Posted on 02/19/2002 12:55:56 PM PST by knighthawk
Is Michigan a Terror Stronghold?
A police report obtained by Newsweek calls Detroit “a lucrative
recruiting area and potential support base for international
groups.”
By Keith Naughton
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Oct. 20 — With one of the largest populations of
Arabs outside the Middle East, Detroit and its
surrounding suburbs have become fertile ground
for terrorism fund-raising and recruiting. “The
Detroit/Dearborn area is a major financial support
center for many Mideast terrorist groups,”
according to a Michigan State Police report
obtained by NEWSWEEK. “Southeast Michigan
is known as a lucrative recruiting area and
potential support base for international terrorist
groups. It is also conceivable that ‘sleeper cells’
may be located in that area of the state."
THE MICHIGAN STATE POLICE submitted the
“Three-Year Statewide Domestic Preparedness Strategy”
report to the U.S. Justice Department earlier this month, to
help support a request for federal funds to fight terrorism in
Michigan. A police spokesman says the report “was not
intended for public distribution.”
Almost every major terrorist organization has operatives
in Michigan, according to the report. Citing information
received from the Detroit office of the FBI, the report says
“most of the 28 international terrorist groups recently identified
by the State Department… are represented in Michigan.
Examples include such well-known terrorist organizations as
Hizballah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Brotherhood,
Al-Gama’at, Al-Islamiyya, and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist
organization—Al Qaeda.” The Detroit office of the FBI
declines to comment on the report, which it has not yet
reviewed, says a spokeswoman.
Those groups, along
with domestic “patriot
groups” in Michigan,
combine to create 374
“potential-threat
elements” statewide, the
report says. A State
Police spokesman
describes such elements as individuals or groups who could
engage in acts of terror. ”
To raise money for international terrorist groups
overseas, operatives in Michigan “commit criminal acts” the
report says. It cites two arrests made last year in Detroit,
which had direct links to international terrorist groups. “In
November, 2000, two individuals were arrested in Detroit by
the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force for smuggling
weapons and military equipment to Lebanon. Evidence
existed that linked the individuals to the terrorist group
Hizballah,” according to the report.
On Sept. 17, the FBI raided a house in a rundown
neighborhood in Southwest Detroit looking for a suspected
associate of Osama bin Laden. Instead, they found three men
and a trove of forged documents, including visas, a passport
and 28 passport-sized photos. They also found a day planner
with Arabic notations about the “American air base in
Turkey,” the “American foreign minister” and the “Alia
Airport” in Jordan. The day planner also contained drawings
of an airport believed to be the U.S. military base in southern
Turkey that patrols the no-fly zone in Iraq.
The man the feds were looking for in Detroit, Nabil
al-Marabh, was arrested near Chicago a few days later and
is now in federal custody in New York. According to
published reports, Al-Marabh has been identified as an
associate of bin Laden by Raed Hijazi, who is on trial in
Jordan for the foiled plot to blow up tourist sites on the eve of
the Millennium. Al-Marabh, a former Boston cab driver born
in Kuwait, is suspected of knowing two of the Sept. 11
hijackers.
In Detroit, three men
are facing federal fraud
charges in connection with
the forged documents
found in the Detroit raid.
Two of the men, Karim
Koubriti, 23, and Amed
Hannan, 33, both Moroccan, have been in federal custody
since the raid. Both formerly worked for at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport as dishwashers for an airline catering
service, before quitting in June to take truck-driving lessons.
A third suspect, Youssef Hmimssa, was arrested on Sept. 28
in Iowa. He pled not guilty to federal fraud charges in Detroit
on Oct. 17. Authorities say Hmimssa’s photo appeared on a
forged passport found in the raid of the Detroit house. FBI
sources say Hmimssa is believed to have traveled the world
using several aliases.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/645432.asp
Although there is some truth in what you say, please check out the link I provided to Stop Inciting Childeren to Kill. Teaching your childeren to want to kill Jews is very different than playing GI Joe.
The day those f-14's are used in the palestinean struggle, you will see kids wanting to fly them. till then, the only "weapons" they have to look up to is suicide.
I'll get back to you once i'm done tarring and feathering the tories in my neighborhood.
The constant, erroneous connecting of terrorists in the Middle East to American Founders is getting a bit stale, you know. No one buys it.
As for you, Darth, I hope you realize that at this rate, the Pals will "win" enough "victories" (LOL) to ensure their defeat. To my, and a great number of other's delight, by the way.
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