This map is two years old. More Mosque's have sprung up across the U.S. since.
Posted on 10/17/2004 12:22:46 AM PDT by TexKat
The offices of the Islamic American Relief Agency at 201 Cherry St. in Columbia, Mo., were blocked Wednesday by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (0FAC).
For the third time in five years, the national hunt for terrorists is focused on an unlikely site: a nondescript office in Columbia, Mo., downstairs from a bridal shop and next door to a Walgreens.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
"I'm starting to wonder if all Islamic "charities" aren't just fronts for terrorist organizations..."
How many of these so-called "charities" have said even one word against their co-religionists devoting themselves to mass murder and terrorism in 20 countries and counting? In the blinding glow of the "D" god, "Diversity," these charities were allowed to establish their fund raising smokescreens throughout America and throughout the West without anyone checking were the money was actually going and therefore blind to the fact that they were endowing mass murdering terrorists.
Diffuse the spotlight: they are everywhere.
Worse yet, check the State and Clinton Admin policies...and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - HOW MANY TIMES did that islamocommie murderer sleep in the FREAKING WH????
AMERICA: WAKE THE PUCK UP
Communists and Muhammadans are IN ON IT - the deconstruction of America, Israel and ALL that is good! /rant
rotten plastic bottles, anyway....
Cockroaches BTTT
That too...
Bump to the Overnight Crew of Digital Brownshirts-R-Us, Inc.
g'night and pray for a Moo while you're at church...Muhammadans never bomb churches do they? /XXXSarcasm
The terrorists are not likely to mess their own sandbox. I would worry more about St. Louis and Kansas City. Both are rich targets that are not far away.
bttt
ping
This map is two years old. More Mosque's have sprung up across the U.S. since.
FBI continues to roll them up...
Not until they pull the computers and paperwork out, ok?
Sheesh! Some people are just SOOO impatient!
I don't find this on the MUST EXCERPT list.So here is the full text:
Terrorism spotlight again shines on Columbia, Mo.
By Jeremy Kohler and Peter Shinkle
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Oct. 17 2004
For the third time in five years, the national hunt for terrorists is focused
on an unlikely site: a nondescript office in Columbia, Mo., downstairs from a
bridal shop and next door to a Walgreens.
The Islamic American Relief Agency has been situated near the University of
Missouri flagship campus for 19 years, ostensibly to raise money for children
in poor and war-torn countries. It did so for 14 years without appearing to
raise an eyebrow.
That changed when the U.S. State Department in 1999 revoked contracts worth
$4.2 million to the group, saying they were contrary to U.S. defense and
foreign-policy interests.
Then it was learned that a satellite phone bought by an associate of the group
was used by Osama bin Laden to plan bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in
1998.
The disclosure caused some to worry in Columbia immediately after the 9/11
attacks. Residents pleaded for stepped-up FBI surveillance. Police, fearing
reprisals against the city's Muslims, increased patrols around the Islamic
Center of Central Missouri.
The United States finally took action last week, accusing the group of
funneling money to terrorists - notably bin Laden. The U.S. Treasury Department
froze the group's assets and made it a crime to contribute to the group.
Federal agents searched the group's offices, storage lockers and the home of
one of its directors, seizing documents and computers. It also raided the home
of a Muslim leader in Wolcott, Conn., with ties to the group.
No one was arrested. No individual was accused of actually being a terrorist.
And, it appeared, there was no threat to Columbia. Afterward, questions
abounded:
If the Columbia office sponsors terrorism, then why wasn't anyone indicted?
What prompted the raids now?
Did the government know of a specific threat?
Answers were sparse. Neither the FBI nor the Treasury Department would detail
reasons behind the raids or the accusations of the Columbia organization's
links to bin Laden.
U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia, said he was briefed Friday by the Office
of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Treasury Department.
"Most importantly, they have once again assured me that Columbia is under no
immediate threat of danger," Hulshof said in a statement. "They stressed that
actions taken Wednesday were not taken to thwart any impending event."
Hulshof said that Treasury and FBI officials now have "the arduous task" of
combing through all the seized documents. "It is my assumption this will take
several weeks to complete," he said.
Meanwhile, principal members of the relief agency in Columbia were staying out
of the spotlight. None responded to phone messages or notes left on doorsteps
last week.
In the Columbia Tribune, agency board member Ali Bagegni was quoted as saying
about his group's operations, "There are no illegal things."
Fatten Elkomy, whom the Tribune said had worked as a programmer for the agency
since 1999, told the newspaper the group has no terrorist ties.
"I've been working there serving orphans and children with at least one
deceased parent, and it breaks my heart they're not going to get any help," she
was quoted as saying.
In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, Rashed Nizam, president of the Islamic
Center of Central Missouri in Columbia, said he was unaware of any terrorist
links involving the local charity.
"To our knowledge, this organization is helping the poor and orphans around the
world," he said. He added, though, that the government says it has information
it cannot reveal at this time.
"I hope the truth shall prevail," he said.
St. Louis activist Eric Vickers incorporated the Columbia group in 1985, he
said, on behalf of Sudanese college students who wanted to form a chapter of
the worldwide group Islamic African Relief Agency, which is based in Khartoum,
Sudan.
Columbia's chapter was initially formed as Islamic African Relief Agency United
States Affiliate. It changed its name to Islamic American Relief Agency in
2000, its public filings show.
Vickers was listed as recently as August as the group's registered agent. He
said Friday that he has not been involved since the mid-1990s and said he only
learned about the raids in the newspaper.
The goal of the founding members, whom Vickers said have long since returned to
Sudan, was to send money to hospitals and needy people in Africa.
"I'm proud of my work with them," he said. He said the group was not involved
with terrorism.
Vickers, a former lawyer, is well known in St. Louis for organizing street
protests, such as one last year to win more contracts for minority companies by
shutting down MetroLink.
For a time, he headed the American Muslim Council in Washington. He resigned in
March 2003 after the council complained that Vickers had written an e-mail to
an online discussion group suggesting that the Columbia shuttle crash, with the
first Israeli astronaut aboard, might have been a message from God.
Vickers said his e-mail was misinterpreted. His real meaning, he said, was that
"this is a sign to America that in going to war - as great as our technology is
- it can still fail."
Vickers said there was no relationship - aside from him - between the Islamic
American Relief Agency in Columbia and the American Muslim Council.
But the American Muslim Council, too, has come under scrutiny.
In Alexandria, Va., on Friday, its founder was sentenced to 23 years in prison
for illegal financial dealings with Libya and for his role in a Libyan plot to
assassinate Saudi Arabia's de facto leader. Abdurahman Alamoudi, 52, had
pleaded guilty in July to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from
high-ranking Libyan officials while serving as a go-between for them and Saudi
dissidents.
"Contrary" to U.S. interests
In 1998, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded two contracts,
worth a total of $4.2 million, to the Columbia-based charity for development
projects in Mali. One project called for the agency to improve education, water
supplies and "income-generating activities," and the other was for children's
health.
In December 1999, Thomas Pickering, undersecretary of state for political
affairs, demanded the cancellation of the contracts because they were "contrary
to the national defense and foreign policy interests of the United States," the
State Department has said.
While the projects were canceled, roughly $1 million had been disbursed to the
group, State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said Friday.
He said he could not discuss the exact reasons for Pickering's actions because
Pickering's letter canceling the contracts was classified.
Last week, the Treasury Department said the Sudan-based charity has 40 offices
around the world and uses them as part of its efforts to support bin Laden,
al-Qaida and other groups designated as terrorist, including the Palestinian
group Hamas.
The Islamic African Relief Agency network provided assistance to Taliban
fighters, and a charity leader in Afghanistan raised $5 million for the Taliban
during a fund-raising trip in Sudan and in the Middle East in 2000, the
department said.
One bin Laden lieutenant served as the director of the network's operations in
Afghanistan and also was an expert in terrorism, bomb planning and guerrilla
operations, the department said.
The department also extended its ban to five foreign nationals involved with
the charity as terrorism supporters, including a Libyan who represents the
charity in Ireland. The man, Ibrahim Buisir, directed a cell for al-Qaida that
provided support to the terrorist network's operations in Europe, the
department said.
John W. Snow, the Treasury secretary, said last week's action "highlights the
important role of designations in the war on terrorist finance - freezing
assets that might otherwise have been used to support terrorists; preventing
future funds from flowing through tainted channels; and making clear to the
public and our international partners the conduits being used to fuel
terrorism."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Jeremy Kohler
E-mail: jkohler@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-241-9435
Reporter Peter Shinkle
E-mail: pshinkle@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-621-5804
Man, I'm surprised it took them so long to shut these guys down.We froze the assets of Holy Land Foundation shortly after 911 and have recently got convictions against them. HLF had their office just 20 minutes down the road from me.
HLF still claims they are a charity organization that helps women and children. They do - they provide Hamas with the things necessary to strap Semtex to women and children in order to murder innocents.
Columbia Missouri Terrorist Charity BTTT.
The Islamic African Relief Agency was a 1983 spin-off from the Islamic Dawaa agency that had just moved from Libya to Khartoum, Sudan. The two organizations then became outreach elements of the Islamic Civilization Project for Africa funded by Saudi Arabia. However, with the war in Afghanistan IARA began to fund Azzam and Bin Laden who were working out of Peshawar. In 1994 its offices worldwide (including Missouri) were collecting for Jihadists in the Balkans. Because the IARA headquarters in Khartoum was under the thumb of the Islamist government of that country the agency aquired a very seamy reputation, as anyone familiar with the Islamic charity game recognizes.
Wonder if this means that nobody will be home to accept my Ramadan gift of Jimmy Dean sausage?
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