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Homeland Security: A suspect Islamist group is gloating that a cash settlement in the so-called Flying Imams case is a "victory for civil rights." If it's a victory, it's one for future hijackers. Three years ago, six Islamic clerics sued US Airways and Minneapolis airport police for discrimination and false arrest after they were bounced from a Phoenix-bound flight for behaving much like the 9/11 hijackers. Some yelled "Allah, Allah, Allah," and changed their seats while asking for seat belt extensions they never used. Though situated throughout the cabin, the six men appeared to be acting in concert. Witnesses also...

CAIR Calls Settlement of Six Imams 'Flying While Muslim' Case ‘Victory for Justice’ Posted 10/20/2009 4:11:00 PM (WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/20/09) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today hailed what it called a “victory for justice and civil rights” in the case of the six imams, or Islamic religious leaders, who said their rights were violated in 2006 when they were removed from a US Airways flight in Minnesota and arrested. CAIR, the Washington-based civil rights organization that has championed the imams’ rights since they were removed from the plane, said the six religious leaders will receive an undisclosed amount...

A settlement has been reached in the "Flying Imams" federal lawsuit that was filed by six Muslim men who claim they were falsely arrested on a US Airways jet in the Twin Cities three years ago because of their religious and ethnic backgrounds. According to federal court records, a settlement was reached Monday and filed with the court today. A clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan would not comment on a settlement and instead referred questions to attorneys. A New York attorney for the imams Omar Mohammedi, said this afternoon that settlement is "satisfactory to the plaintiffs." Mohammedi added...

U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery cleared the way for their lawsuit to go to August trial. They claim their rights were violated when they were removed from their flight in the Twin Cities.

A rhetorical tiff boiled over this week between Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann and Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison. Bachmann started it last week when she said in a radio interview that the controversial "flying imams" -- six Muslim men removed from a plane at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in a well publicized incident in 2006 -- had come to the Twin Cities to attend Ellison's victory celebration following his initial election to Congress. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, replied Thursday that Bachmann was engaged in "psycho talk." According to the transcript of an interview Bachmann gave to a San...

The U.S. Department of Transportation says an airline didn't discriminate against six imams when it removed them from a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2006. The department's assistant general counsel, Samuel Podberesky, informed the Council on American-Islamic Relations of the department's conclusion in a Jan. 14 letter.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission has told a judge that six Muslim imams who sued after being kicked off a flight almost two years ago shouldn't be allowed to add an FBI agent as a defendant in the case. Lawyers for the imams claimed last week that they should be allowed to amend their suit because the FBI agent's involvement in the incident was "new evidence," but lawyers for the airports commission said that wasn't the case. "The FBI's specific role was disclosed in the police report and in court filings, well before the deadline to amend passed," the commission argued...

The trial of the infamous “flying imams” is in the discovery phase, and Douglas Bass has a report from the courtroom, where the attorney for the imams (a CAIR-NY operative) is demanding that US Airways divulge information on airline security procedures. Yes, really: Flying Imams - Don’t Make Us, Your Honor, Make Them! Omar Mohammedi, attorney for the imams, and President of the Board of Directors for the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, went first. His motion was for the judge, Arthur Boylan, to compel US Airways to divulge its training manuals, and information on its...

Lawyers for six Muslim prayer leaders removed from a US Airways jet at Twin Cities International Airport in 2006 told a federal magistrate Monday that they want the airline to divulge 10 years' worth of discrimination complaints so they could compare the airline's behavior before and after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Attorneys representing the airline argued they should have to turn over just three years' worth of such data. The reason, said one: 9/11 changed everything. "The bottom line is we're in a post-9/11 world," US Airways attorney Dane Jaques told U.S. Magistrate Arthur Boylan. "Procedures changed. The world...

Moments after boarding US Airways Flight 300 for Phoenix, Michael McCombie, a 3M sales rep from Santa Clara, Calif., jotted a note and handed it to flight attendant Terri Boatner: "6 suspicious Arabic men on plane, spaced out in their seats. All were together, saying '... Allah ... Allah ...' cursing U.S. involvement w/Saddaam before flight. 1 in front exit row, another in first row 1st class, another in 8D, another in 22D, two in 25 E & F." The men in question were six Muslim imams, or prayer leaders, returning home from a conference in Minneapolis. Within minutes of...

I happened to watch the DVD movie of the film, “Bobby”, today, and I remembered where I was in 1968 when he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in the first instance of a major Islamic terrorist act against this country that I know of (not counting the Barbary pirates and overseas mischief). I remember being in Times Square and learning of the horrible act from reading the news billboard, and I remember how angry I was, even though I was not a Kennedy supporter. I was angry, not only because a person very familiar to me had been cruelly murdered,...

While Muslim terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq are being defeated militarily in their attempt to establish a new caliphate through terror tactics – mainly the killings of westerners and anyone else they disagree with - with bombings, torture and decapitation, the establishment of their cruel Sharia law is quietly being infiltrated in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and in many other parts of the world.

US Airways and Minneapolis airport officials are demanding a jury trial in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a group of Muslim imams who were removed from a flight for suspicious behavior. The airline and Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), which oversees Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, are also claiming immunity for their employees named in the suit, citing a "John Doe" law passed by Congress last year that, among other things, protects people acting in an official capacity to prevent terrorist attacks. "We believe the police officers acted appropriately and that it is important that airports across the nation be able...

On November 20, 2006, airline officials in Minneapolis removed six imams from U.S. Airways flight 300 to Phoenix after their behavior raised the suspicion of fellow travelers.[1] The imams decried the incident as racist and evidence of discrimination. On March 12, 2007, they filed suit against the airline, airport, and fellow passengers. Some of the imams' claims are exaggerated; many are false. In reality, the incident was a tactical move to support the imams' claim to leadership over the American Muslim community. Indeed, the "flying imams" case, Ahmed Shqeirat et al. vs. U.S. Airways,[2] appears to mark just the latest...

Exposing the "Flying Imams" by M. Zuhdi Jasser Middle East Quarterly/Winter 2008 (excerpt) (I cut out the intro and background on this Flying Imams case, just to shorten the article a bit) My Experience with the Phoenix Imams I have known three of the plaintiffs in the U.S. Airways suit for almost a decade. Soon after settling in Arizona in 1999, I became involved in the local Muslim community. Before moving to Scottsdale, I usually attended Friday congregational prayer services at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe, Arizona. Often, Ahmed Shqeirat, now the primary plaintiff, delivered sermons at the mosque...

An e-mail campaign is being aimed at a federal judge who sided with six Muslim imams who were booted from an airline flight after other passengers and crew became suspicious of their behavior. The judge, U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery, has issued a ruling in a lawsuit brought by the imams that dismissed most of the defense arguments raised by U.S. Airways, saying it was "dubious" that a "reasonable" person would have been suspicious of the imams because of their behavior. It was Nov. 20, 2006, when the six dropped to their knees in an airport terminal and prayed loudly...

Homeland Security: A federal judge had a chance to add a layer of protection for the American people. But she missed it, and in the process might have become the useful idiot of a terrorist setup.U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery on Tuesday denied a request by U.S. Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minnesota to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the six Muslim men now known as the Flying Imams. The men were removed from a Phoenix-bound flight out of Minneapolis a year ago, after several passengers and crew members became alarmed by what they felt was...

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a group of imams against US Airways and a Minneapolis airport can proceed. U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery said in a 41-page opinion late yesterday that the imams, who say they were discriminated against when they were removed from a flight last year, have a plausible claim that their constitutional rights may have been violated. The imams "have adequately stated a claim" that airport police may have "seized plaintiffs in violation of their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures," Judge Montgomery ruled.

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected most defense arguments to dismiss a lawsuit filed by six Muslim imams who were arrested last November on a U.S. Airways jet in Minneapolis after passengers reported they were acting suspiciously. The imams have said that three of the men in their party said their evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the plane, then entered the aircraft individually, except for one member who is blind and needed a guide. Once on the plane, the men did not sit together. A passenger raised concerns about the imams through a note passed to a...

    ISLAMOFASCISM HAS A 'LOBBY' IN THE US - 'CAIR'     Just like the hypocrites at the infamous hate mongering "association" MSA (Muslim Student Association), who's actions have been proven more against non-Muslims then anything "for" Muslims, so is time to get rid of the "moderate" mask of the monsters at C.A.I.R., or at least call it by it's name.   America has had more than enough of these Jihad wolves in "moderate" clothing.   No matter how you turn it: Arab lobby, Muslim lobby, Islamic lobby, all the evidence, all of their actions show for a TERROR LOBBY,...

In the case of the Flying Imams against US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission, brought to you by CAIR, the Flying Imams have dismissed their claims against the John Doe defendants who alerted the airline to their suspicious behavior. Minneapolis attorney Gerard Nolting, who volunteered his services to any John Doe defendant ultimately named by the Flying Imams, writes: The Flying Imams just filed a dismissal against all John Doe passengers. Total surrender before any discovery is even taken. In the most recent order entered in the case (as I noted here and here), Judge Montgomery denied the Flying...

A group of Muslim imams today dropped all charges in a federal lawsuit levied against "John Doe" airline passengers for reporting the men's suspicious behavior that led to their removal from a U.S. Airways flight last year.

Attorneys for the Metropolitan Airports Commission and U.S. Airways pushed their case in the Minneapolis federal court Tuesday against six Imams kicked off a flight. The lawyers for MAC and U.S. Airways asked the judge to throw out the Imams’ lawsuit against them. From there, the judge will decided whether to dismiss the entire lawsuit, allow parts of it to go forward, or to approve the entire case for trial. All six Muslim leaders were kicked off a November flight after some passengers said they were acting suspiciously. The Imams were released after being questioned by the FBI and the...

A legal squabble in a lawsuit brought by Muslim imam passengers is escalating among lawyers over the question of who is being sued over their removal from a flight last year. "John Doe" passengers are named as parties in the litigation for reporting suspicious behavior of the six men, which led to their removal from the flight. Employees of U.S. Airways and a Minneapolis airport are also targets of the lawsuit now proceeding through a federal court. One of the attorneys representing the six Muslim men says they do not intend to pursue the passengers in litigation, but the Becket...

Two unidentified men tossed a soda bottle filled with acid at the Albanian American Islamic Center of Arizona, a Phoenix area mosque. The bottle broke 20-25 feet away from imam Didmar Faja and another man; neither was injured.Faja is one of six "Flying imams" who filed a discrimination suit against US Airways for kicking them off a Minneapolis to Phoenix flight last November after crewmembers and passengers became alarmed at what they perceived to be terroristic behavior.Predictably, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is claiming that the imams and their attorney received death threats, and pressured Glendale police to treat...

An Arizona mosque frequented by an imam involved in a high-profile lawsuit against airline passengers was hit by vandals early Monday with what police describe as a "pop bottle bomb." Imam Didmar Faja says he was standing outside of the Albanian American Islamic Center of Arizona, just west of Phoenix, when the incident occurred at 1 a.m. The plastic bottle contained pool-cleaning fluid and strips of aluminum foil, and was thrown from a red car driven by two persons. It landed about 20-25 feet from the imam, police said. In a 10-page press release issued by the Council on American...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Police in Arizona said two unidentified men tossed a bottle filled with acid at a Phoenix area mosque early on Monday, splashing a caustic chemical near a Muslim cleric involved in a high-profile discrimination suit. A Glendale Police Department spokesman said two men driving in a red car threw a soda bottle filled with acid and a reactant at the Albanian American Islamic Center of Arizona, in Glendale, west of Phoenix, around 1 a.m. (O800 GMT) on Monday. The bottle, which contained pool cleaner and strips of tin foil, burst some 20-25 feet away from Imam Didmar...

To the Islamists of CAIR: How dare you exploit Americans' tolerance to your fascism? Each now & then we are hit by another stunt of/by CAIR, be it defending the flying Imams that were chanting pro Bin Laden slogans, or catagorizing as "hate" an enraged understandable student in Pace university [regardless if one agrees with his particular expression of: flushing the Quran down the toilet] over Islamists' actions (by the infamous MSA Muslim Students Association' known for it's pro terrorism stand & hate mongering propaganda) against showing the 'Obsession' movie - that exposes Islamofascism & world Jihad.The Islamists know us...

After a police raid Friday at Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, bakery employee Devaughndre Broussard admitted to murdering Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post. Bailey was writing a series of investigative articles about the Bakery – and that’s why, according to police, Broussard killed him. Your Black Muslim Bakery is an outpost of the Nation of Islam, not of any orthodox Islamic sect, but in this murder Devaughndre Broussard has followed a pattern that some orthodox Muslims have also followed. Violent reprisal has long been an occupational hazard of those who dare to question or investigate Islamic...

MINNEAPOLIS — The six Muslim leaders who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall after passengers thought they were acting suspiciously will not include those passengers in their lawsuit against the airline and police, an attorney for the imams said Wednesday. A motion to amend the complaint to include the names of airline employees and police officers was entered Tuesday in U.S. District Court, attorney Frederick Goetz said. "We've identified the people we think are responsible," he said. No passengers were named. The imams, who were handcuffed and questioned, say the airline discriminated against them and violated their...

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials. Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix. "I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department. Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated...

Six imams removed from a U.S. Airways plane said they would not sue the passengers whose concerns led them to being kicked off the flight. In federal court Tuesday, the attorney for the imams said, "We don't contemplate naming any private passenger as a defendant." After the November flight, the imams sued the airport, the airline and 'John Does,' which left open the possibility of suing anonymous passengers. The attorney for one of the passengers says the imams' offer comes only as congress is about to give immunity to those reporting suspicious behavior. "The offer is only made after congress...

It used to be that the only people I knew who were concerned about the behavior of fellow mass-transit passengers were Israelis. But that was before 9/11, before the "shoe bomber," before the Madrid railway attacks and the 2005 suicide bombings in the London Underground. Like it or not, the mantra "If you see something, say something" is simply part of the reality of American life in the age of the war on Islamist terror. Indeed, it was exactly this sort of routine vigilance on the part of a young clerk at a Circuit City electronics outlet store this spring...

This week's "John Doe" episode in the House's "9/11 bill" conference negotiations ended well, thanks to a drumbeat of pro-tipster sentiment and an eleventh-hour cave-in by House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat. ========================================================== Imams: Don’t ask, don’t tell, or we’ll sue After a jillion White Flag votes on Iraq, non-binding resolutions on Iraq, slumber parties on Iraq and several hundred "investigations" on Iraq, Congress’s approval rating is now about 14%, so Democrats are scrambling to see if they can push that number into single digits -- and they thought they’d hit on an idea! Despite working their little...

Watch CAIR spokesmouth Ibrihim Hooper state matter-of-factly that nothing will stop them from suing anyone who dares report a Muslim to authorties and that the newly enacted John Doe provision doesn't change a thing legally.

The more I think about it, the more I think it doesn’t. What it does do is prevent the law from getting worse. Per the New York Sun’s account of the haggling over the provision, Bennie Thompson and the Democrats wanted to limit the immunity to people who report suspicions of terrorism, not ordinary crime, and to federal claims only, not state and local. The GOP won on those points. But let’s look at the language again as reported by the Wash Times yesterday: “Any person who, in good faith and based on objectively reasonable suspicion, makes or causes to...

WASHINGTON — Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20... The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern." Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that...

Democrats favor lawsuits against anti-terrorist tipsters To this day, there are competing theories as to what the "flying imams" were really up to when they boarded US Airways Flight 300, bound from Minneapolis to Phoenix last November. The Muslim clerics -- including a Jordanian-born activist from Tucson, Ariz., named Omar Shahin -- performed their religious observances quite loudly and publicly before boarding the plane. All quite legal and constitutionally protected, of course -- but also well-designed to draw attention to themselves. Once aboard the plane in Minneapolis, several of the Muslim "scholars" switched from their assigned seats to a pattern...

Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September. The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies. The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these...

Public pressure is mounting on Capitol Hill Democrats to include the 'John Doe�' provision into a written conference report of the final 911 Commission bill. The provision would protect the public for reporting suspicious behavior that may be terrorist connected, and is the result of a current lawsuit against U.S. Airways and 'John Doe' passengers filed by a group of imams who were kicked off a flight. "Democrats have been backed into a corner by public outrage over their efforts, so we are seeing these Democrats publicly say they support it in principle, but behind the scenes they are working...

During a terror raid in Manchester, England, British police officers searched an Al Qaeda member's home and discovered a manual outlining terrorists' tactics for jihad. The manual, available through the Department of Justice's Archive, is particularly interesting in its behind-the-scenes revelations about how terrorists gather intelligence about their enemy and conduct espionage in the enemy's camp. The manual offers by-example reconnaissance tactics, citing spies doing fieldwork in such diverse situations as the Tel Aviv airport in the 1970's and a British post office during World War I. My favorite is the episode involving ancient Roman spies who got the better...

The New Jersey store clerk whose tip led to the arrest of six terror suspects needs legislative protection from being sued as a "John Doe" or whistleblower, lawmakers said yesterday. "The events in Fort Dix are just another reminder of the need for this legislation," said Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican and author of legislation to protect "John Doe" passengers being sued by a group of Muslim imams for reporting their suspicious behavior that got the imams removed from an airline flight. "We owe a debt of gratitude to this individual for alerting authorities to this potential terrorist attack...

Be Our Guest He's your son, riding a commuter train to work. Your daughter, taking the subway to go shopping downtown. Your grandparent, boarding an airplane at JFK en route to a family reunion. Your husband or wife, working anywhere in America. John Doe is you. Me. All of us. And he's in trouble. Yesterday, members of Congress met in conference to finalize provisions of the 9/11 security bill, which implements the final recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. But as of press time, the Democratic majority was using a technicality to block the so-called John Doe amendment from being included...

The name “John Doe” has it’s origins in English jurisprudence. Landowners, wrongfully evicted from their property, would bring suit in the fictitious name of “John Doe” (rather than, say, “Kelo”) in order to regain their property and their rights. The fictional name offered some protection from retribution, especially should the offending party by anyone of greater status or title. In the centuries since, the name “John Doe” has come to signify the dispossessed and anonymous. Especially now. In November of last year, a group of Moslem clerics assembled at a midwest airport and engaged in a number of deliberately provocative...

The Senate voted against the John Doe protection amendment, my Senator was one of the dissentors... Here is my fax to him: To Senator Durbin: Regarding S.Amdt. 2340 to S.Amdt. 2327 to H.R. 2669 (College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 ) To provide limited immunity for reports of suspicious behavior and response, the so-called “John Does” amendment. Why in the world did the Senator vote no to this amendment? By what justification did he vote AGAINST a provision which would protect Americans from lawsuits for reporting suspicious terrorist activities? I have so much contempt for this Senator. He does not...

Here’s the roll on the Senate John Doe protection amendment, which missed the 60-vote threshold by 3 votes. Interesting facts: No Republican voted against it. GOP presidential candidate Sam “Switchback” Brownback didn’t bother to vote. Hillary voted for it. Obama sat it out: Check where your Senator stands. They will try to keep this from the public but we should all know and respond.

Homeland Security: Despite overwhelming support in and out of Congress, legal protection for airline passengers who report suspicious behavior is being blocked by Democratic leaders. Wasn't one 9/11 enough for them? Were it not for the courage and sacrifice of the passengers of United Flight 93 who forced their plane into a Pennsylvania field, many in Congress might not be here today, with a gaping hole where the U.S. Capitol still stands. We wonder if this fact is appreciated by those trying to block final passage of the so-called "John Doe" provision protecting from legal action those who report suspicious...

Democrats want 'John Doe' provision cut By Audrey Hudson July 19, 2007 Democrats are trying to pull a provision from a homeland security bill that will protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leadership aides. The legislation, which moves to a House and Senate conference committee this afternoon, will implement final recommendations from the 911 Commission. Rep. Pete King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican, sponsored the bill after a group of Muslim...

A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by six Muslim men who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall has declined to limit public access to the case. Omar T. Mohammedi, a New York attorney for the six Muslim scholars, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he sought limited media access because he felt some of the coverage of the case has been biased against his clients. "When you think of the media, and the way they have been portraying this case, it has not been very helpful. It has been biased," Mohammedi said. "That has caused...

A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by six Muslim men who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall has declined to limit public access to the case. Omar T. Mohammedi, a New York attorney for the six Muslim scholars, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he sought limited media access because he felt some of the coverage of the case has been biased against his clients. "When you think of the media, and the way they have been portraying this case, it has not been very helpful. It has been biased," Mohammedi said. "That has caused...