 Five Americans being held in Pakistan on suspicion of terrorism alleged they were being tortured in comments shouted to reporters Monday as they were driven from court. Police and prison authorities denied any ill-treatment, and said the men did not bring up their complaints in court. The allegations could add to political sensitivities surrounding the case, which comes amid growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.
Washington is also calling for the Muslim country to do more to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban. The five, all Muslims, were detained in December after being arrested at the house of one of their relatives in the Punjabi town of Saragodha. Police have publicly accused them of plotting terror attacks in Pakistan, having links to al-Qaida and seeking to join militants fighting U.S. troops across the border in Afghanistan. Lawyers for the men say they were focused only on Afghanistan. In Monday's hearing, police submitted a charge sheet and evidence to the court in which the men are accused of violating several sections of Pakistan's penal code and anti-terrorism law. The most serious charge is conspiracy to carry out a terrorist act, which could carry life imprisonment depending on what the act is, according to prosecutor Nadim Akram Cheema and police officer Amir Shirazi. Prosecutors now have to decide whether the case is strong enough to charge the men and bring them to trial. The men were inside a prison van when several of them shouted in unison, "We are being tortured" three times within earshot of reporters. The media and the public were not allowed to attend the court session. Aftab Haanif, the deputy superintendent of Sargodha jail where the men are being held, denied any kind of torture and said they were receiving better food than regular inmates. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he had no immediate comment, but said consular officials had visited the men. The five men are between the ages of 19 and 25 and all from the Washington area. They were reported missing by their families in late November after one of them left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended. The next court hearing was set for early next month. FoxNews 
 AN INTENSE security review is under way as the Obama Administration considers holding a trial in Washington for the Guantanamo Bay detainee suspected of planning the deadly Bali nightclub bombing. The move would bring one of the world's most notorious terrorism suspects to a courthouse just steps from the Capitol, officials say. Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, was allegedly Osama bin Laden's point man in Indonesia. Until his capture in August 2003, he was believed to be the main link between al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, the terror group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Other terrorism trials also might be held in Washington and New York City under a proposal being discussed within the Obama Administration, according to US officials. The officials said the decision could come in a matter of weeks. Authorities have begun reviewing the security measures needed to bring Hambali and others before a Washington federal judge, the officials said. Conducting a trial in the nation's capital would be a symbolic repudiation of the policies of former President George Bush, who portrayed Hambali as a success story in his administration's program of interrogating terror suspects in secret CIA prisons overseas. Mr Bush said such interrogations, which included the simulated drowning technique of waterboarding, helped crack alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and led authorities to Hambali. The Age
 Two civil lawsuits filed by Muslims alleging criminal fraud were served today against the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a self-described Muslim civil-rights group that has been named an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator by the Justice Department. The cases filed in federal court in the nation's capital assert the D.C.-based CAIR was aware that its "resident attorney" and "manager for civil rights" at its now-defunct Maryland-Virginia chapter, Morris Days, was not an attorney and failed to provide legal services for Muslims who came to CAIR for help. The complaint alleges CAIR purposefully conspired with Days to keep the clients from discovering that their legal matters were being mishandled or not handled at all, according to attorney David Yerushalmi, who is representing the five plaintiffs, three of whom are Muslims. "CAIR has engaged in a massive criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized, and because of the CAIR cover-up, they still don't realize it," Yerushalmi said. "The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization." Meanwhile, CAIR is engaged in a lawsuit it filed against a father and son who carried out a six-month undercover investigation of the Muslim group's terrorist ties. CAIR is suing P. David Gaubatz and his son, Chris Gaubatz, who posed as a Muslim in an internship with CAIR's national office in Washington.
During that period, the younger Gaubatz made audio and video recordings and took some 12,000 pages of documents destined for a shredder in an attempt, he said, to expose the group's ties to Islamic jihad and terrorism. Key evidence has been published in the book "Muslim Mafia," published by WND Books. His father is a former Air Force special agent with extensive Middle East experience who researches the spread of radical Islam in the U.S. and its threat to national security. The two new lawsuits follow a previous suit centered on Days that alleged CAIR's fraudulent conduct amounted to racketeering, under federal RICO statutes. A court dismissed the RICO counts, concluding CAIR's conduct as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO. The plaintiffs in that case have appealed and are awaiting the circuit court's briefing schedule, Yerushalmi said. The two new federal civil complaints were filed Jan. 6 in the federal district court for the District of Columbia. The complaints say that according to CAIR internal documents, there were hundreds of victims of the fraud scheme. The suits contend CAIR knew or should have known Days was not a lawyer when it hired him. Further, when CAIR officials were confronted with evidence of Days' fraudulent conduct, the complaints say, they conspired to conceal the fraud. CAIR, the complaints assert, suggested Days was never actually employed by CAIR and concealed the fact CAIR had fired him once some of the victims began threatening to sue. More at WND
 From CAN: The five Americans arrested in Pakistan on their way to try to get training from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda wanted to bomb the Chashma nuclear power plant and other sites in Pakistan, The Daily Times of Pakistan reports.
The aspiring terrorists came from the northern Virginia and Washington D.C. areas. TIME Magazine reported in December when the arrests occurred that the group was arrested by Pakistani police in Sargodha owned by one of the suspects’ uncle. This uncle belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, which according to ABC News, originally rejected the five men as did Jamaat ud-Dawa, a group that’s connected to the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that carried out the Mumbai bombings. The Americans were not rejected because the two terrorist groups disagreed with their objectives, but because they could not provide references from other members.
However, terrorism experts caution that Pakistani and Kashmiri terrorist groups often collaborate with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and could also be a source of “homegrown” terrorism. For example, in 2004, a man in Colorado was deported after it was learned that he had received training at a camp operated by Jaish-e-Mohammed. “The U.S. and British governments have both acquired overwhelming evidence that ‘homegrown’ terror cells seeking instruction at ‘real’ terror training camps frequently end up at either facilities run by LET [Lashkar-e-Taiba] or JEM,” the Investigative Project on Terrorism quoted terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann as saying. The two aforementioned groups openly operate in Pakistan and own religious schools called madrasses.
The Pakistani government has launched military offensives against elements aligned to the Taliban but is accused of turning a blind eye to other terrorist organizations that have sympathizers in the military and intelligence service. World Threats
 SARGODHA, Pakistan — One of five Americans detained in Pakistan on Monday acknowledged their aim to go to Afghanistan to wage holy war against Western forces but defended their plans as justified under Islam. However, he denied any links to Al Qaeda or plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Monday was the first time the young Muslims from the Washington, D.C., area have addressed a court after being arrested in early December in the eastern Pakistani city of Sargodha. The case has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups. Pakistani police have said they plan to seek life sentences for the men under the country's anti-terrorism law. "We are not terrorists," one of the men, Ramy Zamzam, told The Associated Press as he entered a courtroom in Sargodha on Monday. "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism," he said, referring to the word for Islamic holy war. Zamzam did not elaborate, but some Muslims believe it is their duty to wage jihad against foreign forces they view as occupying a Muslim country. The men, aged 19 to 25, denied they had ties with Al Qaeda or other militant groups during a court appearance Monday in Sargodha, said their attorney, Ameer Abdullah Rokri. "They told the court that they did not have any plan to carry out any terrorist act inside or outside Pakistan," said Rokri. "They said that they only intended to travel to Afghanistan to help their Muslim brothers who are in trouble, who are bleeding and who are being victimized by Western forces." The Americans arrived amid tight security. About a dozen police cars escorted the prison van inside the court premises as officers manned the rooftops of surrounding buildings. The men wore handcuffs as they walked into the courthouse for their hearing. The court remanded the men to prison for 14 days to give police time to prepare their case, said Rokri. "We have told the court that police have completed their investigation and have enough evidence against the five suspects to try them under anti-terrorism law," said police officer Matiullah Shahani. Police have not said what the group's intended target was, but authorities say the men had a map of Chashma Barrage — a complex located near nuclear power facilities that includes a water reservoir and other structures. It lies in the populous province of Punjab, about 125 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan has a nuclear weapons arsenal, but also nuclear power plants for civilian purposes. The court ordered the release of one of the suspects' fathers, Khalid Farooq, because of a lack of evidence that he had committed any crime, said police officer Tahir Shirazai. It was unclear if Farooq, also a U.S. citizen, was still in custody since authorities said they had released him more than two weeks ago. Pakistani police and government officials have made a series of escalating and, at times, seemingly contradictory allegations about the men's intentions, while U.S. officials have been far more cautious.
The U.S. is also looking at charging the men — Umar Farooq, Waqar Khan, Ahmed Minni, Aman Hassan Yemer and Ramy Zamzam. Officials in both countries have said they expect the men to eventually be deported back to the United States, though charging them in Pakistan could delay that process. The U.S. Embassy has declined to comment on the potential charges the men face in Pakistan. FoxNews
 ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police say they plan to ask a court to charge five Americans arrested in early December with terrorism, and will seek life imprisonment sentences against them. The young Muslim men, who are from the Washington, D.C., area, were captured in the eastern Pakistani city of Sargodha. The case spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups. Tahir Gujar, a senior police investigator in Sargodha, said Thursday that the men would appear in an anti-terrorist court on Jan. 4.
He said police had almost concluded their investigation and that they were "certain that these five Americans wanted to carry out attacks in Pakistan." Gujar didn't say what authorities believe the men intended to target. FoxNews
 ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police are pursuing terrorism charges against five detained American men, police said Friday, a move that could complicate efforts to bring the men back to the United States where they could also land in the courts. The case has bolstered fears that Americans and other Westerners are heading to Pakistan to link up with Al Qaeda and other militant groups, and it could test a U.S.-Pakistani relationship already made brittle by demands of the war in neighboring Afghanistan. The young Muslim men, who are from the Washington, D.C., area have not yet been formally charged with any crime. However, police are now alleging that the men were collecting and attempting to collect material to carry out terrorist activities in the list of recommended charges to be presented to a court, police official Nazir Ahmad told The Associated Press. Those charges fall under sections of Pakistan's anti-terrorism law, and the punishments range from seven years to life in prison, the police official said in a phone interview. The FBI is also looking into what potential charges they could face in the U.S. Possibilities include conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group. U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire declined to comment on the potential charges and would not say what efforts Washington was making to bring the men back. Snelsire did confirm that American diplomats have paid at least two consular visits to the detainees. FBI agents have also been granted some access to the men. The men appeared before a magistrate in the Punjab province town of Sargodha on Friday. Police were given 10 more days to hold them and further investigate, said Ansar Ahmad, another Sargodha police official. The five were arrested in Sargodha earlier this month, but are being held in Lahore, the provincial capital. Police earlier accused them of trying to link up with militant groups and intending to go fight in Afghanistan. The detainees are accused of using the Facebook and YouTube Web sites to try to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan. "We have seized maps of a Pakistan air force base in Sargodha and some sensitive installations at Chashma Barrage outside the town," Nazir Ahmad said Friday. The Chashma Barrage includes a major water reservoir and large power plants that were installed by China. He said the police had tracked down e-mails containing clues about the men's contacts with militants, but he said police are still trying to track down a Taliban recruiter called Saifullah whom they allege was in touch with the five suspects. Officials in both countries have said they expected the men would eventually be deported back to the United States, but the latest development muddies the picture on when that would happen. Pakistan's legal system can be slow and opaque. The men were picked up by Pakistani authorities after their worried families in the U.S. turned to the FBI to track them down. Pakistan officials have said those detained included two Pakistani Americans, two Ethiopian Americans and an Egyptian American named Ramy Zamzam who is a dental student at Howard University in Washington. The others were identified as Waqar Hussain, Aman Yamar, Ahmad Abdul Minni and Umer Farooq. Pakistani officials have given various spellings of their names. Pakistan is under U.S. pressure to do more to root out militant groups that use its soil to plan attacks against Western troops across the border in Afghanistan. Early Friday, the Pakistani army used helicopter gunships to kill at least nine suspected militants and destroyed their hideouts in the northwest's Orakzai tribal region near the Afghan border, government official Mohammed Yasin said. Many Pakistani Taliban fighters are believed to have fled to Orakzai since the army launched a major offensive against them in the South Waziristan tribal region in October. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has also hinted the army will pursue a full-scale offensive in Orakzai. The U.N. says around 40,000 people have already fled the region. FoxNews
 US officials are actually debating whether to file charges against the five Muslim DC students, Americans who were arrested in Pakistan for planning jihad. See also here. "They are proudly saying they are here for jihad" or holy war, Anwar said. One of the jihadis left behind a "farewell" video and Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families, said: "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community". What about the father of one of the five that joined the them in their jihad? And what is the Muslim community doing to expunge the koran of these violent texts prescribing such violence? No, instead they insist we willingly go to the gallows. How can we be having this discussion? How can this be? How could such consideration be made? CAIR should be nailed for their support of jihad here and abroad. But once your premise if false, once your thinking is irrational, everything that stems from it will be ...insane. And so we have it - the era of insanity. Can you imagine if we applied this to the Nazis? Go lenient on the Nazis or ......... they'll build more ovens. CAIR is a jihadist organization. Of course they will front for the global jihad. I expect this from terrorists. But what of us? Where is our will? How can we allow this imposition of sharia law without so much as a cry out for liberty, freedom, for America, for our children? FBI walks tightrope in outreach to Muslims Washington Post
Probe into 5 Americans held in Pakistan could undermine relationships "As U.S. officials consider whether to file criminal charges against the men and how aggressively to prosecute any potential case, some Muslim leaders are calling for leniency, saying the tough approach often used by the Bush administration would alienate a community whose relationship with law enforcement is uneasy. "Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution," said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. "The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward." The era of Obama. Of the 30 Muslim terror plots thwarted on U.S. soil since 9/11, 10 came in 2009. And Obama is dismantling the very mechanisms that enable us to stop these jihadis before they attack...........
- a plan to attack military aircraft and synagogues in New York (four men arrested in May), - the fatal shooting of an Army recruiter and wounding of another in Little Rock in June, - the North Carolina plot to wage jihad in various countries (eight men charged in July),
- a conspiracy to plant bombs in New York (prevented by apprehension of the accused, an Afghan national from Denver, in September), - an attempted bombing at an Illinois courthouse, also in September, - an intended assault on a shopping center in Massachusetts, foiled in October, - and a firefight later that same month in Detroit between FBI agents and radicals bent on establishing an Islamist enclave ruled by sharia law in the United States. Thanks to Atlas
 by Ryan Mauro Five Americans from the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area have been arrested in Pakistan on their way to commit jihad. The fact that they were caught before they got to hook up with those to-die-for 72 virgins (the ones that, according to one Saudi preacher, are white and have no phlegm, feces, urine, or perhaps most appealingly, menstrual cycles) is itself a success in the war on terror. In order to capitalize on this success, though, we need to learn several lessons from the episode. The first lesson is that we cannot ignore how Pakistan-based extremist groups have penetrated America’s shores. One of the student’s uncles, who is part of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, provided them with a safe house where they were ultimately captured. This group was created in the year 2000 after Maulana Masood Azhar, a former senior leader of Harakat ul-Ansar, was released from prison in exchange for 155 hostages. The group is primarily focused on fighting India over Kashmir and has carried out many attacks, including the 2001 attack on India’s parliament, and they are suspected of being linked to plots to kill former Pakistani President Musharraf when he was in office. The group had training camps in Afghanistan when the Taliban was in power and has received funding from Osama bin Laden.
According to the Australian government, the group met with various terrorist organizations in June 2008, where they agreed to shift their focus to removing coalition forces from Afghanistan. These aren’t the first Americans that JEM has recruited. In 2004, a man in Colorado was deported after it was learned that he had been trained in one of the group’s camps. There are also sympathizers, as found out earlier this year when four men were arrested for plotting to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and to use Stinger missiles to shoot down military aircraft flying out of the Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York. The plot was busted when an FBI informant posed as a member of JEM, with whom the ringleader discussed his desire to join the group. Investigators should be on the lookout for a potential link between the five Americans and Jamaat ul-Fuqra, known in the U.S. as “Muslims of America.”
The United Press International reported in 2002 that ul-Fuqra “is a splinter group” of JEM and is also linked to Harakat ul-Mujahideen. As discussed previously, ul-Fuqra has isolated communities in the U.S. that are used as paramilitary training centers, as a videotape recently released by the Christian Action Network shows. More at Pajamas Media
 KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistani police Monday seized luggage and a cell phone from a hotel where three of five Americans arrested on suspicion of militant links stayed, while a court ruled the men cannot be deported until judges review the case. Police allege the young Americans intended to join militants in the northwest tribal areas and then travel to Afghanistan before their arrest last week. The case has fanned fears that Americans and other Westerners are heading to Pakistan to link up with Al Qaeda and other militant groups. Police searched the mid-range Saddam Hotel in the southern city of Karachi, the country's commercial hub, where some of the men stayed on Nov. 30 after their arrival in the country. They found five travel bags containing clothes, a cell phone and a book, police official Abdullah Sheikh said. Hotel manager Mohammed Farooq Khan said the three left the hotel without informing management after staying one night. The book was "The Pact," the best-selling true story of three young men from broken homes who pledged to support each other as they pursue academic dreams. The detainees are accused of using Facebook and YouTube Web sites to try and connect with extremist groups in Pakistan and are said to have established contact with a Taliban recruiter. They have not been formally charged with any crime or produced in court. The court order Monday was aimed at preventing any deportation of the Americans before the judiciary gets a chance to review the case, Lahore High Court registrar Tahir Pervez said. No deportation order is known to have been issued so far, but officials in both countries have said such a move is likely. The court issued the order in response to a petition from Khalid Khawaja, a civil rights activist who has often filed court cases on behalf of alleged militants and people believed to have disappeared at the hands of Pakistan's security apparatus. Pervez said the court ordered the government of Punjab province to file a report on the case in a hearing Thursday. The men, who are from the Washington, D.C. area, were picked up by Pakistani authorities last week in the Punjab town of Sargodha after their worried families in the U.S. turned to the FBI to track them down. They were shifted over the weekend to Lahore, the provincial capital, for further questioning. FBI agents, who have been granted some access to the men, are trying to see if there is enough evidence to charge any of them with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group, an American official and another person familiar with the case said Friday. FoxNews
 Posted by The MaryHunter It's been 36 days since the terrorist attack that left 14 dead, 32 wounded, and the nation scratching its collective head, asking why the Muslim extremist U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was so effortlessly able to perpetrate this act of jihad on American soil. The reason, of course, is Political Correctness.
Texas Rep. John Carter's district includes Fort Hood and he is more than just a little concerned that our government has apparently learned nothing from this horrid event. We must not wrongfully prejudge people. However, we also can no longer refuse to take the steps necessary to defend ourselves, as clearly was the case with the Fort Hood attack. We can't allow political correctness to intimidate Americans from speaking out against clear and present dangers out of fear they will be ridiculed or penalized for offending any group. We should have learned that lesson in 2001. Let's review the historical record beginning in 2001:
- Muslim males with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons - including Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, then of Northern Virginia - rammed airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 2,976 men, women and children.
- A Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons attempted to bomb a U.S. airliner with a shoe bomb in December 2001.
- A Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons attacked the Los Angeles airport in July 2002, killing two persons and wounding four.
- A Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons engaged in a sniping attack with a juvenile accomplice in the Washington area in October 2002, killing 10 and wounding three.
- A Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons attacked his fellow U.S. Army soldiers in their tents in Kuwait in 2003, killing two and wounding 14 of his own comrades, a foreshadowing of the Fort Hood attack.
- Muslim males with ties to radical Islamic groups and individuals attempted to plan the bombing of the Sears Tower in Chicago in August 2006.
- Muslim males with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons, including Mr. Al-Awlaki - now in Yemen - plotted in 2006 to attack the Canadian Parliament and other buildings in Toronto.
- Muslim males with ties to radical Islamic groups and individuals - including the same Mr. Al-Awlaki in Yemen - were arrested in May 2007 for planning an automatic weapons attack on U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J.
- A Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons attacked a U.S. Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., in June, killing two recruiters.
...which led to this:
- Another Muslim male with ties to radical Islamic groups and persons, including Mr. Al-Awlaki in Yemen, stands accused of attacking our soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5, killing 14 and wounding 32. Mr. Al-Awlaki is publicly praising Maj. Hasan as a "hero."
...which could probably have been prevented, because of this:
The FBI and the Defense Department were aware that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was in contact with the same Mr. Al-Awlaki in Yemen with ties to the Sept. 11 attackers and the plot to attack Fort Dix, and that Maj. Hasan made verbal and written statements justifying attacks. Maj. Hasan's profile, associations, communications and actions were a perfect match with multiple previous attacks in this country that had killed nearly 3,000 Americans since 2001. Yet no action was taken. So, what's been done since?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's chief concern apparently is not why the FBI and other authorities failed to prevent another attack, but whether the public might be led to blame Muslims in general, which would be politically incorrect. This is the same Department of Homeland Security that had no problem warning law enforcement agencies earlier this year of a supposed threat from "right-wing extremists," defined as Americans who believe in the Constitution and oppose Obama administration policies. Rep. Carter hastens to point out that the American public comprises, on the whole, "good people who have developed a very strong aversion to judging others because of their race, ethnic background, religion or factors other than individual character and conduct." That said (and help me out here if this seems out of line): ...our virtue is being used as a powerful weapon against us by political extremists within our country and enemies without. [...] when a Muslim male contacts the radical Islamic colleague of the Sept. 11 hijackers, the Fort Dix shooting plot and the Canadian Parliament bombing plot; tells responsible people that he sympathizes with our enemies; and claims that jihad against the United States is justified, somebody needs to stop him instead of failing to act from fear of violating the unwritten taboos of political correctness. And why does this need to even be pointed out? Because: We are letting political correctness destroy our nation. It cost the lives of 14 Americans at Fort Hood, and the current administration apparently has not learned a thing. There is a simple definition of political correctness. It is just another word for a lie. When we say we have no need to fear or take action against people with clear ties to radical Islamic terrorists, that's a lie. We must start acknowledging the truth if we want to survive as a free nation. God willing. With thanks to Moonbattery
 By Joseph Weber Muslim leaders said Friday the five American youths arrested in Pakistan for allegedly attempting to join the al Qaeda network were lured through the Internet into embracing terrorist ideology and that they will wage a cyber counterattack. "This is a wake-up call involving our youths — Muslims and Catholics," Imam Mahdi Bray said outside the Islamic Circle of North American Center, the Northern Virginia mosque in which the men worshipped and participated in youth-group activities. "They see great injustices, and their emotions and passions are stirred, as they should be. … But we are determined not to let religious extremists exploit the vulnerability of our youth through slick, seductive and destructive propaganda on the Internet. We will respond in kind on the Internet. Silence in cyberspace is not an option." Pakistani officials say the men allegedly asked an al Qaeda-linked group for training but were rejected because they lacked credentials. They reportedly attempted first to contact jihadist groups in August through e-mails, then Facebook and YouTube. The men, ages 19 to 25, then went to Pakistan to set up meetings. U.S. official: Pakistan to deport U.S. youths The men disappeared last month from the Washington, D.C., area. One left behind a militaristic video that prompted family members to contact the FBI. Pakistani residents became suspicious of the young men and told police, who arrested them Tuesday in a home belonging to an uncle of one of the suspects. The men, all U.S. citizens, have been identified as Eman Yasir, Waqar Hasan, Umer Farooq, Ahmed Mimi and Ramy Zamzam, a dental student at Howard University and the group's alleged ringleader. They allegedly told Pakistani authorities at first they were in the country to attend a wedding. Mr. Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said the small Alexandria mosque where the young men met taught lawfulness and dignity, which he called the "core values of our faith." He and other religious leaders praised family members for taking swift action when their sons disappeared. "This could have been much worse," Mr. Bray said. Essam Tellawi, a spokesman for the Islamic center, said the mosque teaches the Koran and the teaching of the prophet Muhammad, including moderation, tolerance and peaceful interactions with neighbors. "Pray for the five families," said Mr. Tellawi, dressed warmly outside the mosque on a cold, gray afternoon. "They are going through severe hardship. Pray [the men] get back safely and for a speedy resolution to this matter." He declined to discuss specifics about the case, saying the matter remains under investigation. Mustafa Abu Maryem, the mosque's youth coordinator, said he never suspected the young men of "bad behavior" and that they are "fun-loving" and have a "bright future." "I hope all of this is not what it seems to be," he said. Mr. Maryem said group activities focused on community events and sports, which were meant to be "positive forces in the young men's lives." He also said discussions included ones on the positive aspects of marriage and the evils of gangs. "We never talked about politics or fighting — directly or indirectly," Mr. Maryem said. "Our focus was community, community, community." Washington Times H/T: ROP
 Leaders of several national Islamist organizations held a news conference Wednesday to broadcast their role in encouraging the families of five D.C.-area students now detained in Pakistan to report their children's disappearance to law enforcement. That the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thought it was news that they and others cooperated with law enforcement is an interesting statement in itself.
But it was more interesting to see CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad acknowledge "that there is a problem" of American Muslims turning to jihad at home and abroad. In an effort to combat the trend, Awad announced his organization would "launch a major campaign of education to refute the misuse of where are verses in the Quran or the misuse of certain grievances in the Muslim world." This acknowledgement by CAIR and fellow Islamist groups like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) comes after at least nine cases of homegrown Muslim extremism in 2009 and the disappearance in 2008 of about 20 Somali men from Minneapolis who returned to Africa to fight with the Al-Shabaab terrorist group. It also follows their collective insistence that religious motivation be kept out of the discussion of Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting spree at Fort Hood last month. These past actions followed a pattern, in which CAIR spearheaded efforts to dismiss any concern about radicalization in America. That denial was on full display in 2007, after a Pew survey found a quarter of Muslim American men under age 30 found suicide bombings justifiable. In a television appearance, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper bobbed and weaved to avoid confronting the question. "I think it's wrong to focus on a couple of questions to put forward an agenda that goes against the bulk of the findings," he said. When host Tucker Carlson cited a finding that 61 percent of the respondents expressed concern for rise of Islamic extremism in the U.S., a number Carlson thought was too low, Hooper made it clear he was not among them: "I don't foresee a rise in religious extremism in the Muslim community." Similarly, MPAC spokeswoman Edina Lekovic cast the support among so many young American Muslim men for suicide bombings as a distraction: "When we look at the statistic about suicide bombing, it is indeed a disturbing one. But taken out of context, it's even more frightening. You know, the University of Maryland did a poll just in December where they found that 1 in 2 Americans support, sometimes--with the same wording--they find it at least sometimes justified for innocent civilians to be targeted by bombings or attacks. I think that any sort of support, no matter what side it comes from, is absolutely outrageous." None of the organizations launched any programming at that point to combat the ideology. That failure helps create a mindset that leads five young students with promising futures to give it all up to jihad, said M. Zuhdi Jasser, executive director of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Jasser's organization tries to counter the Islamist hue of the "mainstream" national organizations by advocating a strict separation between faith and public policy. Groups such as CAIR and MPAC have spread a message that America has been at war with Islam since 9/11, he said, rather than emphasizing the country's efforts to improve life for Muslims. "Unless they're going to do a 180, saying American soldiers are in Afghanistan liberating Muslims ... unless they change the narrative then this thing they're going to do is useless," Jasser said. More at IPT
 A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five foreign nationals after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The raid took place at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001. According to the report, "The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of terrorism." It names the five as Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Hassan Khan, Eman Hassan, Yasir and Rami Zamzam and describes them as two Yemenis, an Egyptian, a Swede and a U.S.-born Pakistani. December 8: Federal investigators are searching for a Howard University dental student and four other missing Muslim men reported missing from the Washington, D.C. area, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has learned. There is concern they may have been sent abroad to train for jihad. The five were last seen November 29. The identities of two of the missing men, Howard student Ramy Zamzam and Waqar Khan, have been mentioned in online postings, including a Facebook page that was set up Monday for friends to offer their support. Some of those pages, however, appear restricted to friends and associates. It is not clear where the men are believed to have gone, but an informed source told the IPT that at least one left behind a farewell video. According to the Facebook and Twitter postings, Zamzam is among the missing. He has been active in the Muslim Students Association, serving as president of the MSA DC Council. A Howard University spokeswoman has not responded to questions from the IPT. The disappearance comes as U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about the threat of homegrown Islamist extremism.
This concern is prompted by a spike in attacks like the Fort Hood massacre, and conspiracies broken up by law enforcement before any attacks took place. President Obama noted the increase during his speech last week at West Point explaining the Afghanistan surge: "In the last few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano echoed that sentiment in a speech last week. "We are seeing young Americans who are inspired by Al Qaeda and radical ideology," she said. On Monday, federal prosecutors charged a Chicago man with six counts of conspiracy tied to the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India that killed more than 170 people, including six Americans. That attack was believed to be carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terrorist group that has been implicated in conspiracies in Virginia, Toronto and elsewhere. On the surface, at least, the situation in Washington resembles the case of 20 young Somalis who disappeared from the Minneapolis area a year ago. They are believed to have made their way back to Somalia, where they trained with the Al-Shabaab terrorist group. At least three of those men have died, including one who became the first known American citizen to carry out a suicide bombing. Fourteen people have been indicted in relation to the Somali recruitment effort. Little is known about Zamzam. In 2008, he was part of a student effort in northern Virginia to solicit mosques throughout the country to raise money to build a new mosque. He also posted a comment indicating he thought women were required by Islam to cover themselves and that Muslim women who did not faced punishment from God. "Those that don't, then woe to them for a day where all will be held accountable for what they put forth in the life of this world, and Allah SWT wrongs no one, and He is the Most Just, Most Merciful." IPT
 As the spotlight moves away from the Fort Hood massacre, one of America's most openly radical Islamist organizations has taken to the murderer's defense. As-Sabiqun, a Washington D.C.-based organization with branches in four other major American cities, released a flyer labeling shooter Nidal Malik Hasan as "victimized" and the "target of psychological warfare." The handout also defended convicted terrorists and suspects. As-Sabiqun has repeatedly predicted the demise of the United States and dreams of "the Islamic State of North America no later than 2050." It has openly declared support for terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hizbullah, and even claimed it funded anti-American militants. With concerns growing over radical Islamist propaganda in the United States, As-Sabiqun is one of the leading organizations building a bridge between international Islamism and its developing American counterpart. As-Sabiqun is headquartered in Washington D.C., but has branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and Philadelphia.
Its leader, Imam Abdul Alim Musa, is well-known in Islamist circles for spreading anti-American propaganda and militancy. Last weekend, Musa addressed the annual conference of the Muslim Students Association – Persian Speaking group, a Shia branch of the national Muslim Students Association primarily for Shia Muslims. There, Musa saluted the Iranian Revolution as the "greatest epic in modern, even ancient history" and urged the students to have patience as the United States collapsed: "Well I'm telling you, it's very simple. I think you got the message now. We're in a big war brothers and sisters. This is as big as it gets for the United States. We are just like it is during the 60s and 70s. So if you're gonna be Muslim, buckle down and be a tough one because in the final analysis the U.S. is finished." Musa was applauded following his conclusion, in which he honored the survival of the Iranian Revolution and its student supporters in the United States: "Your survival has made you stronger and better and better in management and organization than anybody else, just by your survival. Remember, a revolutionary do [sic] not have to win any war. They only have to survive, even if you lose 90 percent of your people. You have to understand revolutionary warfare. If you lose 90 percent of your wealth and people and you still moving around and mobile, you can come back. That's the rules of revolutionary warfare – to survive. I'm trying to tell you – the war is already won. [Musa laughs.] They just have to fall over." This is not the first time this year that Musa has preached hate and militancy to an American Muslim student organization. In a February 19th speech to the MSA at Berkeley, Musa explained how he funneled money to African jihadists with the intention of conquering the United States: "So we have seen movements, because although we was in (UI word) in the first stage, and the next stage we were using criminal wealth to help our brothers, you know our brothers in Algeria and in Africa, they had fought the United States government, they was in exile. They knew about a revolution, but they didn't know nothing about money. Well, since I was a criminal, I knew all about making money. So all the criminal money that I made I would take it to the brothers and say – OK, you guys, buy me some weapons, you'll go back, we'll take over the United States. That was the dream that we had. You got to dream big. Ain't no sense in dreaming small, right? Live your dreams." Musa has traveled abroad to support Islamist movements worldwide. The As-Sabiqun website indicates that Musa traveled abroad several times to Iran. During a 1996 conference in South Africa, he stated: "And this religion Islam will dominate all other religions whether the Americans, whether the British, whether the French, whether the Russians, whether the Japanese, whether all of them get together in one solid group to fight Islam. It don't make no difference. In the final analysis, Allah (swt) said that his religion—Islam—will rise to the forefront, will be elevated to the role of leadership in this world, whether they all like it or not." That same year, Musa called for an Islamic state in London during a conference there that featured a wide assortment of radicals, including representatives of FIS [Islamic Salvation Front], Hizbullah and Hamas. As-Sabiqun's website describes how, "During a rally in July 1999, Imam Musa displayed a cashier's check made out to 'Hamas, Palestine,' to protest the 1996 U.S. law which declared Hamas a terrorist organization." On a February 18 2007 broadcast of Fox News, Musa stated, "I know Hamas. They are nice people. Very nice people." Musa has repeatedly cheered Hizbullah's "victory" over Israel and has saluted suicide bombers, saying: "When they go out and strike at the heart of Zionism. They are not suicide bombers they are heroes they are she-roes, isn't that right? That's a part of our deen, that's a part of our religion, let's not become weak boned and apologetic..." Musa has also fueled the flames of international hatred against the United States. In an appearance last month on Iran's government-controlled Press TV, Musa pitted America against Islam: "Islamophobia to us right now, coming out of 9-1-1 (9/11), is something that the [American] government and the Israelis did in the U.S. to justify a global attack on Islam … the perception management now by the media, gives the media and gives the military justification to invade our countries, to stop us in airports, to exclude us from society." The extremism expressed by As-Sabiqun and Musa might easily be passed off as the bizarre ranting of a radical cleric and his hateful organization. However, as the Fort Hood massacre, the FBI shooting of Luqman Abdullah and other recent investigations show, fiery rhetoric can lead to violent plotting. The lesson of Fort Hood is not to ignore open self-radicalization, but to heed those who openly preach our destruction from within. IPT
 WASHINGTON sniper John Allen Muhammad, who killed 10 people in a 2002 shooting spree around the US capital, will be executed today after the nation's top court denied a stay of execution. Muhammad's lawyers had appealed for the US Supreme Court to delay the execution while it examines a plea on whether his sentence was constitutional. "The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to the chief justice and by him referred to the court is denied,'' Monday's Supreme Court ruling said. Muhammad is now due to be put to death by lethal injection at 9:00 pm Tuesday in Virginia. During the 2002 rampage that left 10 people dead and the Washington region paralyzed with fear, Muhammad, a skilled marksman, picked off victims in shopping malls, outside schools and at gas stations. With the aid of a high-power sniper rifle and scope, he unleashed a reign of terror over three weeks, killing each of his victims with a single bullet fired from a distance. But his lawyers argued Muhammad had not been properly legally represented during his trial in March 2004, when his legal team did not contest his request to defend himself even though he was clearly suffering from mental problems. The defence team had asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether the 2004 sentence was constitutional, and a hearing had been set for November 24. In a dissenting statement attached to the ruling, Justice John Stevens, backed by two other justices, said Monday: "This case once again highlights the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded. "By denying Muhammad's stay of application we have allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on the matter - involving a death row inmate - that demands the most careful attention. "This result is particularly unfortunate in light of the limited time Muhammad was given to make his case to the district court.'' Muhammad's lawyers last week asked the nation's highest court to halt his execution to give the justices more time to examine an appeal against his death sentence. "Trial counsel knew that Muhammad had been diagnosed with severe mental illness, and personally observed Muhammad's struggle with severe symptoms of psychiatric disorders prior to the start of the trial,'' said one of two documents presented to the court last week. "These paranoid and delusional beliefs were clearly evident in and had devastating effect on, Muhammad's behavior in this case,'' the lawyers' petition read. Muhammad's teenaged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a sentence of life in prison. Source: The Australian
 CAIR's terror connections extend beyond Hamas to Enemy No. 1The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations' ties to terrorism are not limited to Hamas and cross over to al-Qaida, America's No. 1 enemy, a top-selling new book alleges. In just one of several shocking and previously unreported findings, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America" details a secret meeting between CAIR's founding chairman and al-Qaida's spiritual leader in America – blind Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman – who is now a convicted terrorist. Al-Qaida's top leaders have vowed revenge for the federal imprisonment of the Egyptian-born cleric. CAIR has come under fire in the past for supporting the Blind Sheik, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing investigation. But the group maintains "this is a lie. No evidence substantiating this falsehood has ever been offered." However, "Muslim Mafia" – co-authored by former federal agent P. David Gaubatz and investigative journalist Paul Sperry – reveals that around the time the Blind Sheik was plotting to bomb major New York landmarks, he traveled from New York to San Jose, Calif., to meet privately with Omar M. Ahmad, CAIR's long-time chairman, who is now under active federal investigation. The CAIR leader allegedly hosted the senior al-Qaida figure and his phalanx of bodyguards at his home, according to the book. Just a few years later, the Blind Sheik's longtime Egyptian friend Ayman al-Zawahiri, now second in command of al-Qaida, showed up at a San Jose mosque led by Ahmad and other Muslim Brotherhood figures. The mosque hosted a fundraiser for him. Ahmad, aka Omar Yehia, this year abruptly stepped down from CAIR's national board after U.S. prosecutors named him an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal plot led by the Holy Land Foundation charity to underwrite Palestinian terrorism. The trial, which ended in convictions on all 108 felony counts, marked the largest terror-financing case in U.S. history. "During that trial," assistant FBI Director Richard C. Powers this April wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "evidence was introduced that demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders (including its current President Emeritus and its Executive Director) and ... HAMAS, which was designated as a terrorist organization in 1995." Read more here,,,, Source: WND
 By Art Moore In the wake of the sensational ACORN video sting operation by two young investigators, an even more daring and devastating undercover investigation – this one infiltrating the nation's most aggressive Muslim "civil rights" organization for six months – has produced stunning revelations about the supposedly "moderate" group, backed up by 12,000 pages of documents obtained during the secret op. As revealed in a new book detailing the operation and its findings, the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is not the beneficent Muslim civil-rights group it claims to be.
Indisputable evidence now shows CAIR and other "mainstream" Islamic groups are acting as fronts for a well-funded conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate and destroy the American system. Until now, CAIR has remained a powerful force in the nation's capital and across the country, from demanding the Obama administration stop FBI counter-terrorism tactics to compelling a school district to apologize to Muslims. That influence, many believe, may be coming to an end, as a result of the undercover investigation – which included the son of a veteran counter-terrorism investigator, who grew a beard and converted to Islam, as well as two veiled female interns. "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," a WND Books publication by counter-terrorism investigator P. David Gaubatz and "Infiltration" author Paul Sperry, documents CAIR's ultimate purpose to transform the United States into an Islamic nation under the authority of the Quran. The book already has prompted action on Capitol Hill. With evidence from "Muslim Mafia" in hand, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., co-founder of the Congressional Anti-Terror Caucus, and other members of Congress – including Reps. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and Paul Broun, R-Ga. – plan to hold a press conference today in Washington calling for an investigation and an end to political lobbying by front groups such as CAIR. "Now we have proof – from the secret documents that this investigative team has uncovered, coupled with the ones recently declassified by the FBI – that [radical Islamists] agents living among us have a plan in place, and they are successfully carrying out that subversive plan," Myrick writes in the foreword to "Muslim Mafia." Noting that CAIR has tried to hide its strategy, finances, membership, internal disputes and much more from public view since its founding in 1994, Islam expert Daniel Pipes lauded "Muslim Mafia" for definitively exposing the "tawdry and possibly illegal inner workings of radical Islam's most aggressive organization in North America." Read more here,,,, Source: WND
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Five Americans being held in Pakistan on suspicion of terrorism alleged they were being tortured in comments shouted to reporters Monday as they were driven from court.
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