Muslim Terror Cells Operating under black muslim commune front in U.S. - Wash. Times

[Master Blaster]

February 14, 2002


U.S. Muslim group probed for terrorist ties
By Steve Miller and Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Federal authorities have "ratcheted up" an investigation into suspicions of money-laundering, weapons violations, and other aiding and abetting of terrorist groups by a militant sect of black Muslims that is operating out of rural communes throughout the United States. Top Stories

The investigation is based on surveillance of activities between a Muslim settlement in southern Virginia and a suspected Middle Eastern terrorist leader.
The newly enhanced investigation began shortly after Pakistani cleric El Sheik Sayyid Mubarik Ali Gilani was arrested last month in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Sheik Gilani, leader of a terrorist organization known as al-Fuqra, was taken into custody after law enforcement officials learned of communications between the sheik and a commune of the Muslims of America Red House, Va.
Law-enforcement authorities said yesterday that Justice and Treasury department investigators are involved in a comprehensive review of the militant organization, founded by Sheik Gilani in 1980.
The Muslims of the America, a tax-exempt corporation registered in several states, has documented ties to al-Fuqra, which has been linked to numerous firebombings and murders in the United States and Canada.
Authorities also cited evidence that Sheik Gilani recently received money from California, where a charter school district run by Gilani disciples was the focus of a state investigation into $1.3 million in missing government money.
The collection of charter schools, collectively called GateWay Academy Public Charter School, was shuttered last month after GateWay officials could not account for the money.
Authorities said the al-Fuqra probe has become an FBI priority under the newly passed anti-terrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act. FBI agents at the bureau's Washington headquarters have contacted several field agents for additional information on the communes and have begun to question potential witnesses, authorities said.
The renewed effort also is based on evidence gathered in prior cases, a search of land and tax records, increased surveillance and numerous ongoing interviews. Much of the new inquiry is based on several weapons cases developed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other cases prosecuted by state authorities in Colorado.
A former community of the Muslims of America in Colorado was found in 1993 to have sent money to Pakistan, funds that were scattered into more than a dozen Pakistani banks. That money later was linked to Sheik Gilani, said Susan Fenger, then an investigator for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
"That money was traced out of our state to New York, then hand-carried to Pakistan by trusted members of al-Fuqra," Miss Fenger said. Several members of the Colorado group later were convicted of crimes including racketeering and forgery.
The latest investigation is focused on Muslim communities composed entirely of black Americans in New York, California, South Carolina and Virginia.
The groups, which operate under several names but all adhere to the teachings of Sheik Gilani, own rural land in those four states, from the 1,800-acre commune in California to 45-acre and 25-acre parcels in southern Virginia.
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, some federal agents in the case were told to wrap up quickly investigations of the militant Muslim organization so they could concentrate on the September 11 investigation. But agents have since taken what one law-enforcement authority confirms as a "renewed interest in the organization."
Mr. Pearl was seeking to interview Sheik Gilani when he disappeared Jan. 23 in Karachi, Pakistan. He was doing research for a story on militant Muslim sects, including al-Fuqra.
Pakistani police said Mr. Pearl had gone to a restaurant in hopes of arranging an interview with Sheik Gilani. His contact, they said, was a man he knew as Imtiaz Siddique.
Sheik Gilani has been taken into custody by Pakistani police but has not been charged in the case. The Muslim cleric has denied any knowledge of the abduction but has promised a war against "infidels."
The cleric, who is estimated to be around 60 years old, calls his followers "soldiers of Allah." In a videotape obtained by The Washington Times, Sheik Gilani calls on American Muslims to help him form an "international organization."
"We have reached out and prepared them to defend themselves in a highly specialized training in guerrilla warfare," he says, referring to two camouflage-clad black men flanking him. "Life is becoming more hard for Muslims. Therefore, every man and woman will learn to defend himself or herself."
Sheik Gilani left the United States shortly after the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 for his hometown of Lahore. Before then, he was active in recruiting black Americans to send to Pakistan for training in explosives and weapons.
Al-Fuqra members are suspected of 13 firebombings and 17 murders in the United States.

How come we have not heard about this before in the liberal media?

$1.5 million stolen to support terrorists from the California Charter school!!!!??? Was the school district run by taliban John's Parents? Can Public funds support a Muslem religous school If its a CHARTER school?????
:mad: :mad:

[Master Blaster]

FARMVILLE, Va. — A radical Muslim sect with ties to international terrorism is seeking to create a patchwork of "hide-outs" in rural southern Virginia for would-be terrorists and other extremists, according to law-enforcement authorities here.
These sanctuaries, which are communes located throughout the sparsely populated, hilly countryside, have been established to follow the teachings of Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani. One encampment, in nearby Red House, has named its main thoroughfare "Sheik Gilani Road."
Sheik Gilani is a Pakistani cleric who founded the tax-exempt Muslims of the Americas sect in 1980, which is linked to Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist group with a stated commitment to bringing jihad, or holy war, against the United States.
Sheik Gilani is believed to have left the United States in 1993, shortly after the first attack by Muslim terrorists on the World Trade Center.
In addition to providing safe harbor for an unknown number of black American Muslims faithful to Sheik Gilani, authorities believe that members of al-Fuqra are involved in laundering money bound for Pakistan.
"We know these places have become hide-outs for some of the organization's most violent members," said one law-enforcement official familiar with an ongoing investigation by federal, state and local authorities into the al-Fuqra organization.
"The faces of those we have seen in the communities are continually changing. It's unclear who's there at any given time and what they're doing," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
But Sheik Gilani's followers have set up rural encampments throughout the United States and Canada that federal authorities say are linked to murder, bombings and other felonies. It is not clear to authorities where the organization gets its funding, other than a few local odd jobs by group members.
In Virginia, Muslims of the Americas has established communes on 45 acres of land east of Red House in Charlotte County and on 25 acres near Meherrin in neighboring Prince Edward County.
Additionally, a number of black Muslims have purchased smaller lots in the region and attend prayer services at the Red House commune.
Law-enforcement authorities said the organization has been negotiating to purchase an additional 100 acres in Campbell County.
Anywhere from 200 to 300 people, including women and children, are believed to live on the two sites, although the number varies and is hard to confirm, authorities said.
Annual Holy Days gatherings at the Red House encampment have drawn between 400 and 500 people from around the region, according to E.T. Lewis, who lives on an adjacent 150-acre ranch. He said he has maintained cordial relations with his neighbors, but is aware of their commitment to Sheik Gilani.
"These are not the same Muslims that you hear about on television," Mr. Lewis said. "Sometimes they tell you they are Muslims, sometimes they tell your they are your neighbors. But there are a lot of different people there all the time."
Other neighbors said that airplanes circle the commune daily, well aware that these Muslims, who profess peace, are the subject of scrutiny by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"You hope that it's the FBI or the ATF in those planes," said Gary D. Walker, chairman of the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors. "But we never know."
Several years ago, some members of the board — accompanied by deputies — went to the gate of the commune to check on reported zoning violations. They were turned away. More recently, the county was preparing to move on those same violations.
"The [federal] authorities have asked us to lay low," Mr. Walker said. "We have a 50-cent problem; they have a million-dollar problem."
Owners of a gun shop in the area said members of the Muslim communities have bought several weapons over the past few years. They said their weapons of choice are high-priced, heavy-caliber handguns, which are purchased legally by members of the communities who possess valid Virginia driver's licenses.
The owners said most of the purchases occurred before the September 11 attacks — including several men who purchased their legal limit of one handgun every 30 days.
"They are very polite, and they know the law," said one owner. "They show not only valid licenses, none has come up with a criminal record."
The gun-store owners also are aware of the group's devotion to Sheik Gilani as well as al-Fuqra. They sold weapons to Vicente Pierre, who was convicted in November of two felony firearms violations.
Reports of gunfire at the Red House site have stopped since the September 11 attacks and Pierre's arrest.
During a September detention hearing for Pierre, ATF Agent Tom Gallagher described al-Fuqra as a "violent black Muslim extremist sect that acts out jihads against perceived enemies — Hindus, members of the United States, people they feel have Jewish ties."
Al-Fuqra also is suspected of having ties to Richard C. Reid, the British man accused of trying to use explosives in his shoes to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner Dec. 22.
Muslims of the Americas also have established communities in New York, California and South Carolina. The organization claims to be nonviolent, saying in a recent statement that Sheik Gilani "does not condone nor teach us to condone violence, especially against the innocent."
Despite repeated denials, three members of the Red House commune have been arrested on weapons charges in the past year, including two following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed more than 3,000 people.
During raids in 1992 and 1993 on a 101-acre Muslim commune in central Colorado, state authorities turned up bombs, automatic weapons, ammunition and plans for terrorists attacks. At least two of the communes — in New York and California — have shooting ranges.
Since 1980, dozens of people with ties to al-Fuqra in the United States have been jailed for an array of crimes, from schemes to defraud the government to murder. They have been linked to a dozen murders and 17 firebombings in the United States and Canada

[Jamie Young]

Thats the kind of Stuff that Gives Me Nightmares.:(

[tyme]

This is sick.

It appears they're in trouble because they've named their road after a sheik who was "linked" to a terrorist group.

If they are suspected of real crimes, there are well established procedures that legitimate federal agencies have to investigate. Instead there appears to be bootstrapping of guilt based on the name of the road and the fact that some of these people are buying (gasp) handguns. I suppose everyone would be happier if muslims were just completely banned from buying handguns; terrorist groups couldn't possibly get them then. It would be illegal, and everyone knows it's impossible for the average terrorist to obtain firearms from the black market.

No, instead let's have the media mention group members' arrests for unconstitutional weapons law violations and make completely irrelevant observations about the timing of those violations relative to the WTC disaster, and make further comparisons to other alleged terrorist camps against which the government has, at best, tenuous and circumstantial evidence, none of which connects them to the group being discussed.

[Master Blaster]

I have to wonder if we will next hear about this camp in Va. as it is burning to the ground?

The articles did not mention that any crimes have been commited by these folks so far, and they do have the right to live in a commune and worship whomever they like. They even have the right to name the road after a terrorist.

Quote:

"But Sheik Gilani's followers have set up rural encampments throughout the United States and Canada that federal authorities say are linked to murder, bombings and other felonies. It is not clear to authorities where the organization gets its funding, other than a few local odd jobs by group members. "

During a September detention hearing for Pierre, ATF Agent Tom Gallagher described al-Fuqra as a "violent black Muslim extremist sect that acts out jihads against perceived enemies — Hindus, members of the United States, people they feel have Jewish ties."


It is strange that the media has not paid more attention to this group, unless one believes it is for PC reasons.

[Shotgun364]

No surprise here. I often see there people here in brooklyn or in manhattan set up on mock stages, quoting the bible out of context with anti-american BS to stir up hatred. They dress like something out of a conan the barbarian movie. Most of these guys are uneducated ex-cons who found this brand of Islam in prison. The FBI would do well to go to the source of this crap within correctional facilities across the country. Needless to say, I would like to kill them all. F#@* em. :mad:

[pawcatch]

Shotgun,I thought those guys in New York were the Black Israelites.
A lot of them were once in the Nation of Islam.