Via terror plot suspect a 'very good boy,' mom says

CBC News

The mother of one of the two suspects accused of trying to carry out an al-Qaeda-supported plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train for almost a year doesn't believe the charges against her son, saying he is a "very good boy" and a genius who loves to study.

"It surprised me. I didn't believe it. I am certain my son cannot commit such an act," Raoudha Esseghaier, mother of Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, told Radio-Canada from her home in Tunisia "I know it because I've raised him and I know him by heart."

• Jason Kenney wants to know why Via terror suspect wasn't deported
• Via terror plot suspect says Criminal Code 'not a holy book'

Raoudha said her son, who had been doing doctoral research at the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique in Varennes, Que, runs experiments and does research.

"He is a very good boy. He loves his studies. Chiheb is a genius. Since his childhood, believe me, he's been passionate about his studies," she said. "When he was four, he knew how to read and count. Since his childhood, he is studying. Even when we would say, 'come play,' he would answer 'no, I don't want to. I prefer to study.'"

His father, Mohammed Rached Esseghaier, questioned the evidence against his son

"When someone wants to derail a train, he needs equipment, something, or, at least, a plan with [targets] spelled out. But they have not found anything."

• Via terror plot suspects deny allegations
• Charges against Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser

But the father did admit that in the last few years his son had changed and that the changes did not please him.

Earlier this week, Esseghaier, a Montreal resident who is from Tunisia, appeared in court, where he said that the Criminal Code should not apply to him because it's "not a holy book."

He, along with Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, are facing terrorism related charges in an alleged plot to derail a Via Rail passenger train. Esseghaier has been remanded into custody until his next appearance on May 23.

Watched for almost a year

CBC News reported this week that the RCMP had been following Esseghaier since May 2012. At that time, two undercover surveillance officers watched him on an Air Canada flight to Cancun, where he was to attend a biomedical conference.

Esseghaier's behaviour on the plane was "bizarre," and he had an altercation with a female flight attendant after he went to the washroom, sources say.

Salafist Surge: Germany faces extremist Islamic threat

RussiaToday

Makhachkala: Dusty Russian city where Boston suspect felt he ’belonged’

worldnews

2013 Getty Images

A view of Makhachkala, where suspected Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent time, on April 25.

By Adrienne Mong, Correspondent, NBC News

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — This dusty capital of Dagestan, Russia’s southernmost republic in the North Caucasus region, was home briefly last year to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old alleged mastermind behind the Boston attacks, spent six months in the Russian Federation in 2012. At least half of that time he was in Dagestan, visiting his father Aznor Tsarnaev, who had moved back from the U.S. a year earlier. Investigators are trying to retrace the younger Tsarnaev’s footsteps and determine whether he met any Islamic militants during his stay.
His father maintains his son's innocence and said he only met relatives while he was there. He said his son was so taken with the place that he began talking about moving to Dagestan. In an interview with NBC News earlier this week, Aznor said his son "felt he belonged" there.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

The beach in Makhachkala, Russia, the port city in Dagestan Tsarnaev spent several months in 2012. Its economy is growing rapidly and corruption is rife.

Tough town
A port city that dots the western edge of the Caspian Sea, Makhachkala is surrounded by low-lying mountains on its other sides. (Dagestan means “land of mountains.”)
The beaches reflect none of the glossy luster of Black Sea resorts; speed bumps seem to outnumber traffic lights; Residents and hotel guests complain about long periods of water shortages.
Nonetheless, the capital is enjoying robust economic growth. Construction sites are everywhere and new hotels are being built. Shops are full of well-known western brands, including Apple’s iPhones. Cafés are teeming with young people and families.

But life is not easy in this North Caucasus town. Take the mayor, for instance.
Said Amirov has survived 15 assassination attempts since the 1990s; one of them put him in a wheelchair. He refuses to be photographed in it, wanting to project an image of power and authority in a culture obsessed with male athleticism and physical prowess (wrestling and soccer are the most popular sports).
Though named the Best Mayor of Russia 2012, Amirov is an emblem of corruption, according to one local journalist. When asked about corruption during a press briefing this week about the Boston bombing suspects, Amirov dismissed the topic: “Corruption exists everywhere.”
However, local residents say corruption is particularly rampant in Dagestan.

In an interview with reporters, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, the mother of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, insists her sons are not responsible for the marathon attacks and expresses her regret in relocating the family to the U.S.

“If you have money, you can get anything done,” said a former policeman, who quit his job because he couldn’t stomach the corruption in the local police force.
In a town that features a clothing shop called “Tony Montana” – named after the Cuban gangster played by Al Pacino in “Scarface” – men swagger in leather jackets and sweatpants. Police checkpoints dot the main roads and semiautomatic weapons are on plentiful display.
The majority of women wear hijabs and long skirts, but it’s not unusual to see women with uncovered hair, three-inch Louboutin heels and tiny skirts.
With a population of half a million, the capital is also a cultural crossroads. Dagestan is Russia’s most ethnically diverse republic with more than 30 ethnic groups.
Sectarian strife
Apart from geography, Islam is the other tie that binds so many diverse groups. Arab conquerors introduced the religion to Dagestan in the seventh century, making it the oldest Islamic republic in the Russian Federation. Dagestan has between 1,800 to 2,000 mosques, according to official Russian government reports, more than neighboring Chechnya or Ingushetia.
During Friday prayers, hundreds of men streamed toward the white multidomed Central Mosque, the largest in Makhachkala. As they prayed, heavily armed men – some dressed in camouflage, some in civilian clothes – ringed the edge of the mosque grounds.
It is the perfect snapshot of the strife surrounding Islam in Dagestan.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

The Central Mosque in Makhachkala. Dagestan is the oldest Islamic republic in Russia.

In 1999, Chechen rebels invaded, marking the beginning of the second Chechen war. The arrival of Chechen fighters in Dagestan deepened sectarian rifts between Sufis (those who mix Islam with local customs) and Salafis (ultra-conservative Sunni Muslims who believe they are practicing a “pure” form of Islam and adhere strictly to Shariah law).
As terrorist attacks spread throughout Dagestan – now considered more volatile than Chechnya – Russia’s security forces have cracked down further on dissidents and suspected militants, fueling violence, tension and fear.
“As soon as we began preaching Salafism, the government began targeting us,” said Gadzhi Mohamed, who helps run a local Islamic civil rights organization called “Akhlusuna.” In fact, “as soon as someone says ‘pure Islam,’ they become an enemy of the people, created by the state.”

PJTV: Enemies of the State

Pajamasmedia

Part of 9/11 Plane Landing Gear Discovered in Lower Manhattan

By Sandy Fitzgerald/ newsmax

(AP/New York City Police Department)

Investigator are still trying to learn how a piece of landing gear from one of the jets that crashed into the World Trade Center almost 12 years ago ended up lodged near the site of planned Islamic community center blocks away in Manhattan.

Surveyors inspecting a site between 51 Park Place – where the much -protested community center is to be housed – and 50 Murray Street discovered the large piece of metal debris. An inspector for the crew, which was hired by the owner of 51 Park Place, was on the roof of the building when he noticed the debris and called 911.

Police secured the debris, which remains lodged between the two buildings, and marked the location, about three blocks away from “ground zero” with tape as a crime scene. A member of the NYPD's aviation unit confirmed that the serial number linked the item to one of the planes used in the attack.

Sharif El-Gamal, president of property owners Soho Properties, said the company is working with the police and the city to ensure the landing gear – marked clearly with the word “Boeing” and numbers – “is removed with care as quickly and effectively as possible."

The landing gear stirred emotions among New Yorkers.

Ilila Tahlov, a hairdresser at a shop near the Park Place building, told the New York Daily News that the discovery brought painful memories.

“It all came back,” she said.

But others were skeptical about the debris suddenly showing up.

“I don’t believe it for one minute,” said Adam Leitman Bailey, who represents El-Gamal. “I think this is a prank, and there’s no way this all of a sudden showed up. It’s hard to believe they now have found evidence that wasn’t put there recently.”

El-Gamal, though, said Bailey does not have the authority to speak for him, and that his company is “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities to make sure this piece of evidence is removed with care as quickly and effectively as possible.”

The piece of landing gear, wedged one story above ground, is about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide.
Van Vanable, a former One World Trade Center ironworker, said he is amazed by the discovery.

“I was part of the cleanup,” he said. “It’s still devastating to think about — how people suffered from then to now.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the police are also exploring the possibility that the gear was lowered to the spot, as there was a rope found intertwined in the part, the New York Post reported. But he called the part a “historic artifact,” noting that “it brings back terrible memories from anyone who was here or anyone who was involved in that event.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newswidget/plane-sept-11-manhattan/2013/04/26/id/501618?promo_code=10E2C-1&utm_source=10E2Canadafreepress&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1#ixzz2RhmSXod1

 

Leftist Nazis, the Gaystapo, and Islamofascists

canadafreepress

By Jim ONeill*

“One of the ways you control what people think is by creating the illusion that there’s a debate going on, but making sure that that debate stays within very narrow margins. ...you have to make sure that both sides in the debate accept certain assumptions….”—Noam Chomsky

“[Nazism] is simply collectivism freed from all traces of an individualist tradition which might hamper its realization.” —F.A. Hayek (1899-1992) “The Socialist Roots of Naziism"from “The Road to Serfdom”                                   

“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”—Benito Mussolini, Fascist dictator (1883-1945)

Recently I came across several references to “the far right Nazis,“and “the far right Fascists.“Although this is a subject I have covered before, it will continue to be a topic of great importance for as long as the Left continues to lie about it, and people swallow their lies.

Fascism always has been, and always will be a left-wing ideology—period. That means that the Nazis, being a subset of Fascism, are left-wing as well. I cannot stress enough the importance of understanding this truth.                   

The oft repeated lie that Fascism and the Nazis are right-wing has effectively served three important purposes:

• It has enabled the political left to deny any culpability for the atrocities committed by Hitler.
• It has unfairly and incorrectly shifted the blame for the Holocaust, Nazi eugenics, and other Nazi programs onto the right-wing, i.e. conservatives.
• It has served to muddy the waters to such an extent that true conservative values are tainted by “guilt through association” right from the starting gate.

I am not claiming that Communism and Fascism are the same thing—they are not. They are, however, variations on the same theme—the theme of collectivism. That is, they both promote Big Government at the expense of individual freedom. As such, they both belong on the left side of the political spectrum.

The media has long promulgated the myth of a political spectrum that looks something like this: Far-Left (Communists)—————-Moderates—————Far-Right (Fascists).

What is wrong with that picture? What is wrong with it is that the true political spectrum looks like this: At the far left of the political spectrum we have collectivist ideologies such as Communism and Fascism, then moving to the right we find Socialism, then the Moderates. On the right side of the spectrum we move from the Moderates to Conservatives (who favor a Constitutional, or limited, form of government), and finally at the far right we find the true anarchists, who favor no government at all (not to be confused with faux-anarchists, who wish to tear down existing governments so that they can replace them with other forms of government).

In short, the political spectrum moves from Big Government on the far left, to no government on the far right, with the size and influence of government decreasing as one moves to the right, and vice versa. Fascism belongs squarely on the left side of the spectrum.             

Benito Mussolini (who was raised on Marxist philosophy) essentially brought Fascism onto the world stage—so perhaps if I rephrase Mussolini’s quote from above it will make how Fascism views the role of government clearer:

“Everything within the federal government, nothing outside the federal government, nothing against the federal government.”

One notable Fascist element within the left-wing is the “Gaystapo,“or homo-Fascists. Scott Lively, co-author of “The Pink Swastika,“describes the movement thusly:   

Homo-Fascism is a form of extreme left-wing radicalism which attempts to establish rigid totalitarian controls over public discussions and policies addressing sexual morality, and to punish or suppress all disapproval of homosexuality and related sexual behaviors. ... Where pro-family speech and other activities are not yet constrained by law, homo-fascists employ bullying and other intimidation tactics to silence opponents and manipulate policy makers, all while posing as victims.”—Dr. Scott Lively

Although leftists will, as a matter of course, reject whatever Scott Lively may say, they will have a harder time dismissing what self-described “gay left-wing man,“Johann Hari has written regarding homo-Fascists:

“The twisted truth is that gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was—including the gay-gassing, homicidal Third Reich. [Almost] all the most high-profile fascists in Europe in the past 30 years have been gay. It’s time to admit something. Fascism isn’t something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It is—in part, at least—a gay thing, and it’s time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music.”—Johann Hari “The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay Fascists”

Let me hasten to add that I am not saying that the entire homosexual community is homo-Fascist. They are nothing of the sort, and I do not wish to imply such—but there most certainly is a militant minority, a sub-set, of homo-Fascists whose presence can be traced back prior to the rise of Hitler, then permeating the Nazi hierarchy, and continuing up to the present day. These über-masculine homosexuals are anything but effeminate.

Further weighing down the left side of the political spectrum are the Islamofascists who are, of course, not right-wing in any way, shape, or form—why do you think the Far-Left finds it so easy to climb into bed with them? This “Odd Couple” marriage-of-convenience between the atheistic Left and the religious collectivism of Islam is bound to end badly for one side or the other (possibly both), but for now it suits both of their anti-freedom agendas to a “T.”                       

I bring all the above to our attention because, as Chomsky implies in the quote at the top of this article, we can argue and debate all day within certain parameters and be doing nothing but spinning our wheels. The debate that “we the people” have been handed to wrangle over, amounts to which form of leftist collectivism we prefer—Socialism, Fascism, or Communism? That is—Left, or more to the Left. “We the people"must refuse to buy into that trap, and resolutely and unabashedly stand up for America; for freedom, for God, and our Constitutional rights.

Death camps, the Gulag, mass-starvation tactics, “killing fields” et al. can all be laid at the feet of left-wing collectivist ideologies—millions upon millions of corpses. Who is left to stand against this tide of Machiavellian duplicity, arrogance, and greed; this tsunami of brutality, barbarism, and death? 

To paraphrase Hillel the Elder: If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

------------------------------

*Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, and lifetime member of the UDT/SEAL Association.

Political Correctness & Canadian Muslims: Being Had For Dinner In Ottawa

The Investigative Project on Terrorism

By David B. Harris
Special to IPT News

Canadians are on their guard against the growing Islamist threat. After all, the last month alone brought the Boston Marathon bombing, and arrests in Canada of suspected Iranian-linked al-Qaeda bomb-plotters targeting Canada-US passenger train routes. Add to that, repeated stories of Islamist radicalism in Canadian neighborhoods and young Canadian Muslim terrorists abroad.

Against this backdrop, the last thing to be expected at this fraught time would be a public event in Canada's capital showcasing a radical Islamist, boasting a master of ceremonies from the tax-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, involving a respected mental health foundation, and including the wife of the highest office-holder in the land. Nonetheless, this is what is being planned for Ottawa, this weekend.

The Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization (OMWO) holds its 12^th Annual Festival of Friendship Dinner Sunday evening. The master of ceremonies will be major local CBC personality Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, whose name – along with the official CBC logo – appears on event advertising. Proceeds are to benefit the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health, an arms-length fundraiser for the public Royal Ottawa Hospital. In an email pitching the dinner and attributed to former Liberal Member of Parliament Marlene Catterall, the presence of Her Excellency Sharon Johnston, wife of the Governor General of Canada, is a selling point.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College in London, Ontario, an institutional affiliate of the University of Western Ontario. Mattson, a convert from Christianity to Islam, was president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The United States government designated ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful Holy Land Foundation terror-funding prosecution. ISNA is included in a key Muslim Brotherhood document as one of the "organizations of our friends." Other evidence abounds of ISNA's Brotherhood inspiration and connections.

From the captured Muslim Brotherhood plan for Canada and the United States that was accepted as evidence in a US criminal court:

"The process of settlement is a 'Civilization-Jihadist Process,' with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in American [sic] is kind of a grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house …"

The Brotherhood's motto is "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

A joint statement of representatives of the moderate American Muslim Congress, Center for Islamic Pluralism, American Islamic Forum for Democracy and the International Quranic Center condemned "groups like ISNA, in which radicals are camouflaged as moderates." The statement especially warned Jews against linking up with ISNA because of the risk of "legitimizing a radicalism that, regardless of ISNA's rhetorical claims, is fundamentally hostile to Jews and suppresses the intellectual and social development of Muslims."

Mattson has been criticized as an "apologist for Wahabbism," the Islamist strain that fuels the Islamic-supremacist theology of Saudi Arabia, the country that gave us Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists. Mattson once astonished scholars by telling CNN that Wahabbism was simply "analogous to the European protestant reformation."

According to the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., Mattson responded to a question on behalf of "Muslim youth," with the assurance that "probably the best work of Tafseer [Quranic commentary] in English is by Maulana Abul A'la Maududi." The Center quotes Maududi's Jihad in Islam:

"Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State. It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic 'Jihad' is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution."

Mattson's chair endowment benefits from substantial contributions from two notable groups: the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and the Virginia-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).

As I pointed out in Canadian Senate committee testimony in 2011, MAC has "boldly declare[d] on its website its allegiance to the tradition of Hassan al Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood – the organization causing dread in Egypt and beyond."

MAC runs a number of Canadian Muslim schools, including Ottawa's Abraar Islamic School. The school itself has had a mixed history: A good academic record, but in 2005, then-principal Aisha Sherazi was dragged before the media to explain why teaching staff supervised an Abraar student's producing of anti-Jewish hate material. Two teachers were suspended. In 2000, the Ottawa Muslim press reported that Imam Siraj Wahhaj "headline[d]" an Ottawa Muslim community fundraising event. Imam Wahhaj was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

Then there was the Huron University College Islamic Chair's second funding source: the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Word that this organization was helping to fund the Huron chair triggered a joint April 2011 letter from an associate professor of economics of the University of Western Ontario – with which, as mentioned earlier, HUC is formally affiliated – and about two dozen former faculty, alumni and others. They appealed to college Interim Principal Trish Fulton to reject the sponsored chair and keep clear of IIIT money.

"… Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, a co-founder and former president of the IIIT, was cited as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the trial of Sami al-Arian, an Islamist activist who served a 57-month prison sentence in the United States for conspiring to channel funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated terrorist group in the United States and Canada," wrote Professor John Palmer.

"Jamal Barzinji, founding member and current vice-President of the IIIT, has likewise been implicated in funding for terrorists. In a sworn affidavit filed in 2003, a senior special agent with the United States Customs Service testified: 'I believe that Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ as evidenced by ties to Al-Arian..., but also with HAMAS.'"

IIIT's troubling history extends beyond the FBI's raiding of the place in 2002. In a strange take on tolerance and social cohesion, the institution was said to have been the site of a meeting, years ago, to manufacture the neologism, "Islamophobia." According to various Muslim moderates, including one who said he attended the IIIT meeting, this terminology was developed by fundamentalists as a calculated means of smearing as bigots and silencing Muslims and non-Muslims who might dare discuss the building threat of radical Islam.

Referring to IIIT scholar Mahmoud Ayoub, a Mattson connection, Point de Bascule observes in terms that would arrest the attention of any self-respecting women's organization:

"The manual of sharia Umdat al-salik (Reliance of the traveller) is officially endorsed by Ayoub's IIIT. Section o1.1-2 of the manual specifies that certain types of honour killings must not be punished under Islamic law: "Not subject to retaliation (is) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring."

According to the 2011 Bascule analysis:

"Mahmoud Ayoub has been involved with the Libyan World Islamic Call Society (WICS) at least since 1983. WICS was set up by Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 to spread Islam in non-Muslim countries. WICS has also been known to hide its financing of terrorism behind charitable activities. In Canada, WICS is based in London, Ontario."

IIIT's record has disturbed even prospective beneficiaries of its largesse. In 2008, an outcry resulted when IIIT wanted to fund a chair at Philadelphia's Temple University to the tune of $1.5 million. The attempt foundered on Temple's concerns about possible IIIT extremist links and suspicions that such a gift could be part of a long-term Islamist influence operation.

Struck by the haste with which Huron University College, on the other hand, seemed to want to get the $2 million dollar MAC-IIIT Islamic chair endowment – a significant addition to HUC's $12 million budget – columnist Barbara Kay asked Huron's Fulton whether MAC and IIIT values were compatible with the college.

"We don't probe deeply into values held by donors," Fulton said.

Too true. HUC took the money and ran, establishing an academic chair with Islamist lucre and influence.

But few of even the most overwrought of Muslim and non-Muslim counter jihadists could have imagined that influencers would have been so brazen as to have compounded the sins of the HUC chair's founding by appointing Mattson to it.

For now, Canadians must live with an HUC Islamic chair that seems to have been maneuvered into existence with inappropriate funding sources and the aid of some senior – and troubling – London-area Muslims. These include lawyer Faisal Joseph, who is said to have played a part in HUC's surprisingly restrained "due diligence" assessment of IIIT. Joseph had previously attended – with Imam Munir El-Kassem and the IIIT's Ayoub – a 2008 conference in Libya of the extremist-flavored Gaddafi World Islamic Call Society.

El-Kassem has been a fixture of the Libyan-funded Canadian branch of the WICS organization. The branch's charitable status was revoked by the federal government, owing to what Postmedia News summarized as WICS' "transferring [of] money from Gadhafi's 'Jihad fund' to bank accounts of known terrorists." El-Kassem, is imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario (ICSWO), yet another group contributing to Mattson's Islamic chair. He has been quoted speaking glowingly about the "leadership" of Louis Farrakhan, the notoriously racist and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader. This, when the imam is not sniping in the media at genuine Muslim moderates like the University of Western Ontario's Professor Salim Mansur. Or, as some might think, playing apologist for the Taliban.

Despite all this, El-Kassem is making a name for himself in the more gullible reaches of some interfaith and outreach fringes, and even policing. The apparently uninformed London police chief, Bradley S. Duncan, rewarded the imam with – astonishingly – an appointment as police chaplain.

People will see different things in the Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization invitation to Dr. Mattson. Was this the result of inattention? An attempt to spin Mattson as a moderate and insinuate her into elite national-capital media, government and other circles?

Whatever the details, the participation of various interests in the OMWO exercise invites questions.

Will pertinent CBC personnel be disciplined for the failure of professional due diligence and associated misuse of corporate resources involved in the Corporation's role in this enterprise? Will the CBC ombudsman enter the fray? Will master of ceremonies van Oldenbarneveld and CBC apologize to Christians, Jews, moderate Muslims and others who have struggled against the tendencies represented by Mattson's record of activity, associations and sponsors – especially at a time of preoccupation with the dangers of Islamic radicalism? Will the Ottawa Muslim Women's Organization join in the apology?

Will similar apologies come from the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health for managerial misjudgment involved in allowing the Foundation's good name to enhance the credibility of the ill-conceived OMWO event?

Will the Office of the Governor General explain itself, and how the Governor General's spouse could have been drawn into such a situation?

Will compromised institutions launch internal reviews to determine whether Islamist fellow-travelers within their organizations may have worked from inside to encourage involvement in this year's Mattson-tainted Festival of Friendship Dinner?

And there remains, of course, a question about double standards.

Would van Oldenbarneveld, the CBC, the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health or the Office of the Governor General of Canada ever agree to become involved in a dinner sponsored by, say, an "Ottawa Christian Women's Organization," if the proposed keynote speaker had formerly headed a foreign unindicted co-conspirator radical Christian fundamentalist organization, been an apologist for Christian extremists, and been seated in a chair in Christianity funded by domestic and foreign Christian supremacist groups with connections to intolerant, divisive ideology – and far worse?

----------------
David B. Harris is a Canadian lawyer with three decades' experience in intelligence affairs, and serves as Director of the International Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. He is on the advisory board of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow (MFT), although opinions expressed here are his alone.

BOSTON BOMBER READ HIS MIRANDA RIGHTS, IMMEDIATELY CLAMS UP | Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Fox Nation

 

AP/Video Screengrab

BOSTON (AP) - Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stopped talking after being read his constitutional rights.

Officials briefed on the interrogation say the 19-year-old suspect went silent after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office gave him his Miranda warning. The officials insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.

Before being advised of his rights, Tsarnaev told authorities that his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, recently had recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line, say two U.S. officials.

The FBI filed a federal criminal complaint against the 19-year-old on Sunday, and federal District Court Judge Marianne Bowler arrived at the hospital where he is being treated to preside over his initial hearing Monday, when she read him his Miranda rights.
….

But Fox News' sources say there was confusion about Bowler's timing, with some voicing concerns that investigators were not given enough time to question Dzhokhar under the "public safety exception" invoked by the Justice Department.

Two officials with knowledge of the FBI briefing on Capitol Hill said the FBI was against stopping the investigators' questioning and was stunned that the judge, Justice Department prosecutors and public defenders showed up, feeling valuable intelligence may have been sacrificed as a result.

The FBI had been questioning Tsarnaev for 16 hours before the judge called a start to the court proceeding, officials familiar with the Capitol Hill briefing told Fox News.
The exact timeline is unclear. A transcript of the court proceeding shows Bowler asking a doctor if Tsarnaev was "alert."

"You can rouse him," she says in the transcript.

"How are you feeling? Are you able to answer some questions?" the doctor asks Tsarnaev, who nods.

Although Bowler advised Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen and U.S. citizen, of his Miranda rights, it remains to be seen whether anything he told investigators before Bowler arrived can be admitted as evidence against him -- or whether such interrogations would even be needed to convict him, given the amount of other evidence referenced in the criminal complaint signed by FBI Special Agent Daniel Genck.

Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the Obama administration for deciding against treating Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant, which would allow more time for interrogating him. The public safety exception to Miranda lasts only 48 hours.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/dzhokhar-tsarnaev/2013/04/25/boston-bomber-read-his-miranda-rights-immediately-clams?cmpid=NL_foxnation#ixzz2RaZyDSRJ

Source: Bombing suspect showed no fear or remorse during hospital hearing

Handout / FBI via Reuters

usnews

By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

A badly wounded but awake Dzhokhar Tsarnaev showed little signs of fear or remorse during his hospital room court hearing earlier this week and his heart monitor didn’t register a blip when he was told he was facing the death penalty in the Boston Marathon bombing case, according to a source familiar with the events inside the hospital room when he was read his rights.

Tsarnaev’s face was splotched and swollen, his left hand was bandaged, and he was unable to talk during the brief court hearing presided over by U.S. Judge Marianne Bowler on Monday afternoon.

The surviving bombing suspect mouthed rather than said the word “no” when asked if he could afford a lawyer and nodded in the affirmative when asked if he understood his rights.

But Tsarnaev appeared to fully follow the proceeding, the source said. The most telling moment, the source said, came early on when, after Tsarnaev was informed of the two charges against him, the judge asked prosecutor William Weinreb to spell out the possible penalties he was facing.

“Your honor, the maximum penalty is death,” Weinreb said, according to a public transcript of the proceeding.

Tsarnaev showed no reaction — nor did his heart monitor register any change, the source said. “There was no blip at all,” said the source.

But heart monitors don’t always register emotional responses — and there is no way to tell what impact medications Tsarmaev may have been given had, according to medical experts.

There have also been conflicting reports about Tsarnaev’s mental state in the days after his capture. “Over the weekend, he’s in and out of lucidity,” Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell” show on Thursday. “He’s got — he’s on medication, he’s talking, but he’s not talking, he’s unconscious, he’s going for medical procedures.”

But those present at the bedside court hearing were convinced that Tsarnaev was fully cognizant of the circumstances he was facing, the source said. Judge Bowler agreed. “I find the defendant is alert, mentally competent and lucid,” she said, according to the transcript. “He is aware of the nature of the proceedings.”

The court proceeding erupted as a source of controversy Thursday when Rogers charged that Judge Bowler had interfered with FBI questioning of Tsarnaev – and that the Justice Department failed to object — when she ordered that Tsarnaev be read his rights on Monday, a day after he was charged in a then-sealed complaint at 6:47 p.m. Sunday.

FBI agents were questioning Tsarnaev — and getting his responses in writing — under a “public safety exception” that allows agents to obtain information from criminal suspects for 48 hours without reading them their constitutional rights informing them they have the right to remain silent and a right to a lawyer. The information that agents got — including the disclosure Thursday that Tsarnaev and his brother had talked about driving to Times Square to set off more bombs — came during those sessions over the weekend.

But Rogers said Thursday that FBI agents “weren’t quite finished with him” when Bowler directed that the court hearing take place that Monday. “To have the court affirmatively push their way in, is — A) I think it's wrong, and B) we should have given the FBI the time that they needed.” Justice Department officials “have a lot of explaining to do.”

Bowler, asked by NBC News about Rogers’ charges in her federal courtroom in Boston Thursday, replied: “The court does not comment.”

A  federal law enforcement official disputed Rogers’ account, telling NBC News that FBI agents had already left the hospital room and wrapped up their questioning before the court hearing took place mid-day Monday. In a statement emailed to reporters Thursday, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said that, after the criminal complaint was filed, the rules of criminal procedure required the judge to advice the defendant of his rights. 

“The prosecutors and FBI agents in Boston were advised of the scheduled initial appearance in advance of its occurrence,” he said.

Report: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Dealt Drugs for Spending Money

breitbart

By Tony Lee 

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspected Boston Marathon bomber who was captured alive last Friday, reportedly dealt drugs on the side for spending money while in college.

Students at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and three people who bought marijuana from Dzhokhar who did not want to be named told the Boston Globe that Dzhokha "earned at least some cash selling marijuana." 

Another person said "there was a permanent stench of marijuana in his room." Dzhokhar reportedly sold what he did not smoke himself, according to friends.

The students describe Dzhokhar, who received a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, as a scholarship student who had money for food and expenses but did not live a lavish lifestyle. He "drove his father’s green 1999 Honda Civic" and also may have had a "mysterious" side business helping friends fix cars.

British Muslim Trio Jailed for Planning Terror Acts

breitbart

(AFP) Three British Muslims including a convert to Islam were jailed on Thursday for planning acts of terror.

White Muslim convert Richard Dart, 30, a former security guard for the BBC, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment at England's Old Bailey central criminal court in London.

Imran Mahmood, 22, was jailed for nine years and nine months and 26-year-old Jahangir Alom for four-and-a-half years.

Dart and Alom had admitted seeking terror training in Pakistan while Mahmood, who had already received terror training, gave them advice.

Judge Peregrine Simon told the trio they had "radical Islamist beliefs and have shown yourselves to be committed to acts of terrorism".

Dart refused to stand as he was sentenced, saying: "I believe ruling and judging is only for Allah."

The court heard that Dart and Mahmood discussed bomb-making and identified the southern English town of Royal Wootton Bassett -- where British soldiers killed in Afghanistan were repatriated until 2011 -- as a potential target.

"These are dangerous men," Stuart Osborne of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command said in a statement after sentencing.

"Mahmood had received terrorist training in Pakistan and suggested he had knowledge of how to make homemade explosives while Dart and Alom made great efforts to travel to Pakistan and aspired to seek training from terrorist groups there."

The three men were arrested in July last year.

All of them had been stopped at airports at various points while travelling to and from Pakistan.

Traces of explosives were found on two of Mahmood's rucksacks when he was stopped at Manchester Airport in northwest England in 2010.

Dart once featured in a documentary about his conversion to Islam and had changed his name to Salahuddin al-Britani.

The court heard that he and Mahmood communicated by typing into a document on Dart's laptop, in "silent conversations" designed to avoid surveillance.

They mistakenly believed that if they deleted the text it would not be stored on the computer, but forensic experts were able to retrieve the conversations.

Dart and Mahmood were both given extended sentences, meaning they will serve a minimum of two-thirds of their sentences.

Alom was a Police Community Support Officer and had also been in the Territorial Army volunteer reservists before he rejected mainstream society.

Dart, the son of teachers, was born in Dorset in southwest England. Mahmood was also born in Britain while Alom, a British citizen, was born in Bangladesh. 

MA Dem Gov. Patrick Refuses to Release Tsarnaev Records

breitbart
By Mike Flynn 

The Brothers Tsarnaev, alleged terrorists behind the Boston Marathon bombing, collected some amount of state and, possibly, federal welfare benefits. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife, and daughter collected welfare until 2012, according to Massachusetts state officials. The exact amounts the brothers received is unknown, however, because Gov. Deval Patrick's administration is refusing to release information regarding their case. 

State agencies “flatly refused” to provide information regarding the taxpayer-funded lifestyle of the 26-year-old man and his accused accomplice brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the Boston Herald reports.

The Brothers Tsarnaev seem to have been only marginally attached to the labor market. It is unclear how they financed their education and day-to-day expenses, never mind the materials needed to conduct their alleged reign of terror. 

Since they emerged last week as prime suspects, government officials at all levels of government have scurried to obscure the public record. The public defender's office in Massachusetts has moved to impound the court records over Tamerlan's arrest for domestic violence. The FBI has been less than forthcoming about its investigation into Tamerlan's suspected ties to terrorist groups. Now, the Deval Patrick Administration is blocking access to records about public assistance the Brothers received. 

Terrorists have struck again on American soil. Every public record related to the suspects must be brought into the light of day. Transparency is sometimes embarrassing. That, however, is the smallest price to pay when tragedy has struck.

Boston suspects discussed second attack in Times Square

www.timessquarenyc.org

usnews

By Richard Esposito, Jonathan Dienst, Jeff Rossen and Erin McClam, NBC News

The surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has told investigators that he and his brother discussed detonating the rest of their explosives in Times Square, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News on Thursday.
The surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, initially told investigators that they planned to go to New York to party after the Boston attack, one source said. The New York police commissioner also gave this account Wednesday.
Under subsequent questioning, the officials said, Tsarnaev said that the brothers had discussed a follow-up attack on Times Square.
The officials cautioned that the idea was undeveloped. One senior official described the plan as “aspirational at most.”
Tsarnaev, wounded in a shootout with police before he was captured Friday, is in fair condition at a Boston hospital. His older brother and the second suspect, Tamerlan, was killed after the shootout.
Three people were killed and more than 200 wounded when two bombs went off near the marathon finish line April 15.
The subsequent questioning happened before Tsarnaev was read his rights, the officials said.
Times Square was the site of an attempted car bomb on May 1, 2010. The bomb never detonated. Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born naturalized American citizen, confessed to that plot.
Earlier Thursday, the Tsarnaev brothers’ mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, insisted from Russia that her sons were innocent.

Russia’s Multiple Warnings About Tamerlan Tsarnaev but unheeded in Washington

FrontPage Magazine

By Matthew Vadum 

Russian authorities warned the Obama administration repeatedly — not merely once — that Boston Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev could be an Islamic terrorist, but those admonitions went unheeded in Washington, D.C.

It’s a depressingly familiar tale of intelligence failures, official lies, politically correct posturing, and bureaucratic bungles coming from an administration that has little interest in protecting Americans from the Islamic terrorist threat, a danger President Obama refuses even to acknowledge. 

Time magazine previously reported that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) warned the U.S. government about Tsarnaev a single time two years ago, after he frequented a radical mosque in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, during a six-month visit to that politically unstable, jihadist-friendly Russian republic. The mosque is reportedly a terrorist hangout.

But the Boston Globe now reports there were several such warnings.

On Tuesday, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were told during a briefing closed to the public that Russia made “multiple contacts” with the United States regarding Tsarnaev, including “at least once since October 2011,’’ Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told reporters.

The FBI previously acknowledged its investigators interviewed Tsarnaev in early 2011 but did not determine him to be a threat. He was not placed on the “no-fly” list.

As FrontPage reported last September, FBI agents aren’t allowed to treat individuals associated with terrorist groups as potential threats to the nation.

The fact that a terrorism suspect is associated with a terrorist group officially means nothing, according to the FBI document, “Guiding Principles: Touchstone Document on Training.”

After first handcuffing FBI agents investigating terrorism, the “Touchstone” document also invokes the gods of political correctness by making agents afraid of asking useful questions that might produce actionable information.

“Training must emphasize that no investigative or intelligence collection activity may be based solely on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religious affiliation,” the Touchstone document reads, borrowing some language from civil rights legislation.

“Specifically, training must focus on behavioral indicators that have a potential nexus to terrorist or criminal activity, while making clear that religious expression, protest activity, and the espousing of political or ideological beliefs are constitutionally protected activities that must not be equated with terrorism or criminality absent other indicia of such offenses.”

It’s not that much of an exaggeration to say that the FBI could not have done anything about Tsarnaev unless he strapped on a suicide vest in front of them, called them “infidels,” and detailed his abominable plans. Diverting attention away from the Obama White House, the Boston Globe article fatuously editorializes that the new revelation of multiple warnings from the FSB raises “new questions about whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected Boston Marathon bomber.”

After the closed-door briefing, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) criticized the multiple intelligence failures.

“This is troubling to me that this many years after the attacks on our country in 2001 that we still seem to have stovepipes that prevent information from being shared effectively,” Collins said, without elaborating.

Tsarnaev’s name had been entered into the “Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment” (TIDE), a classified database created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center. The system holds files on about 450,000 people U.S. officials regard as known, suspected, or potential terrorists worldwide.

The system is so large U.S. investigators do not routinely keep tabs on every individual listed there, according to a Reuters report. That explanation, however, seems a bit too convenient. The alternate explanation unexplored in the news item is that the Obama administration doesn’t care about terrorism.

This isn’t the first time someone flagged in the TIDE database has later been involved in an Islamic terrorist plot against the United States. Somehow Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian “Underwear Bomber,” got onboard a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day 2009 and tried to blow it out of the sky.

Months earlier his father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a prominent banker in Nigeria who visits the U.S. frequently, warned U.S. authorities of his son’s growing extremism and the possibility he might be involved in something untoward.

U.S. government officials said they didn’t put Abdulmutallab’s name on a “no-fly” list because they didn’t have sufficient derogatory information about him. In January last year he received four sentences of life imprisonment plus an additional 50 years.

Meanwhile, the Boston Herald reports that Massachusetts taxpayers were subsidizing the Boston Marathon bombers and their almost comically dysfunctional family as the two Tsarnaev brothers immersed themselves in the world of Islamic terrorism.

In the lead-up to the Boston attack he masterminded, now-decommissioned terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev added insult to injury by living large on state welfare benefits, leeching off the good people of the Bay State he despised so much.

“The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money,” the newspaper observes.

Killed by police last Friday, Tamerlan received welfare benefits from an unknown start date until 2012. His wife and their three-year-old daughter also received those benefits. Tamerlan and his brother, the now-hospitalized bomber number two, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also received welfare through their parents when they were younger.

Although Massachusetts Health and Human Services spokesman Alec Loftus said the Tsarnaevs “were not receiving transitional assistance benefits at the time” of the marathon bombing, he refused to provide details about the benefits the family was given.

Then there is the still unresolved matter of Saudi visa student Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi.

When Alharbi was hospitalized after being injured in the Boston bomb blast, the government reportedly labeled him a “suspect,” but soon watered down that description, calling him a “person of interest,” and eventually a mere “witness.”

But days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer Congressman Jeff Duncan’s (R-S.C.) questions about the mysterious circumstances surrounding Alharbi (also spelled al-Harbi), she made a startling admission Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Napolitano if Alharbi was on a watchlist, “and if so, how did he obtain a student visa?” She replied:

“He was not on a watchlist. What happened is — this student was, really when you back it out, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was never a subject. He was never even really a person of interest. Because he was being interviewed, he was at that point put on a watchlist, and then when it was quickly determined he had nothing to do with the bombing, the watch listing status was removed.”

If Napolitano has her watchlist facts right, this means the Obama administration puts individuals on watchlists when they are merely questioned as part of an investigation. This seems drastic and presumptuous, and if true, a new cause to alarm civil libertarians.

The media has reported conflicting information about whether Alharbi is or was at one point on the government’s “no-fly” list, and whether he is or was scheduled to be deported from the U.S.

Many questions remain about Alharbi and the confusing paper trail the government created around him.

Glenn Beck’s news website, The Blaze, previously reported that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center (NTC) created an “event” file on Alharbi under section 212 (3b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the part of the federal statute that deals with aliens involved in terrorism.

Then yesterday The Blaze updated this information, reporting that the NTIC event file described Alharbi as “armed and dangerous.”

“Alharbi was admitted into the country under a ‘special advisory option,’ which is usually reserved for visiting politicians, VIPs, or journalists,” according to The Blaze. “The event file cover page indicates he was granted his status without full vetting.”

Jihadists must be delighted that Saudi nationals will be eligible next year to receive preferential treatment from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency when they enter the United States.

Like travelers from Canada, Mexico, South Korea, the Netherlands, and soon Australia, travelers from Saudi Arabia will be able to skip the usual CBP lines at airports by providing their fingerprints and machine-readable passports at an automated kiosk, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reports.

As the CBP puts it, the Global Entry “trusted traveler” program “allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States.”

Given the fact that the Obama administration denies Islamic terrorism is a major threat to the U.S. and has been aiding Islamist organizations in at least Libya, Egypt, and Syria, there is little reason to be reassured when CBP boasts that “[a]ll applicants undergo a rigorous background check and interview before enrollment.”

DHS Secretary Napolitano thinks allowing the Wahhabist kingdom that produced 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers to share in vetting Global Entry speed-pass applicants makes perfect sense.

“By enhancing collaboration with the government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel,” Napolitano said in January after meeting with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

But given Saudi Arabia’s long and odious track record as an incubator for jihadists and underwriter of terrorist operations, perhaps allowing the Saudis to join the exclusive Global Entry club isn’t such a good idea.

Maybe, at a minimum, we should make them wait in line at the airport like everyone else.

O'Reilly: 'Lone wolf' vs. conspiracy in Boston terror attack

The FBI Fosters, Funds and Equips American Terrorists

corbettreport

What did the FBI and CIA know about bombing suspects, and when?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read on usnews >>

Tamerlan Tsarnaev Was on Terrorist Watch List

reuters
By Elizabeth Sheld 

Reuters is reporting that sources close to the Boston Marathon bombing say Tamerlan Tsarnaev was listed on the government's "highly classified" database of potential terrorists. "But the list is so vast that this did not mean authorities automatically kept close tabs on him." 

The sources said Tamerlan Tsarnaev's details were entered into TIDE, a database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, because the FBI spoke to him in 2011 while investigating a Russian tip-off that he had become a follower of radical Islamists.

The database holds more than a half million names, "although they represented about 450,000 actual people, because some of the entries are aliases or different name spellings for the same person."

But Tsarnaev was not put on the "no fly" list nor put on the Selectee List, which requires additional airport security. 

After being put in the TIDE system, his name was entered in another database, this one maintained by the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection bureau which is used to screen people crossing U.S. land borders and entering at airports or by sea.

However, because the FBI had not found Tsarnaev to be a threat, when he returned from his trip to Russia he had already been "downgraded" and did not get extra scrutiny upon re-entry to the U.S. 

If, in fact, the US knew Tsarnaev was on his way to Russia, did we warn the Russians (as they warned us) that he was on his way over there? 

Yesterday there were two closed door hearings involving the FBI's handling of the matter. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano confirmed that government was aware Tsarnaev had left the country.

Suspected Boston Bomber's Mosque Founded by Convicted Terrorist

breitbart

By Kerry Picket 

Islamic Society of Boston/
joshkuchinsky.com

The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) has become the center of attention since it was discovered that now deceased suspected marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a member of the mosque. ISB is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

The Islamic Society of Boston was founded in part by Abdurahman Alamoudi in 1981, according to the New York Sun, and was the first president of the mosque. Alamoudi is currently serving a 23 year sentence in federal prison as he was convicted in 2004 of participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

Additionally, according to the Sun, Alamoudi raised funds for Al Qaeda:

In July, Alamoudi was cited in a Treasury Department press release designating the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, a U.K.-based Saudi oppositionist organization, led by Saad al-Faqih, as providing material support for Al Qaeda. MIRA "received approximately $1 million in funding through Abdulrahman Alamoudi," the statement said.

"According to information available to the U.S.Government," the statement continues, "the September 2003 arrest of Alamoudi was a severe blow to Al Qaeda, as Alamoudi had a close relationship with Al Qaeda and had raised money for Al Qaeda in the United States." The Treasury Department has declined to provide further information, saying the material is classified.

In addition, according to an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post co-authored by local pro-Israel activist Charles Jacobs, a man named Jamal Badawi is allegedly a trustee of the ISB Cultural Center. Badawi was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, and apparently holds beliefs and has made statements that have raised additional concerns.

Before Badawi became director of the Halifax-based Islamic Information Foundation, he was allegedly a Board of Directors member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and founding incorporator of the Muslim American Society, according to Steve Emerson.

In 2004 Badawi issued a fatwa at the website Islamonline citing six conditions for physically assaulting one’s wife.

According to the Sun, Badawi considered the September 11, 2001 attacks “un-Islamic,” telling an interviewer, "I strongly condemn the September 11 attacks ... whoever did it," adding, "It is not confirmed yet who is actually behind the attacks." He went on to say:

This has to be investigated as to who is actually behind this ... There have been allegations that I cannot confirm that people going to the market to buy vegetables are stopped in the name of inspecting their cars by [American] forces, their hands are tied and they are blindfolded. There have been cases and I want a clarification from American officials to these allegations. After inspecting their cars they are allowed to go and when the car reaches [the] checkpoint it explodes and they call them suicide bombers, perhaps the occupants of the car were not even aware that they are carrying a bomb in their car. Such incidents should be thoroughly probed.

Badawi’s friend and mentor Yousef Al-Qaradawi, according to Patrick Poole of FrontPageMag.com, has been listed as a “’Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ by the U.S. government since 1999.”

ISB sent out a press release late Saturday night responding to the bombings at the Boston marathon on Monday as well as the kill and capture of the two suspects responsible for the attack:

The Islamic Society of Boston Cambridge Masjid and community is proud and thankful to our law enforcement officials in apprehending the second Boston bombing suspect. We are also proud of our Boston community for responding immediately to the requests of the authorities for information. While we are all relieved that our weeklong nightmare has ended, it has come with the price of the life of one of our police officers who was brutally killed and another injured. We cannot help but feel deeply troubled and saddened.

Both these suspects, we have discovered, were known to our Boston Community--to our public schools, to their local boxing club, and even to the FBI. Both suspects were occasional visitors to our Faith Community in Cambridge. Our community, and people in the institutions above, are in shock to have learned the crimes of these individuals. In their visits they never exhibited any violent sentiments or behaviour. Otherwise, they would have been immediately reported to the FBI. After we learned of their identities, we encouraged anyone who knew them in our congregation to immediately report to law enforcement, which has taken place.

Reporters visited the ISB on Saturday and walked around the building. All visitors and members are required to remove their shoes before entering either of the prayer rooms. As per the Islamic religion, the genders are separated during prayers. On the upper floor, men pray to Mecca in the building’s largest room on a red illustrious carpeted floor. A foot washing area is also available on the upper floor. In the complex’s basement, near the building’s office, women pray in a considerably smaller less impressive room on a white padded floor. 

Massachusetts politicians are scrambling over their own connections to the mosque and its sister organization in Roxbury. According to reports, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick rescinded an invitation for the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center to speak at last Thursday’s interfaith service in Boston to honor the Boston Marathon attack victims.