Posted on 11/29/2006 6:44:00 AM PST by Valin
Many college students go through a spiritual crisis but rarely does it turn out as it did for Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Jew who converted to Islam and went to work in a small town in Oregon for a charity that has since been linked to Al Qaeda. Gartenstein-Ross, 30, has now changed tacks again, converting to Christianity and using his background as a former Islamist insider to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation crack down on Islamist terror networks in the United States.
A rising star in the counterterrorism community, he testified before Congress in September about the dangers of radical Islamist indoctrination in U.S. prisons and the recruitment of potential terrorists among inmates. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut praised him as a key player in the government's efforts against the U.S. arm of the Haramain Islamic Foundation, a large Saudi charity, that was shut down in 2004 by the U.S. authorities after the U.S. Treasury Department designated it a terrorist-supporting entity with ties to Al Qaeda. Gartenstein-Ross describes his unusual journey in "My Year Inside Radical Islam," a memoir of the nine months he spent with Al Haramain to be published in February.
While a growing number of former terrorist operatives and counterterrorism officials are publishing insider accounts of their shadowy battles, Ross offers a troubling testimony on the lure of radical Islam for Westerners. This is not merely an academic proposition, since Western converts like him pose a major challenge to law-enforcement officials in their fight radical Islamist networks. "I thought it was significant to tell people how a reasonably intelligent Westerner would work for a radical Islamic charity," Gartenstein-Ross said in an interview, "and end up not being disgusted by it but actually feeling, 'Wow! There is something to these guys' ideas.'"
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Already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1745294/posts
Do the Hindu's get him next?
Other than the FBI and other government people trying to justify their jobs, is there anyone else in America who believes the people in the Al Qaeda network trusted a coverted Jew to any of the top secrets of their organization?
Sure, if covering up women because you're afraid of your boner is an "idea".
Sure, if blowing up unarmed civilians at a wedding is an "idea".
Sure, if attacking from religious buildings and literally hiding behind children is an "idea". Sure, if wanting the throw the entire world's civilization back to the 7th Century is an "idea".
This guy is so brainwashed, he needs to cut his own head off.
Never trust a man with a hyphenated last name, and avoid women with one like the plague.
Point please.
Yes. Apparently al Qaeda’s spokesman came froma leftist Jewish (long abandoned religious) family.
Muslims like converts because they believe that they have the fervent, fanatical desire to prove their allegiance. That is why so many terrorists in the US are Black Muslims, usually converted in prison by other black moslems.
They make good killers (remember the Hanafi massacre of 1977 in DC), Malcolm X, US-Ron Karenga, etc.
Look at CAIR. Many of their top leaders are former Christians, such as Doug Ibrahim Cooper. It is the same for many other Moslem groups in the US and Canada.
A real defector from Islam is worth his weight in gold for the insights they can provide into recruiting tactics, sermons, ideological lines, foreign contacts, fundraising, etc.
Having been in the communist Left and having worked with former hard-core communists, both in the US and Vietnam, I can attest that it gives you a great look into the mind of the enemy.
“I thought it was significant to tell people how a reasonably intelligent Westerner would work for a radical Islamic charity...”
I think he’s making an assumption based on facts not in evidence.
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