Free Republic

Despite knowing the Hamas ties of Kifah Mustapha, the FBI gave him a guided tour of a top-secret counterterrorism center and access to classified investigative techniques.Court documents filed last month by the Department of Justice in a federal civil rights lawsuit shows that Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Robert Grant of the FBI Chicago field office had warned the Illinois State Police: newly appointed Muslim chaplain Kifah Mustapha would never pass an FBI background check. Mustapha’s long association with terrorist group Hamas occurred at virtually the same time that Mustapha was admitted into the FBI Citizens’ Academy sponsored by SAC...

FoxNews just reported that an agent for Saddam Hussein has been arrested in Chicago. .....developing....

Howls of rage went up after the Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn, arrested Maher Hawash in the parking lot of an Intel Corporation facility in March, 2003, and placed him in solitary confinement. The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him without charges for more than a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the evidence. Given Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash's biography, this all came as a particular shock, for he personified the American success story. A Palestinian born in Nablus in 1964 and reared in Kuwait, he arrived in the United States in 1984, earning degrees in...

Four days ago Warblogging reported on the story of Maher (Mike) Hawash. Mr. Hawash's problems have now been the subject of an article in the New York Times. Mr. Hawash is a programmer, working at Intel, who was detained by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force as a material witness. He has so far spent just about two weeks in jail without being charged with a crime and without being questioned or told why he is detained. He is being kept in solitary confinement. Mr. Hawash was detained by FBI agents wearing helments, body armor and carrying assault rifles...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

On Tuesday the federal authorities struck another serious blow against the toleration of Islamist terrorist activities on American soil, by arresting five former leaders of the so-called Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which, as I have previously argued, would be better called the Holy War Foundation.   HLF is, after all, a front for the Palestinian suicide terror gang Hamas, which is mainly funded by Saudi Arabia. < -snip- > HLF long functioned as the nerve center of the “Wahhabi lobby” in the U.S., headquartered in Texas, with branch offices in Paterson, N.J., Bridgeview, Ill., and San Diego.  Established...

Hizb ut-Tahrir America Enters Public Stage By Madeleine Gruen Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has indicated that it has transitioned from its covert status to a public phase of operations by issuing an announcement, signed in its own name, that it will host a conference in July 2009 to support the establishment of a Caliphate. The promotional video can be viewed on YouTube. The event, titled "The Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam," is scheduled for Sunday, July 19th, 2009, at the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois.

Of all the clergy in America ..... why her?Obama invites Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood linked ISNA to offer prayer at inauguration. ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the same Hamas funding case that named CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood group - in the same Brotherhood document that speaks of its goal of destroying Western civilization from within. (more)Creeping Sharia has more: A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release...

On Wednesday, January 18, I received an e-mail from someone identifying himself as “Ahmed.” He wrote to me that he was a “Muslim activist” and that he wanted me to come on his radio show to discuss my work, or, in his words, “to give [my] side of the story.” In doing a simple web search on his e-mail address, it turned out that this individual was none other than the Director of Communications for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab. While I didn’t know his motives in contacting me, I had recalled when...

Jurors have reached a verdict in the second trial of a Muslim charity accused of helping to finance terrorism in the nation's largest such case since the Sept. 11 attacks.The verdict was to be announced Monday afternoon, on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. It was once the nation's largest Muslim charity.Holy Land is accused of giving more than $12 million to support the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in 1995.Jurors were to read a long list of verdicts on more than...

PALOS HILLS, Ill. (AP) A local bank has closed a mosque's account after it donated money to an Islamic charity under federal investigation for allegedly helping terrorists. Family Bank and Trust Co. closed the account of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview after the mosque wrote two checks to the Islamic American Relief Agency, according to the mosque's imam, Sheikh Jamal Said. Mosque Foundation president Oussama Jamal said the mosque made its donations in August and September, before the federal government froze the charity's assets and raided its Missouri offices in October. The Treasury Department alleged Islamic American Relief was part...

Abdelhaleem Ashqar is facing trial in Chicago, accused of funding terrorists, and is under house arrest in Virginia. But he said Thursday that won't keep him from seeking to replace Yasser Arafat as the next Palestinian leader. Proclaiming that he detests bloodshed, Ashqar said he will run in the Jan. 9 Palestinian election as an independent and was able to collect 7,000 to 8,000 election petition signatures in less than 36 hours from his district of Putulkarm, in the northern part of the West Bank. Under house arrest at his home in Alexandria, Va., the former Howard University professor said...

Defense attorneys plan to argue Palestinian activist suffers from mental disease or defect BY MELANIE COFFEE Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) -- Attorneys for a Palestinian activist jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the militant group Hamas said Wednesday they intend to argue the man suffers from a mental disease or defect. Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Alexandria, Va., was indicted on charges of criminal contempt after he refused to testify before a grand jury investigating fund-raising activities on behalf of Hamas. Prosecutors have said that among other things they want to talk to Ashqar about...

City Colleges fire lecturer with terror ties June 6, 2003 BY ANA MENDIETA, Staff Reporter A Bridgeview man who served five years in an Israeli prison for allegedly channeling funds to Islamic terrorists has been fired from his job at City Colleges for failing to disclose his conviction, officials said Thursday. Mohammed Salah was terminated Wednesday from his job as a part-time lecturer at Olive-Harvey College because he failed to list his conviction on his employment application in February 2002, said Paula Bridges, City Colleges' director of marketing and public relations. Salah, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Jerusalem in...

In fundraising probe, Palestinian activist may face more charges: Federal prosecutors indicated Monday new charges might soon be filed related to a long-running Chicago grand jury probe of fundraising for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The disclosure came during a court hearing for Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar, a Palestinian activist from Virginia facing federal charges for refusing to testify before the grand jury despite a grant of immunity. The grand jury wanted to question Ashqar about his relationship with Hamas and its members. Ashqar was initially indicted last year on one count of criminal contempt, and a new indictment handed...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two suspected members of Hamas have been arrested in the United States and charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering and racketeering, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced. The authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a third suspect facing the same charges, identified as the deputy chief of the political bureau of Hamas, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, who currently resides in Syria. Ashcroft said the trio allegedly ran a US-based terrorist recruiting and financing cell linked with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group which has publicly admitted to many killings, primarily of Israelis but also...

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...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Muslim forces were gathering near a small town in Bosnia, and commanders were moving fighters to the front. The man in charge wanted the very best soldiers available, so he handpicked six of his favorites and ordered them to the area immediately. The mission was indisputably military, but the man calling the shots was not a captain with the army or a general back at command headquarters. He was the person helping finance the battle: Adel Batterjee, a wealthy Saudi businessman aiding the operation 2,000 miles away from his home in Saudi Arabia. This was not...

Freepers: The following articles appeared in the Sunday, February 08, 2004 edition of the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune might require you to “log in” to read them, but it would definitely be worth taking the time to do so. Struggle for the soul of Islam Many Muslims see America's war on terror as a war against Islam. And many Americans see Muslims as suicide bombers who murder innocents and target Americans. Hardliners won battle for Bridgeview (Chicago) Mosque - MUST READ! The recipient of the worshipers' generosity was Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian activist accused by the U.S. government of...

Sheik Jamal Said stood before the packed mosque and worked the crowd like an auctioneer. Speaking Arabic, the prayer leader asked for a donation of $10,000. No one responded. He asked for $5,000, and three men raised their hands. < SNIP> The recipient of the worshipers' generosity was Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian activist accused by the U.S. government of aiding terrorists. And the prayer leader's passionate appeal is a reflection of the ascendancy of Muslim hard-liners at the mosque, one of the most outspoken and embattled in the U.S. The mosque did not become this way without a struggle. Relying...