Posted on 09/07/2001 10:44:13 AM PDT by veronica
FBI Raids Dallas-Area Internet Business as Part of Terrorism Investigation
By David Koenig Associated Press Writer Published: Sep 6, 2001
DALLAS (AP) - Federal agents continued searching the headquarters of an Internet company Thursday as part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, the FBI said. Muslim leaders said authorities acted on scant evidence and anti-Arab stereotypes.
InfoCom Corp., based in suburban Richardson, says it sells computer systems and Internet services to many large Islamic organizations in the United States and businesses in the Middle East.
The FBI said the search, which began Wednesday, was part of a two-year investigation by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force.
FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said the investigation was not aimed at InfoCom's clients, but she declined to say why authorities targeted the company. She said more than 80 agents from the FBI and other federal agencies were searching computer files at the company's headquarters. Agents took boxes out of the building Wednesday and Thursday but did not say what was contained in them.
The search warrant was sealed by a federal magistrate, and the FBI did not elaborate on what evidence it sought. Bailey denied any bias to the investigation. "This is a criminal investigation, not a political investigation," she said. "We're hoping to find evidence of criminal activity." InfoCom attorney Mark Enoch said the company had no links to terrorist groups and was cooperating with the FBI, even helping agents navigate the computer system. InfoCom has 15 full- and part-time employees.
Internet service to the company's 500 clients was cut off by the agents, InfoCom's Internet operations manager said. Displaced employees moved across the street to the headquarters of a client, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that supporters of Israel charge raises money for Hamas and other Mideast terrorist groups.
The foundation denied the accusations, and Muslim leaders who gathered outside InfoCom's offices charged that the raid was orchestrated by Israeli sympathizers. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, linked the raid with U.S. opposition to international efforts to criticize Israel's handling of the conflict with Palestinians. "We suspect that all these attempts are to please the Israeli government but not to protect the U.S. interests," Awad said. "Siding with Israel, a racist country and state, I think does not do us any good."
Others viewed the raid broadly as the product of anti-Muslim bias. "We have deep concerns that this once again is an attempt to rush to judgment and to marginalize the American Muslim community simply because ... many of them are immigrants," said Mahdi Bray, political adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "There is a pattern of bias that often permeates all of these types of investigations."
The company has close ties to the Holy Land Foundation. Ghassan Elashi, a company vice president and brother of the owner, Bayan Elashi, is chairman of the foundation. Holy Land Foundation officials say they provides purely humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories and to refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Israel, the U.S. State Department and congressional members have accused it of being connected to Hamas, the Palestinian movement that has taken responsibility for bombing civilian targets in the Middle East. The foundation is outlawed in Israel. >
I am very bias against terrorist's, as is Federal Government.
If these people are inocent, then they have nothing to worry or complain about.
And you wonder why LEOs face such scorn on FR with an attitude like that. It is not our job to prove our innnocence. It is the job of LEOs to prove our guilt.
It's the only way to fly. FR is a great site, but its search function will never make Google fearful. If there is ANY difference between your title and the posted title, it'll miss it. Best to go with a single keyword.
LEO's do not wake up in the morning and decide to go on a raid. That raid was planned after a 2 year invesigation, and they presented enough facts to a judge, to get athorization to conduct the raid.
All you bozos running around screaming about you lost liberties, should pack your bags and move to another counrty and see how the other half lives. You got it so good and your blind to it.
This country may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders above the rest.
And they cooperated fully with the FBI. They took an enormous hit on their business when they were knocked off line though. One of their customers is a multi-national Arabic news organization. This is costing them a lot whether they are innocent or not.
/john
Bullcrap. Check your premises. My friend was nothing more than a legal thorn in the side of the INS, and they said stuff in meetings that they could only have learned via a wiretap. She told them to get rid of it, and they did not protest their innocence.
LEO's do not wake up in the morning and decide to go on a raid. That raid was planned after a 2 year invesigation, and they presented enough facts to a judge, to get athorization to conduct the raid.
That is not the point. You claimed if they are innocent, they have nothing to fear. That attitude is anethical to the Bill of Rights, and your making such a statement speaks wonders about your woeful misunderstanding of that document.
All you bozos running around screaming about you lost liberties, should pack your bags and move to another counrty and see how the other half lives. You got it so good and your blind to it.
Sorry, but I like this country just fine. YOU are the one endangering it. WE pay your salary, WE delegate powers. Instead YOUR ilk wishes to destroy the rights we have. Maybe YOU should consider moving to a country more in line with your ideals - I hear the People's Republic of China is having a job fair this weekend. This country may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders above the rest.
Bullcrap. Check your premises. My friend was nothing more than a legal thorn in the side of the INS, and they said stuff in meetings that they could only have learned via a wiretap. She told them to get rid of it, and they did not protest their innocence.
LEO's do not wake up in the morning and decide to go on a raid. That raid was planned after a 2 year invesigation, and they presented enough facts to a judge, to get athorization to conduct the raid.
That is not the point. You claimed if they are innocent, they have nothing to fear. That attitude is anethical to the Bill of Rights, and your making such a statement speaks wonders about your woeful misunderstanding of that document.
All you bozos running around screaming about you lost liberties, should pack your bags and move to another counrty and see how the other half lives. You got it so good and your blind to it.
Sorry, but I like this country just fine. YOU are the one endangering it. WE pay your salary, WE delegate powers. Instead YOUR ilk wishes to destroy the rights we have. Maybe YOU should consider moving to a country more in line with your ideals - I hear the People's Republic of China is having a job fair this weekend.
This country may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders above the rest.
Only if YOU and YOUR ILK are kept on a very, very short leash.
I'm sorry, but you dont pay my salary. My salary is paid from a user fee account, that is funded by fees collected by INS.
Good try though.
I'm sorry, but you dont pay my salary. My salary is paid from a user fee account, that is funded by fees collected by INS.
Good try though.
Taxpayers pay the bulk of expenses for the INS. We delegate powers under the Constitution to the federal government. Don't ever forget where the power in this country comes from.
It is irrelevant how the other half lives --this country has the U.S. CONSTITUTION as the law of the land and you took an oath to defend it.
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