Second man with ties to University of Idaho arrested [Yet More CAIR Terrorism evident]

Seattle Times ^ | March 14, 2003 | Nicholas K. Geranios

[Abar]

A second man with ties to the University of Idaho has been arrested by federal agents in a widening investigation of a suspected terrorist-related web in the Moscow, Idaho-Pullman, Wash., area, an FBI source confirmed today.

Former Idaho student Bassem K. Khafagi was arrested in January at the Marriott Hotel near New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and was returned to Michigan to face bank fraud charges, court documents show.

A total of four men with ties to the Moscow-Pullman area and the Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America have been implicated in the investigation.

They include current University of Idaho student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, who was arrested in late February, about a month after Khafagi, and is in custody in Boise, Idaho.

Federal investigators allege the nonprofit IANA, which says it was formed to promote Islam, funneled money to activities supporting terrorism. Khafagi was a founding member of the assembly.

“There is a very strong University of Idaho tie to that organization (IANA),” the FBI agent told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. “It’s safe to say this investigation, because of the ongoing nature, is going to reveal additional information in the future.”

Khafagi has performed some freelance community outreach work for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit [terrorist front] group that seeks to promote a positive view of Muslims. A group spokesman today criticized the FBI for linking Khafagi to terrorism.

“All they are talking about here is some business dispute over a check and an immigration problem,” the official, who requested anonymity, told the AP. “This has nothing to do with terrorism and nothing to do with CAIR.”

Khafagi’s arrest was first reported in The Spokesman-Review newspaper in today’s editions.

Khafagi is charged with bouncing a $6,000 check in February 2002 to National City Bank of Ann Arbor, Mich., which is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., making the crime a federal offense.

Moscow is home to the University of Idaho and Pullman is home to Washington State University. The towns are just eight miles apart, an isolated pocket of academia surrounded by farm fields far from large population centers. Both schools have students from Arab countries.

Investigators also have identified a third former University of Idaho student, who now lives in Detroit, as an associate of IANA. He has not been charged and the FBI agent refused to disclose his name.

The Spokesman-Review reported that a former Washington State University student, Ismail Diab, who lived in the area as recently as last August, is being held as a material witness in the investigation. Washington State University officials today could not confirm that Diab was a student at the Pullman school.

IANA is affiliated with Help the Needy, another nonprofit organization based in Syracuse, N.Y., also under investigation by the FBI. Four Arab men were arrested there in February and are accused of raising $4 million for unnamed individuals in Iraq through Help the Needy.

Khafagi and Al-Hussayen are being held for investigation of violating U.S. immigration laws while awaiting separate trials on the fraud charges.

Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national, is being held in Boise on charges of visa fraud and lying to federal agents. He has pleaded innocent to an 11-count federal indictment, and his trial is set for April 15.

Al-Hussayen is accused of making false statements on student visa applications and helping set up Web sites to gather money for terrorism against Americans. Prosecutors said a computer which Al-Hussayen used had thousands of photographs, including the World Trade Center towers before and after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks.

Al-Hussayen’s attorneys and friends in Moscow dispute the government’s contention that Al-Hussayen has led a life on the fringes of terrorism.

But federal investigators contend Al-Hussayen and IANA provided Web sites for two radical Saudi sheiks, Salman Al-Awdah and Safar al-Hawali, who have direct contact with Osama bin Laden. IANA operated more than a dozen Internet sites, many of them managed by Al-Hussayen.

Khafagi, an Egyptian national, enrolled at the University of Idaho in 1986 and earned a master’s degree in civil engineering in August 1988, school officials say. His specialty was structural engineering.

After getting his degree, Khafagi remained enrolled at the University of Idaho, working as a teaching assistant in engineering and taking postgraduate classes.

He moved to East Lansing, Mich., and enrolled at Michigan State University in the fall of 1990, MSU records show. He received his doctorate in civil engineering, specializing in structural engineering, in 1993. He later lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., operating a business called International Media Group from his home, court documents showed. It was not clear what kind of business it was, court records said.

[Abar]

This is the tip of the iceberg. MUCH more in the PNW.

[Abar]

BUMP

[Libertina]

Pullman, Wash
Oh no, not PULLMAN! I loved living there. Beautiful open county, quiet farms in the summer, going across the Palouse and down the Lewiston grade... toolin around in my old VW Bug. Just pack all these people up and ship them out of the country. I want my country back, I want my culture back, and I want my peace back! NOW!

[TLBSHOW]

Wednesday morning I called Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Last week Hooper and I had words on MSNBC’s Nachman show about the propriety of the FBI investigating mosques, and I wanted to get his reaction to new allegations that the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn has been a chief source of funding for al-Qaeda.

But Mr. Hooper wouldn’t tell me what he thought. Without allowing me to ask my question, he just said, "I have no interest in promoting the anti-Muslim agenda of you or FrontPage Magazine," and hung up.

Now, I know that tempers are boiling over in today’s tense political climate. But CAIR would be able to gain a better hearing for its new campaign to "foster greater understanding of Islam" if its spokesmen engaged the organization’s political opponents honestly, instead of smearing their positions and indulging in juvenile displays. This is especially true in these days of national crisis. Americans have legitimate questions about CAIR and Islamic radicalism that Hooper and Co. has so far refused to answer, preferring instead to resort to ad hominem attacks upon those who raise the questions.

But the questions aren’t going away. Ibrahim Hooper won’t answer them, but he can’t bury them:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6546

[sheik yerbouty]

If it was good enough for the mob, good enough for the Hell's angels, then use the RICO Act on the CAIR jihadists.

[sheik yerbouty]

Is Hooper a convert, or what? Is there a known biography available?

[umgud]

Speaking strictly as an infidel, let me say....... It is common knowledge what the Koran preaches about us infidels (and Jews). It is also commonly known that the "Arab street", as well as the vast majority of Muslims, hate the infidels.

What truly amazes me is this stupid and dangerous belief that when these people come to live or visit America, they magically love us and add to our diversity with their religeon of peace views.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Smoke 'em out, Round 'em up, and bring'em to justice -- no, kill them.

[Squantos]

Watch yer six ......Stay Safe !

[goody2shooz]

Yes, he is a convert. He has been on Fox News a few times. And he is touchy and very defensive about Islam.

[exnavy]

You seem to be knowledgeable in things muslim, why do you suppose so many muslims have settled here in Michigan? The Detroit area seems to be overrun. Our climate is not all that similar to their mideast. Could it be the fresh water of the Great Lakes? I'm puzzled.

[4Freedom]

Proximity to the Canadian border?

[exnavy]

Possibly. Look at the arridness of the mideast. I just wonder if the fresh water is a subliminal draw.

[RushLake]

You seem to be knowledgeable in things muslim, why do you suppose so many muslims have settled here in Michigan? The Detroit area seems to be overrun.

I had 32 years at Ford from the line to union rep to management roll. I've never heard why specifically, but I do know that there were a lot of arabs in the plants that took a lot of advantage of the medical leave programs. I knew several that ran businesses on the outside, came to work at Ford enough to remain on the employment rolls-usually a few days every 2 or 3 months, then went back out on medical leave with the help of certain doctors. They kept their vacation, health care, and other benefits that way. The company "Human Relations" department knows all about it, but has a hard time doing anything about it. They have a diversity program at Ford don't you know.

[exnavy]

Yeah, that is the double edge to the union sword. Do you remember the Detroit arsenal tank plant in Warren? I am employed at the Muskegon EX-Continental Motors plant that General Dynamics moved that one to. We have diversity, too!

[SauronOfMordor]

You seem to be knowledgeable in things muslim, why do you suppose so many muslims have settled here in Michigan? The Detroit area seems to be overrun.

The Canadian border is porous (or was up to 9/11, haven't checked it out recently). From Detroit, we used to be able to drive across to Canada to visit the night-life, and come back and just have to wave our drivers licenses at the border guard as ID. So anybody who wanted to come across from Canada just had to look a little like somebody's license photo.

[exnavy]

For a while there was a 3-4 hour delay, all is "normal" now. My daughter drove to Rhode Island and back two weeks ago, it took about 5 minutes to cross in any direction.

[sheik yerbouty]

Thanks for the infi.

[SlickWillard]

Ibrahim Hooper won’t answer them, but he can’t bury them

The following is necessarily Ibrahim Hooper's authoritative answer:

Medina Suras
The Chapter of Women
[Chapters from the Koran]
The Harvard Classics 1909–14

But if there befalls you grace from God, he would say—as though there were no friendship between you and him—‘O would that I had been with thee to attain this mighty happiness!’ Let those then fight in God’s way who sell this life of the world for the next; and whoso fights in God’s way, then, be he killed or be he victorious, we will give him a mighty hire.

What ails you that ye do not fight in God’s way, and for the weak men and women and children, who say, ‘Lord, bring us out of this town 19 of oppressive folk, and make for us from Thee a patron, and make for us from Thee a help?’

Those who believe fight in the way of God; and those who disbelieve fight in the way of Tâghût; fight ye then against the friends of Satan, verily, Satan’s tricks are weak.

Do ye not see those to whom it is said, ‘Restrain your hands, and be steadfast in prayer and give alms;’ and when it is prescribed for them to fight then a band of them fear men, as though it were the fear of God or a still stronger fear, and they say, ‘O our Lord! why hast thou prescribed for us to fight, couldst thou not let us abide till our near appointed time?’ Say, ‘The enjoyment of this world is but slight, and the next is better for him who fears;’—but they shall not be wronged a straw.

...

Why are ye two parties about the hypocrites, when God hath overturned them for what they earned? Do ye wish to guide those whom God hath led astray? Whoso God hath led astray ye shall not surely find for him a path. They would fain that ye misbelieve as they misbelieve, that ye might be alike; take ye not patrons from among them until they too flee in God’s way; but if they turn their backs, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them, and take from them neither patron nor help,—save those who reach a people betwixt whom and you is an alliance—or who come to you while their bosoms prevent them from fighting you or fighting their own people. But had God pleased He would have given you dominion over them, and they would surely have fought you. But if they retire from you and do not fight you, and offer you peace,—then God hath given you no way against them.

Ye will find others who seek for quarter from you, and quarter from their own people; whenever they return to sedition they shall be overturned therein: but if they retire not from you, nor offer you peace, nor restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wheresoever ye find them;—over these we have made for you manifest power.

[TLBSHOW]

Terrorists and their supporters are doing their best to weave themselves into the political fabric of American society, say specialists in homeland security. They are operating front groups and charities to finance their operations, and they are running influence operations to weaken federal antiterrorism laws under the guise of protecting civil liberties.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31441


There is Cair and AMC both grous are terrorist fronts!
AMC on terrorism: "We are all supporters of Hamas! Allahu Akhbar! ... I am also a supporter of Hezbollah" (AMC founder Abdurahman Alamoudi, Associated Press, Jan. 9, 2002).


AMC on the United States: "I think if we were 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" (Alamoudi to Islamic Association of Palestine, Chicago, Dec. 29, 1996).


AMC on Hamas: "Hamas is not a terrorist group. ... I have followed the good work of Hamas. ... They have a wing that is a violent wing. They had to resort to some kind of violence" (Alamoudi, National Press Club, Nov. 22, 1994).


AMC on Abu Marzook, deported from the United States and now Hamas leader in Syria: "Yes, I am honored to be a member of the committee that is defending Musa Abu Marzook in America. This a mark of distinction on my chest. ... I have known Musa Abu Marzook before and I really consider him to be from among the best people in the Islamic movement, Hamas -- in the Palestinian movement in general -- and I work together with him" (Alamoudi, Middle East TV, March 26, 1996).


AMC on Muslims and the war on terrorism: "We as Muslim Americans are being called upon to either show patriotism or suffer shame" (AMC Executive Director Eric Vickers, Sept. 24, 2002).


AMC on Wahhabism: "We have no more right or business putting Wahhabism on trial for the Sept. 11 attack, as your editorial suggests, than we do putting Christianity on trial for the Oklahoma City bombing" (Vickers, letter to editor, Buffalo News, Sept. 26, 2002).


AMC on al-Qaeda: "They are involved in a resistance movement" (Vickers, MSNBC's Hardball With Chris Matthews, June 27, 2002 ).


AMC on President George W. Bush's closure of the Holy Land Foundation as an alleged terrorist fund-raising front: "Particularly disturbing ... unjust and counterproductive" (AMC statement, Dec. 11, 2001).


AMC on Bush's State of the Union speech and Iraq: "In invoking God to be with American soldiers in our apparently imminent war with Iraq, what the president did not say is that he is calling on God to kill innocent Iraqi children" (Vickers, Jan. 29, 2003).


AMC on ridding the U.S. Muslim community of terrorists: "As long as the war on terrorism exists, the government is not going to cease profiling Muslims, having selective INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] registrations, spying on mosques and Muslims, detaining Muslims, raiding Muslim organizations and businesses, bringing fishing-expedition criminal indictments, etc. ... Thus I think we have no real choice but to follow the wise example of our brother Malcolm X and take our case to the world community. And who, I would ask, has better stature as a mainstream organization than the AMC to credibly present this compelling case?" (Vickers, Jan. 31).


AMC to imams on how to work with the FBI: "AMC calls upon you to demonstrate mass criticism and activism against the new FBI policy, which directs FBI field offices nationwide to conduct an inventory of mosques and Muslims as part of their charge to develop demographic profiles of their regions to combat possible terrorism" (Vickers, memorandum to imams, Jan. 28, 2003).


AMC before Sami Al-Arian arrest:

"First let me say that when you had Mr. -- professor Arian on your show -- you didn't grill him, you assassinated his character. You presented him to all the world as a terrorist. And there's absolutely no evidence of that. ... What has happened to professor Arian is happening to Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent all over this country. They are being discriminated against" (Vickers, on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Jan. 15, 2002).


AMC after Al-Arian arrest: "The [Muslim] community is gaining the perception that people are rounded up and targeted because of their political opinions and because they exercise the right to dissent on current U.S. policy. Our community is in dire need to understand how these charges are founded on concrete evidence of criminal activity and not guilt by association or political considerations" (AMC news release with the Council on American Islamic Relations, American Muslim Alliance and Muslim Public Affairs Council, under the American Muslim Political Coordination Council, Feb. 21, 2003).

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=384362

question is who brings them into the white house besides Grover Norquest?

[TLBSHOW]

The Feb. 20 arrest of an alleged leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), operating what the FBI calls a Tampa-based terrorist cell under cover as a professor at the University of South Florida (USF), has exposed one suspected operation. In doing so it has turned media focus on political groups that had been working in Washington with the accused, Sami Al-Arian, and set White House officials pointing fingers at one another about how the alleged terrorist managed to be included in the administration's controversial Muslim-outreach program.

That outreach effort, with its roots in the George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign, has provoked controversy among the United States' growing Muslim and Arab-American communities, as well as among security-minded supporters of the president. Critics allege favoritism toward a small but vocal cadre of groups they say support terrorism. Mainstream Muslim and Arab-American organizations that were shut out of the liaison effort tell Insight that extremists spent large sums trying to buy access in an effort to hijack the Bush administration's initiative, obtaining repeated meetings at the White House and with the president himself to acquire political cover and claim legitimacy.

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=384348

[TLBSHOW]

this story title should read a troubling year for terrorist as they are trying to undermine this nation from within....

....
Some Muslim communities have begun to mount their own counteroffensives.

On a recent Muslim holy day, a big bear of a man in a double-breasted black suit lectures sternly to several hundred of the faithful worshiping at the Muslim Center of New York.

“My brothers and sisters, it is wrong to stay inside your house and think this storm is going to pass,” said Bassem Khafagi, community affairs director of the national office of CAIR.

“We owe it to our kids to stand up and explain who we are and what we believe. Otherwise, what kind of country are you going to leave them? A country that hates them? A country that knows nothing about their religion? Would you like your kid to say someday, ‘Oh, my dad left me with a million dollars, but with no dignity?’” Khafagi left no doubt about what he regarded as the path to salvation in America.

http://dupagepeace.home.att.net/civlib07.html

[TLBSHOW]

ping more hidden terrorist news as they try and infiltrate this country.

[TLBSHOW]

the bloody cult of islam

[TLBSHOW]

Bush's scary CAIR friends


Too bad Patrick Henry isn't around to advise President Bush.

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth," Henry remarked. "For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it."

Though Henry never faced modern-day Islamic terrorists, he was around for other miscreants, known as pirates. And unlike Bush and Colin Powell, neither he nor our other founding fathers consorted with the pirates' representatives and pro-pirate "civil rights" groups in America. In those days, our leaders didn't make "Coalitions Against Piracy" with the countries who hosted and harbored pirates. And they didn't make statements saying that this was not about piracy and pirates, a peaceful group who just wanted to plunder, rape and pillage.

But, unfortunately, as I've described in my recent columns, President Bush has invited representatives of the most radical, pro-terrorist Islamic groups in America to pray with him at the National Cathedral, to pray with him at the Washington, D.C., mosque, to sit near Mrs. Bush at the big speech to Congress and to hold hands with him at the White House.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24940

Today's terrorists have full entrée into the White House.

[TLBSHOW]

MONEY TRAIL [Mark Krikorian]
Newsweek's Michael Isikoff is on the trail again, this time linking libertarian activist Grover Norquist to a Saudi-backed "charity" raided last week by federal agents. Though Norquist denounces any implication of impropriety as "incompetent McCarthyism" (as opposed to the competent kind?), the chain seems pretty clear: The SAFA Trust gave thousands to the Islamic Institute, which Norquist helped found and which operates out of the same office as he does. The point is not that Grover is defending terrorism but that in his zeal to attract Muslims to the GOP (which he made the case for in a now-hilariously inappropriate column for The American Spectator in June 2001), he appears to be blinding himself to the less attractive aspects of their agenda and worldview--which is a problem given the near universality of virulent anti-Americanism and lunatic Jew-hatred among Muslims in the Middle East.
This just adds to problems that started with a November New Republic expose of Grover's ties with radical Muslims, including Abdurahman Almoudi, an open supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/2002_03_24_corner-archive.asp

[TLBSHOW]

There is a Iraq connection to the oil companies in Michigan, but besides that..........

Is Michigan a Terror Stronghold?

A police report obtained by Newsweek calls Detroit “a lucrative recruiting area and potential support base for international groups.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/645432.asp?cp1=1

[exnavy]

I've seen that, another poster suggested the proximity of the Canada border. Security isn't much improved at the crossings on the east side of Mi. since 9/11. I'm on Lake Michigan shoreline, still I don't like the closeness of this.

Guess I'll go out today and buy some more ammunition.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the find and your ping. I have bookmarked it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Islamofacists activities in America as you noted.

[Grampa Dave]

Good for you. When the blood money trail from this country to Islamofacists/kazis and to this country gets exposed, we see a lot of top CAIR people involved.

[Grampa Dave]

FYI!

Abar has another great bit of documentation of the Islamofacists in action in America.

[VOA]

He received his doctorate in civil engineering, specializing in
structural engineering, in 1993.
Yep, use the fruits of free inquiry at our major universities...to calculate
amount of explosives/burning aviation fuel that would be needed to flat a building
and kill infidels in the country of The Great Satan.

He later lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., operating a business called International
Media Group from his home, court documents showed.
It was not clear what kind of business it was, court records said.

Probably would get an average Joe or Josephine a visit from the IRS...

As for spokesperson Hooper, I just pray he never quits going onto the Michael
Medved Show.
He always has to hedge answers to some of Medved's questions...otherwise he'd
lose credibility with his own constituency.
Love that First Amendment...and sharp minds like Medved who know how to ask the
right question to "get the b@$tards on the record".

[sheik yerbouty]

We will see what a spider's web they have tried to weave. If it is massive, their sympathizers and enablers should be contained and detained.

[Abar]

More on this particular terror cell:

Prosecutors said yesterday that a computer which Al-Hussayen used had thousands of photographs, including the World Trade Center towers before and after the 2001 terrorism attacks.
BOISE, Idaho — A Saudi student accused of visa fraud has ties to two radical sheiks who support violence against the United States and should not be released before trial, federal prosecutors argued today.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=webstudent12&date=20030312&query=moscow


The government also said Al-Hussayen created or managed at least 14 Web sites that promoted terrorism, the overthrow of the United States and Israel, and the killing of people by suicide missions.
He is past president of the Muslin Student Association
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=idaho27m&date=20030227&query=moscow+leader


Make NO MISTAKE about it... CAIR, AMC, MSA, et al are MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS that must be excised from our country!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

This is the tip of the iceberg. MUCH more in the PNW.

When, oh when, will we hear from the peace-loving Muslims who will rise up and stop, or report upon, the violent elements of their faith? I have been waiting since September 12, 2001.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[He moved to East Lansing, Mich., and enrolled at Michigan State University in the fall of 1990, MSU records show. He received his doctorate in civil engineering, specializing in structural engineering, in 1993. He later lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., operating a business called International Media Group from his home, court documents showed. It was not clear what kind of business it was, court records said.]

One can only imagine. Hope the Feds are giving this bloke a thorough anal exam.

[Libertina]

Thanks for the ping Abar.

[sheik yerbouty]

CAIR=Cancer!

[aeronca]

Bump

[thinktwice]

National Public Radio made the initial (Feb 26th ) arrest a big deal today, almost three weeks later, because there were 122 Federal agents involved.

The NPR "take" on the story focused on the number of agents involved without giving any details as to the widespread operation described in the MSNBC story, an operation that would require many people of varying expertise.

Spread the word ... this story has sprouted liberal wings.

[Cindy]

Links of Interest...

KLEW TV.com (News for Lewiston, Clarkston, Moscow, Pullman): "SHERIFF SAYS CITIZENS SHOULD BE ON GUARD, AREA COULD BE TARGETED" by David Gale (September 9, 2003) (Read More...)

FOX NEWS.com (AP): "EX-ISLAMIC CHARITY LEADER PLEADS GUILTY" (September 10, 2003) (Read More...)

HAGANAH.us: "MUSLIM CHARITY WITH ALLEGED TERRORIST LINKS GETS TAX BREAK" by Jeremy Reynalds (September 5, 2003) (Read More...)