Back to Basics

“The decision not to prosecute [Omar Ahmad of CAIR] reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, Texas.”

CAIR is more than just a civil rights group. It may be a Fifth Column for Islamic terrorists. Credit: IPT/Steve Emerson

In a case that is sure to anger many Americans, Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to respond to its request for public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice(No. 11-01121)).

The documents relate to a decision by Attorney General Eric Holder’s minions not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its co-founder Omar Ahmad, who has been linked by federal investigators to the terrorist group Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip in Israel. The decision not to prosecute reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, Texas.

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) seeking access to the following:

• The March 31, 2010 memorandum entitled “Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad from Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the Attorney General (AG), the Office of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Office of the Associate Attorney General (Assoc. AG) and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any CAIR groups concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”
• “Any all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the AG, the Office of the DAG, or the Office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Congress concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad”
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the office of the AG, the office of the DAG, or the office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch also filed a similar request with the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute. The time frame for these requests is January 20, 2009, to May 1, 2011.

Both DOJ divisions have acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s request, and were required to respond by June 14 and June 13, 2011, respectively. However, to date, both have failed to produce responsive documents or indicate when a response is forthcoming.

Omar Ahmad served as senior executive on the Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization of U.S.-based Hamas support groups. Moreover, according to sworn testimony by an FBI agent during the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was convicted in 2008 of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, Ahmad moderated a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 1993, during which participants discussed ways to support Hamas.

A ruling by U.S.

CAIR is beside itself over homeland security drills in Minneapolis that used actors playing jihadists who — Allah forbid! — looked like actual jihadists.

The Star Tribune reports:

A national Muslim civil rights group is asking the head of Homeland Security to investigate the use of stereotypes after a man who appeared to be of Middle East descent was used in a recent security drill at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Monday renewed a request that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano review “the use of outside trainers who offer hostile, stereotypical and grossly inaccurate information about Muslims and Islam.”

The organization has previously asked the Obama administration, the Department of Defense and Congress to provide oversight for apparent “widespread anti-Muslim bias in the training of law enforcement and security and military personnel nationwide.”

According to information released Monday by MSP airport police, the May 12 security test included a device in a shaving kit made to look like a bomb. It was a cylinder with wires connected to a wrist watch. The device was brought to a passenger security checkpoint, according to airport Police Sgt. Mark Ledbetter, one of the responding officers.

“Upon arriving [at the checkpoint],” Ledbetter wrote in his report, “TSA [Transportation Security Administration] screeners were out with a male who appeared to be Middle Eastern in descent or Indian/Pakistani.”

Yes, in the interest of social justice and pandering to Islamophobia-phobia, there must be a higher proportion of homeland security drill actors who look like Brooklyn Decker and fewer who look like Mohamed O. Muhamud and his ilk.

Flashback:

The “broad strata” of 9/11 jihadists.
Photoshop: David Lunde

Flashback: This is what CAIR wants…

The caption at Flickr (hat tip – reader KH):

From the photograher, Dean Shaddock:

This was captured as I collected my things from airport security (Detroit Metro Concourse A). I think of it as something like a Rorschach test. Is an elderly Catholic nun being frisked by a Muslim security agent the celebration of blind justice? Or is it simply an admission of absurdity?

By Lee Kaplan, investigator

Walid Shoebat (www.shoebat.com) has developed a sterling reputation among US law enforcement agencies as a terrorism expert over the past several years because, as an ex-PLO terrorist himself who spent time in an Israeli jail, he knows the inner mindset of the terrorist movement. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have found his background and information credible enough to seek him out for information related to terrorism issues.

It thus comes as no surprise that groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) constantly try to suggest that Shoebat is a fraud and not who he says he is. Congressional leaders have stated in the past that CAIR is a front for Hamas, a known terrorist group, and many of CAIR’s past leadership have been prosecuted for terrorism support or financing. Ibrahim Hooper, as the leader of CAIR has a particular animus for Shoebat who identifies groups in the US who deceptively seek to aid America’s enemies.

Now comes the news item that CAIR’s influence may have extended to compromise the integrity of CNN in reporting on issues that affect US National Security. In the past, CAIR tried to stop Walid Shoebat from speaking at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. That effort failed, but CAIR was apparently undaunted. CAIR tried back then to have the Shoebat anti-terrorism speech before the cadets canceled, but failed. During that attempt, the Hamas front group learned that Shoebat was paid $13,000 for his appearance.

Just recently, DHS scheduled a conference recently in South Dakota on May 11^th to educate  homeland security officials and other law enforcement and Shoebat was an invited special guest. CAIR got wind of this and sought, once again, to try and get Shoebat canceled as a speaker. DHS refused. Then something happened that should be an embarrassment for CNN executive staff.

Despite a lack of any large publicity about the event that was mainly for professionals in far off South Dakota, CNN flew two investigative reporters, Kathleen Johnson and Drew Griffin, all the way from Atlanta ostensibly to cover the entire conference. However, that’s not what happened.

Out of the entire conference of speakers and events, these two reporters only interviewed Walid Shoebat. Walid had spoke for four hours and as only one part at the conference on terrorism issues, yet when the interview occurred they didn’t ask him one question about his four hours of information. Instead, they asked him repeated questions suggesting he was a fraud, and even asked him how much he was paid to appear, alluding to the amount he was paid at the US Air Force Academy when CAIR tried to get him canceled. No other speakers were interviewed, no other information at the Conference questioned.

CAIR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol.