Secret Service Agent Who Wrote Anti-Muslim Statements During Search to Be Suspended Without Pay

ap ^ | August 9, 2002 | Bree Fowler

[TomGuy]

Secret Service Agent Who Wrote Anti-Muslim Statements During Search to Be Suspended Without Pay

By Bree Fowler Associated Press Writer

Published: Aug 9, 2002

DETROIT (AP) - A Secret Service agent who admitted he scrawled anti-Muslim statements on a prayer calendar during a search will be suspended for six months without pay, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said the agent won't face criminal charges. He said the suspension, which amounts to a financial loss of about $40,000, and other sanctions were greater punishment than any misdemeanor charge would have been.

"I think his career, which was on track for great things before this, has essentially been derailed," Collins said.

On July 18, federal agents searched the Dearborn home of Omar Shishani, who has pleaded innocent to smuggling $12 million in bogus cashier's checks into the United States.

Members of Shishani's family said they discovered after the search that "Islam is Evil" and "Christ is King" had been written on the calendar.

The agent, identified only as a 10-year veteran, will be transferred out of the Eastern District of Michigan and has written a letter of apology to Shishani and his family.

"We're satisfied with the decision," said Hodan Hassan, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which had asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate. "And we hope that the punishment meted out would be a signal to others that such bigotry would not be tolerated."

The FBI is investigating whether Shishani has ties to terrorist organizations, but his name is not on the American terrorist watch list, law enforcement officials have said.

AP-ES-08-09-02 1803EDT

[KimaraChan]

HA! But the FBI agent that blew the Eagle Scout kid's face halfway off doesn't even get suspended...

And once again, the world makes sense

[Texas_Jarhead]

Unbelievable.

[AM2000]

As he should be. Rules are rules. Liberals think it's ok to break rules when it emotionally pleases them... but I bet there's gonna be a boatload of so-called conservatives on this thread taking the agents side.

[dead]

"And we hope that the punishment meted out would be a signal to others that such bigotry would not be tolerated."
- Hodan Hassan - Council on American-Islamic Relations

Wonderful Hodan! You just pontificated on your feelings about somebody writing a not-nice thingy on a calendar.

Are you planning, anytime soon, to comment on the crime of defrauding people out of $12 million dollars.

[dead]

You don't think $40,000 is a mite steep for the crime of vandalizing a calendar?

[dennisw]

Insanely harsh. What crap.

[spqrzilla9]

Meanwhile an FBI agent who shot a young man without cause is unpunished.

[Let's Roll]

Not for vandalizing a moose-limb calendar.

[dennisw]

A month suspension w/ no pay would have gotten the message across. Are Clintonite scum still running this outfit?

[LiteKeeper]

Wow! Did you hear that? It was the sound of the First Amendment taken another blow!

[Militiaman7]

And they found more fraudulent check on his computer. I hope Mr. Shishani gets 40 years and 40 million dollar fine.

Opps, He'd just print up the cashier checks to pay it off!!!!!

PC idiocy at its finest!

[AM2000]

6 months without pay is not harsh. After all, we're talking about a man in a sensitive national-security position, displaying a total lack of judgement and propriety. In a private corporation, this would be grounds for termination.

[SpringheelJack]

Wow! Did you hear that? It was the sound of the First Amendment taken another blow!

You've got to be kidding. There's no First Amendment right to graffiti the inside of someone's home. How would you like it if I stomped in your home and wrote "Jesus is Dead - Allah is Great" on a calendar inside your house?

[TomGuy]

How would you like it if I stomped in your home and wrote "Jesus is Dead - Allah is Great" on a calendar inside your house?

For $40,000, you can do come in right now. Heck, I'll get another calendar, and you can write it twice...for $80,000.

[LiteKeeper]

But suspension without pay?

[Itzlzha]

HA! But the FBI agent that blew the Eagle Scout kid's face halfway off doesn't even get suspended...

You beat me to it! What the HELL is wrong here!

6 months! Wow...you'd think the ISLAMAZIS were the FRIENDS of the Secret Service!

Let's take THAT FBI agents' salary to cover the Secret Service agents costs!

[Illbay]

Unfortunately I think you'll be proved right. What this guy did was horribly unprofessional, and an embarrassment to the Bureau.