Jersey City - Bret Schundler - Various Notes

Various ^ | Various

[Calpernia]

Menendez blasts Bret for lost grant, Jersey Journal, Peter Weiss, 10/20/2001

"Bioterrorism has turned into a political issue in Hudson County. US Rep Robert Menendez, D-Union City, yesterday criticized the administration of former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, the Republican candidate for governor, for losing a $1 million anti-terrorism grant last year. Menendez supplied a copy of a May 16, 2000 letter from the state Department of Health and Human Services to Jersey City officials informing them that their grant application was rejected. The letter stated "weaknesses" in the grant application that convinced the state that Jersey City "would have considerable difficulty in performing the prescribed tasks. As such, the Department has determined that it is in the best interests of all involved that an award not be made."

Journalists find bioterrorism articles in local apartment ,10/20/01, Jersey Journal on-line, click title above for full article

"Mohammed Pervez, Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Azmath, who shared the apartment, worked for S&S News, a company that operated a newsstand at Newark's Penn Station and in Trenton.

Khan and Azmath were bound from Newark to San Antonio the day of the World Trade Center attack and hopped a train when all air traffic was grounded. Authorities arrested the men in Texas on suspicion of drug charges, but they were later transferred to New York after police discovered they were carrying hair dye, $5,000 in cash and box-cutters like those thought to have been used by the 19 men who hijacked four planes....

Carroll said that if tests of items collected from the Jersey City apartment of Azmath, Khan and Pervez were to show traces of any agent like anthrax, the "proper health authorities would be notified."

TERROR TOWN, Suspects' lair in the shadow of WTC, New York Post, 9/23/01 "Thirteen of the men detained by federal authorities investigating the Sept 11th attacks are from northern New Jersey, some from the Jersey City neighborhood that was home to suspects from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. ... Terrorists experts and law enforcement officials said the New Jersey communities -- particularly Jersey City - are breeding grounds for terrorist activity because they are close to New York, offer affordable rents and have large immigrant populations where terrorists can blend in......

Some neighbors said the men ( Ayub Khan and Mohammed Azmath ) - like many of the other Arab-Americans in the city - prayed a block away at the Mas Jid Al-Salaam mosque on Kennedy Boulevard, where blind cleric Omar Abdel Rahman - the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing - once preached." (excerpt)

Details emerge about players in arms probe, 6/20/01 , By Jennifer Morrill Journal staff writer , (Click on Title above for the full article)

As two of the three Jersey City men arrested in Florida last week in a federal sting operation that centered on international arms dealing and money laundering head to court today, details about who the trio are continue to emerge. One contributed to Mayor Bret Schundler's bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination while another was once considered an up-and-coming mover and shaker in the black business community. Background on the third, however, remains sketchy.

Mohammed Rajaa Malik, 52, a local businessman and former Jersey City Zoning Board member, donated $1,000 to Schundler's primary campaign in the name of his store, One Stop Shop Market, also known as Grove Liquor and Deli, on Grove Street, election records show. ( across from City Hall )

Malik, also known as "Mike," and Diaa Mohsen, 57, were arrested June 12 by federal agents after they attempted to buy weapons, including Stinger missiles, from undercover officers, officials said. Mohsen faces possible charges of arms dealing and money laundering, while Malik faces a possible arms dealing charge. Prosecutors plan to ask that bail be denied for the two at today's hearing in federal court in Florida.

The third city man, 42-year-old Kevin Ingram, was also arrested in the 31-month investigation on money laundering charges but was released on a $250,000 bond. Ingram, who in 1996 was named one of the top 25 African-American "movers and shakers" by Black Enterprise magazine, earned a name for himself at two prominent investment firms. Of the three men, Malik, a native of Pakistan, appears to be the best known in the community.

"He used to talk to me all the time about what was going on in City Hall," Yvonne Balcer, who lives Downtown and frequented Malik's deli and liquor store, said yesterday. "A lot of people are laughing in Downtown Jersey City after seeing Schundler say he does not know him."

The store, which is now closed, had its lottery operations stripped by the state several years ago, though officials could not say yesterday why the machines were removed.

In an interview with The Jersey Journal last week, Schundler said he didn't know Malik, who local politicians described as a political hanger-on. Through his spokesman yesterday, Schundler maintained that position. "It's possible he may have run into him at a meeting or something, but he doesn't know anything about the guy," said Bill Guhl, Schundler's campaign spokesman. "Just because you are introduced to someone at a fund-raiser does not mean you have continuing communication."

But Balcer, who ran unsuccessfully for an at-large City Council seat on Louis Manzo's mayoral slate in May, said Schundler isn't being truthful. "How can Schundler, who lives in the neighborhood, say he does not know this guy?" Balcer said yesterday. "It's just an indication of how he lies. "There are a lot of people who may not live up to our expectations, but that does not mean we don't know them," she said. Balcer also said Schundler should return the contribution, but Guhl said he doesn't know if the mayor has that in mind. "I am not sure if he plans to return it or not," Guhl said. "I don't think he has any plans to return it, but we have not talked extensively about it."

Undercover agents for the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms met with Malik and Mohsen on at least a dozen occasions from December 1998 until their arrests June 12 in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as well as in New Jersey and New York to discuss the arms deals, shipment and payments, according to court papers. During one of these meetings, Mohsen and Malik told an agent, posing as a rogue arms dealer, and a government informant that they wanted to purchase missiles, night-vision goggles, grenade launchers and guns for a foreign country, the records show. At one point, the men allegedly told the undercover agent that the weapons were for a former foreign military official. It was still not clear yesterday which country the men were allegedly working for." BIN LADEN'S GROUP????

Schundler denounces New Jersey's WTC relief effort, By Greg Brickey, Urban Times News, 9/25/2001

Former Jersey City mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret D.Schundler issued a scathing condemnation of New Jersey's response to the World Trade Center disaster, criticizing the efforts of Police, National Guard, hospital workers, and even the state's blood donor system. "They (State Police) didn't do much of anything," Schundler told the New York Times, "they just sat there."

Schundler, who was campaigning in Israel when the World Trade Center attack took place, also released and endorsed a private memo written by Jersey City Medical Center president Jonathan Metsch, claiming that National Guard troops who drove ambulances to the hospital "had no leadership and provided no help."

Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco was quick to respond to Schundler's charge of Police and National Guard "inaction" during the devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. "Clearly he does not have his facts straight," said DiFrancesco. "To exploit this tragedy in any way is inappropriate, offensive, and just plain wrong."

After publication of the NY Times article, (Schundler Assails New Jersey's Response to Terrorist Attack, By DAVID M. HALBFINGER, 9/22/2001), Schundler issued a conditional apology, (Schundler Says Remarks Were Misinterpreted, By DAVID M. HALBFINGER, 9/23/2001), claiming that he had indeed made the comments attributed to him, but that the NY Times had misrepresented his intentions. "I offer my deepest apologies," said Schundler, "to any who were offended by the impression created by this mischaracterization."

Schundler's conditional apology follows a similar mea culpa recently issued by right wing televangelist Jerry Falwell, who blamed the WTC tragedy on the ACLU, gays, and legalized abortion. "I want to apologize to every American," said Falwell, after President Bush publicly repudiated his comments, "including those I named."

In addition to criticizing the efforts of New Jersey's relief workers, Schundler presented his own manifesto for defense against terrorist attacks. But critics have raised questions about the timing of Schundler's plan, noting that Jersey City was used as a planning and staging area for terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center twice since 1993. (Schundler was elected in November 1992 and served thru June 30, 2001)

Critics have also pointed out that Federal agents are questioning Mohammed Rajaa Malick, the owner and manager of a liquor store located across the street from City Hall during Schundler's term of office. Malik, a self described Schundler campaign supporter, was recently arrested for attempting to purchase 200 stinger missiles, machine guns, and other arms, offering a large quantity of heroin as payment.

The New York Times continues to stand by its "Schundler assails NJ response to terrorist attack" article, which was followed by a Star Ledger editorial that characterized Schundler's criticism of relief efforts as "grotesquely premature." The Jersey Journal has to date given the story no coverage. (Typical they've been covering for Schundler for the last 9 years).

[Calpernia]

Jersey City was where WTC '93 and '01 were plotted.

Jersey City, home to:

- A large, multinational Islamic community

- The Al-Salaam Mosque

- Ahmed Amin Refai

- Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman

- Ramzi Yousef's Apartment

- Ramzi Yousef's storage facility that was converted into a bomb making factory

I really would like to hear Schundler address this. If these points shouldn't be a concern, I would like someone to explain why to me.