Posted on 09/20/2003 1:41:55 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:08:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Right after 9-11, there were a couple of FBI raids after the obvious nature of the organizations were pointed out to them (even so, the FBI seemed strangely reluctant to do anything about it); the result was that the bank accounts of the "Holy Land Foundation" were frozen, and a few people were arrested. There was another front company (Infocorp, or something similar named; located in Richardson) also involved that was transferring funds to al qaeda in Malaysia. A few of their company officers were arrested, but the organization behind it remains, and is still regularly funding terrorist operations (the initial heat from the FBI made them a little more careful about how they did it).
On the bright side, a lot of the shops and restaurants that used to have the Hamas donation boxes no longer do; so perhaps 9-11 was a wakeup call for at least some Americans.
5.56mm
The connection is always the same - ISLAM
And since he is being held on charges of espionage, I would assume he was doing the bidding of a foreign government. I wonder which one?
Here's an interesting story (with a major typo in the headline) mentioning Yee, the day after sniper John Mohammed was caught.
Fort Jackson Lewis a magnet for Muslim soldiers
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Oct 25, 2002, 06:06
The Army's Fort Lewis in Washington state, where the alleged D.C-area sniper served, is home to a vibrant community of Muslim GIs and boasts the only Muslim military chaplain on the West Coast.
Chaplain James Yee was not speaking to reporters Thursday, but shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he said what many Muslim soldiers have been repeating ever since, and what appears sadly pertinent now as well:
"An act of terrorism, the taking of innocent civilian lives is prohibited by Islam, and whoever has done this needs to be brought to justice, whether he is Muslim or not," Yee said in October 2001, and repeated to congregants during prayer services over the past year, according to religious news publications.
Accused sniper John Allen Muhammad likely never heard Yee's counsel, since Muhammad had been out of the Army for seven years at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, and apparently had moved to Maryland before those terror attacks took place.
But during Muhammad's nine-year Army career - during which he went by his given name, John Allen Williams - he surely witnessed the steady growth in the ranks of Muslims in the military.
Muhammad joined the Army in 1985, and, according to a family member, had become a Muslim that year as well. When he enlisted, so few practicing Muslims were serving in uniform that none of the armed services had a Muslim chaplain.
The military's first Muslim chaplain was named December 1993 after the Army determined there were sufficient numbers of followers of Islam to expand the chaplaincy. Part of the increase came from the conversions of nearly 2,000 Army soldiers to Islam after they returned from the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War.
Today, the Pentagon estimates there are about 4,000 practicing Muslims in uniform. The American Muslim Armed Forces & Veterans Affairs Council pegs the number at closer to 10,000. The council says many Muslim GIs keep their faith private to avoid discrimination or taunting, which cropped up after the terror attacks and may yet again if America goes to war against Iraq.
The Pentagon now has about 15 active-duty Muslim chaplains. For troops who are devout Muslims, and follow the faith's dietary restrictions, packaged Meals Ready to Eat field rations now come certified as "halal," or religiously approved. Muslim soldiers are permitted to pray five times a day, and even are given time off to attend the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
In Fort Lewis, Yee oversees a community of about 100 GI worshipers who pray daily, along with 50 or so family members. Until 9/11, which resulted in restricted access for unaffiliated civilians to the base for security reasons, Muslims from nearby communities were welcomed at weekly Friday worship services in a white, World War II-vintage building on base.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Yee - a West Point graduate, Persian Gulf veteran and Chinese American who left his Lutheran faith for Islam after the war - has devoted considerable time at Fort Lewis and elsewhere educating others about the faith and helping Muslim GIs cope with insults and perceived harassment.
"The new (Army) motto is an 'Army of One,' " the Army captain told militarylifestyle.com, a Web site devoted to those in uniform, in August. "The way we get through this is with our faith in God.
© Copyright 2003 Capitol Hill Blue
I, James J. Yee, having been appointed a Captain in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.
Where the Religion of Pieces is concerned, any such oath might as well be written with water, instead of ink.
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