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Muslims in military getting close look by government
GoMemphis.com ^

Posted on 09/26/2003 5:52:12 AM PDT by Happy2BMe

Muslims in military getting close look by government

By LISA HOFFMAN
September 25, 2003

Not since the McCarthy hearings 50 years ago have so many allegations surfaced that America's military may contain enemies of the state.

In 1953, it was communists that Sen. Joe McCarthy saw as infiltrating the Army. Now, a spate of indictments and convictions over the past few years is raising questions in some quarters of Capitol Hill and elsewhere about U.S. troops who are members of the Muslim faith.

Senior Air Force Airman Ahmad al Halabi, an Arabic translator, stands charged with espionage in connection with the U.S. detention of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters at the U.S. Navy facility at Guantanamo Base, Cuba.

Also being held on similar suspicions is Army Capt. James "Yousef" Yee, who served as the Muslim chaplain for the 660 detainees at the base. At least another two servicemen or women are under investigation in the same probe, Pentagon officials say.

In several other cases in the recent past, a Muslim-American Army soldier was charged with killing two U.S. fellow troops in Kuwait, an ex-sergeant confessed to secretly being a member of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad and two current or former reservists were charged in a probe of alleged terrorist cells in Oregon.

Though these represent just a minuscule fraction of the more than 4,000 Muslim troops in the U.S. military - who the Pentagon and even critics say serve honorably - the latest arrests prompted Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to announce Wednesday that his Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and domestic security will hold a hearing soon on the potential for militant Islamic groups to recruit U.S. service members.

Several other legislators said they were concerned that, in the rush to sign up more Arabic speakers or soldiers familiar with Muslim culture, the military may have failed to adequately screen them.

And Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has renewed his call for a Pentagon investigation of the process of selecting chaplains and vetting their background. "I think the Army has been far too lax," he said.

Schumer also raised questions about the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, a Leesburg, Va., organization that helps train Muslim military chaplains. Last year the group was raided by federal agents who were investigating terrorist financing allegations, but no charges have been brought.

Muslim American organizations are concerned that the thousands of good soldiers who happen to be Muslim will be unfairly scapegoated or tarred by any wrongdoing by a few. They caution, too, that those most recently accused should be judged on the basis of evidence, not assumptions.

"This should not have any bearing on the Muslims within the military who serve with distinction, putting their lives at risk for their country," said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society. "However, I do expect there will be some who will see this as an opportunity to besmirch and sow seeds of mistrust about the Muslims in our midst."

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said any Muslims who engage in sabotage or espionage violate the tenets of their faith.

"Islam does not permit treason, disloyalty or the breaking of oaths," he said.

According to military and court records, members of the Muslim faith aside from al Halabi and Yee who have been implicated in terrorist or related wrongdoing since 2000 include:

- Ali Mohamed, a major in the Egyptian army who immigrated to America in 1986 and joined the U.S. Army while a resident alien. While secretly a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, he taught classes on Muslim culture to U.S. special forces at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was honorably discharged from the Army, but in 2000 admitted he was an al Qaeda affiliate and pleaded guilty to helping plan the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

- Jeffrey Leon Battle, an African-American Muslim who was indicted in October 2002 for allegedly joining the Army Reserves for military training that he intended to use to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Battle was among six others in Portland, Ore., suspected of terrorist ties.

A few months earlier, former Navy reservist Semi Osman, was arrested in a federal probe of the alleged establishment of a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore. Investigators suspected he might use for nefarious purposes what he learned in a Navy unit that tended fuel trucks similar to those used in suicide truck bombings.

- Army Sgt. Asan Akbar, a convert to Islam who was charged with murder after he rolled grenades into tents at a U.S. military base in Kuwait, and firing at some who fled, a few days after the war in Iraq began. Two GIs were killed and 14 others injured.

Family members and fellow troops said Akbar was enraged at the prospect of U.S. forces killing Muslims in the course of the war in Iraq.

(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL(at)shns.com or visit www.shns.com.)



TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: ahmadalhalabi; armedforces; iraq; islam; jamesyee; military; muslim; muslimtroops; sabaotage; subversion; terrorism; unitedstates
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To: Gritty
We should treat Muslims in the military like we treated Communists. They weren't allowed. It was simply too much of a security risk.

You have correctly associated Islam with Communism. Both should be constitutionally protected so that we don't lose our country and Constitution. Sen. McCarthy was right then and he is right now.

41 posted on 09/26/2003 8:34:53 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
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To: ASA Vet
"Our native born Islamic's have been reproducing too."

From Post #11:

9. Accelerate Islamic demographic growth via:


42 posted on 09/26/2003 9:35:07 AM PDT by Happy2BMe (LIBERTY has arrived in Iraq - Now we can concentrate on HOLLYWEED!)
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To: Happy2BMe
I've read the Koran (more than once), and will be posting a list of relevant quotes from it in a week or two.

Having read it, I do not see how a devout Muslim can be loyal to any oath to serve this country. The incidents in this article are the tip of the ice-berg. Even the FBI has had trouble with one of its agents refusing to tape conversations of fellow Muslims.

The faith forbids alleigance to anything or anyone but Allah and his Prophet Muhammed. They are not to take non-believers for friends, and are sanctioned to decieve and lie to non-believers.

As far as I am concerned the "conflict of interest" is too great. They either have to renounce their faith or not serve. Oaths of loyalty notwithstanding.
43 posted on 09/26/2003 10:59:05 AM PDT by PsyOp (The commonwealth is theirs who hold the arms.... - Aristotle.)
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To: Gritty
We should treat Muslims in the military like we treated Communists. They weren't allowed. It was simply too much of a security risk.

To which I must add, we have to keep them out of the country by restricting Musim immigration and anchor babies. If we have our military, "us", if you will, doing the heavy lifting while they get a free ride, that is unsatisfactory to me. In other words, why let them come here if they are not as a group trustworthy enough to serve as citizens?

44 posted on 09/26/2003 11:48:31 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine (South-south-west, south, south-east, east....)
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To: Happy2BMe
In the words of General Patton, "I'd rather have a division of Germans in front of me than a division of Frenchmen behind me."
45 posted on 09/26/2003 12:25:32 PM PDT by FierceDraka ("I got SOUL, and I'm SUPER BAD")
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To: Pearls Before Swine
In other words, why let them come here if they are not as a group trustworthy enough to serve as citizens?

If we refuse to keep out millions who are now just wandering across our porous borders, how do we expect to keep out Muslims, who scream bloody murder about discrimination and have our effete political establishment as cowed as does Vincente Fox?

Eventually, this cascade of Muslims may lead to civil war. It has in other countries who have been foolish enough to allow it to happen.

46 posted on 09/26/2003 1:29:52 PM PDT by Gritty
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To: PsyOp
"I've read the Koran (more than once), and will be posting a list of relevant quotes from it in a week or two."

Please either ping me or post a link to it on this thread.

If the FBI can't even trust one of it's own agents to interrogate Muslim terrorists in this nation, who in God's name are we going to put our trust in?

Thanks!

47 posted on 09/26/2003 1:45:50 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (LIBERTY has arrived in Iraq - Now we can concentrate on HOLLYWEED!)
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To: Happy2BMe
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said any Muslims who engage in sabotage or espionage violate the tenets of their faith. "Islam does not permit treason, disloyalty or the breaking of oaths," he said.

Sounds similar to what Yee was saying before he was arrested. I don't trust them.
48 posted on 09/26/2003 3:25:51 PM PDT by Michael2001 (Every man lives, and every man dies, but not every man truly lives)
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To: Michael2001
"Sounds similar to what Yee was saying before he was arrested. I don't trust them."

Yee to his flock: "I never met an infidel I did not hate."

49 posted on 09/26/2003 3:35:57 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (LIBERTY has arrived in Iraq - Now we can concentrate on HOLLYWEED!)
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To: Gritty
"It has in other countries who have been foolish enough to allow it to happen."

Give it another fifteen years (check post #11).

50 posted on 09/26/2003 3:37:33 PM PDT by Happy2BMe (LIBERTY has arrived in Iraq - Now we can concentrate on HOLLYWEED!)
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