The Enemy is within the Walls

Allowing Terrorist Training Camps in the United States

The Obama administration is allowing the establishment of over 30 terrorist training camps in the United States and not shutting them down.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a terrorist group with a training camp in New York – in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock – called “Islamberg.” New information indicates that the group may have connections with the “D.C. Beltway Sniper” John Allen Muhammed, slain U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, Wadih El-Hage (a secretary to Osama bin Laden who also had several friends convicted in the 1993 WTC bombing), and Ghulam Mustafa (aka Omar and aka Shahjee who has close ties to Osama bin Laden and has intimate knowledge of al-Qaeda’s logistics/financing and its nexus with the military in Pakistan). In 1980, Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani founded in New York the Jamaat ul-Fuqra or “community of the impoverished.” Gilani, aka “the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr,” desires to “purify” Islam through violence. Gilani is also the founder of a village in South Carolina called “Holy Islamville” (Anonymous, 2006).

Jeffrey Cozzens and William Rosenau (2009) stated that no major terrorist attacks have occurred in the United States since September 11, 2001. However, the United States has not been immune from terrorist plots involving jihadist activists. During the past eight years, authorities have prosecuted so-called “homegrown” U.S. terrorists – U.S. citizens or residents with few, if any, meaningful operational ties to terrorists overseas – in California, New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere. The Jami at al-Islam al-Sahih (JIS) case is informative on several levels. First, it suggests a high correlation among terrorists’ training curriculum, authoritative ideological framing, and target selection in the United States – a linkage that we should study in subsequent research on other terrorist plots. Second, it is obvious that JIS focuses on striking political, military, and religious targets, which receives relatively little official attention than U.S. critical infrastructure, such as electrical and transportation systems.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Laura Grossman (2009) wrote that intelligence services and experts increasingly focus on the threat of “homegrown terrorism,” terrorist attacks perpetrated by persons either born or raised in the West. Homegrown terrorists present a specific concern because of the increasing quantity of Westerners who join militant Islamic movements, and because of the operatives’ familiarity with the targeted societies. Since 2005, over 200 men and women born and/or raised in the West have participated in or supported Islamic terrorist plots and attacks. Several studies have examined the demographics of homegrown Islamic terrorists and a few studies on social affiliations. However, until 2009, no empirical study has examined the process through which the terrorists are being radicalized, which constitutes a substantial gap in the literature. The study addressed the gap with an empirical examination of behavioral manifestations of the radicalization process in 117 homegrown “jihadist” terrorists from the United States and United Kingdom.

Jamie Glazov (2009), editor of Frontpage Magazine, held an interview with Frontpage Interview’s guest on February 3, 2009, Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com. Mauro is currently a national security researcher for the Christian Action Network (CAN) and a researcher for the Reform Party of Syria. A frequent guest on radio and television programs, Glazov is the author of Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq. You can contact Glazov at [email protected]. Mauro discussed “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around U.S.,” the new documentary that was released by the CAN. The documentary premiered at the Washington, D.C., Landmark Theater on February 11, 2009. The CAN is a non-profit organization and Mauro personally does not receive a penny from the sales. The documentary is simply too important, the threat too severe, and the public too unaware for Mauro not to promote it in every way possible and call himself a patriotic American.

Holger Awakens(2009) reported that a documentary film called “Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.” is out. The film shows 35 terror training camps located in American cities such as Commerce, Georgia; Hancock, New York; and Red House, Virginia. An article from OneNewsNow discusses how and why the U.S. government handcuffs itself from closing the camps. Here is some information from the article: On February 11, 2009, the CAN held a special showing of the film in Washington, D.C. Ryan Mauro, terrorism analyst for CAN, says the video exposes the terrorist training activities run by a Pakistani national known as Sheik Mubarak Ali Gilani. “You see them setting off explosives, training how to kill guards, highjack cars, all forms of terrorist attacks,” says Mauro. “And he actually says on the video if you want training in these tactics [to] contact any of my Muslim in America compounds in the United States.”

Kathy Shaidle (2009), blogger, author, and advisor, reported that rumors of Islamic terrorist training camps operating within the United States and Canada have been making the rounds ever since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The documentary, called “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around the U.S,” was produced by the CAN. The filmmakers claim that dozens of radical Muslim terrorist compounds currently exist across America, basing that claim upon a mysterious, untitled 2006 Regional Organized Crime Information Center report prepared for the Department of Justice (DOJ) marked “Dissemination Restricted to Law Enforcement.” RightSideNews attempted to acquire a copy of the document, through both the DOJ and the CAN, without success (at press time). Ryan Mauro, the founder of WorldThreats.com, is also a national security researcher for the CAN. Mauro explained to RightSideNews that the document “is not publicly available” and that CAN’s “copy is kept in a lockbox.”

Robert Spencer (2009) wrote in Jihad Watch that the Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, leader of the jihad terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra, said, “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.” And the way that the Jamaat ul-Fuqra organization are “dealing with evil at its roots” is to set up jihad terror training camps all over the United States – often under the noses of government and law enforcement officials who are either indifferent or too hamstrung by political correctness to do anything about it. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security included the group among “predicted possible sponsors of attacks” on American soil. And in 2006, the Department of Justice reported that Jamaat ul-Fuqra “has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 3,000 members spread across the United States, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.”

Erick Stakelbeck (2009), CBN News terrorism analyst, reported that Islamic extremists in the United States have traditionally established businesses in large cities with huge Muslim populations, e.g., places like New York City; Dearborn, Michigan; and Washington, D.C. However, one clandestine group does the opposite and calls itself Muslims of America. Established compounds exist throughout rural United States. Members have moved to the countryside to lead peaceful lives free of “Western decadence.” However, others say that does not tell the entire story. CBN News consultant David Gartenstein-Ross said, “Certainly, when you’re in a rural area, it enables you to better escape from the prying eyes of law enforcement.” Gartenstein-Ross said that Muslims of America has ties to the violent Pakistani group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Extremist cleric Sheikh Mubarak Gilani leads both groups. Gilani’s messages and images show throughout the Muslims of America website. Gilani founded the group in 1980 during a visit to Brooklyn.

Paul Strand (2009), Washington senior correspondent with CBN News, wrote that the FBI and DHS told law enforcement agencies to be on the alert for Americans who have trained or fought for extremists overseas and who may be back in the United States recruiting followers for violence. Authorities search for one such man after arresting seven colleagues in North Carolina including alleged ringleader Daniel Patrick Boyd. Boyd fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and now stands accused of preparing a group of Islamic converts in North Carolina to kidnap, kill, and maim people overseas. Anti-terrorism officials say homegrown terrorists are training and recruiting in rural areas of the United States. “They might be softer targets for people to recruit because it’s less law enforcement. There’s less coverage, and you can maybe operate longer below the radar,” former FBI Agent Brad Garrett said.

FOIA Guidelines Rescinded

An anonymous (2009) writer in USA TODAY wrote that “A presumption of openness” is now supposed to guide federal agencies’ responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. On March 19, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to agency heads that reverses FOIA guidelines that have been in place since October 12, 2001 [a month after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center]. The Bush-era presumption, established by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, was that agencies should first assume that information should not be released – and put most of the burden on the requester to prove otherwise. “Any discretionary decision by your agency to disclose information protected under the FOIA should be made only after full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial, and personal privacy interests that could be implicated by disclosure of the information,” Ashcroft wrote in that 2001 memo.

The USA TODAY (2009) article further stated that, in a statement, Holder said, “By restoring the presumption of disclosure that is at the heart of the Freedom of Information Act, we are making a critical change that will restore the public’s ability to access information in a timely manner. The American people have the right to information about their government’s activities, and these new guidelines will ensure they are able to obtain that information under principles of openness and transparency.”  This is a joke because the Obama administration keeps the American people from obtaining any meaningful information from the government. When the White House releases any information under the FOIA, they redact or black out all of the important, useful information under the excuse of national security. That is a bunch of bunk.

Trying Terrorists in New York Court

Ron Kessler (2009), chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, wrote that the Obama administration’s decision to try admitted terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) in federal court in New York “dramatically” increases danger to New Yorkers, former FBI official James Kallstrom tells Newsmax. New York already was the No. 1 target for terrorists, says Kallstrom, who was assistant FBI director in New York and became Homeland Security director for the state after leaving the bureau. “Without question, it adds dramatically to the possibility New York will be attacked, whether by al-Qaida or lone wolves or by self-taught radicals who are looking at the Wahabi sect and radicalizing themselves. New York is where press coverage is going to be the greatest. You just take another Broadway theater and make it 10 times bigger. That is the stage we’ve handed them.”

Kessler (2009) further wrote that the trials could last up to five years, says Kallstrom, who now is on FBI Director Robert Mueller’s advisory board on science and technology. “There’ll be closed subway stations,” he says. “There’s going to be tremendous, tremendous inconvenience, cost, and risk. Do I have a lot of faith in the lawyers of the Southern District? Absolutely. I spent almost three decades with them, and they’re the best. But why these folks have constitutional rights as citizens or resident aliens of this country is beyond me. We’ve never brought a battlefield combatant into our civilian judicial system. I have not heard any explanation that passes the laugh test, quite frankly.”

Kessler (2009) further stated that Kallstrom called the decision to try terrorists in federal court “nonsensical.” Kallstrom notes that Congress created the military tribunal structure in accordance with a Supreme Court decision. “They’re planning on bringing numerous other people before the military tribunals, so the explanation of why you’d bring these five to the Southern District of New York and put them in the civil system just defies logic,” Kallstrom says. In Kallstrom’s view, the decision represents a return to pre-9/11 thinking, when the government thought it could handle the terrorist threat with a law enforcement approach. That only led to the 9/11 attacks, Kallstrom say.

Kessler (2009) wrote further that Kallstrom says, “I don’t see where it makes any sense on any level.” Why would you inconvenience the entire city of New York, spend hundreds of millions of dollars, take the chance of classified information disclosure, run through the hot coals government people who have done nothing but try to protect this country, and give an opportunity to raise holy hell on discovery to lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild who are going to defend this guy? “The only thing I can think of is you want some sort of theater.”

Conclusion

Is the Obama administration supporting terrorists? Yes! Are we safer today than we were in the last seven years of the Bush administration after 9/11? No! Everything that’s being done to marginalize the CIA, DoD, and DHS has weakened our national security, national defense, homeland security, and homeland defense. They place We the People in “harm’s way.” The United States has reverted to way beyond the pre-9/11 mentality.

References

Anonymous (2006, June 22). Right truth: Jamaat al Fuqra terrorist training camps in New York and across America (with connections to Daniel Pearl, and others). Retrieved from righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2006/06/jamaat_al_fuqra.html.

Anonymous (2009, March 19). Holder rescinds Ashcroft-era FOIA guidelines. USA TODAY. Retrieved from content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/03/64373133/1.

Cozzens, J. B., & Rosenau, W. (2009, August). Training for terror: The “homegrown” case of Jami at al-Islam al-Sahih. CTC Sentinel, 2(8), 20-23.

Gartenstein-Ross, D., & Grossman, L. (2009, April). Homegrown terrorists in the U.S. and U.K.: An empirical examination of the radicalization process. Washington, D.C.: FDD Press of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Glazov, J. (2009, February 3). Terrorist camps in America. FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved from www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID=7C52675D-0E6C-4026-BADE-D2A80C777099.

Holger Awakens(2009, February 14). 35 terrorist training camps located inside the U.S. exposed in documentary. Retrieved from holgerawakens.blogspot.com/2009/02/35-terrorist-training-camps-located.html.

Kessler, R. (2009, November 23). Terror trial endangers New Yorkers, former FBI official says. Newsmax.com. Retrieved from www.newsmax.com/kessler/terror_trial_New_York/2009/11/23/289579.html.

Shaidle, K. (2009, February 24). Islam in America: Part three: Islamic compounds in America. Right Side News. Retrieved from www.rightsidenews.com/200902223753/homeland-security/islam-in-america-islamic-compounds-in-america.html.

Spencer, R. (2009, February 19). Spencer: Terror training camps on American soil. Jihad Watch. Retrieved from www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024916.php. 

Stakelbeck, E. (2007, September 22). Terrorists training in rural America? CBN News. Retrieved from www.cbn.com/CBNnews/233691.aspx?option=print.

Strand, P. (2009, July 29). Feds concerned over American ‘jihadists.’ CBN News. Retrieved from www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2009/July/Federal-Officials-Concerned-over-American-Jihadists-/.