah is the kind of moderate the United States needs to embrace.

That begs a question: Moderate relative to what, exactly?

Emerson is the founder and executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.and Rossomando is an IPT senior analyst.

Algerian Mosque Terror Financing Draws Scrutiny

Algerian authorities are investigating money raised in mosques there to see if it was used to train jihadists to join the war in Syria and other jihad hot spots.

According to an Aug. 22 story in the Arab-language paper el-Khabar, the investigation involves millions raised in zakat – or charity – donations, which are suspected of being funneled to finance training. A letter, discovered by el-Khabar, sent to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, warned that there are "practices and abuses occurring inside mosques relating to collecting of donations by benefactors for the benefit of civil societies." The letter further indicates that local authorities should establish monitoring processes according to the new fundraising laws.

This practice is not unprecedented, but investigations and actions to stop it most certainly are. In fact, the new laws in Algeria should set a shining example to western countries facing similar problems. There are varying degrees of awareness and action. In Germany for example, a recent study undertaken by the Interior Ministry discovered that German mosques were raising funds for Hezbollah and its activities in Lebanon. The report published in June noted that "Hezbollah-affiliated mosque associations raised funds within the framework of 'religious ceremonies' as well as membership contributions." While the report, sponsored by a government agency, is laudable, no attempts at curtailment have yet been taken. However, tax subsidies from the Orphans Project Lebanon were eliminated several years ago.

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