Posted on 08/22/2003 12:55:02 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
In March of 2003, the Miami office of the FBI held a joint press conference with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerning the FBI’s search for suspected terrorist Adnan El Shukrijumah. According to the FBI, El Shukrijumah was “identified by senior members of the al-Qaeda organization as a very, very, very serious threat to the United States interests, both here and abroad.”
Before the event, the FBI issued a press release, claiming CAIR had “approached the FBI and offered their assistance in reaching out to the Arab-American community to encourage them to provide any information they might have concerning El Shukrijumah and to address concerns within [sic.] community regarding hate crimes.”
Three days later, CAIR issued its own press release. However, this one contradicted the FBI. CAIR’s PR machine claimed that it was not CAIR that approached the FBI, but it was in fact the FBI that approached the radical Islamic group. The CAIR press release states, “The FBI approached us and sought our help.” This may seem like an honest mistake to some, but when CAIR’s concerned, honesty rarely factors in on the equation.
Exalting CAIR as “respected members within the Arab-American community,” the FBI’s press release noted its appreciation for CAIR’s “efforts.” But only a significantly small portion of CAIR’s PR actually dealt with imploring anyone to come forward with information that would be helpful to the FBI’s search. So it seems the only “effort” CAIR had tried to make was to seek to mask the problem and grant protection to the offender and his cohorts.
CAIR’s press release started out by offering a hazy explanation of the Muslim community’s supposedly complete rejection of terror. “Terrorism is antithetical to Islam…‘If anyone slays a human being – unless it be (in punishment) for murder or for spreading corruption on earth – it shall be as though he had slain all mankind.’” How should one interpret “punishment” or “spreading corruption?” Certainly al-Qaeda would never lose such semantically challenged debates.
The PR charged FBI agents with the defense and upholding of El Shukrijumah’s human rights “should they apprehend him.” Naturally, CAIR mentioned nothing about the possible risk such a suspect posed to our nation’s security, nor to the agents who will attempt to bring him to justice.
The press release then bestowed platitudes upon the family of El Shukrijumah, accolades most assuredly undeserved. It stated, “Adnan G. El Shukrijumah’s family members have earned their respect from the South Florida community. They have contributed productively to this community.”
Meanwhile, El Shukrijumah’s mother – who was 16 and her husband 44, when she gave birth to Adnan – made herself an accessory to the (suspected) crime by admitting that she told her son that he should “stay away” and “stay put…we don’t want to know where [you are].”
The terrorist connection of his father, Gulshair – an Islamic missionary sent to America from Saudi Arabia – is apparent. Despite his claim of feeling “sad, because I have done no wrong,” Gulshair testified in a trial on behalf of fellow mosque-goer, terrorist Abdul Rasheed (a.k.a. Clement Hampton-El), who “was convicted of plotting to blow up the United Nations and the Holland Tunnel.”
The impetus to go after Adnan El Shukrijumah came with the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Mohammed, who was the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, identified El Shukrijumah as being an al-Qaeda leader “on a par with Mohammed Atta, the top man on the 9/11 hijack team.”
Once again, instead of condemning the terrorist, CAIR took the opportunity – as part of the significant “effort” the FBI praised them for undertaking – to defend Sheikh Mohammed. “Has he been deprived of sleep? Food? We have no idea, and they won’t tell us what measures they have taken to elicit this information,” said Altaf Ali, the Florida Director of CAIR.
The FBI’s lauding of CAIR is reprehensible in itself, but CAIR’s usage of a counter-terror event to advance their agenda of defending terrorists and terrorist suspects is yet another example of where CAIR’s true loyalties lie – and yet again, they are not with CAIR’s host country. While American authorities are trying to stop terrorism, groups such as CAIR are attempting to delay and sabotage the process. They are not partners, not patriots, not allies; they are a significant fifth column in the War on Islamofascist Terror.
hehehe
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