Posted on 01/07/2007 1:19:32 PM PST by STARWISE
DETROIT — A Muslim leader from Ohio who was convicted of lying about his involvement with a group the U.S. government designated a terrorist organization has been deported to his native Palestinian territories, immigration authorities said Friday.
Fawaz Damra, 46, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing his ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
Click here to read the indictment (pdf)
Damra, who served imam at Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland, was deported on Thursday, said Tim Counts, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was flown to Amman, Jordan, then crossed to the West Bank.
A message seeking comment with his lawyer, Michael Birach, was not immediately returned.
Damra immigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s and is married with three U.S.-born children.
In Ohio, he had become involved in interfaith activities, particularly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
But soon after, a tape of a 1991 speech in Chicago became public in which Damra said Muslims should be "directing all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews."
Damra apologized and said he made the remarks before he had any interaction with Christians and Jews.
At his 2004 trial, prosecutors showed video footage of him and other Muslim leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The State Department placed the group on its list of terrorist organizations in 1989.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yeah, right.
One more down PING!
We'll hear from him again, but likely from the ME.
Thank you for the ping STARWISE.
---
ON THE NET...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1761584/posts?page=321#321
Why dump him on Israel? Can't we just kill him?
but, 3 children born here. sigh. Anchor babies.
I wish they wouldn't print this in this way. Seems misleading to claim he was from Ohio when he's not. Saying he was living in Ohio would be more accurate, and doesn't allow wiggle room for the anti-American ACLU to bring a complaint.
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 69 > § 1425
§ 1425. Procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully
(a) Whoever knowingly procures or attempts to procure, contrary to law, the naturalization of any person, or documentary or other evidence of naturalization or of citizenship; or
(b) Whoever, whether for himself or another person not entitled thereto, knowingly issues, procures or obtains or applies for or otherwise attempts to procure or obtain naturalization, or citizenship, or a declaration of intention to become a citizen, or a certificate of arrival or any certificate or evidence of nationalization or citizenship, documentary or otherwise, or duplicates or copies of any of the foregoing—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929 (a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense), or both.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=1425&url=/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001425----000-.html
§ 2331. Definitions
As used in this chapter—
(1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
(2) the term “national of the United States” has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
(3) the term “person” means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;
(4) the term “act of war” means any act occurring in the course of—
(A) declared war;
(B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or
(C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002331----000-.html
How about doing a 'two-fer'. Eject Menace Kucinich along with him.
When are we going to wake UP!!!
Lying to 'unbelievers' is permitted by the koran...
One down, one million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine to go!
Don't let the door hit you ....
Friends say recently deported Ohio imam has disappeared
1/7/2007, 6:19 p.m. ET
By KRISTIN LONGLEY
The Associated Press
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-40/1168207748167280.xml&storylist=newsmichigan
DETROIT (AP) — Friends and family say they didn't know Fawaz Damra had been deported until his lawyer arrived for a meeting at the jail where he was being held.
Federal authorities there confirmed their worst fears: Damra was gone.
And now, days later, they say the prominent Ohio Muslim leader has disappeared after the U.S. government reported deporting him to his native Palestinian territories on the West Bank.
Damra, 47, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing his ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. An immigration judge ordered his deportation one year ago, and he had been jailed in Monroe County, Mich., since then.
Damra served as imam at Ohio's largest mosque, the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma. He immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s.
Immigration authorities said Friday that Damra was flown to Amman, Jordan, at 4 a.m. EST Thursday, then crossed the Allenby Bridge to the West Bank.
But his friends and family in Cleveland and in Damra's hometown of Nablus say no one has heard from him since he was taken.
Hamas and Fatah forces in Nablus are engaged in a bloody battle for power. The Hamas deputy mayor in Nablus was kidnapped over the weekend.
"Being Americans as we are, we expect a little fairness, to a degree, to the extent they would let him call his wife and children," said Haider Alawan, Damra's friend and member of the Islamic Center of Cleveland's council of elders.
Alawan said Palestinian government officials said they didn't know where Damra is. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's office said Sunday that it had no immediate knowledge of Damra's case, either.
"We want to know where the heck he is," said Don Bryant, president of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network and another of Damra's friends. "We are outraged with the way this was handled. He was taken away on a witch hunt."
Bryant said Damra was a peaceful interfaith leader in the Cleveland community, who didn't deserve to be "whisked away."
In 1991, Damra made a speech in Chicago in which he expressed anti-Semitism. Damra later apologized and said he made the remarks before he had interacted with any Jews or Christians.
Damra's wife Nasreen and his three U.S.-born daughters are "frantic" with worry, Bryant said. He said Nasreen Damra was too upset about her husband to comment.
Alawan said it is most likely that Israeli authorities are holding him. The Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank is under Israeli military control.
If that is the case, he could be held in jail, Alawan said.
"He was concerned about going back to Palestine" for just this reason, Alawan said. "He had strong reservations about it."
Alawan expressed bitterness about federal agencies' efforts to reach out to the Muslim community while at the same time treating Damra in such a callous manner.
"You want to have a good relations, based on what?" he said. "You wouldn't let a man in custody say goodbye? And now, he's in a black hole in the Mideast."
And now, he's in a black hole in the Mideast."
It should read "And now the Middle East is a black smoking hole"
Just dreaming.
The Jihadists always have an endless supply of alligator tears.
So what's the deal? Deport ONE lying terrorist infiltrator and you insult the ENTIRE Mulsim community, right? Well, as we say here in the USA -- TSB!
Fawaz Damra was lucky.
Deport ONE lying terrorist infiltrator and you insult the ENTIRE Mulsim community, right?
Does it? Or does it offend the trouble makers?
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