Posted on 01/01/2004 4:25:35 PM PST by Kuksool
Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening.
“Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added).
Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield.
Names of larger cities were expected - but Peoria?
”McCoy says Peoria and Champaign serve as ideal hosts for terrorists. Each city is home to a university with numerous Middle Easterners among the student body, thus enabling al-Qaida operatives to blend into each community,” said Luciano.
Suspected terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who, according to Luciano was one of just three terrorists nationwide named an "enemy combatant" and placed under military control, was a Bradley University graduate student nabbed by authorities at his West Peoria apartment.
“McCoy says al-Qaida ops in central Illinois have been... raising money and working computers," reported Luciano. "That information dovetails with a June report in Newsweek magazine, which cited FBI sources in pegging the Midwest (specifically Peoria) as the brains of terrorist activity in America."
I located that Newsweek article, dated June 16, 2003.
In it are admissions made by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM), al-Qaida’s director of global operations, after his capture on March 1, 2003.
KSM reportedly has revealed al-Qaida recruiting techniques. “Using ‘mosques, prisons and universities throughout the United States,’ according to [intelligence] documents, KSM reached deep into the heartland, lining up agents in Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and Peoria, Ill,” said Newsweek. “The Feds have uncovered at least one KSM-run cell that could have done grave damage to the United States.”
The cell's location was not named.
About al-Marri, Newsweek reported:
"During his interrogation, KSM identified a man named Ali S. Al-Marri as 'the point of contact for AQ operatives arriving in the US for September 11 follow-on operations.' KSM described Al-Marri as 'the perfect sleeper agent because he has studied in the United States, had no criminal record, and had a family with whom he could travel.'... The Qatari national had returned to the United States on Sept. 10, 2001, to pick up a graduate degree in computer information systems from Peoria's Bradley University.... Al-Marri's apartment was filled with Islamic jihadist materials. His computer included bookmarked Web sites for hazardous chemicals, computer hacking and fake IDs, according to court documents. Bookmarks in an almanac marked entries for dams, reservoirs and railroads."
Newsweek mentioned another Illinois connection: "The terror network allegedly dispatched... Jose Padilla to scout out the possibility of building a radiological device, a so-called dirty bomb (arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in early 2002, he is being held as an ‘enemy combatant’ in military jail)."
If Luciano is correct that only three alleged terrorists have been named in the U.S. as enemy combatants, two were apprehended in Illinois.
Remember also, in December 2001 the Treasury Department and FBI froze assets and confiscated records of the Global Relief Foundation in Bridgeview and the Benevolence International Foundation in Palos Hills for alleged links to terrorist financing. This marked only the fifth block of assets at that time by the U.S. government post 9-11.
How did the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Blagojevich respond?
In the midst of FBI terrorist arrests in Chicago and Peoria, confiscation of suspected terrorist records in Palos Hills and Bridgeview, an unparalleled state budget crisis, and a corruption investigation of public officials stemming from a van explosion and burning deaths of six Illinois children caused by a driver who couldn't speak English, they passed a law in May giving in-state tuition status to illegal aliens.
The GA also toyed with giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Fortunately, public pressure stifled that great idea. The GA might be interested in another tidbit by Newsweek: “Qaeda operatives seem to be dangerous drivers. [Iyman] Faris was busted for speeding in 1996 and for ‘failure to control his vehicle’ in 1997, when he flipped his vehicle on a highway exit ramp, local officials say. An arrest for drunken driving marred the otherwise clean record of another suspected sleeper agent whose story is a chilling example of Al Qaeda's foothold in the American heartland.”
That “sleeper agent" - the “chilling example of Al Qaeda’s foothold in the American heartland" - was al-Marri.
The Illinois General Assembly appears so very stupid. The bill to legalize in-state tuitions for illegal aliens passed in the House 112-4-1 and the Senate 55-1-1.
But its members are not stupid. As has become their self-serving tradition, they are merely putting political aspirations above the welfare of Illinois citizens.
In the face of incredible evidence Illinois is a terrorist hotbed, the GA should immediately repeal HB 60 and abandon any other notions that would encourage illegal aliens to migrate to Illinois.
The GA and Governor will have to eat crow to do so. But if they do not, and if the worst happens in Illinois, they will forever be as mercilessly blamed as they have mercilessly endangered Illinois citizens.
Most of the immigration involving muslim aliens and islamic terrorism is likely legal immigration. The real problem is that our federal government still sees fit, after 9-11, to let in any muslim aliens at all, and that it allows muslims already here to stay.
Terrorists take note: a lot of us here in America are well armed, and when you non-peaceful Muslims start to get more out of hand than you already are here on our home turf, may G-d have mercy on your souls. We will not tolerate our citizens being slaughtered for any cause you might support. When Americans take things into their own hands, it will be ugly for you AND the so-called "peaceful" amongst you.
To the Muslims who truly are peaceful (and I'm sure you exist in greater numbers than the jihadists): you need to start cleaning your own house before we do it for you. Some of us may be more reasonble about your plight, but there are others (and believe me the numbers are steadily growing) who will exhibit extreme prejudice to your kind. They will not discriminate between the peaceful and non-peaceful. To them a rag-head is a rag-head. Sad as it may seem to those of us who may or may not be reasonable, there are some who will kill indiscriminately and without remorse if they feel that their way of life and families are threatened.
You have been warned.
While this sentence might have a degree of truth to it, with all the criminal prosecutions the last couple years of Ryan's people and now his indictment, a better line might be, "He who is without sin...".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.