Big Brother is Watching: Reauthorizing the Patriot Act

Here we go again, fellow Americans. The USA PATRIOT Act is currently undergoing debate by Congress. 

We all know what the original PATRIOT Act accomplished: mass arrests, searches and seizures, ethnic and religious profiling, secret evidence and deportations, effectively negated our Constitutional rights to free speech and association. Not to mention the breaking down of Constitutional firewalls, and violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. These precious liberties are directly threatened by an act passed in haste and without due consideration in an atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and revenge-seeking.

In brief, the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, was enacted by Congress and signed by President Bush on October 26, 2001. PL107-56 provides expanded law enforcement authorities to enhance the federal government’s efforts to detect and deter acts of terrorism in the United States or against United States’ interests abroad. 

Although there have been some curbing of its powers since it was initially passed, an overview of the powers of the USA PATRIOT Act include:
- All but eliminates judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance;
- Greatly expands the government’s ability to conduct secret searches;
- Chills constitutionally protected speech through overbroad definitions of “terrorism”; and
- Grants the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, mental health, financial and educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and without a court order.
 

Also, Federal Executive Orders, which:
- Establish secret military tribunals for suspects;
- Permit wiretapping of conversations between federal prisoners and their lawyers;
- Lift Justice Department regulations against illegal COINTELPRO-type operations by the FBI (covert activities that in the past targeted domestic groups and individuals); and
- Limit the disclosure of public documents and records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Additionally, on November 25, 2002, the President signed Public Law 107-296 that created a Department of Homeland Security. As of result of this law, on March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) moved from the DOJ to the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
 

On October 20, 2009, H.R. 3845, or the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA). These same committee leaders introduced the FISA Amendments Act of 2009 that seeks to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that will safeguard the constitutional rights of Americans while ensuring that the government has the tools it needs to collect foreign intelligence.

Although the proposed revisions seek to amend and extend the sunsetting PATRIOT Act and related provisions originally established to combat terrorism, while enhancing the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, there still are some troubling provisions that need to be addressed which permit prosecutions of those who work to bring humanitarian aid to victims of conflict. Under the "material support" provision, these aid workers and the charities they are with can be prosecuted if they give any assistance whatsoever to one of these victims of conflict. How cockeyed and unjust is it that someone can go to jail--and be held in isolation, suffering all means of inhumane treatment--for simply providing a bandaid or a sip of water?!

This same ridiculous law allows the government to sift through an individual's electronic correspondence, their phone calls, bank accounts, where they travel, who they speak with, what books they read, or what websites they visit. All without evidence of any criminal activity or intent!!! Can you say "BIG BROTHER????"

I encourage each of you to write to your congressperson and ask them to fix this flawed Act. 

The law needs to be rewritten to ensure that the government can only obtain the telephone, internet, financial and other records of those who are CREDIBLE suspected terrorists or spies, not law-abiding Americans or immigrants. Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Homeland Security should be required to provide REASONABLE notice when a suspect's home is searched. Moreover, Muslims should not be fearful of giving their Zakat to humanitarian causes, allowing those in need of food, medical services, or clean water to receive life-saving aid.

If you do not know how to contact your congressperson, or if you don't know who he/she is, please click here.

CALL TODAY!!!

Feds: Leader of radical Islam group killed in raid

Making dawah in our prisons is a very important issue. One of the main benefits of doing so is to help those who know no other life than a life of crime. Islam helps to calm these folks, and gives them a purpose other than that which they have been accustomed to, and are possibly predisposed by their environment and lack of family structure.

The majority of those who embrace Islam while incarcerated come out disciplined, with a moral compass, becoming productive members of society. Unfortunately, some are ripe for recruitment into radical beliefs by self-styled "imams" who may ignore the meaning of Islam and true teachings of our beloved Prophet Mohammed (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). (All of this raises one more question: what qualifies a person to be an imam? That they know how to recite some Qur'an? If so, this is a dangerous method of vetting who teaches/leads Islam/Muslims in the west.)

Like the guys in Illinois that were allegedly planning mayhem in the Netherlands, or foolish kids who allegedly planned to blow up a landmark to make a point--and kill innocent people in the process--the Muslims who break Allah's cardinal rules should face justice. I just have one question: Are these Muslims reading the same Qur'an that I read?!

Committing violent acts against the US is committing acts against innocent people. Like the bombings in Pakistan markets, killing innocent people is in no way EVER advocated in Islam. The Holy Qur'an says in Surah 5:32, "Whosoever took a single life, except if it be for murder or spreading of mayhem and corruption in the land, it would be as if he has killed the whole of humanity. And, likewise, if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind."

Murder is murder!

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FEDS: Leader of radical Islam group killed in raid

By Ed White, Associated Press Writer

 

DETROIT – A man described as a leader of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S. was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire with federal agents, authorities said.

Agents at a warehouse in Dearborn were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Ten followers listed in a criminal complaint were also being rounded up in the area.

Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said.

In a court filing, the FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the United States.

No one was charged with terrorism. But Abdullah was "advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States," FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit.
"He regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric," Leone said. "Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use of firearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting."

Leone said members of the national group mostly are black and some converted to Islam while in prisons across the United States.

"Abdullah preaches that every Muslim should have a weapon, and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed," Leone wrote.

It was not immediately clear how many of the other 10 suspects were in custody.

The group believes that a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two police officers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said. Al-Amin, a veteran of the black power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam in prison.

"They're not taking their cues from overseas," said Jimmy Jones, a professor of world religions at Manhattanville College and a longtime Muslim prison chaplain. "This group is very much American born and bred."

The movement at one time was believed to include a couple of dozen mosques around the country. Ummah is now dwarfed in numbers and influence by other African-American Muslim groups, particularly the mainstream Sunnis who were led by Imam W.D. Mohammed, who recently died.
By evening, authorities still were working the scene near the Detroit-Dearbornpolice tape
 
The U.S. attorney's office said an FBI dog was also killed during the shootout.

Abdullah's mosque is in a brick duplex on a quiet, residential street in Detroit. A sign on the door in English and Arabic reads, in part, "There is no God but Allah."

Several men congregated on the porch Wednesday night and subsequently attacked a photographer from The Detroit News who was taking pictures from across the street. Ricardo Thomas had his camera equipment smashed and had a bloody lip from the attack.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said the FBI had briefed him about Wednesday's raids and told him they were the result of a two-year investigation.

"We know that this is not something to be projected as something against Muslims," Hamad said.
___
Associated Press writers David Runk, Corey Williams, David N. Goodman and Rachel Zoll contributed to this story.

CAIR: Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/28/09) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today distributed an editorial, entitled “Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims,” outlining what the Washington-based Muslim civil rights group says is a campaign by “extremists of all stripes who coordinate and cooperate in a relentless effort to demonize Islam and deprive American Muslims of their civil rights.”

 

CAIR distributed the editorial through ISLAM-OPED, a syndication service designed to offer an American Muslim perspective on current political, social and religious issues. ISLAM-OPED commentaries are offered free-of-charge to one media outlet in each market area. Permission for publication will be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. (Contact: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com)

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CAIR: Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims
Nihad Awad

[Nihad Awad is national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s leading Muslim civil liberties organization. He may be contacted at nawad@cair.com.]

“Are you a believer?” asked the participant in a Capitol Hill gathering of Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers who -- according to conference materials -- were seeking to promote “freedom of speech and religion.”

When CAIR’s intern answered, “Yes, of course,” the conference participant -- whose card indicated he works for “Encountering Islam Christian Ministry” and obviously thinking “believer” meant something other than Muslim -- replied, “Good, because we want to cut their [Muslims’] necks off.”

Just one hour later, the officially-registered intern was asked to leave the conference, which was held in the U.S. Congressional Auditorium, because “some of the panel members do not feel comfortable with you being here.” So much for freedom of speech and religion.

Before being ejected, CAIR’s intern heard one audience member seek advice from a panelist as to how American Muslim rights could be “curtailed,” given the fact that “unfortunately” Islam itself cannot be outlawed.

But not to worry - one of the speakers at the Washington, D.C., conference does advocate outlawing Islam in America. That speaker, David Yerushalmi, works for one of the other speakers at the conference, Frank Gaffney Jr.

Other panelists included anti-Islam hate blogger Pam Geller, who has appeared at Muslim-bashing events with Gaffney and with another conference speaker, Florida House of Representatives Majority Leader Adam Hasner. Hasner recently hosted an appearance by extremist anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert “ban the Quran” Wilders in Florida, which was co-hosted by the hate blogger and promoted by another conference panelist, Tom Trento of the Florida Security Council.

Does all this make sense? It does if you understand that there is an “Islamophobia Machine” made up of extremists of all stripes who coordinate and cooperate in a relentless effort to demonize Islam and deprive American Muslims of their civil rights.

The list of attendees at CAIR’s recent sold-out 15th annual banquet in Arlington, Va., further illustrates how the Islamophobia machine works.

Two of those who purchased tickets for the banquet were notorious Islamophobes with histories of Muslim-bashing and associations with hate groups.

Among the 750 Muslim community members and activists, interfaith leaders and diplomats from Muslim-majority nations who heard addresses by speakers such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Progressive Faith Foundation were the two “moles” a hijab-clad representative of an anti-Islam group and a “counterterrorism consultant” who claims Thomas Jefferson only owned a Quran “so that he could know his enemy, so he could confront them, know them, kill them.”

The consultant, John Cosgrove, made that claim weeks earlier as he protested the “Day of Islamic Unity,” during which thousands of American Muslims gathered for prayer on Capitol Hill. Cosgrove is head of the Virginia chapter of the anti-Muslim hate group called the United American Committee (UAC). He was one of the main opponents of the expansion of an Islamic school in Virginia.

In 2007, the head of the UAC called Islam a “cult” and said terrorists are “honest” Muslims. He also stated that anyone who believes Muslims are not the “enemy” is “incredibly ignorant or a simple-minded fool.”

SEE: GOP Women's Group Promotes Anti-Muslim Hate

Hijab-wearing mole number two, Christine Brim, is senior vice president for policy and program management at the Center for Security Policy. She was asked to leave the event after being observed surreptitiously recording the banquet speeches, despite earlier being given legal notice that such recordings were prohibited. Instead of speaking to security personnel, Brim immediately fled to the hotel’s exit. (CAIR’s dinner was an open event with media present. Unauthorized recordings are prohibited only to prevent abuse by those who have, in the past, sought to smear the speakers by distorting their words.)

Brim, along with Cosgrove, was an opponent of the Islamic school in Virginia. Her group and its President Frank Gaffney Jr. actively promote the racist and anti-Islam ideology of David Yerushalmi, the center’s general counsel, who has advocated outlawing the practice of Islam in America and permanently closing all U.S. mosques.

SEE: Center for Security Policy Staff

In a 2007 commentary headlined “War Manifesto -- The War Against Islam,” Yerushalmi called for a “war against Islam and all Muslim faithful.” He wrote in part: “On the so-called Global War on Terrorism, GWOT, we have been quite clear along with a few other resolute souls. This should be a WAR AGAINST ISLAM and all Muslim faithful…At a practical level, this means that Shari’a and Islamic law are immediately outlawed. Any Moslem in America who adopts historical and traditional Shari’a will be subject to deportation. Mosques which adhere to Islamic law will be shut down permanently. No self-described or practicing Muslim, irrespective of his or her declarations to the contrary, will be allowed to immigrate to this country…”

Another such “manifesto” called for making “adherence to Islam” punishable by a 20-year prison term.

In a 2006 article for The American Spectator, Yerushalmi wrote: "Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization…The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies."

In another article, Yerushalmi wrote: “Instead of a promise of victory, Sura 24:52 must be made ashes in the mouths of Muslims. A seemingly unending air control campaign over enemy territory is the way to continually remind the Muslims of their subordinate status and the impotence of Allah without becoming mired in the quagmire of counterinsurgency.”

He also wrote that he “has staked out an approach which is to Know the Enemy by declaring the enemy historical, traditional, and authoritative Islam.”

Yerushalmi’s website once contained the following white supremacist language as part of its mission statement:

“America was the handiwork of faithful Christians, mostly men, and almost entirely white, who ventured from Europe to create a nation in their image of a country existing as free men under G-d.”

Other articles on his website made racist statements such as: “There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote,” and "Race matters and affects your intelligence. Jews are the smartest white people around. Orientals smarter than Whites. Latinos next. Then Blacks.”

Another article stated: “Is there something unique about the Black American (or, at least the Black New Yorker) that leads him to murder so disproportionately and to most often kill and victimize his own?”

Yerushalmi is also the former employer of Dave Gaubatz, his one-time “Director of Intelligence and Counter-terrorism Studies” and author of a Muslim-bashing book. In 2007, Yerushalmi’s group paid Gaubatz $148,898 for “research.”

Gaubatz has a long history of bigotry targeting Islam and Muslims. He has called Islam an “evil ideology” and a “terminal disease.” Along with his past rhetorical attacks Islam, Gaubatz has called President Obama a “crack head” and wrote that “a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.”

It is becoming obvious to anyone who puts all the parts of the Islamophobia machine together that American Muslims are being targeted by a coordinated and well-funded nationwide effort to disenfranchise their community and demonize their faith.

 
This insidious effort will only succeed if Americans of all faiths fail take a stand against un-American attempts to divide our nation along religious lines.

In Harm's Way

My nephew is in the army heading for Afghanistan. He will be defusing bombs. He is Catholic. 

The sons of two good friends--and boys who I feel towards as if they were my own sons--are both Marines and are also heading to the battlefield. They are both Muslim.

My dad--who passed away last week--was a proud American Muslim Marine. So was my brother and Uncle. I grew up growling "Semper Fi." When the US made overtures for war in Iraq, I was out on the street corner like so many others protesting the possibility of the US invading a nation that had nothing to do with September 11, 2001--except in the imagination of Dick Cheney. Yes, Sadam was a murderous dictator; however, he was a "problem" that a single bullet could have taken care of. The war in Iraq was all about getting even Texas style.

Like most American Muslims, my heart bleeds for the sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters who have or will die in armed combat. My heart also bleeds for all the civilians who were/are/will be collateral damage for a bastardized cause long lost in the fallout.

Wake-Up Call, The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow, a book by Kristen Breitweiser states, "The thought of prolonging the war in Iraq sickened me. Ron had died a senseless death. Knowing thousands of American families were going to suffer the senseless deaths of their sons or daughters in Iraq infuriated me. As far as I was concerned, the Iraq war was linked to 9/11 only by revenge, lies, oil, and the arrogance of individuals."

As the aunt and surrogate mother to young men going to war, I heartily agree...

Place Your Bet: Will Taliban Payoff Be Al-Qaeda's Downfall?

An October 27, 2009 BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8329129.stm states, "The US military in Afghanistan is to be allowed to pay Taliban fighters who renounce violence against the government in Kabul...The move is included in a defence bill which President Obama is set to sign...Such payments have already been widely used by US commanders in Iraq, but it is the first time the system is being formally adopted in Afghanistan..."

Golly gee, Mr. President, did paying the opposing warriors in Iraq to switch sides pay off? I certainly hope so, because last time I heard, most of the Taliban are fighting because of the US occupation of their country, and not in support of Al-Qaeda. 

Former Marine turned diplomat Michael Hoh--who was stationed in Afghanistan--resigned for this very reason stating, "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," Hoh wrote in his resignation letter, dated Sept. 10 but published early Tuesday. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/10/27/2009-10-27_michael_hoh_a_state_department_official_resigns_over_white_houses_handling_of_af.html#ixzz0VCTkaqTK

I know if the US was invaded by another country on the premise of finding a master criminal (who should have been hunted down and tried by now), and stayed long beyond their worn-out welcome, killing hundreds of civilians in the course of finding said criminal and his cohorts, I would certainly take up arms, legs, and a finger or ten to fight those invaders! 

Afghanistan and the dwellers of the Hindu Kush have a fierce reputation. And, although I highly admire and love our armed forces, we all know what the unconventional fighting style of the Afghanis did to the English, and then the Russians.

Stay tuned to see what decision our fearless leader makes regarding sending the requested 40,000 additional troops to quell the Taliban...