Sindh security agencies keeping watch on suspected militants

Staff Report
dailytimes.com.pk

KARACHI: Security agencies have started preparing for the forthcoming general elections by keeping tabs on suspect militants, especially of the Qari Zafar (of the Al Qaeda) and Mufti Ilyas (infamous for the Nishtar Park bombing) groups. The agencies are preparing and maintaining profiles on people and interrogating activists from banned organizations.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) Saud Ahmed Mirza confirmed that they have been busy but said that there is only so much they can do. “We can just gather the data and maintain profiles on suspect militants, terrorists and activists. There is a main role for the police to play,” he said. The DIG did not know exactly how many people have been taken into custody or how many people have been released with a warning.

When asked if Qari Zafar, who is in charge of Al Qaeda’s car bombing cell, and/or Mufti Ilyas are currently gearing up for more attacks, he said that he couldn’t give any specifics. The media knows everything well enough, he added.

There are two sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act - Section 11/E and Section 11/EEE - that were created in 1997 and imposed in 2002-2003 after the major suicide bomb attacks started in Pakistan and because of the post- 9/11 tension. Section 11/E says that if a security agency suspects that a person is an activist of some organization, there is a need to know how many people are involved and the person should be taken into custody. After the agency is satisfied that the suspect won’t be causing problems, the suspect signs an undertaking and is released on the condition that he/she updates the police at regular intervals. Section 11/EEE says that if a security agency is positive that the suspect will do something, it can arrest him and it can then make granting bail very difficult.

A source said that over 100 activists from different banned organizations, such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Sipah-e-Mohammad, and members of the Qari Zafar and Mufti Ilyas groups have been taken into custody. Most were released after interrogation but some are still being held. Local police, the CID, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and other security agency personnel are busy gathering data, the source said. The interrogation of inmates is also in progress, he added.

Some areas, such as Orangi Town, SITE Town, Nazimabad, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi, Landhi, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Moosa Colony, Gulberg, Sohrab Goth, Shah Faisal Colony and Keamari, are being monitored. A number of mosques are also being watched and plainclothes have been deputed throughout the city.

One suspect militant, who was taken into custody, told Daily Times that he was interrogated by the police at different locations. “The police kept me for two days and when they let me go they gave me a warning and said that I have to stay in touch with them on a weekly basis or they’d put my in jail,” he said. The main questions the police asked him centred on what his group was up to.

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Escape routes

thenews.com.pk

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 The dramatic news of the escape of Rashid Rauf, an alleged terrorist wanted by British authorities in connection with a London-based plot to blow up several aircraft over the Atlantic in August 2006 comes, of course, as an immense embarrassment. Just as plans to extradite Rauf to the UK were reported to have been completed, he apparently escaped from police custody while at the Islamabad district courts. Two policemen have been detained and a four-member committee, headed by an additional secretary, set up to investigate the incident. The use of the word 'apparent' in describing the escape of Rauf is important. His lawyer and his family insist that Rauf is yet another victim of enforced disappearance, and has been whisked away by secret agencies to an unknown place -- possibly to avoid him being questioned by British authorities. They state they are extremely concerned about his safety. All charges against Rashid Rauf within the country had been dropped, and his continued detention, under Maintenance of Public Order regulations, was stated to have been largely in compliance with a request from the UK. As with so much else that happens in the country, the whole truth, or even a substantial part of it, is unlikely to enter into the limited sphere of public knowledge. In fact, it is sometimes uncertain if all that happens in the country is even known to members of government -- particularly when the information relates to issues like the 'war on terror', conducted largely in secret, by shadowy agencies and those that control them. The suspicion that, like others before him, Rauf has been covertly handed over to a foreign government has again been voiced -- and it is possible only to guess where the line between fact and fiction lies. But what is certain is that the war against terror can never be won unless people are involved in it and the realities made known to them. In this regard it is important the war be fought for them, and not merely to please governments in western capitals. Whatever happened in the case of Rashid Rauf, the official version stating he slipped away from custody while awaiting a court hearing, does not shed a positive light on the state of the police system in the country. As is the case with dozens of other 'getaways' reported each year, this one too almost certainly took place with at least some degree of police connivance -- obtained most likely through bribery. The possibility that ideological conviction was also used cannot be ruled out. This has happened in the past, and certainly, at one time, the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) had focused energies on winning over allies within the police force -- a strategy that proved of immense benefit to the extremist outfit. Even as the search for Rauf continues, and the British authorities, who had agreed to return two wanted Baloch nationalists, including Nawabzada Hyrbyr Marri to Pakistan in return for Rauf, continue their wait -- there is an urgent need to examine the broader security network in the country. The existence of deeply entrenched corruption presents great risks, while the possibility of support for extremist views within the police force and in other key segments of the state apparatus needs to be investigated. The escape of Rashid Rauf has once more exposed the many flaws in the present system of police investigation and especially handling of sensitive prisoners -- and these need to be urgently plugged if there can be any hope of winning the battle against terror, and indeed against crime of all kinds in general.

Troops no substitute for governance

ThePost.com.pk

Gulmina Bilal

As I wait for my morning coffee to brew, I open up the Pakistani newspapers online to find out what is happening in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This morning I am in a rush as I have, by my standards, a rather early morning meeting to go to. Thus today I do not have the luxury of reading the entire newspapers. It is just the headlines that I will manage this morning for my political breakfast. One headline screams out, ‘Troops positioned in Swat’. As I speed-read with a sinking heart that the NWFP government has asked for troops to be sent to Swat, I can only recall the chats that I have had and the e-mails that I have exchanged with civil society organisations based in Swat. The last four years have seen me interacting with many non-profit organisations and political activists of Swat. Initially, our conversations used to focus on the gradual escalation of religious conservatism. The tone was usually one of red-flagging the issue, but in the context of the overall changing politico-religion scenario of the country. Then over the years, the conversation used to be mostly focused on Maulana Fazlullah and his indigenous contraption that served as an illegal FM station. For the past few months, the tone of my Swati friends has become almost desperate. They could not implore enough for the serious need to advocate for a dialogue between the government and the so-called extremist elements, in this case represented by Maulana Fazlullah. As I read the news report, a newsflash appeared. A deadly bomb had deprived 30 families of their loved ones in Swat. I could only mutter, ‘This is just the beginning’ of the devastation that is the result of inactive governance. The reason the government is giving for sending out the troops was that Maulana Fazlullah has set up a parallel government, has a 4,500 strong private army named the Shaheen Force, and is also protecting foreign militants. Maulana Fazlullah interestingly still has his illegal FM station through which he continues his morning broadcasts. In his most recent one he has declared that the government is planning this operation to “kill the innocents”. In this fluid situation, I can only reiterate what a number of political analysts at the time of the Lal Masjid operation were saying: who is to blame? Where were the intelligence agencies and the government when Maulana Fazlullah was organising his 4,500-strong Shaheen Force? Why was he allowed to operate an illegal FM station when every other day the government curbs the freedom of the registered FM stations when they try to broadcast their current affairs programmes? Where was the government when an individual was setting up ‘parallel governments’ in allegedly 59 villages of Swat? Perhaps a more fundamental question is: how was Maulana Fazlullah created into this monster that the government is now portraying him to be? He graduated from the seminary run by Maulana Sufi Mohammad in Balambat district Dir, NWFP. Known as Dherai Maulvi Sahib, he is the son-in-law of Sufi Mohammad, the erstwhile leader of the defunct Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM). According to political analyst Khadim Hussain, who has written extensively on the Swat situation, “The present apparent wave of militancy reported from the Swat Valley might be traced to the early 90s. It was a time when the Soviet Union had just disintegrated. Some other immediate issues like Eastern Europe and the Middle East had to absorb the attention of the US policy makers after the Soviet disintegration. The hardcore militarily trained ‘mujahideen’ from Pakistan and other countries were desperately looking for new assignments. Probably, the same confusion had engulfed the power echelons of the secret agencies of both Pakistan and the US who had been quite close with these ‘mujahideen’ during the Cold War. ” According to political historians, the portion of the ‘mujahideen’ who had been the students of Pakistani madrassas returned to Pakistan and started teaching in these madrassas. They began exhorting the sermons they had been psychologically tuned in to during the Cold War. Some of them developed their own regimented forces in the shape of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and the TNSM. The headquarters and the central leadership of all these militant organisations were situated in Punjab, but these organisations remained in touch with their counterpoints and former jihadi colleagues in NWFP. The early 90s was also the time, according to Khadim Hussain,when the TNSM started gathering strength in the suburbs of Mingora town and Tehsil Matta Swat. Observers point at three contributing factors that gave an impetus to the insurgency across the Swat Valley led by the TNSM in the early 90s. First, the movement was seen to be stronger in the area where the landed aristocracy has its firm hold since long. The workers who joined the TNSM were mostly those who belonged to the landless families. The movement gave them an opportunity to participate in the power game of the area. Moreover, the religious groups had always been considered inferior and would not be allowed to have any say in the socio-political affairs of the area. During the militant movement of the defunct TNSM, the religious groups started asserting themselves in the socio-cultural hierarchy. The landless masses and religious groups of the influenced part of the Valley joined hands under the leadership of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who became a strong force in a short span of time. Second, the Provincial Tribal Areas Regulations (PATA) was brought in force in the Malakand division. The division was formed to be an administrative structure in which the Swat state was placed after its merger with Pakistan in 1969 along with district Dir, district Buner, and district Chitral. The PATA regulations had allowed all executive, judicial, and revenue powers to be exercised by the local administration alone, especially a deputy commissioner. After a verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which sought to abolish the PATA regulations in the early 90s, the local administration lost most of its cherished powers. A deputy commissioner of district Dir in the early 90s is said to have been a frequent visitor of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the leader of the TNSM. Third, and most importantly, the people of Swat during the state rule were accustomed to a judicial system that would give immediate relief to the aggrieved party. The people of Swat got tired of their experience with the regulations and wished for a judicial system that would give them instant relief. The TNSM leadership tapped this desire of the common people for instant legal relief by promising promulgation of the Shariah code. This earned the TNSM the sympathies of the silent majority of the Valley. The defunct TNSM clashed with the local administration in the early 90s. Later, when the US forces invaded Afghanistan, Sufi Mohammad had exhorted his followers to join the Taliban in Afghanistan in their armed struggle against the US forces. Hundreds of jihadis under his command crossed the border and entered Afghanistan. The rest of the story is shrouded in mystery, but what is known is that Maulana Sufi Mohammad himself returned from Afghanistan while most of his mujahideen followers did not return. Maulana Sufi Mohammad is now languishing in a Pakistani jail. For a number of years now Maulana Fazlullah has been allowed to operate in the area. In fact, he has been allowed to say what he wants on his illegal FM radio station. When the maulana directly challenged the writ of the state in the wake of the Lal Masjid incident, the government made some moves to check him. There was a so-called ‘peace deal’ between the administration and the maulana. According to the deal, the maulana would cease his radio station. A couple of weeks back, the maulana declared that the deal was off and he was back. Now the government has decided to use force. Should the problem not have been nipped in the bud? There is another situation that is already brewing in Bara. Mufti Munir Shakir, a controversial religious leader, has restarted broadcasting messages from his illegal FM radio station in the Khyber Agency. Mufti Shakir and his opponent Pir Saifur Rehman had been expelled from Bara in February last year after bloody clashes between their armed supporters. A jirga comprising elders from all the seven tribal agencies made the decision of their compulsory expulsion from Bara. The two had serious differences over the observance of certain religious rituals and both had established illegal FM radio stations in their respective areas of support. After expulsion from Bara, the Pir who originally belonged to Afghanistan, settled down in Lahore while Mufti Munir was arrested by the secret agencies at the Karachi airport in May last year when he was trying to flee the country. He was released in August this year. The writ of the government is not established by force. It is established by good and active governance, which is missing. And that is the basic issue. The writer is an electoral reforms and gender mainstreaming consultant based in Islamabad

NYPD: We knew of militant group in '03

An Islamic militant group caused a previously undisclosed scare in 2004 when a man in a truck took cell phone photos of the under-structures of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, a police official said yesterday.

The New York Police Department uncovered the suspected reconnaissance mission in Manhattan while investigators already were on alert that Pakistani immigrants loyal to the radical Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, were in the city "and possibly up to no good," said Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.

The spokesman detailed the bridge episode in response to a report yesterday in the Daily News that the NYPD was involved in the detention of an alleged member of the group who is purportedly wanted in Pakistan for an assassination of a Shiite leader.

The NYPD has credited one of its intelligence analysts with piecing together evidence that the suspect, Akhtar Hussain Muawia, had used an alias to slip into the United States after the 1997 assassination and was working as a clerk at a Jersey City grocery.

Investigators from the NYPD's Intelligence Division first became aware of a Sipah-e-Sahaba presence in the city in the summer of 2003, Browne said.


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VIEW: End of a liberal alliance? —Syed Mansoor Hussain
DailyTimes.com.pk

We might just be seeing the evolution of a new political consensus based not on some loosy-goosy idea like enlightened moderation (Rest In Peace) but on a true liberal-democratic desire for representative democracy

Ever since the Lal Masjid action, an imagined divide between ‘moderate-liberals’ and the ‘true believers’ has become a topic of discussion. The presumption is that there exists in Pakistan a distinct group of people that are more beholden to religious values than others. This group is felt to be in opposition to those that are presumably less religiously inclined and support General Musharraf. And, that under General Musharraf’s guidance and US prodding, a new liberal alliance is coming into place.

Before going further it is important to establish the fact that General Musharraf is definitely not a political liberal or even a moderate. He is an autocrat, albeit benign in comparison to others and has, over the years, demonstrated little if any partiality towards either participatory democracy or the supremacy of constitutional norms. As for his personal lifestyle choices, even those not approved by the keepers of the faith, they are his business and his alone.

Another point against General Musharraf being a liberal is that most of his political support over the last eight years has come from pro-Islamist conservatives. For those that might have forgotten, the one vote that allowed the pro-Musharraf coalition to win a majority in the National Assembly came from the late Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the sectarian Sipah-e-Sahaba.

PMLQ, the party that supports him, is definitely not a moderate or liberal political party. At best it is an alliance of conservative centrist and pro-Islamist politicians. Its natural allies are the Islamists in the MMA as was demonstrated during the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution that validated General Musharraf’s presidency.

The party does, however, include some politicians that are not pro-Islamist but can at best be called opportunists in search of power. Even now the PMLQ is much more likely to make a deal with elements within the Islamist MMA rather than allowing General Musharraf to make any arrangement with the PPP. And, anybody who thinks that General Musharraf wants to make any deal with the PPP because he shares a similar political ideology must have spent too much time in the sun.

The state of emergency imposed by General Musharraf earlier this month has laid to rest, once and for all, any doubts anybody might have had about his liberal democratic credentials. It has also made it clear that General Musharraf wants to continue as ruler of Pakistan for the foreseeable future, preferably with his compliant comrades in the PMLQ. As such, he will definitely want them returned to parliament in the upcoming general election.

As things stand, it seems that Pakistan will most likely move straight on from the state of emergency to a controlled democracy. Elections, if they are held in January will be controlled even more than they were five years ago to produce this time around an outright majority for the PMLQ in the centre as well as the Punjab.

The much-touted deal between General Musharraf and the Mohtrama is already dead and gone. Does this mean that the possibility of any liberal consensus is now doomed for ever? Probably not. However what has changed is that this liberal democratic consensus, if it does develop, will come without General Musharraf, as it should. Already, the centre-left and centre-right political forces are being pushed closer to each other, the common ground being the basic liberal-democratic desire for representative democracy.

Interestingly, differences based upon religious ideology between different political parties are receding to the background. The religiously conservative Nawaz League is busy trying to find common ground with the relatively secular Bhutto-led PPP. The recent roughing up of the PTI chief Imran Khan by IJT goons at Punjab University might also force him to reconsider his Islamist political points of view. So, we might just be seeing the evolution of a new political consensus based not on some loosy-goosy idea like enlightened moderation (Rest In Peace) but on a true liberal-democratic desire for representative democracy.

If this situation indeed comes to pass then we will have General Musharraf to thank for it. By shaking off his democratic mantle, he has made the choice clear for the people of Pakistan. However, the two ringers in this scenario are the US and the Mohtrama. It is obvious that the US would prefer to see the PPP and the General come to some arrangement about sharing power. Increasingly it seems that the US will have to make a choice between these two since power sharing is not in the General’s cookbook.

Considering the US imperatives, the choice will inevitably have to be the General over the Mohtrama if some sort of arrangement between these two is not possible. As far as the Mohtrama is concerned, she will eventually come to a similar conclusion. The question for her then is whether or not she really wants to become a part of an opposition coalition that has a one-point agenda — free, open and fair elections and the prerequisites thereof including a free media and an independent judiciary.

If General Musharraf does not end the emergency, give up his army position, provide a truly impartial interim government and an independent election commission then Bhutto along with others might have to embark upon a public campaign to force his hand. If the Mohtrama wishes to remain politically relevant then she must also resist US pressure to continue some sort of an arrangement with General Musharraf.

If however General Musharraf does indeed allow the free and fair elections that he keeps promising, the people of Pakistan will most likely come out in force to support this new liberal-democratic alliance. Indeed, if the people of Pakistan actually prefer General Musharraf over others, as he thinks they do, then all the more reason for him to have a truly free and fair election to prove that he was right all along.

Syed Mansoor Hussain has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com


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Detroit's FBI chief: Violence extremism cuts across religions
freep.com

October 31, 2007

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Speaking inside a Warren mosque, the head of the FBI Detroit office said that violent extremism is not only a problem among some Muslims.

"There are plenty of people out there in my faith, the Christian faith, who use these extremist views to support their thoughts on racial superiority, be it the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazis, Aryan Nation, all these people, these groups...they're all based on a religious view," Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena said Tuesday night to an audience of Muslims.

Citing examples of Christian extremism, Arena mentioned David Koresh, Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, and men who kill abortion doctors. "This stuff was all based on...fueled by the Bible," Arena said.

Arena and Assistant Special Agent in Charge William Kowalksi spoke to about 50 Muslims inside the Islamic Organization of North America, or Tanzeem Islami, a Sunni mosque with a primarily Pakistani congregation. The meeting was part of an effort by the FBI to reach out to Muslims and other communities.

Arena said after the meeting that in "every religion, you have individuals who try to hijack the faith...the Muslim faith, the Jewish faith, the Christian faith."

Some Muslims at the meeting complained about being profiled at airports. Arena said he sympathized with them and said his office has tried to help Imam Mohammad Elahi, of Dearborn Heights, stop getting pulled over at airports.

The problem could be that some innocent people may be getting pulled over because of "sound alike, look alike, spell alike names," he said.

Contact Niraj Warikoo at nwarikoo@freepress.com.



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FBI's Latest Outreach Outrage
investigativeproject.org
by Steven Emerson
IPT News Service
November 7, 2007

Much has been written about the U.S. government's current bout of schizophrenia in its outreach to the American Muslim community, specifically related to the Department of Justice. While federal prosecutors in Dallas have labeled several Islamist organizations as unindicted co-conspirators – describing them as front groups for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood - in the terrorist financing trial against the Holy Land for Relief and Development (HLF), the FBI is meeting with the very same groups to hold outreach events and the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is setting up booths at their conferences.

As wrongheaded and shortsighted as these policies are, they do not hold a candle to a recent outreach event held by the FBI's Detroit field office at the end of last month. As reported in the Detroit Free Press (see: Detroit's FBI chief: Violence extremism cuts across religions), two top FBI officials from that office "spoke to about 50 Muslims inside the Islamic Organization of North America, or Tanzeem-e-Islami." The Free Press described the organization as merely "a Sunni mosque with a primarily Pakistani congregation" and tells us that the meeting was nothing more than "part of an effort by the FBI to reach out to Muslims and other communities."

While outreach to the Muslim community remains an important endeavor, officials at the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have become far less discerning in determining who the gatekeepers and spokesmen for the American Muslim community should be.

	Israr Ahmad

The secret Israeli service Musad [sic] orchestrated these terrorist attacks ... [which] are a vital link in the chain of events that the Jews are undertaking to fulfill their dream of world domination.

It turns out that Dr. Ahmad is a rather prolific writer on such topics, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories permeate his writing. Canada's National Post reported in 2006 that, according to Ahmad:

Islam's renaissance will begin in Pakistan … because the Arab world is living under subjugation. Only the Pakistan region "has the potential for standing up against the nefarious designs of the global power-brokers and to resist the rising tides of the Jewish/Zionist hegemony."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Ahmad's opinions about Jews. Also reported in the National Post:

Another of his books repeats the Jewish conspiracy theories popular among neo-Nazis, claiming that Jews have "a deeply ingrained tendency to conspire and to maneuver things surreptitiously for their own gain."

The Jews exert a "wicked web of control and exploitation" through their ownership of banks, insurance companies and stock exchanges, he claims.

He compares Jews to parasites, calls the Holocaust "Divine punishment" and foresees the "total extermination" of Jews at the hands of Muslims.

Ahmad lives in Pakistan and didn't attend the meeting. But what's the best that can be said about the FBI, whose officials meet with members of a group founded by such a hate-filled man?

Ahmad's views are not limited to anti-Jewish rhetoric. He's also a leading advocate of Islamic supremacy and the revival of the Caliphate. A simple trip to the Islamic Organization of North America's website would have led the FBI to articles calling for this. Some of the links are now defunct (perhaps due to bad press from the National Post), but their content can be judged clearly by their titles. According to the National Post, the Tanzeem-e-Islami's "goal is to establish the system of social justice of the Caliphate [Islamic state] firstly in Pakistan and then in the whole world," and that Ahmad's "ideal state" would include the following three principles:

"(1) Sovereignty belongs to Almighty Allah alone; (2) No legislation can be done at any level that is totally or partially repugnant to Koran and Sunnah, and; (3) Full citizenship of the state is for the Muslims only."

And Dr. Ahmad is not shy about his objective. An official bio states:

For the last forty years or so, Dr. Israr Ahmad has been actively engaged not only in reviving the Qur'an-centered Islamic perennial philosophy and world-view but also reforming the society in a practical way with the ultimate objective of establishing a true Islamic State, or the System of Khilafah.

And Tanzeem extremism is not an abstract threat. There are real time examples on North American soil. Just last month, the New York Times reported on an Islamic extremist in North Carolina, 21-year old Samir Khan, in an article titled, "An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers." As reported in the Times, before hooking up with Tanzeem, Khan:

[m]irrored his teenage peers, from their slang to their baggy pants, until August 2001 when, at age 15, he said, he attended a weeklong summer camp at a mosque in Queens, which was sponsored by a fundamentalist but nonviolent group now known as the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA).

"They were teaching things about religion and brotherhood that captivated me," Mr. Khan said. He said he went back to school knowing "what I wanted to do with my life: be a firm Muslim, a strong Muslim, a practicing Muslim."

And now Khan is a leading jihadi webmaster. And Dr. Ahmad would be proud of Khan, as Ahmad himself came to the United States to spread his radical version of Islam, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in 1995 – the same group that's listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF Hamas fundraising trial, and whose 2007 convention in Illinois included a booth sponsored by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

At the 1995 conference, Ahmad reportedly told the audience, "The process of the revival of Islam in different parts of the world is real. A final showdown between the Muslim world and the non-Muslim world, which has been captured by the Jews, would soon take place. The Gulf War was just a rehearsal for the coming conflict." Ahmad said that all Muslims, including those in the room and the rest of the American Muslim community, should be ready for just such a battle.

Tanzeem-e-Islami member and student of Ahmad, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, was the "prayer leader" at the Al-Rahman Islamic Center and alleged spiritual leader of a 17-member cell that purchased three tons of ammonium nitrate to bomb several targets in Ontario including the parliament building in Ottawa, and the CN Tower and Canadian Security and Intelligence Service offices in Toronto. The arrests of Abdul Jamal and his followers were a part of a series of raids in Europe and North America – that began in Bosnia with the arrest of a two-man cell charged in a plot to attack the British embassy in Sarajevo – all connected to a worldwide Internet terrorism network with links to al Qaeda in Iraq, among other terrorist elements.

Tanzeem-e-Islami members have also partnered with the Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Muslim American Society (MAS), whose President was forced to resign in September from his appointment on the Virginia's Commission of Immigration, when his radical speeches were posted on the Internet. The groups issued a joint press release in 2004 discussing their "unity of purpose." As further evidence of their cooperation, recently, both groups became members of an outfit calling itself the Northern California Islamic Council.

Exacerbating this abject ignorance of some FBI officials are the remarks by Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena to Tanzeem-e-Islami members describing the dangers of extremists in every religion. According to the Free Press, Arena told the assembled audience, "There are plenty of people out there in my faith, the Christian faith, who use these extremist views to support their thoughts on racial superiority, be it the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazis, Aryan Nation, all these people, these groups...they're all based on a religious view." So aside from providing an Islamic supremacist sect with more ammunition to justify its own anti-Western views, what exactly is Arena hoping to accomplish with his meeting?

Ironically, Agent Arena could not have been more oblivious to the nature of the group he was addressing. The same story states, "Arena said after the meeting that in ‘every religion, you have individuals who try to hijack the faith...the Muslim faith, the Jewish faith, the Christian faith.'" In case the examples of Ahmad's hatred and Islamic supremacy listed above are not enough to convince Agent Arena just who the hijackers in this scenario are, here are some more of Dr. Ahmad's religious stylings:

In an article titled, "Why Israel Is Unacceptable," Ahmad refers to Israel as a disease, asserting:

Pakistan was born nine months earlier than Israel. In my opinion this was not a coincidence. For, in accordance with a saying of the Prophet (SAW) - "Allah (SWT) has not created a disease without creating its cure" - Pakistan was created as an "antidote" to the state of Israel and will face up Israel in the final confrontation of Truth and falsehood.

And he engages in more of his trademark, virulent anti-Semitism, writing:

It is a historical fact that Jews have always exploited their friends and allies to their own advantage.

Dr. Ahmad delves further into Nazi rhetoric, informing his readers that:

[t]he Jews have exploited the Protestants to accomplish most of their ill-conceived objectives, such as: the promotion of secularism and the establishment of interest-based banking system. The banking system was used as a bait to clutch the whole of Christian world into the jaws of interest-based lending and, thus, into perpetual debt.

And, unsurprisingly, he views the Arab-Israeli conflict through a, some may say, "hijacked" religious lens:

We need to understand that the conflict over Palestine is not between the Arabs and Israel, instead, it is between Muslims and Jews.

Lest FBI officials claim that the members of Tanzeem-e-Islami should not be held responsible for the hate-filled rantings of its leader, a Tanzeem-e-Islami publication calling for the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate titled, "Why Tanzeem-e-Islami?" (published in Flushing NY in 1997), has a page for a signed "Oath of Allegiance For Joining Tanzeem-e-Islami" which includes a "pledge to Dr. Israr Ahmad, Ameer of Tanzeem-e-Islami."

It seems obvious that many government officials are hardly discerning when it comes to decisions regarding Muslim outreach and partnership programs. After all, headquarters-directed FBI outreach policies, of which this incident is symptomatic, require routine meetings and cooperation with members of Muslim Brotherhood front groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and ISNA. Even so, the Detroit field office's meeting with a Tanzeem-e-Islami chapter stands out as highly dubious, given its founders' unapologetic brand of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.

Meeting with organizations such as the Islamic Organization of North America accrues no benefits to the FBI and only serves to empower extremists such as Ahmad in his quest to spread his puritanical, hateful, and intolerant ideology. These FBI outreach policies imposed by headquarters are undermining our national security by reaching out to radicals in our midst.


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FBI's New Friends Were Kicked Out of UAE For "Talibanization"
counterterrorismblog.org

By Andrew Cochran

As a follow-up to Steve Emerson's post about the FBI's meeting with Tanzeem-e-Islami, I want to suggest to the FBI that they use a website named "Google" to comprehensively search the groups and individuals with which they are planning to meet. If they had done that search well, they would have found that the UAE government kicked Ahmad's supporters out of the country back in May, fearing "the spread of Talibanization." Excerpts from a story:

ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deported dozens of the disciples of noted scholar Dr Israr Ahmad for holding Dars-e-Qur’aan sessions in Dubai, fearing the spread of Talibanisation in the country.

“They violated the laws,” FO spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told The News but added that she had no knowledge of the exact numbers of the deportees.

The News has learnt that the Dubai police arrested around 70 Pakistanis for attending the congregation. The majority of them are believed to be the disciples of Dr Israr Ahmad. About 30 of them have been deported, while the rest have been directed to wind up their businesses and leave the country by the end of July, Bakhtiyar Khilji, chief administrator of Tanzeem-e-Islami - the party headed by Dr Israr Ahmad - told The News.

Khilji feared that this “crackdown” by the UAE government might lead to an en masse deportation of Dr Israr’s followers. “The UAE government happens to be very sensitive to such congregations. The police had arrested the people whenever suspicion of their participants to the Dars-e-Qur’aan congregation arose.”

The FBI should have been able to find this story - it took me about two minutes - and take a deep breath before thinking about that meeting.

investigativeproject.org

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Sipah-e-Sahaba USA Inc.                                         (11/97)
        P.O. Box 795
        Brooklyn, NY
        11230

        Phone: (718) 390-8816
        Email: SipeSahaba@aol.com
        URL: http://members.aol.com/SipeSahaba/index.html

        Notes: Sipah-e-Sahaba USA is a non-profit, non-political, religious
        Notes: organization, working among Muslims especially converted Muslims,
        Notes: to educate them about pure Islamic Beliefs and make them aware
        Notes: of False sects who put Islam's label on their mis-guiding
        Notes: un-Islamic teachings.

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Sipah-e-Sahaba USA Inc. ( Women Wing )
Last Updated: 2002-09-23
Address:	Sipah-e-Sahaba USA Inc. ( Women Wing ) P. O. Box 300310, Brooklyn, NY 11230, USA
Phone:	(212) 330- 8207
Email:	ss-usa-ww@usa.net
URL:	www.sipah-e-sahaba-usa.org
General Information:	A non profit, religious, Islamic Organization that is working among Muslims especially converted Muslims towards educating them about true Islamic beliefs and exposing the FALSE DEVIANT SECTS those are using Islam's name on their misguided, un Islamic beliefs and causing doubts among Muslims. We invite Muslims to Come......??..Join us To safeguard Oneness of ALLAH Almighty. To protect Finality of Prophet hood of Hazrat MOHAMMED (Sallillah hu Alihe Wasallam). To preserve Honor and Dignity of SAHABA (Radhi Allah hu Anhum). To expose False Sects & their misguided, un-Islamic Belief and to educate Muslim Brothers & Sisters about Islamic belief according to Qur?an & Sunnah and the way of Sahaba (R.A).
General Activities:	We have FREE pamphlets on different topics about Deviant sects. Please contact us to get literature on Deviant Sects. Read our pamphlets, give them to your friend and put them in the local Masjids.

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Sipah-E-Sahaba USA Incorporated

NEW YORK: A follower of an Islamic militant group caused a previously undisclosed scare in 2004 when someone in his truck took mobile phone photos of the support structures of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, a police official said.

The New York Police Department uncovered the suspected reconnaissance mission in Manhattan while investigators already were on alert that Pakistani immigrants loyal to the radical Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, were in the city "and possibly up to no good," said Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.

The spokesman detailed the bridge episode in response to a report on Friday in the Daily News that the NYPD was involved in the detention of a member of the group who is purportedly wanted in Pakistan for the assassination of a Shiite leader.

The NYPD has credited one of its intelligence analysts with piecing together evidence that the suspect, Akhtar Hussain Muawia, had used an alias to slip into the United States after the 1997 assassination and was working as a clerk at a grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York.

Muawia, 33, was detained in May and is fighting deportation. His attorney has denied he was involved in the killing or any acts of terrorism.

The NYPD's involvement in the Muawia case reflects its concerns that U.S. followers of lesser-known radical groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba could pose a threat to the city. The Pakistani government outlawed the group after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an effort to purge the country of extremism, much of it anti-American.

The group also has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Investigators from the NYPD's Intelligence Division first became aware of a Sipah-e-Sahaba presence in the city in the summer of 2003, Browne said. That fall, acting on an unfounded tip about a potential plot against the subways, police and the FBI that fall raided a Brooklyn apartment where they discovered membership applications and other documents related to the group.

In 2004, a truck traveling on the FDR caught the attention of an off-duty police officer by pausing to let someone inside "photograph the supporting structures underneath the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges," Browne said. It was later learned that the truck was registered to Tariq Javid, whose name was on a Sipah-e-Sahaba membership list found in the Brooklyn apartment.

Under questioning, Javid first denied knowing anything about the group, then admitted he had signed a membership form, according to court papers. However, he denied knowing anything about photographs of the bridges.

Last year, Javid pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was sentenced to one year probation.

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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN
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