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.
This is my first time for making links, so I hope it works. If not, here's the address: http://www.azzam.sh/ to cut and paste.
Wonderful.
We need to identify foreigners who import "violent" reaction as a political expression.
Makes it easier to expel them to their native hellholes in order of priority.
The FBI and Home Defense should lurk/monitor Free Republic for two reasons:
1. How our great people find and break these stories. Then how we "flesh" out the skeleton in the first thread with the research of other Freepers.
2. We have had and still have more pro Arabic terrorist fifth columinists posting propaganda, lies and other actions on Free Republic than oblterrorists.com.. Many of the so called conservative posts from these pro terrorist posters come right from the violent and lying web sites in the Middle East that are openingly pro Mass Murdering Arabs!
Also, just the investigative and linking power of Free Republic members is awesome. We were among the first to document that the comptroller general of the GAO, who wants to violate the separation of powers as per our constitution is a former Arthur Andersen partner and board member appointed by the Clintoon!
It's just one step on the "training pipeline" which led to Afghanistan and 9-11.
"Superior" students with high intelligence and motivation and are noted and on passed to higher level training.
I wish there was a group title which would refer certain threads to the FBI, Ridge, and the Whitehouse "war room".
Thanks, just another example of how dangerous and fanatical these Islamists are!
i got to agree. maybe florida, maybe virginia, but not in SC. it would be very difficult to cover up an operation like this in SC. in fact this may just be a ploy by a journalist to encourage some boys to go out and burn something down.
Well, DUH, Steve. It's not like these people are going to set up shop and advertise their activities. Clue: start at the local mosques. Get some operatives going there.
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