 From CAN: The Justice Department announced on November 23 that 17 people had been arrested for providing supplies to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported. Eight of the suspects were caught in an FBI sting that began in 2007.
Two of the suspects, Hassan Hadroj and Dib Hani Harb, are said by the government to have tried to provide Hezbollah with stolen cash, fake passports, counterfeit money and 1,200 machine guns.
The FBI gave 30,000 stolen cell phones, as well as laptops and Playstation 2 video game systems to the suspects who allegedly planned to ship them to the terrorist group.
“It is well known that terrorist organizations engage in “traditional” criminal activities for the purpose of funding their violent jihad-for instance the use of cigarette smuggling,” said the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “Just as likely, however, is that some or all of these phones were brought to Lebanon where they were provided to Hezbollah operatives for the purposes of having disposable cell phones for planning and carrying out attacks.” In September, two individuals living in Queens were indicted after being caught in an FBI sting using an informant. The two sought to provide Hezbollah with cars, guns, ammunition, bulletproof vests, and night vision goggles, according to a Justice Department press release. A New Jersey resident also pled guilty this year to being paid $112,000 by Hezbollah to provide programming from the group’s television station to satellite users. His co-conspirator pled guilty to the charges the previous December. World Threats 
 From CAN: The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a former president and secretary-general of the Islamic Circle of North America, is being investigated by the government. Khan is suspected of lying about his previous activity in a Southeast Asian paramilitary group when he applied to become a U.S. citizen. “According to an online Bangladesh newspaper based in Washington, U.S. officials wrote to Bangladesh’s State Minister for Home Affairs in September requesting files related to Khan’s role in a series of 1971 political murders. The bloodshed came during Bangladesh’s fight for independence,” the report says.
“The targets included university professors and a journalist. Khan is suspected of war crimes and of carrying out some of the killings.” The Islamic Circle of North America has previously been accused of being a branch of Jamaat-e-Islami, a violent extremist group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood in Pakistan. The group expanded its reach into Bangladesh in 1978 under the name Bangladesh Islami Chhatri Sangstha. Joe Kaufman, Chairman of Americans Against Hate, pointed out in an article for FrontPage Magazine in June that BICS and ICNA use the same logo. World Threats
 A picture of Nidal Malik Hasan is emerging from the slaughter he carried out Thursday during a ceremony at a Fort Hood readiness center, leaving 13 people dead and another 30 wounded. Born in Virginia, sent to medical school by the U.S. Army, the psychiatrist was chastised for proselytizing to his patients about Islam. Asked his nationality, he didn't identify himself as an American but as a Palestinian. He appeared pleased by the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter in June and reportedly was heard saying "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square." In the fateful moment before he opened fire on his unarmed victims, he shouted "Allahu Akhbar." With each new disclosure, some media outlets and organized Islamist groups increasingly are trying to deflect attention away from Hasan's religious motivation. In a statement condemning the attack, the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation referenced past shootings by soldiers on their bases and cited the suicide rate at Fort Hood. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsNidal Malik Hasan
Latest recipient of The Face of Evil Award
 ADC, CAIR, MAS
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 The imam had driven from Detroit to northern Virginia to raise money for a jailed friend, a convicted cop killer. "If you study the case you'll see that it's a conspiracy," the imam said. "If you study what went on with him, you'll say, 'How in the world is he in jail?'" But it was what Luqman Abdullah said on the way to that March 2008 fundraiser that helped bring the FBI to his door on Wednesday in what proved to be a fatal confrontation. In the car with his son and two followers, one of whom turned out to be an FBI informant, Abdullah repeated his long-standing concern that law enforcement was after him. According to a criminal complaint: "Abdullah stated that the FBI is the enemy of Islam. Abdullah stated something to the effect, 'If they are coming to get me I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody.' Abdullah gave S-3 the impression that he has access to an explosive device." According to the FBI, Abdullah led a separatist movement which wanted "a separate, sovereign Islamic state ('The Ummah') within the borders of the United States, governed by Shariah law. The Ummah is to be ruled over by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rapp Brown." Read more ...Source: IPT NewsLuqman Abdullah
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
Last week's shooting death of a radical Detroit imam as FBI agents tried to arrest him is unfortunate. Responsible parties should study what happened to identify any lessons in how to avoid a repeat occurrence. Sadly, those lessons are not the ones being emphasized by Islamic advocacy groups that present themselves as moderate. While many details remain undisclosed, basic facts about the incident are public and show that Luqman Abdullah's actions triggered the events that led to his death. Thus, he is a poor example for alleging FBI malfeasance. Abdullah was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to sell stolen goods, violating weapon laws and other crimes rooted in his leadership of a Detroit area mosque. Given his record of encouraging his followers to keep armed and to resist law enforcement, he was considered armed and dangerous by arresting agents. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 U.S. efforts to disrupt terrorist financing schemes have put organizations such as Al Qaida in dire financial straits. That was the assessment of Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing David S. Cohen, in a speech Monday at the ABA/ABA Money Laundering Enforcement Conference. The speech was an opportunity to highlight counter-terrorist financing efforts while calling for increased cooperation between the government and the private financial sector. Even a cursory review of the application of U.S. counter-terrorism policies reveals not only that they are crippling the support structure underpinning international terrorist organizations, but that the effectiveness of these policies has forced these groups to "fundraise" in ways that are more likely to be detected—ordinary criminal activity. As Cohen explained, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence has been focused on "developing policy to combat all manner of illicit finance at home and abroad—from mortgage fraud to money laundering, from transactions facilitating WMD proliferation to those funding terrorists." By employing provisions in Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act, Treasury has played a central role in combating nuclear proliferation, assisted in the fight against narco-terrorism, and destabilized the financial support structure of international terrorist groups. Read more ...Source: IPT News
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), arguably the nation's most politically influential Muslim organization, has a habit of contradicting itself. On one hand the group sponsors a campaign to stop hate speech and incitement to violence in the media; on the other hand it sanitizes an anti-Semitic book review in the latest issue of its publication, Islamic Horizons. This is not the first time that ISNA's assertions about standing against bigotry and for dialogue have failed to trickle deeper into the group's actions and editorial oversight. In its September/October 2009 issue, Islamic Horizons offers a summary of a book review from a previously unheard of writer named Ushruf Subreen. The summary whitewashes Subreen's original, full review of Martin Indyk's most recent book, Innocent Abroad. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsISNA
Latest recipients of The Goebbels-Warner Award
 Two domestic terror investigations each took significant steps forward Wednesday, with a Massachusetts man, already charged with lying to federal investigators, facing the added accusation that he conspired to provide material support to terrorists. At about the same time the charge against Tarek Mehanna was announced, an Ohio man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to kill people abroad - including American troops serving in Iraq. According to an affidavit signed Tuesday by FBI Special Agent Heidi Williams, Mehanna and two other men traveled to Pakistan in 2002 and Yemen in 2004 in hopes of finding "a terrorist training camp to learn how to conduct and subsequently engage in jihad." Both trips ended in failure, however. And, like the case of North Carolina convert Daniel Patrick Boyd, investigators say their frustration at being unable to wage jihad abroad prompted the men to discuss attacks in America. They discussed targeting two high ranking government officials for assassination. Those conversations never really progressed. However, talk of taking automatic weapons to shoot up malls led to a series of actions, and at least one trip in hopes of securing the guns, Williams wrote. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 New York City Council member Charles Barron, who also serves as the Chair of the Higher Education Committee, helped lead a convoy with 200 activists to Gaza this summer for a group that openly advocates for the terrorist organization Hamas. Barron (D-Brooklyn) sought advice from the city's Conflict of Interest Board (COIB) prior to his trip: Is it permissible for the group to pay for his travel expenses? A COIB attorney said it "appears that the trip will serve a City purpose," based on the representation Barron offered – that the visit to Gaza would involve delivering relief and medical supplies and meeting "with leaders of charitable organizations, schoolteachers, students, heads of refugee camps, patients and nurses."  Charles Barron, terrorism enablerNew York is America's ultimate melting pot, with sizeable constituencies from all over the world. When a New York City official visits Ireland or Italy, it historically has been viewed as spreading goodwill for New York and thus, serving the city. But it's doubtful those trips involved meetings with leaders of terrorist organizations. Charles Barron's trip to Gaza, along with two of his staff members, was paid by Viva Palestina, a group launched by British Member of Parliament George Galloway who has twice led convoys to Gaza that culminated in meetings with, and delivery of more than $2 million in the form of cash and supplies directly to Hamas officials. The cost of each person's travel was estimated at $2,400. The United States has designated Hamas a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and outlawed providing support to it. Last November, a federal jury in Dallas convicted five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of violating that and other laws like it. Barron came to lead the convoy, which left the United States in July, after Galloway passed him the baton upon reaching Gaza, as noted in an account provided by convoy participant Hector Carreon. According to Carreon's report, Galloway called Barron "one of the most important new and rising voices in the Democratic Party of Barack Obama, the City Councilman of New York City to whom I now hand over formally the leadership the American Viva Palestina convoy, Councilman Charles Barron." Upon their arrival in Gaza, both Galloway and Barron knelt down in a Muslim prayer position. Barron did not respond to calls seeking comment. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has been unable to obtain the letter Barron sent to the COIB detailing what he expected to happen on the trip. However, the response obtained from a COIB attorney includes a summary of Barron's representations – making no mention of meetings with Hamas officials. A COIB attorney said board staffers are not allowed to comment on their communication with city officials. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsCharles Barron
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 The fallout continues for Yale University after its decision to publish Jytte Klausen's book, The Cartoons That Shook the World, without printing the images of the Prophet Mohammed that are the book's focus. Yale said experts it consulted warned that publishing the images "ran a serious risk of instigating violence." A group of 44 Yale alumni wrote to President Richard Levin urging that the school reconsiders "its unprecedented censorship." "Simply stated," the alumni letter said, "Yale must not be the arbiter of what is 'safe' to publish. Such censorship corrodes the intellectual freedom that is the foundation of the entire university community." Notable signatories include former U.N. representative John R. Bolton, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Robert Kagan, novelist Matthew Klein, and columnist Diana West. The letter comes on the heels of an announcement by scholar Sarah Ruden that she no longer would accept bids from Yale University Press on her future work. Yale published her translation of The Aeneid last year, but she pledged to take future projects elsewhere. Read more ...Source: IPT Blog
During the Cold War, the term "anti-anti-Communist" was used to describe people who were not Communists themselves, but who objected to every practical initiative to counter Soviet and Red Chinese expansionism. In today's struggle against radical Islamists, Salam Al-Marayati, a founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and its current executive director, can fairly be described as an "anti-anti-terrorist" - someone who rhetorically opposes Islamist terror but objects to virtually every practical measure that democracies take to defend themselves. While condemning terror in vague or general terms, Al-Marayati and MPAC focus their attacks on U.S. and Israeli security measures like Israeli military operations against Hamas or U.S. investigations of domestic terrorism. Al-Marayati has long belittled the importance of using informants to monitor "homegrown" terror cells, as in this case in which two Lodi, California men were convicted. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsSalam Al-Marayati
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 At a Capitol Hill forum Thursday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) demonstrated how Islamists use slander and distortion in an effort to silence Muslim reformers. Ellison delivered a tirade in which he falsely accused Dr. Zuhdi Jasser - one of the United States' most prominent Muslim reformers - of encouraging anti-Muslim bigotry and attempting to censor Islamists. Jasser, a Phoenix, AZ doctor who heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, came to Washington to brief members of Congress and their staffs about the dangers posed by "political Islam" as practiced by groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He also invited Ellison to discuss the issue of Islamism after Ellison spoke at two recent CAIR fundraisers in Arizona and California. U.S. Rep. Trent Franks and other members of the Arizona congressional delegation wrote to Ellison urging him not to go to the CAIR function. The letter cited damning evidence linking CAIR's founders to a Hamas-support network and the FBI's decision to cut off communication with CAIR. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsDr. M. Zuhdi Jasser
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 More than 100 religious leaders gathered Wednesday in Geneva for a two-day conference entitled "The Impact of King Abdullah's Inter-Religious Dialogue Initiative in Disseminating Human Values." Many of the listed "conference participants," however, are tainted by troubling resumes of anti-Semitism, empathy for radical Islamist ideology and support for terrorist organizations. The conference organizer, the Muslim World League (MWL) is alleged to have connections to Al Qaeda. Reports detail how MWL has provided Islamic militants, including Osama bin Laden and his followers, with financial[i] and organizational[ii] help. MWL's U.S. offices have been raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a network of Virginia-based Islamic charities and corporate entities suspected of having ties to terrorist groups. Also, MWL leaders have made statements in support of suicide bombings and published anti-Semitic articles. Perhaps the most disconcerting participant listed to attend King Abdullah's conference is William Baker – an anti-Semite with neo-Nazi connections. Baker claims that he met with the now U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) Hizballah during the Lebanon hostage crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s. While Hizballah was not yet designated at this time, Baker was hanging out with an organization that was kidnapping foreign nationals in Lebanon and holding them hostage – foreign nationals that were largely American and European. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 John Esposito has enjoyed substantial respect in his role as a Georgetown University professor of Religion and International Affairs, specializing in Islamic studies, as well as the founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. But whether he deserves that respect is put in serious doubt when assessing his cozy ties with radical Islamists and his repeated defense of their ideology -- a relationship that is detailed in a newly issued report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The report acknowledges Esposito's impressive pedigree as an award-winning professor, an author of more than 30 books, a consultant for the Gallup polling organization and an expert on Islam frequently called upon to brief government agencies including the State Department, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and various branches of the military. But it determines that his "outspoken defense of radical Islam calls his reliability as an objective academic and impartial educator into question." Read more ...Source: IPT NewsJohn Esposito
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) have introduced legislation that would effectively gut the USA PATRIOT Act. This week, against the backdrop of multiple domestic terrorism-related investigations and arrests, Leahy and Feingold tried to use hearings on extending the PATRIOT Act to advance legislation that would substantially weaken it. The reauthorization hearings focused on three controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Act set to expire on December 31, 2009. If legislators fail to act, the laws will expire automatically. Following the September 11th attacks, members of the Legislative and Executive branches came together to review the tools available to United States counter-terrorism officials. They found that existing statutes were inadequate in combating the asymmetrical threat posed by international terrorist organizations and that, consequently, new laws were necessary. Within forty-five days, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act, a comprehensive counter-terrorism bill. Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees convened this week to discuss the reauthorization of three controversial provisions of the national security legislation. Read more ...Source: IPT News
 It appeared to be a typical Al-Quds Day rally, replete with hateful speeches about the destruction of the State of Israel and the waving of Hizballah flags. The rally resembled other international versions of this year's Al-Quds Day celebration, an annual Islamist holiday initiated by Iranian revolutionary and terrorism exporter, Imam Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini. However, this event wasn't held in downtown Karachi or Damascus, but in downtown Washington, D.C's Sheridan Circle. The rally was organized by an employee of the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning, Faheem Darab. It even featured speakers as diverse as leaders from leftist organizations, a radical Reverend and homegrown American Islamists. The event was an expression of homegrown radicalism that sprouted from the seeds of a faraway revolution in Iran and was watered by local Jihadist sentiment. Participants were greeted at the event by the prominent yellow flags of Hizballah – a group designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In addition to this obvious display of support for a terrorist organization, the moderator of the event praised Imam Ayatollah Al-Khomeini, the initiator of Al-Quds Day and leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsFaheem Darab
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
At Whittier College in California, the dignity of women and protection of their rights are top priorities – so long as they don't interfere with the political agenda of campus Islamists. Whittier President Sharon Herzberger, who was honored at a WNBA game last month for her commitment to the advancement of women, typically receives glowing press coverage. Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman, a feminist icon, delivered this year's commencement address. Earlier this year Herzberger appointed a new dean for Whittier College Law School: Penelope Bryan, a scholar of family law who works to end discrimination against women in divorce cases. With this record, one would think the school would have enthusiastically welcomed a speech by Nonie Darwish, a native of Egypt who is scheduled to speak there this afternoon (12:30 P.M. Pacific Time) about the persecution of women under sharia. Darwish was invited to speak by the Whittier Republican Leadership Council. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsSharon Herzberger
Penelope Bryan
Latest recipients of the World-Class Hypocrite Award
 U.S. Senator Jon Kyl and U.S. Representatives Trent Franks and John Shadegg expressed concern over Rep. Keith Ellison's relationship with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a recent letter to the Minnesota Congressman. The letter was prompted by Rep. Ellison's recent attendance at CAIR-Arizona's 2009 Annual Banquet. In the letter the Arizona politicians said that they were "deeply concerned that any official support of this organization [CAIR] would undermine the legitimate concerns of federal investigators about CAIR's relationship to foreign terrorist organizations." The "concerns" about CAIR that the Arizona delegation referenced in the letter were highly publicized during the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. Among the evidence, CAIR was listed on a memo as part of the Palestine Committee in the U.S. – the memo calls on members of the committee to "increase the financing and moral support for Hamas." As a result the FBI decided to cut off contacts with CAIR – citing questions surrounding CAIR's relationship to Hamas as its reason. Read more ...Source: IPT BlogKeith Ellison
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 A British government funded organization has donated nearly £50,000 to a Muslim Brotherhood connected organization, according to a UK think tank. The Center for Social Cohesion, an organization specializing in the study of extremism in Britain, reports that Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) established in 2007 to "work with Muslim organisations to tackle violent extremism" had donated £48,000 pounds (almost $80,000) to the Muslim Welfare House (MWH)
MWH is a member of Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE.) The FIOE serves as an umbrella organization for most European Brotherhood group, according to analyst Lorenzo Vidino. The House has had on its board such extremists as Mohammed Sawalha, a former Hamas leader. Earlier this year, Sawalha signed a declaration in Istanbul in support of Hamas. One of the clauses in the document called for fighting "by all ways and means' foreign navies preventing the smuggling of arms into Gaza. The British navy was engaged in that very activity. Other MWH officials have had definite Muslim Brotherhood ties, according to the think tank.
None of the extremists are currently on the board of MWH. However, its ties to FIOE remain. At a time in which the UK is subject to intense international criticism for the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi the convicted Lockerbie bomber, the British government would do well to more closely vet the recipients of its largesse. Source: IPT BlogBritish Government
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 As we reported earlier this week, Congress is set to debate the reauthorization of several provisions of the PATRIOT Act next week. While that discussion will focus on three of the more controversial provisions of the much maligned law, some members of Congress are more interested in seeking expansive overhaul, effectively gutting the PATRIOT Act. Friday, Senator Russ Feingold introduced the JUSTICE Act, a bill proposing wide ranging amendments to this critical counter-terrorism tool. Among the provisions in the JUSTICE Act is an amendment to 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, commonly referred to as the "material support" statute. If the amendment suggested by Senator Feingold is approved, the "new" statute will read in part: "Whoever knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, knowing or intending that the material support or resources will be used in carrying out terrorist activity...[shall violate the statute]." [amendment text italicized] Under current law, federal prosecutors must show that an individual provided financial, logistical, or other resources to a terrorist organization, whether or not they intended the donation to support violence. In announcing this change, Senator Feingold explained that the revision would require "that a person must know or intend that support provided will be used for terrorist activity." In reality, this amendment would eviscerate the statute—stripping the government of a valuable tool in the fight against the support structure of international terrorist organizations. The fact is that the italicized portion above is a tremendous departure from Congressional intent, long standing judicial precedent, and common sense. Read more ...Source: IPT BlogRuss Feingold
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
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