Posted on 09/27/2001 7:38:54 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - A New York-based group of "progressive church leaders and activists" is telling Arabs and Muslims living in America to not cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In a communique entitled "Know Your Rights - Don't Talk to the FBI," a group called the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) warns, "The FBI is looking for information to use against you, your family and/or your community."
While the undated IFCO message to not help the FBI doesn't specifically reference the September 11 attack and the investigation into it, the IFCO memo does say, "The FBI has a history of harassing and harming minority and immigrant communities. Some people are spending a long time in jail because they or their friends talked to the FBI."
IFCO is advising its constituents that, "you or your friends could be deported, or if citizens, jailed 10 years" for making contributions to certain foreign charities, many of them in the Middle East.
"The FBI is collecting information about such donations in Arab, Muslim and other immigrant communities," according to one of the IFCO's subsidiaries called The National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom.
Neither officials with the IFCO or the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom were immediately available for comment.
Law enforcement officials from around the country are pursuing tens of thousands of leads in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, and much of the investigation is centered on people of Middle Eastern backgrounds.
The attacks are believed to have been masterminded by millionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden, a Saudi dissident whom the U.S. is seeking in connection with the attacks that have left as many as 7,000 missing or dead.
The left-leaning IFCO is also encouraging people to participate in a September 29 "Convergence" in Washington, D.C., and links to the protest-planning group Beat Back Bush, a leftist coalition planning to protest the anticipated U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks. More to follow
Perhaps these folks simply are not Americans....and if they are, they cannot be trusted if they want the filth that did the acts of terrorism to get away with it! Man this kiind of stuff pi$$e$ me off.
This type of behaviour will only invite people to be even more suspicious and hostile to Muslims.
President Bush has bent over backwards trying to promote tolerance, and what suppport is shown? None.
Now I heard this all second hand, but, why didn't anyone with common sense and decency simply tell Jesse that is a rediculous idea. Terrorists are terrorists and any release is an afront to those who died (and their families) on September 11. Jeeezz, has everyone lost their minds?
For those of you who don't recall, Michael Fortier is doing prison time for not notifying authorities in advance of the OKC bombing.
Personal message from the IFCO/Pastors staff at the New
York Office - (Emily Thomas)
09/18/01 - 10:50 PM [Msgid=162426]
All the IFCO/Pastors for Peace staff is physically unaffected by the events on last Tuesday, and since our offices are in Central Harlem, we were well away from the World Trade center. But we are shaken and sad and most of all worried about what may come. Revenge is a shaky ladder, that we chase each other up until we all fall! Date=2001-09-18 Emily Thomas, [Msgid=162426]
Another message from their board...
Not in our son~s name - (Emily Thomas) 09/18/01 - 10:58 PM [Msgid=162430]
I was walking in Union Square, surrounded by candles, flowers, prayes and poems and hundreds of sheets of paper with pictures xerox'ed on them, some describing missing loved ones, some just remembering with sorrow. One of the most memorable was this, and now is being sent around the web. I share it with you.
Not in our son's name (letter of parents of son missing at World Trade Center) Saturday, Sep 15, 2001 8:35pm [Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez's son Greg is one of the Trade Center victims.
They have asked that people share these letters this copy of letter sent to NY Times as widely as possible.] Not in Our Son's Name
Our son Greg is among the many missing from the World Trade Center attack. Since we first heard the news, we have shared moments of grief, comfort, hope, despair, fond memories with his wife, the two families, our friends and neighbors, his loving colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald / ESpeed, and all the grieving families that daily meet at the Pierre Hotel. We see our hurt and anger reflected among everybody we meet. We cannot pay attention to the daily flow of news about this disaster. But we read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us. It is not the way to go. It will not avenge our son's death. Not in our son's name. Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world. But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times.
Copy of letter to White House:
Dear President Bush:
Our son is one of the victims of Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center. We read about your response in the last few days and about the resolutions from both Houses, giving you undefined power to respond to the terror attacks. Your response to this attack does not make us feel better about our son's death. It makes us feel worse. It makes us feel that our government is using our son's memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands. It is not the first time that a person in your position has been given unlimited power and came to regret it. This is not the time for empty gestures to make us feel better. It is not the time to act like bullies. We urge you to think about how our governement can develop peaceful, rational solutions to terrorism, solutions that do not sink us to the inhuman level of terrorists.
Sincerely,
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez
Date=2001-09-18 Emily Thomas, [Msgid=162430
Well, lookee here!
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