FBI Raids Dallas-Area Internet Business As Part Of Terrorism Investigation...

AP ^ | 09/07/01 | David Koenig

[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. >

[coloradan]

but these guys have some sort of a connection to a terrorist organization, that a judge believed was a valid reason to issue the warrant.

Judges approve of warrants with a rubber stamp, even when the wrong address is printed on them. Just ask Ishmael Mena, who was gunned down by SWAT thugs in his own house because the nice jackbooted thugs had the wrong address on the warrant ... and signed by a judge. Oh, that's right, that didn't happen, because Mena wasn't a criminal and therefore didn't have anything to worry about, and wasn't a criminal nor acting like one. I forgot.

So, why does it cost $200 to send a form to the INS?

[Marine Inspector]

So, why does it cost $200 to send a form to the INS?

So, why does it cost hundereds of dollars to fly from the west coast to the east coast?

[Marine Inspector]

Well, hell, we might as well just fire all the cops and judges and let the criminals take over.

[Glenn]

investigation by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force.

That's a joke, right?

[Robert_Paulson2]

let the criminals take over. We already have done that... its called Washington DC... and the armed robbery division called the IRS... and the armament removal operation, called the War on Drugs... and so on and so forth.

Welcome to free republic... and if you are a federal employee... I would suggest you get that information OFF of your home page... POSTE HASTE.

your comment "the innocent have nothing to fear" is the problem. In a move towards tyranny... the innocent have the most to fear... and I would rather let a criminal slide than ever impose on the freedom or rights of a innocent citizen... I would rather let a hundred suspected criminals go free, than lock one innocent citizen away by accident... that is the price we pay for freedom... and the cost of our liberty.

Welcome to freerepublic.

[Uncle Bill]

"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."

SWAT terrorizes wrong person again

[Dosa26]

From Robert_Paulson2

to Marine Inspector:I would suggest you get that information OFF of your home page... POSTE HASTE.

from Dosa, to MI: I would rather see you keep it on...get rid of the chip though..."I'm a FLEO, too bad" is looking for a fight. It says I'm here, and I am right, when in essense what you are saying is those that give me orders are right, since I assume you follow them. your comment "the innocent have nothing to fear" is troublesome to say the least. Robert_P has expounded better than I could have..

[Putnik_1915]

"The US is starting to resemble those places more every year."

Thank you sir! THAT is what I have been trying to get across to people and when I do I'm told "Well, go live somewhere better!" Yes, we have it better than most places, however, that doesn't mean that we are the America we were or that we were intended to be. Mainly because of self-important twits like MI. Tis these law enforcefarcement types who are working hard to finish the transformation from republic to police state.

[coloradan]

[Me:]So, why does it cost $200 to send a form to the INS?

[You:]So, why does it cost hundereds of dollars to fly from the west coast to the east coast?

You have just got to be kidding. A Jet airplane costs tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to buy, and costs tens of thousands of dollars per hour in operating costs. Fill a plane with a couple hundred people, and send it across the country, and it's a few hundred bucks a head, allowing for some profit for the company to remain in business.

Paper, on the other hand, costs a few pennies a page, and government workers cost some tens of dollars an hour in salary. Yet, a form that occupies three or four pages, and requires three rubber stamps and a single explanatory paragraph to be authored (if, in fact, it isn't a form letter which it probably is) that shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to write, and copies (10 cents a page) made, and return postage to be added ... and the government doesn't have to make a profit ... and this service costs $100 or $200; what you have is extortion.

Oh, that's right, we have to pay for all the nice submachine guns and silencers and ballistic vests and goggles and jackboots that INS agents wear, as seen in Miami. (To better "serve and protect" us.) Does the INS lose them as fast as the FBI does?

[xenophiles]

[Me:]So, why does it cost $200 to send a form to the INS?

[You:]So, why does it cost hundereds of dollars to fly from the west coast to the east coast?

You have just got to be kidding. A Jet airplane costs[...]

It is possible that Marine Inspector is not an idiot, but is actually making a subtle point about competition. Not likely, but possible.

[coloradan]

I don't follow your post. The INS is a monopoly and is therefore expensive? IF that's Marine's point, it's pretty far from my question.

[xenophiles]

I don't follow your post. The INS is a monopoly and is therefore expensive? IF that's Marine's point, it's pretty far from my question.

I beg to differ. IF it's Marine's point, it's ineptly made and a rhetorical "own goal", but it answers your question squarely. Why does the INS charge so much for paperwork? Because it can; it is a monopoly, and you have no recourse.

(Just to dispel all ambiguity, I don't really think it was Marine's point-- your question drew attention to the extortive methods of the INS in order to undercut Marine's jingoistic position; my intent was to point out that Marine's random-looking riposte can be interpreted as having taken off a couple of the defender's own toes.)