U.S. Muslim group probed for terrorist ties

Washington Times ^ | 2/14/02 | Steve Miller and Jerry Seper

[kattracks]

Federal authorities have "ratcheted up" an investigation into suspicions of money-laundering, weapons violations, and other aiding and abetting of terrorist groups by a militant sect of black Muslims that is operating out of rural communes throughout the United States.

The investigation is based on surveillance of activities between a Muslim settlement in southern Virginia and a suspected Middle Eastern terrorist leader.

[Shermy]

Muslims of the Americas: In Their Own Words

Muslims of the Americas (MOA) is a virulently anti-Semitic, Islamic extremist group with ties to Al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization that has carried out firebombings and murders in the United States. MOA claims to have offices in six U.S. cities and Toronto and maintains secluded residential communities in New York, Virginia and California. The group's Web site and e-mails have featured writings by notorious anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, including Michael Hoffman and former Klansman David Duke.

MOA was founded and is led by the radical Pakistani cleric El Sheikh Sayyid Mubarik Ali Jilani (commonly known as Sheikh Jilani or Sheikh Gilani). Based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jilani established MOA in 1980, after arriving in the United States for the first time. In the 1980s, Jilani, who claims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, actively recruited American Muslims to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. MOA claims to have offices in six U.S. cities and Toronto, and it maintains secluded residential communities in New York, Virginia, California, and possibly other states. The group also runs a Web site and an e-mail mailing list.

The available evidence strongly suggests that MOA has served as a corporate front for another group founded by Sheik Jilani, the terrorist organization Al-Fuqra, which has committed firebombings and murders on U.S. soil. Both Sheikh Jilani and MOA officials deny that Al-Fuqra even exists, and MOA claims to be a "peaceful" group. Though relatively few members of MOA have been arrested for criminal activity, two residents of the MOA community in Virginia were recently arrested for firearms violations, and a resident of the MOA community in California was recently arrested for the murder of a Sheriff's Deputy. Muslims of the Americas: In Their Own Words Here are examples of anti-Semitic, anti-Christian,anti-American, and homophobic statements made by MOA, as well as comments that promote violence:

...see more at link.

---------------------------

Jamaat ul-Fuqra

From: Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1999. United States Department of State, April 2000.

Comments on the content of the material should be sent to the U.S. Department of State

Description

Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence. Led by Pakistani cleric Shaykh Mubarik Ali Gilani, who established the organization in the early 1980s. Gilani now resides in Pakistan, but most cells are located in North America and the Caribbean. Members have purchased isolated rural compounds in North America to live communally, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture.

Activities

Fuqra members have attacked a variety of targets that they view as enemies of Islam, including Muslims they regard as heretics and Hindus. Attacks during the 1980s included assassinations and firebombings across the United States. Fuqra members in the United States have been convicted of crimes, including murder and fraud.

Strength

Unknown.

Location/Area of Operation

North America, Pakistan.

External Aid

None.See also:

INFORMATION REGARDING COLORADO'S INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF JAMAAT UL FUQRA

Terror Probe Leads To Rural Va. Hamlet

Why is there an Islamic Village in the foothills near Fresno?

[Thorondir]

A conection between Islam(PlanesIntoBuildings) and terror? Who would have ever though it?

We had better wake up and get as serious about our survival as the Islamic nuts are about our annhilation!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This is good news, the FBI is getting serious!

JIHAD IN AMERICA:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using JIHAD IN AMERICA, click below:
	click here >>>	JIHAD IN AMERICA	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Clovis_Skeptic]

YES!!!!

Finally, a word from the FBI, that they are doing something about these terrorists among us.

Now just listen to them and all the libbers start screaming ...profiling...discrimination...prejudice...cause these compounds are inhabited mostly by American citizens, and are black.

[TADSLOS]

The latest investigation is focused on Muslim communities composed entirely of black Americans in New York, California, South Carolina and Virginia.

They should also look hard in Tennessee. There's at least one group operating in the rural area near where my Dad lives. Their lifestyle and secrecy fits the pattern.

[Grampa Dave]

Great thread. Glad to see that the FBI is catching up with Free Republic thanks to Clovis Skeptic!

[Grampa Dave]

As usual, great documentation and communication from you on this subject. Thanks for your hard work in this important part of our cultural war for survival.

[Grampa Dave]

Ernest, thanks for the ping, and it looks like we are being heard by the FBI in our cultural war for survival!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks to your great thread last year on these bastards who want to kill our family members and their training camp near Fresno, we became aware of these fanatics.

The first step of removing the heads of these vipers, was the cancelling of the charter school funding. The use of our tax $'s to train and brainwash people wanting to kill Americans!

Congratulations to your discovery and getting us on board here!

[Travis McGee]

Obviously the FBI and ATF were much too busy chasing right wingers guilty of owning weapons which were 1/4" too short or long to have any time to go after the Al Fuqra, which after all was only assasinating and firebombing.

[Travis McGee]

Methinks there are FR lurkers at the Washington Times.

They have finally put the picture together developed by Clovis Skeptic last fall.

[Grampa Dave]

Yeah like that FBI dork who recently testified about eco terrorism in congress. Before he testified about the eco terrorists, he made sure that Congress knew about the real danger from the evil right wing terrorists.

I could only think of one major act of terrorism that has been blamed on the right wing in the last decade. That was OKC, and one guy has paid for his contribution with his life.

You can bet your last $ that under Jake Reno, there was zero profiling of any Black Muslim Group that openingly advocated violence against Americans and Israelis!

It is time to focus on the real terrorists, Black Muslims, Muslims who advocate violence against our country and us and any foreign Muslim here to commit terrorism.

[Grampa Dave]

Travis posted, "Methinks there are FR lurkers at the Washington Times."

It is becoming obvious that a lot of conservatives in the media are using the Free Republic Forum as a resource in documenting the evil that the dark side does.

Yesterday Rodger Hedgecock while substituting for Rush, discussed many issues that were up on FR the day before his appearance and the day of his appearance.

We know that Sean Hannity monitors and values what he finds on Free Republic.

The maggots on the Dark Side know this, and this is why they try spread so much BS and try to divert our attention while playing like conservatives with innane posts and threads.

[wardaddy]

I heard Liddy on this gang this morning. I hope they get what's coming to them. In the old days blatant traitors and collaborators would need fear for their safety from the citizenry after exposure....

[Victoria Delsoul]

Authorities said the al-Fuqra probe has become an FBI priority under the newly passed anti-terrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act. FBI agents at the bureau's Washington headquarters have contacted several field agents for additional information on the communes and have begun to question potential witnesses, authorities said. The renewed effort also is based on evidence gathered in prior cases, a search of land and tax records, increased surveillance and numerous ongoing interviews. Much of the new inquiry is based on several weapons cases developed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other cases prosecuted by state authorities in Colorado.

Good news!

Happy Valentine's Day, Travis.

[Travis McGee]

Obviously the FBI has a "Free Republic Lurker Desk" now, and about time!

[Travis McGee]

It's a daily occurence. Michael Savage literally mines FR for most of "his" scoops. It's transparent.

[Travis McGee]

Liddy is another FR lurker.

At least Hugh Hewitt has the class to admit it up front and credits FR nearly every day, he even tells freepers by name (DFU etc) to bump this or that thread.

[Grampa Dave]

Re FR lurkers. Sounds like your wish re the FBI and FR has come true.

It is amazing how so many conservative talk show hosts mine the golden nuggets/acorns, discovered and planted by good Freeper researchers for us to read and discuss.

If I was in charge of CI (counter intel) for the Mossad or the FBI, I would monitor FR closely to isolate and track down the other side that posts regularily here.

You know the pro Arab terrorists, the JINOs and others who work 24/7 to blame 9/11 on Americans. Or they try to distract us when we get into something that leads right to the Jihads in America's front doors! Who is paying these clowns and feeding them their disinformation? They are leaving an electronic trail from Free Republic to their computers and then to the middle east where their propaganda comes from.

Thanks to FR, it is getting hard to hide in America if you are a Jihad Johnny from here or from the Islamic motherland. Lets make it even harder for them!

[wardaddy]

We lost Savage here to Hannity in Nashville. Since I get Sean on Fox I would prefer Savage on the drive home at night. His sometimes maniacal ravings are great....he will often say what most folks fear to say publicly.

I'm with G Gordon on about 85%...he's more of a social/cultural progressive than I. My wife does think he's cute for an elderly fellow. If he is virile and potent and all that I wonder about his new girl Friday Diana....they seem mighty chummy.....and he admits to a rather open marriage. Of course it might be shtick like you said.

[Travis McGee]

Clovis Skeptic and you did more to put the spotlight on Al Fuqra in the last 5 months than PC reporters and the PC FBI did in ten years, and that's a fact.

[Travis McGee]

I think Liddy is all schtick, but I like his schtick, so more power to him.

He's such a mouse on P.I. that I have a hard time believing in his radio machismo.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for your kind words. Clovis got the ball rolling and great Freepers like you guys made the process easy but scary.

I'm afraid that we have just scratched the frost on the tip of a hidden iceberg re Jihad in America.

What is happening in Tn and Va seems to be more scary than out here. The black DMV gal that got barbequed in Tn before she testified about helping these terrorists obtain illegal licenses should be a loud warning to all Black Americans with a soft spot to these middle east terrorists. They will kill the trail of human evidence in a minute!

It is good to see some of the media and FBI getting into this mess!

[Clovis_Skeptic]

thanks for all the kudos....thanks to JR, for this forum, and to George Bush, for being a President that is actually doing what he says he will do!!!

thanks to all the freepers that contribute to the forum...your local news, that you contribute is more important, and informative than you realize. That little article in your local paper or tv news provides a missing piece of info that we are all seeking.

[ladyinred]

As we suspected, the Gateway school from the compound near my home was a front for terrorist money laundering. I find it interesting that our local paper and media have not reported one word of this!
I am at least relieved to know they really are investigating this compound, but still wonder how much longer it will be allowed to exist!
The school was shut down, but the Muslims involved have been on a media blitz crying discrimination and having fund raisers to keep the school operating!
Seems they can't operate without taxpayers funding! What a farce, as it is obvious the money was going elsewhere to begin with!

[piasa]

Hey, thanks for the ping...

Nice to see some folks are catching on to these wacko groups.

[Travis McGee]

You started the entire train when you snagged the Fresno Al Fuqra story and connected it to their criminal history, Pakistan etc.

You should get a FR medal for meritorious reporting. The FBI should also give you kudos.

This story was going nowhere with your PC head-in-the-sand local newsies and the disinterested FBI until we kept digging up more and more facts which were on the record all over the nation for the past 15 years and put it all together. No one will ever convince me that this story just "happened" to go national on its own, we know better.

So we can add the NYT to the list of FR lurkers, or at least they lurk at the Washington Times who got it from FR.

[Travis McGee]

Isn't that lovely? Al Fuqra used US tax money to fund terrorism arson and murder under the FBI's nose for 15 years.

Meanwhile the feds spent millions including satellite imagery and solar powered video surveillance devices to go after Randy Weaver for his 1/4" too short or too long shotgun.

"Hello? FBI? Anybody home?"

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks again for your kind words. My role was minor, and one that most good Freepers do on issues like this!

How this story was first posted by Clovis Skeptic and then developed legs thanks to Freepers is living proof of how important Free Republic is to the safety of our country and our fellow citizens!

Now I am very concerned about the safety of our fellow freepers in Tenn.. You are aware of this link to the arson death of the DMV B$tch who sold phoney driver licenses to a group Islamic terrorists. However, the PC mediots in Tenn are burying this story to protect the PC criminals and their wide open Driver Licenses for illegal aliens. Of course the illegal aliens become DemonicRats as soon as they get an illegal license and then vote DemonicRat.

Here is the link to a very scary situation in Tenn.: (Danger warning to all who live in Tenn.!)

[Travis McGee]

I've been following the auto arson story closely. It's amazing that it's not a huge national story!

[Grampa Dave]

Travis posted, I've been following the auto arson story closely. It's amazing that it's not a huge national story!

When I first heard about this fire and the fact that the gal worked for the DMV in TN, I was curious. Then the story vanished until our good Freepers and the Washington Times got on to the story.

The PC left wing maggots don't want to go near this story for racial and the illegal alien drivers/license = illegals voting mess. It is obvious the political ins and the left wing maggots of the media are trying to bury this story!

I have a niece and her husband who live in TN.. I will be sending them an email to alert them to what has happened and how it is being spiked as a news story! There are or were some very dangerous people roaming the streets/highways of Tn.. It is obvious that the TN media is not going warn the citizens to alert of these dangersous people.

Any Freeper with relatives or friends in TN needs to alert them of this story just to raise their awareness of what vicious dangers are out there on the highways!

[Travis McGee]

One more reason why our immigration policies are national suicide.

We are letting middle eastern terrorists set up cells all over America.

[Grampa Dave]

Travis posted:

One more reason why our immigration policies are national suicide.

We are letting middle eastern terrorists set up cells all over America.

Only one minor modification on your second sentence. It should read, During the Clintoon time, they let middle eastern terrorists set up cells all over America!

Now the politically correct mayors and governors in many cities and states are protecting/shielding these terrorists as they live and operate in the open in many states/cities! The left wing mayor of Portland, Or. and her so called police chiefs have refused to cooperate with the FBI re questioning and monitoring of possible terrorists, including the illegals!

[Travis McGee]

This is what a nation of apathetic morons gets. The rest of us pay for it.

[Grampa Dave]

Yeah, apathetic morons and the arrogance and greed of the demonicRats to win elections and to stay in power.

The Clintoons sold incredible secrets to the ChiComs, accepted money from the ChiComs to be elected and re elected. Then they enabled the INS to become an open door to illegal aliens to enter and immediately get drivers licenses in mosts states. Then, these illegals became voters, welfare suckers and often criminals like they were at home!

The mediots support this while they spend 24/7 writing about the wonders of diversity and the wonders of the illegals. In California we know that baring the economic costs of the illegals has been a very expensive process for those of us who pay taxes. Now another expense raises its head with these illegals from the Middle East. That is the expense of battling terrorism and trying to stay safe!

[Grampa Dave]

You posted that our immigration policies = national suicide.

This is proof that your comment is right on target:

Besides being Middle East Terrorists, they have something else in common. Several, apparently came in our open doors with Mexico!

Welcome to America amigos! Oh you don't speak Spanish, no problem!

[piasa]

Bumping to keep this on top

[piasa]

Al-Fuqra members are suspected of 13 firebombings and 17 murders in the United States.

Amazing how quiet the press is on firebombings in the US, isn't it? wonder where all of these suspected fire bombings took place?

[piasa]

Here's one incident:

Al Fuqra suspected of firebombing Hare Krishna temple in the US

[piasa]

1992 Al Fuqra charged in Colorado with firebombing Hare Krishna temple

[piasa]

That last link refers to a probe in Redhouse, Virginia too...

[piasa]

An Islamic leader's U.S. connections

By CHARLIE BRENNAN

The radical Islamic leader linked to the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has been tied to a wide range of illegal activity throughout Colorado.

The extremist group is believed to still have compounds in New York, California, South Carolina and Virginia.

Through a broad-based investigation launched in 1989, Colorado authorities convicted four members of the al-Fuqra movement on a series of felonies including racketeering, forgery, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and the 1984 firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Denver.

Those who helped lead those investigations said the Pakistani-based leader of al-Fuqra, Sheik Mubarik Ali Jilani, briefly owned two lots in downtown Buena Vista.

Susan Fenger, then an investigator for the state Department of Labor and Employment, helped build the case against the Colorado al-Fuqra members.

She said Jilani had been in Colorado.

"Sheikh Mubarik Jilani was the leader of al-Fuqra and still is," said Fenger, now working privately as a forensic documents examiner.

"Sheikh Jilani visited Colorado, we know that," said Doug Wamsley, a prosecutor in the Jefferson County District Attorney's office. Wamsley, then an assistant attorney general, led the prosecution against four al-Fuqra members in the early 1990s.

"We have at least one witness who remembered Jilani from the Buena Vista area, where he had talked to a Realtor and arranged to buy a piece of property," said Wamsley. "But then it was sold, right away. We didn't pay much attention to it, because he held it so briefly."

Pearl was seeking to interview Jilani when he vanished on Jan. 23 in Karachi. Jilani has been questioned in the Pearl kidnapping, but has reportedly denied knowing anything about it.

Fenger described al-Fuqra's presence in Colorado now as minimal.

Jilani was questioned in connection with the Pearl kidnapping, Fenger said, after police intercepted a communication from Jilani to al-Fuqra members at their compound in Red Huse, Va.

(Contact Charlie Brennan of the Rocky Mountain News at http://www.rockymountainnews.com.)

[piasa]

Definitely call the FBI- there is no telling what info may be useful to them, however small it might seem.

---

Here's an interesting article:

Muslim terrorists convicted on firearms charges in the US
Author: Jen McCaffery
Publication: The Roanoke Times, Virginia
Date: December 1, 2001
Purchase was illegal for convicted felon 2 guilty of plot to buy pistols

Authorities say the man is linked to a radical group, though that didn't come up during trial.

Lynchburg - The jurors never heard the words Al-Fuqra.

They did not hear that Vincente Pierre has been linked by federal authorities to Al-Fuqra, a radical Islamic group whose members have been convicted of the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Colorado, and the murder of an imam in Tucson. They did not hear that Pierre pleaded guilty in Colorado in 1993 to workers' compensation fraud in an Al-Fuqra scheme.

Instead, Pierre and his wife, Traci Upshur, were tried on evidence that Pierre, a convicted felon, arranged for his wife to buy firearms for him because it was illegal for him to possess them. Unlike at Pierre's detention hearing, the evidence presented against him at his trial did not hint at Pierre's past.

The jury found the evidence convincing enough to convict the couple, who have eight children, of conspiring to buy two handguns for Pierre. Pierre, 44, and Upshur, 37, were convicted of conspiracy and making false statements. Pierre was convicted of six counts, and Upshur was convicted of four counts and was found not guilty on a fifth count of making false statements on another occasion.

They face up to five years on each count at their sentencing, scheduled for April.

Federal prosecutor Tom Bondurant said he brought up the Al-Fuqra link at Pierre's detention hearing because he argued that Pierre was a flight risk and a danger to the community. But he did not bring it up at the trial because "we had no basis to bring it up. His association with any group has nothing to do with this case."

He declined to say whether he thought any other community members were being investigated. Members of the group have denied any connection to terrorist activity in the past and pointed out that Muslims were killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Pierre and Upshur declined to comment after the verdict, as did some of their supporters in the courtroom.

Susan Fenger, a retired former chief criminal investigator on the case in Colorado, was on hand for the trial and talked about Al-Fuqra. She investigated Pierre in the Colorado case. Pierre was sentenced to probation after his conviction.

Fenger said the leader of the group, Sheikh Jilani, had been met with terrorist organizations in Sudan in 1993. She said the group is still active.

"Its main focus is to purify Islam through force or violence," she said.

The group "paints a face to the public that they are peaceful people," Fenger said. "But that's all a front. Al-Fuqra is set up to defraud various agencies."

The jury found Pierre guilty Friday of conspiring with his wife to buy .45-caliber handguns for him at a shop called the Outpost, outside Appomatox. Pierre would order and pay for the weapons, while Upshur would sign the paperwork. John Massarini, a retired police chief from New Jersey who owns the Outpost, assisted Special Agent Thomas Gallagher of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms with the investigation.

The defendants' case was likely damaged when Upshur took the stand and said she was buying the handguns for herself, even though she displayed little familiarity with the workings of the weapons and admitted she had never fired a gun. Upshur testified that she bought the gun for self-defense, then testified that she kept it at the home of someone else in the community.

Pierre, who Bondurant argued gave a fake name of Rafael Upshur at the gun shop, did not take the stand.

Defense lawyers Thomas Wray of Roanoke and Gary Smith and Carter Foulds of Winchester attacked Massarini for discrepancies in his testimony and about whether he assumed Rafael's last name was Upshur because that was his wife's name or whether Pierre told him that.

Gallagher said he was also assisting with another Al- Fuqra case in California, involving the death of a police officer.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks, we have been posting on an al_Fuqra training ground and charter school near Fresno since last December!

Finally the story got picked up by some of the press and the Washington Times.

At that time a lot of Freepers laughed at us in Kali with this training ground near Fresno. Now many of those who laughed at us are now waking up and realizing that these dangerous people are in their back yards.

[Grampa Dave]

oops, I forgot the link to the Muslim training camp near Freno: (link)

[piasa]

Red House man linked to terrorism ordered to remain in federal custody

By REBECCA MILLER
Associated Press Writer

Published January 2, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal magistrate on Wednesday ordered a Charlotte County man linked to a terrorist cell to remain in federal custody and face arraignment in Roanoke.

Bilal Adullah Ben Benu, 27, was indicted on several firearms charges.

Magistrate Judge Dennis W. Donhal called Benu a flight risk and a danger to the community.

"I have serious doubts that you would obey anything I would say," Donhal told Benu.

Benu is charged with taking AK-47 ammunition across state lines, buying a 9 mm pistol and taking a pistol across state lines.

Because he was previously convicted in Maryland for cocaine possession and was sentenced to more than a year in prison, he is forbidden by law from buying or possessing firearms or ammunition.

Authorities indicted Benu on Sept. 18, and later found him in the custody of the Powhatan County police, who were holding him on a driving violation.

Thomas Gallagher, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified Wednesday that Benu resides in a Muslim enclave in Red House linked to the al-Fuqra. The organization is a black Muslim sect that authorities in Canada and the United States have linked to bombings, murder and arson.

In 1992, Colorado's attorney general charged al-Fuqra members in Buena Vista, Colo., with firebombing a Hare Krishna temple in 1984 and conspiracy to murder a Muslim cleric in 1990. The cleric, Sheik Rashad Khalifa of Tucson, Ariz., was killed after receiving death threats over his interpretation of the Quran.

"We're concerned that we have a man convicted of drug possession who has possession of firearms and lives with people who have a violent history," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis said. "Caution dictates that this court ought to detain this man."

Amy Austin, Benu's attorney, argued that too much time had elapsed--two years--between Benu's purchasing the firearms and ammunition and his indictments.

"More recent events have moved this up as a priority," Davis said.

Benu and two fellow Red House residents convicted of conspiracy and making false statements were not involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, authorities said.

[Grampa Dave]

Maybe we should start the rumor that the fire bombings committed by the al_Fuqra was really the result of vile evil right wingers and hate crimes!

Then the mediots would jump all over these stories, and then we could tell the reality after they jump. We could say that black churches were in those buildings!