CAIR-LA’s Tortured Reasoning

CAIR-LA’s Tortured Reasoning


Dear Friends,
Last week ACT for America told the story of how the brother-in-law of an Osama bin Laden bodyguard was arrested after being recorded by an informant saying he wanted to blow up buildings, acquire weapons and send money to the Afghan mujahedeen. We have since learned that the suspect has used unlicensed money transfers to send money to countries like Afghanistan.

CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) and MPAC (the Muslim Public Affairs Council) reacted to the arrest by attacking the FBI for allegedly violating the trust of Muslims by using an informant.

As we noted then, this “attack the messenger” tactic is typical of organizations like CAIR, an organization with ties to Hamas. But in the past few days we are seeing just how far groups like CAIR are willing to go in defending suspected terrorists through scurrilous attacks on law enforcement officials.

In the outrageous CAIR Greater Los Angeles release below, the organization accuses Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot of guilt by association because Eliot gave a contribution to a political organization that had Brigitte Gabriel as a speaker. In sullying the name of this Assistant U.S. Attorney, there’s no mistaking CAIR’s despicable allegation: that Eliot is every bit as guilty of associating with extremists as the Muslim who has been arrested.

To compare a law enforcement official, who has made a perfectly legal contribution to an organization that has the legal right to have speakers of its choosing, with a man who has been recorded on tape saying he wants to blow up buildings, reveals the lengths CAIR will go to deflect attention away from the problem of Islamic terrorism.

It also illustrates why congressional re-imposition of the “Fairness Doctrine,” or any variation of it, is so dangerous to free speech. Imagine a television station “advisory board” containing a member of the CAIR Greater Los Angeles organization. Now imagine that Brigitte was interviewed on that television station.
If CAIR is willing to go so far as to publicly allege that an Assistant U.S. Attorney is “guilty” and an “extremist” because of a contribution to an organization, just think what it would do if it had the power to dictate what television and radio stations could or could not broadcast!
After you read the CAIR release below, please click here to sign our petition opposing the Fairness Doctrine, if you have not already done so, and then forward it to everyone you know.


Greater Los Angeles Area March 5, 2009
Niazi's prosecutor makes no comment on her own guilty ties to an extremist group

By MONA SHADIA, IFN Contributing Reporter, March 2009
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot, who told a federal magistrate that Ahmadullah Niazi, brother-in-law of an alleged bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, is a terrorist-sympathizer, runs the risk of being guilty by association herself for supporting a right-wing group that has promoted anti-Islamic rhetoric on its Web sites.
In 2004, Eliot gave $2,000 in political contributions to the Lincoln Club of Orange County, a conservative organization with chapters throughout California. The Orange County chapter's newsletters are riddled with topics on "fundamentalist Islam" and "radical Islamists."
Brigitte Gabriel, an anti-Muslim advocate, who's been described by the New York Times Magazine as a "radical Islamophobe," was invited to speak at one of the group's events. On the group's Ventura County chapter Web site, articles and letters are posted by writers who claim that Islam is a danger to society's development and progress. Another article claims that Western Europe has but two options: "Submission, Islam, or death."
"It is a serious flag when a government prosecutor of Ms. Eliot's position and role is associated with a group that is clearly promoting anti-Muslim bigotry in its most hateful form," said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles-area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Her generous contribution to a group that is spreading Islamophobia and her refusal to repudiate or disassociate herself from its views sends an unspoken yet strong message on how she views Muslims and about her possible personal biases in driving this case against members of the Muslim community." ...
SEE FULL ARTICLE: Prosecutor Makes No Comment on Her Ties to an Extremist Group
Tustin man suspected of terrorist ties pleads not guilty
By Sal Hernandez, OC Register, March 2, 2009
.... Last week, U.S. Magistrate Arthur Nakazato set bail at $500,000 for the 34-year-old Niazi. Nakazato also said he wanted at least two relatives to be financially responsible for Niazi's bail. Family members posted bail Friday.
Since Niazi's arrest, the case has reverberated in the Muslim community in Orange County because of allegations that the FBI used an undercover informant to build a case against Niazi.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Niazi came to him because the FBI was trying to recruit him as an informant. The case built against Niazi, he said, was in retaliation for his refusal.
According to testimony provided in court, Niazi had been under surveillance by the FBI since 2006. According to search warrant affidavits, investigators seized several documents that showed Niazi and his wife have used unlicensed money-transfer systems to send money to Peshawar, Pakistan, and Kabul, Afghanistan.
FBI agents arrested Niazi at his Tustin home Feb. 20.
During his bail hearing, his attorney said that it was Niazi who first approached the FBI regarding a man at an Irvine mosque who had spoken about jihad and blowing up buildings. That man, said FBI Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III in court, was in fact an FBI informant. ...
SEE: Tustin man pleads not guilty
FBI Admits Spying on So Cal Mosques
KPFK Uprising Radio, March 4, 2009
Guests: Shakeel Syed, Executive Director of the Islamic Shura Council, Mona Shadia, contributing reporter to In-Focus News the largest Muslim newspaper in California
SEE: FBI Admits to Spying
An FBI agent recently revealed in a court testimony that an informant had been paid to look for evidence of terrorist activity at the Islamic Center of Irvine. Craig Monteilh posed as a man named Frederick Jordan and converted to Islam to gather information on an Afghan-born US citizen named Ahmed Niazi.
CAIR Greater Los Angeles Area

Executive Committee:
Fawad Yacoob - President Dr. Ashraf Ibrahim - Vice President Tahara Akmal Asem Abusir Imran Dadabhoy Omar Jubran Baraa Kahf Yasir Kahf Masoud Nassimi Dr. Ahmed Soboh Deeba Sultani

Staff:
Hussam Ayloush Executive Director
Alia Aboul-Nasr Programs Manager
Sherrel Johnson Community Relations Manager
Anbar Mahar Membership Manager
Sharaf Mowjood Government Relations Coordinator
Ameena Mirza Qazi Staff Attorney
Affad Shaikh Civil Rights Coordinator
Arefa Simjee Special Projects
Munira Syeda Communications Coordinator CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greater Los Angeles Area 2180 W. Crescent Ave., Suite F, Anaheim, CA 92801

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