Posted on 02/03/2002 6:39:58 AM PST by PJeffQ
Militant group might have S.C. camp
The chief suspect in U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl's abduction heads a militant Islamic group that might have training compounds in South Carolina and other states, said an official in Pakistan's Interior Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He might be extradited to the United States within 48 hours, the official said.
That suspect is Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani, the man Pearl reportedly hoped to meet when he disappeared Jan. 23 in Karachi.
Gilani is a militant Islamic cleric who police say has ties to both Osama bin Laden and so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid, the British national who allegedly tried to blow up an American Airlines flight with explosives hidden in his sneakers.
Police say Gilani, who heads an extremist group that allegedly has thousands of followers in the United States, operates a religious school in the Pakistan city of Lahore. Until recently, they say, he also ran military training sites south of Lahore to prepare Islamic radicals for holy war in Kashmir, Chechnya, Afghanistan and the United States.
The plump 60-year-old militant cleric, who has made frequent trips to the United States, was arrested Thursday in Rawalpindi, a city that borders on Islamabad.
Before being flown to Karachi for further questioning, he told police he financed many of his operations in Pakistan with money sent by his followers in the United States, one arresting officer said.
The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gilani warned that hundreds of his followers in the United States would react violently to his arrest.
A Pakistan government official said U.S. documents presented in support of extradition said the militant Islamic group Gilani founded, Tanzeem ul Fuqra, operates the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has branches in New York City and Philadelphia.
The documents cited reports claiming that Tanzeem ul Fuqra has training compounds in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California and perhaps other states.
South Carolina's homeland- security director, Steve Siegfried, said Saturday night that he has no knowledge of any such terrorist training camp in South Carolina.
No U.S. officials could be reached in Pakistan for comment late Saturday on the legal foundation they have laid for Gilani's extradition, or what charges he could face in the United States.
But the Interior Ministry official said Pakistan is ready to hand Gilani over to the United States not because of his alleged role in Pearl's kidnapping but because of the numerous crimes in the United States that have been linked to Tanzeem ul Fuqra since the mid-1980s.
In 1984, according to documents presented to Pakistan, Tanzeem ul Fuqra was linked to the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Denver.
In the early 1990s, the documents said, several of the group's members were arrested after police found 30-40 pounds of explosives, handguns, bomb-making instructions and manuals on such topics as flying airplanes and reading blueprints in a storage locker in Colorado Springs.
More recently, a Tanzeem ul Fuqra member was arrested for the murder last August of a Fresno County deputy sheriff in California, according to the extradition documents.
And millions of Americans would 'react violently' to that.
Good, then they can be identified, isolated and annihilated
The documents cited reports claiming that Tanzeem ul Fuqra has training compounds in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California and perhaps other states.
As usual, Free Republic leads the way, we were on the Al Fuqra trail months ago.
Can someone link the "Why is there an Islamic village in the hills near Fresno?" thread?
Thanks to Clovis Skeptic's orginal thread on this. Many of us at Free Republic have been on this scary Arab terrorist training camps for months!
Make you wonder how much money they have donated to Gray Davis's re election campaign not to be busted!
As much as I would love to agree with you it would only makes us the same kind of scum as them. No what we need to do instead is get some more daisy cutters armed and ready < Grin >
As you pointed out, this foul and vile camp was first exposed on Free Republic by Clovis Skeptic, last year.
Why is there an Islamic Village in the foothills near Fresno?
Charter School Run By Muslims in Fresno CA and beyond UNDER FIRE
They'd sure save a lot of shoe leather.
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.