Posted on 04/13/2004 7:10:10 AM PDT by happygrl
Way back a lifetime ago, on 14 January 2004 we published an op-ed piece in these Islam Commentaries about Jihad coming to Houston, Texas. A Muslim man named Mohammed Ali Alayed embraced the conservative tenets of Islam through a faith reawakening (I use this term reluctantly), murdered a Jew, and then confessed to the crime, which his own roommate witnessed as a near decapitation of the Jewish victim, Ariel Sellouk. We were astonished that the world press reported that Houston police said they didn't have a clue as to why Mohammed Ali Alayed killed Ariel Sellouk.
On Easter Sunday, seemingly right out of the blue, I heard from the late Mr. Sellouk's long time friend Melissa. To protect her identity I won't use her last name here.
It seems that Melissa knew the murder victim Ariel quite well. They met about seven years ago. Melissa has learned some things lately that the world needs to know.
Based on what Melissa had to say, I've concluded that the American justice system is on the verge of going wrong—again—in the matter of Mr. Alayed's murder trial. On a federal level the Department of Justice (and, on a local level, perhaps also the prosecutors in Houston) are about to drop the ball on the case.
But first, some background....
SniP~
Melissa's Email
We talked for more than an hour, after which she sent me the following email. I have notified the Houston Chronicles Andrew Tilghman and World Net Daily's Joseph Farah about what Melissa had said in her email by sending them copies of this column. Here's what she wrote me in her electronic correspondence, which I've modified only for correction of typos:
I arrived in Houston Early last week—prepared to see the person who murdered my friend Ariel Sellouk. I thought Mohammed Ali Alayed had been bound to the terms of his plea agreement and sentenced to maximum security prison for hopefully 60 years. Instead, I was outraged at what I found out.
Apparently, a couple of weeks ago Michel Sellouk, Ariel's father, received a strange email from a friend stating that Mohammed had been moved from his cell in late March and put in a psychiatric holding cell.
Michel was confused and rightfully outraged. He immediately called the prosecutors office, who from what I understand had no knowledge of this. Michel contacted the prosecutor's office on Tuesday, March 30th.
The prosecutor said he would confirm that the news contained in the email was not true. He said he'd call right back.
A call did not come until Friday, April 2nd—what should have been Ariel's—24th birthday
Mohammed Alayed apparently tried to hang himself with a piece of string he found in his cell and is now demanding to be re-psychologically evaluated.
Amazingly enough, these events occurred at the same time that this murderer's parents, who are somehow connected with or who are themselves Saudi royalty were granted visas to come to Texas.
I believe they will be arriving today (Monday, April 12). And for now the sentencing has been postponed until April 19th.
A lot about this does not sit right with me. It feels like this person and his lawyer signed a plea to stall the system, because Alayed did sign it one day before his trial was to begin.
His bail was originally set at 5 million dollars, and there was no one in Houston at the time who would have paid it for him.
But now if he gets his plea overturned and a trial is reset, with any actual bail posted by his family (they would easily be able to post it), they would then flee the country with this terrorist.
Or Alayed could have himself committed to an institution or a lesser prison where criminals receive better care and could actually live for the next thirty years and someday go home a hero.
From what I know about this case this person planned this murder.
He was sane enough to come up behind my friend and catch him by surprise.
He was sane enough at the time to call for a ride after he nearly decapitated my friend.
Once his ride came he was sane enough to show his friend what he had done with pride.
And he was sane enough to instruct his poor roommate who has to live with what he witnessed for the rest of his life—and I'm quoting Alayed here— "You wait till we drive away then you can leave, come back to the apartment on Tuesday and call the police and tell them you found a body. This will give me enough time to get out of the country."
He was sane enough to hide out for a week, until he was apprehended.
I know that the government has invoked the patriot act in this case and visited this terrorist in prison without any notification to the family or counsel on either side, and yet federal hate crime charges have not been filed against this person.
I don't know why he wasn't deported when he was arrested on drug charges after his student visa expired.
Had the INS deported him, that deportation may have prevented the brutal death of a truly remarkable person.
I feel like government agencies dropped the ball enough already.
Now, if people don't pay attention, he could have his plea thrown out, bail set, and go home a hero.
Alayed should have been sent home months before as the lowly drug pushing thief that he really was.
This person's family was sending him 60,000 dollars a year to attended university which he was not doing.
He was a valet parker at many clubs in the Houston area, and I don't think it fares well to get shipped back to Saudi Arabia after taking that kind of money from your family and using it to buy and sell drugs.
But to get sent home a Jew killer... doesn't that make him a hero in his home land?
Most importantly, people in the city of Houston need to know that this is not over until this person is actually sentenced to a maximum security prison for what we hope will be sixty years.
I would like for the Houston Chronicle and World Net Daily to invoke the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and obtain a copy of the plea agreement—and then do everything in their power to find out what is going on.
If Alayed is not convicted on April 19th, people need to know he is a flight risk and should not be given any bail.
Although I struggle inside with the idea of standing in a room with someone who had the capacity to commit such a heinous crime, I will not rest until I see justice served and Alayed truly goes to prison for what he did.
As you can see in the photo I attached, Ariel loved all people. He was a beautiful person, and he will always be loved and missed. Ariel is on the left, shown clowning for the camera with two friends
Not that it will do any good, but I sent this column to two friends, one of whom has been involved with counter-terrorism at the FBI, and one who has been involved with counter-terrorism at CIA. I hope they pass it on to their contacts at the Homeland Security offices.
Maybe they can persuade the White House that President Dubya is wrong when he claims that Islam is a religion of peace.
After all, Melissa and I know better.
If it were a white male killer against any ethnic group it would be in all the media as a sensational "hate crime!"
by William P. Welty
Jan 18, '04 / 24 Tevet 5764
[How is it that only the Israelis know that World War III started on September 11, 2001?]
Sooner or later it was bound to happen — Jihad would come to the United States. (Not that it hasn't been here since the Oklahoma City bombing, mind you.) And by this statement, I don't mean attacks on America's infrastructure, such as the assault on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the apparent attempted assault on the White House that occurred on 11 September 2001. No. I'm thinking of something much more simple than elaborate plans to fly commercial aircraft into buildings. I'm thinking of something as simple as the murder of a Jew by a Muslim. In Houston, Texas, no less.
The Muslim man has confessed to the crime, which his own roommate witnessed as a near decapitation of the Jewish victim.
Amazingly, the press is reporting that Houston police say they don't have a clue as to why he did it.
Honest, I'm not making this up....
The story made the January 12 edition of the Houston Chronicle and WorldNetDaily.com on January 13. According to the details of the reports, killer Mohammed Ali Alayed, a Saudi Arabian national, was in the US on a student visa when he slashed the throat of Ariel Sellouk, the son of Moroccan Jewish immigrants to the United States and a personal friend. Alayed "went to a local mosque after the killing."
I called the Houston Chronicle's Andrew Tilghman, who is assigned to the paper's Court House Bureau, to discuss the matter. Mr. Tilghman wrote the Chronicle story on the slaying. We discussed the puzzling statement that appears in paragraph three of the WorldNetDaily story, concerning the Houston Police Department's alleged inability to attribute religious motives to the slaying, despite the "religious reawakening" of Alayed to a "conservative, Islamic lifestyle".
Does one light a candle to see the sun?
It turns out, according to my interview with Tilghman, that the prosecutors chose not to pursue hate crime indictments because by doing so, the prosecutors risked complicating the case.
"Does it really matter why Alayed murdered Mr. Sellouk?" mused Mr. Tilghman during our conversation.
Good point, Andrew.
I concluded my conversation with Mr. Tilghman by suggesting to him that I'd attempt to send him a list of other Islam-motivated murders that have taken place within the borders of the United States of America since the Oklahoma City bombing. I didn't bother to mention that I won't count the 2,800 Islam-motivated murders that took place in the United States on 11 September 2001.
After all, as President Dubya points out, Islam is a religion of peace.
And if he's released, he's a danger to do it again.
What does one do with a terrorist? It does present a problem, doesn't it?
It turns out, according to my interview with Tilghman, that the prosecutors chose not to pursue hate crime indictments because by doing so, the prosecutors risked complicating the case.
"Does it really matter why Alayed murdered Mr. Sellouk?" mused Mr. Tilghman during our conversation.
Guys like Tilghman and the prosecutor make me sick. If white supremacists had killed a black man, I bet Tilghman wouldn't doubt that the motive mattered, and the prosecutor wouldn't find the matter at all "complicated" (which, btw, was the cover story Tilghman offered, free-of-charge, on the prosecutor's behalf. With friends like Tilghman and the prosecutor, who needs terrorists?
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