Posted on 06/18/2002 11:53:06 PM PDT by cgk
FBI directors don't make a habit of breaking bread with organizations their agents may soon be investigating, perhaps even closing. Robert S. Mueller III, however, is about to make precisely this blunder on June 28, when he is scheduled to deliver a lunch talk to the American Muslim Council. Mueller accepted this invitation, his spokesman Bill Carter explains, because the FBI regards the AMC as "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." The AMC does indeed seek to convey a message of moderation. Its event this month, for example, is reassuringly titled "American Muslims: Part of America." AMC also boasts of having initiated "many of the historic events marking the entrance of Muslims into mainstream American culture and life." PUBLIC RELATIONS, however, is not reality. The FBI may have missed the AMC's true nature because until just days ago its guidelines prohibited it from collecting general information on an organization of this sort. To help it catch up, then, here are five compelling reasons why Director Mueller should break his lunch date: Apologetics for terrorism. The Justice Department years ago formally certified Hamas and Hizbullah to be terrorist groups; AMC sings their praises. Abdurahman Alamoudi, the long-time AMC executive director, exhorted a rally outside the White House in 2000 with "We are ALL supporters of Hamas. Allahu Akhbar! ... I am also a supporter of Hizbullah." Alamoudi was also reported by a Hamas publication in the United States, Al-Zaytuna, crowing that AMC has gone "to the White House and defended what is called Hamas." And the AMC has ties to terrorists in other countries, including Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, and Jordan. Helping fundraise for terrorism. The Holy Land Foundation is one of the main American conduits of money to Hamas; not surprisingly, AMC has lavished praise on it, bestowing an award on it for a "strong global vision." When President George W. Bush closed the Holy Land Foundation after September 11 for collecting money "used to support the Hamas terror organization," AMC responded by condemning the president's act as "particularly disturbing ... unjust and counterproductive." Run-ins with the law. AMC leaders have a long and colorful history of legal problems. Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (the former H. Rap Brown), a one-time president of AMC's Executive Board, has the nearly unique distinction of having been listed not just once but twice as one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Oh, and today he is sitting out a life sentence without parole for murdering a policeman. Other employees have less horrible but still troubled resumes. For example, AMC's current director, Eric Vickers, has been admonished, sanctioned, or suspended by courts over a 10-year period due to his faulty practice of law. Hostility to law enforcement. Even after September 11, AMC's Web site linked to a document, "Know Your Rights" that advises "Don't Talk to the FBI." Naturally, AMC fervently opposes successive administrations' efforts to stave off terrorism. And Vickers personally has, to put it delicately, a strained relationship with law enforcement. In his youth, he admits, he was "against the cops." He remains hostile, but expresses himself more elegantly today, for example, accusing Attorney General John Ashcroft of "using national security as a pretext" to engage in a pattern of ethnic and religious discrimination. Hostility to the United States. Its apparent patriotism aside, AMC harbors an intense anti-Americanism. "Let us damn America," Sami Al-Arian, a featured speaker at recent AMC events, has declaimed. Alamoudi, the long-time executive director, has dilated on the agony of living in a country he loathes: "I think if we are outside this country, we can say oh, Allah, destroy America, but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it. There is no way for Muslims to be violent in America, no way. We have other means to do it. You can be violent anywhere else but in America." Far from being "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States," the AMC is among their most extreme. That explains why, in 2000, Bush returned Alamoudi's $1,000 donation to his campaign. Rather than endorse AMC by his presence, Robert Mueller should find other lunch companions next Friday. Then he should put the organization under surveillance, ascertain its funding sources, look over its books, and check its staff's visa status. The writer is director of the Middle East Forum (www.DanielPipes.org).
The most mainstream Muslim group? by DANIEL PIPES
Here's the link to McKinney's donations, showing Alamoudi's "gift":
Cynthia McKinney's Black Tuesday
Mrs Kus
| The McKinney Files.... | ||||||
|
I don't know how much damage is being done to McKinney by information like this, talk radio, and so forth- but she seems to be in trouble. Good. The woman is a disgrace to her sex, her race, and the district she claims to represent. |
||||||
BTW - Did anyone hear Daniel Pipes on Larry Elder's show today?
Mrs K
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.