Posted on 09/07/2001 10:44:13 AM PDT by veronica
FBI Raids Dallas-Area Internet Business as Part of Terrorism Investigation
By David Koenig Associated Press Writer Published: Sep 6, 2001
DALLAS (AP) - Federal agents continued searching the headquarters of an Internet company Thursday as part of an ongoing terrorism investigation, the FBI said. Muslim leaders said authorities acted on scant evidence and anti-Arab stereotypes.
InfoCom Corp., based in suburban Richardson, says it sells computer systems and Internet services to many large Islamic organizations in the United States and businesses in the Middle East.
The FBI said the search, which began Wednesday, was part of a two-year investigation by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force.
FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said the investigation was not aimed at InfoCom's clients, but she declined to say why authorities targeted the company. She said more than 80 agents from the FBI and other federal agencies were searching computer files at the company's headquarters. Agents took boxes out of the building Wednesday and Thursday but did not say what was contained in them.
The search warrant was sealed by a federal magistrate, and the FBI did not elaborate on what evidence it sought. Bailey denied any bias to the investigation. "This is a criminal investigation, not a political investigation," she said. "We're hoping to find evidence of criminal activity." InfoCom attorney Mark Enoch said the company had no links to terrorist groups and was cooperating with the FBI, even helping agents navigate the computer system. InfoCom has 15 full- and part-time employees.
Internet service to the company's 500 clients was cut off by the agents, InfoCom's Internet operations manager said. Displaced employees moved across the street to the headquarters of a client, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that supporters of Israel charge raises money for Hamas and other Mideast terrorist groups.
The foundation denied the accusations, and Muslim leaders who gathered outside InfoCom's offices charged that the raid was orchestrated by Israeli sympathizers. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, linked the raid with U.S. opposition to international efforts to criticize Israel's handling of the conflict with Palestinians. "We suspect that all these attempts are to please the Israeli government but not to protect the U.S. interests," Awad said. "Siding with Israel, a racist country and state, I think does not do us any good."
Others viewed the raid broadly as the product of anti-Muslim bias. "We have deep concerns that this once again is an attempt to rush to judgment and to marginalize the American Muslim community simply because ... many of them are immigrants," said Mahdi Bray, political adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "There is a pattern of bias that often permeates all of these types of investigations."
The company has close ties to the Holy Land Foundation. Ghassan Elashi, a company vice president and brother of the owner, Bayan Elashi, is chairman of the foundation. Holy Land Foundation officials say they provides purely humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories and to refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Israel, the U.S. State Department and congressional members have accused it of being connected to Hamas, the Palestinian movement that has taken responsibility for bombing civilian targets in the Middle East. The foundation is outlawed in Israel. >
While taxpayers pay the bulk of expenses for INS, my salary comes from a user fee acoount that the taxpayers do not out a dime in.
You obviously did not get this the first time.
What "fees" collected by INS?
I did. Did those fees also pay for your weapon? The office building you are in? The car you drive? The supervisory structure above you? And, even if fees pay your salary, WE ARE STILL YOUR BOSS. WE THE PEOPLE. If you think differently, read the Constitution, something of which you seem to be woefully ignorant even though you have sworn to uphold it.
I don't see how any of this is unconsitutional though. After all, they had a warrant. I'm sure it is inconvenient for the company, but if they're dirty (and the warrant seems to imply that a judge thought they might be), then surely some scrutiny is justified.
Considering how few workplace violations are caught by the INS, I imagine he has a pretty cushy job. Fees for donuts, I guess...
I took that oath twice, once as a US Marine, were I spent 12 years defending your right to complain, and again as a Immigration Inspector, defending this country from the leaches of the world.
That same U.S. CONSTITUTION gave those officers the right to enter the building and sieze evidence.
Believe it or not, they were doing something that lagitimate law enforcement officers though might be illegal, they investigated for 2 years and convinced a judge to issue a warant. Very rearly does not happen if you are inocent.
Once again, that is not the point. You said we have nothing to fear if we are innocent. That is an insult to the Constitution that you swore to defend, and then you wonder why LEOs are held in such low esteem by so many on FR. Clean up your own tyrannical attitude and get back to us.
I am never in fear of a raid on my house or bussiness, because I don't break the laws or appear to be breaking the laws.
Only criminals or those acting like criminals, draw the attention of law enforcement.
Is it on fire yet?
"...defending your right to complain..."
Are these comments consistent ?
Signed, your pal... Lon Horiuchi.
But, once again, under the Constitution, the man on the street does not have to prove his innocence. But with your attitude, HE DOES. Clean up your lousy attitude and maybe relations between LEOs and citizens will improve. I have respect for most LEOs. But I despise LEOs and prosecutors who say if you are innocent you have nothing to fear. Say that to the folks acquitted of drunk driving in NY but still have their impounded cars kept because Lord Master Guliani felt that they got off the hook but should be punished anyway. Say that to the folks ensnared in the 39th Precinct scandal in Philly. And say that to Edwin Meese, who had the same attitude but later got snared by an overzealous investigator himself. The Bill of Rights is not about ensuring that every guilty person gets caught. The Bill of Rights is about making sure that innocent people are not treated as guilty ones.
OK, so you paid for my weapon, the city of Phoenix paid for the building I work in, I paid for my car, and you paid for the idiots running this place.
Can you get me a better gun and a supervisory structure that will let us enforce the laws?
He sure is making me dizzy.
After you have been at FR several months, you should notice posts of media accounts, from around the country, where innocent citizens have been raided, and sometimes killed.
Guilty until proven innocent? We're turning into Mexico faster than I thought.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.