Authors: Paul Sperry
40
“THE MANHUNT: Family Members Defend Man Sought as ‘Imminent Threat’ by FBI,” B12.
41
Government Exhibit, Elbarasse Search - 9, 3:04-CR-240-G, U.S. v HLF, et al., 34.
42
Handwritten minutes from 2001 staffwide CAIR meeting that included members of CAIR board and heads of all the chapters, 23.
43
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 22 March 2009.
44
Faxed copy of hand-written note to Awad marked “Urgent,” 29 August 2007. Sender’s signature at bottom of page is cut off.
45
Government Exhibit 003-0089, 3:04-CR-240-G, U.S. v. HLF, et al., 13.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PC OUTREACH RUN AMOK
1
Jamie Glazov, “Terrorists Among Us,”
FrontPageMagazine
, 16 March 2009.
2
Transcript of remarks by Bush, Islamic Center, Washington, D.C., 17 September 2001.
3
http://www.cair.com/AboutUs/WhatTheySayAboutCAIR/WhatTheySayAboutCAIRBush.aspx
4
Rowan Scarborough, “CAIR trains FBI agents as new report cites links to terror,”
Insight
, 18 March 2008.
5
http://www.cair.com/AboutUs/WhatTheySayAboutCAIR.aspx
6
As the book was going to press, neither official had been charged with a crime.
7
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 22 March 2009.
8
Letter from Miller to U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf, 9 March 2009. Without providing details, Miller explained in an March 20, 2009, interview with CNN that “our concerns relate to a number of distinct narrow issues specific to CAIR and its national leadership.”
9
“U.S. Muslim Coalition Considers Suspending Relations With FBI,” American Muslim Taskforce,
PRNewswire-USNewswire
, 17 March 2009.
10
“We regret the recent FBI decision to sever some of its ties with us,” CAIR National Legislative Director Corey P. Saylor, letter to Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., 2 February 2009, 1.
11
Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, “Administration is urged to hire Muslims,”
Los Angeles Times
, 29 March 2009.
12
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 30 January 2009; also author (Sperry) interview in person, Tysons Corner, Virginia, 16 January 2009. Case agents investigating the Muslim Brotherhood convinced the Washington SAC who convinced Art Cummings at headquarters to sign off on the policy to cut ties with CAIR. Cummings is executive assistant director for national security covering counterterrorism at the FBI.
13
“Saving Los Angeles: supercop Bill Bratton has conquered crime in Boston, New York and now L.A. His next challenge: rescuing the rest of America,”
Playboy
, 1 February 2008, 70. Miller’s father was a gossip columnist in New York. Another FBI official who has been effusive in his praise of CAIR is FBI assistant director Steve Tidwell -- a crony of Miller from Los Angeles. He once called CAIR “an important bridge for the FBI” into the Muslim community.
14
Transcript of Miller interview on “Talk of the Nation” with John Ydstie, NPR, 10 September 2007.
15
“Meeting Notes for Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation,” FBI community outreach meeting with Arab/Muslim American, Sikh, and South Asian leaders, 26 February 2007, 6. Document obtained from FBI headquarters by author Sperry.
16
Ibid, 6.
17
Anisa Abd el-Fattah, “Knowledge with an Islamic flair,”
Islamic Horizons
, May/June 2007, 36.
18
“Meeting Notes for Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation,” 6.
19
“CAIR and Law Enforcement,” report by CAIR, 24 April 2008, 3.
20
“Demystifying ‘Urban Legends’ about CAIR,” CAIR report, 19 January 2007, 2. (The report has since been scrubbed from CAIR’s website.) Former CAIR chairman Parvez Ahmed himself recently presented classroom “diversity training” to agents at FLETC.
21
Rob Margetta, “Experts Debate Efficacy of FBI Otreach to CAIR,” CQ Homeland Security, 10 July 2008.
22
“CAIR-Chicago Conducts Sensitivity Training for ICE Officers,” CAIR press release, 2 April 2006.
23
“CAIR-Chicago, Muslims, Meet with U.S. Customs & Border Protection at O’Hare,” CAIR press release, 26 June 2006, 1.
24
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 21 April 2006.
25
Middle Eastern Cultural Sensitivity training video, Department of Homeland Security, 1 January 2006.
26
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 27 June 2007.
27
Internal department email from DHS Employee Communications to DHS-ALL, Subject: “MESSAGE FROM SECRETARY CHERTOFF,” Department of Homeland Security, 10 August 2006, 7:57 a.m.
28
“Words that Work and Words that Don’t: A Guide for Counterrorism Communication,” 3-page memo, FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY, National Counterterrorism Center, 14 March 2008, 1, 2.
29
“Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims,” memo, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Department of Homeland Security, January 2008, 1, 4.
30
Jamie Glazov, “Terrorists Among Us.”
31
Letter from Kevin Favreau, assistant director of intelligence, national security branch of FBI, to U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., 22 September 2008, 3 (copy obtained by author Sperry). The figure does not include the number of employees who threaten to file lawsuits, as the FBI does not track that data.
32
“ACLU-MD Board Meeting,” 1-page document of notes from CAIR’s files, undated (circa 2003). Relevant passage: “ACLU-NY asked for FBI ethnicity related cases (CAIR Natl).”
33
Letter from Hoekstra and Myrick to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 28 August 2007.
34
John Mintz, “Report Cites ‘Hate’ Writings in U.S. Mosques,”
Washington Post
, 6 February 2005, A18. Freedom House also found anti-American literature in the ADAMS mosque, which stands for All Dulles Area Muslim Society. A Saudi pamphlet, called “Religious Edicts for the Immigrant Muslim,” said “it is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country (such as the United States) governed by infidels.” In a press release, ADAMS denied the claims and suggested “Christian” evangelicals “planted” the offensive materials inside the mosque.
35
Transcript of town hall meeting with FBI officials Timothy Healy, Dave Bennett and two FBI recruiters and Northern Virginia Muslim community at ADAMS Center, Sterling, Virginia, 8 February 2008. Moderator: ADAMS Center president Rizwan Jaka, who’s employed by Oracle Corp.
36
Sperry,
Infiltration
, 151-154.
37
Letter from Favreau, 3.
38
Author (Sperry) interview by email with veteran FBI special agent Robert Wright, 28 December 2007. “I am confident he is a MB (Muslim Brotherhood) plant” within the FBI, Wright said of Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, with whom he worked on counterrorism cases. FBI agent Abdel-Hafiz refused to record two Muslim Brotherhood leaders under investigation, and attended a Muslim Brotherhood mosque. Attempts to reach Abdel-Hafiz for comment were unsuccessful. But in a prior interview with author Sperry, he exalted one of the Brotherhood targets he refused to record, Sami al-Arian, as a “very smart man” (cf. Infiltration, 188). Al-Arian, no thanks to Abdel-Hafiz, was later convicted of terrorism.
39
Fox News Network Inc. and Bill O’Reilly, appellants v. Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, appellee, Court of Appeals of Texas, Second District, Fort Worth, case summary, Lexis 9073, 15 November 2007. On Oct. 20, 2003, Abdel-Hafiz secretly tape-recorded O’Reilly when the Fox News host personally phoned him and invited him to come on his show to tell his side of the story. Abdel-Hafiz at the time was planning to sue O’Reilly over a prior broadcast, and he introduced a transcript of their phone conversation at a deposition in his lawsuit. O’Reilly revealed at the deposition that he was unaware Abdel-Hafiz had tape-recorded him, and remarked, “It is certainly unprofessional to tape somebody without telling them.” (Of course, it’s entirely another case for law enforcement to tape the target of a terrorism investigation -- something agent Abdel-Hafiz said he couldn’t do, because “a Muslim does not record another Muslim.”)
40
“FBI sponsors Axis of Evil show in funny attempt to recruit Muslims,”
National Post
(Canada), 14 June 2007, A24.
41
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 5 April 2009.
42
“Law Enforcement & Arab American Community Relations After September 11, 2001: Engagement in a Time of Uncertainty,” Vera Institute of Justice, June 2006, 24.
43
Author (Sperry) interview by email, 23 August 2005. Sadler, who has an undergraduate degree in Middle Eastern Studies and military training as an Arabic linguist and intelligence analyst, returned to corporate America after resigning from the bureau. In his resignation letter, he stated: “I have come to the unquestionable conclusion that the FBI provides neither the cultural fit nor the career potential for which I had hoped. Initially motivated by patriotism and a deep desire to fight back after the events of 9/11, I find myself overcome by a constant struggle between my core values and those of the FBI.” He complains the FBI was consumed by political rear-covering: “It’s much safer to chase criminals who have already committed a crime than to aggressively and proactively strive to prevent these acts from occurring.”
44
http://www.isna.net/Leadership/articles/ILDC-News/Behind-the-Blindfold-of-Justice.aspx
45
http://www.isna.net/articles/news/a-call-for-fbi-accountability.aspx. “We will not allow for the marginalization of mainstream Muslim organizations,” ISNA asserted in its March 2009 press release. “We have called on the FBI to re-engage with CAIR, our respected sister organization, and will continue to do so.”
46
Sayyid Qutb,
Milestones
, (Cairo, Egypt: Kazi Publications, 1964). Also, Sayyid Qutb, Milestones (Chicago: American Trust Publications/NAIT, 1991, revised), Chapter 10: “Far Reaching Changes.” “Building bridges” is a favorite buzz phrase among Muslim Brotherhood figures in America, such as Nihad Awad. The Brotherhood even started a TV network by that name -- Bridges TV.
47
“An Explanatory Memorandum On the General Strategic Goal for the Group In North America,” 22 May 1991, 15. (Government Exhibit: 003-0085; 3:04-CR-240-G; U.S. v. HLF, et al.) One such “friendship society” is the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO), which does a lot of interfaith outreach and works closely with CAIR. CCMO Chair Asma Hanif last year proved just how insincere such interfaith dialogue is when she made the following remark on a Muslim blog: “It is written that the worst of Muslims is better than the best of non-Muslims. And so I want to go on record as saying that pious or not, the only thing that a non-Muslim man can personally do for me is to step out of the way of my Muslim Brothers.” (http://www.tariqnelson.com, 28 May 2008.)
CHAPTER EIGHT: CAIR’S TEN BIGGEST WHOPPERS