Matthew 26:15
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ßLOOD$ Matthew 26:15 |
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WASH.DC The FBI is investigating how the Islamic militant group Hamas has siphoned millions of
dollars from the U.S. to fund terrorist activities, officials say. The officials, who spoke with AP on
condition of anonymity, said that FBI terrorist tracking units monitoring, intercepting and disrupting financial
transactions from U.S. supporters to Hamas overseas are moving closer to building criminal cases against some of
the players, the officials said. The broad financial assault originated with a 1998 investigation that uncovered a
Hamas fund-raising operation in Chicago and now points to an elaborate network of businesses & charities
reaching from Texas to Detroit to NY, they said. "One of things we are trying to do is to track the funding
mechanism & flow and really try to eradicate an entire flow of money to Hamas," said FBI's terrorist financial
review group chief Dennis Lormel.
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Hamas has claimed responsibility for some of the recent attacks against Israelis. Last month the spiritual leader of
Hamas called on Muslims around the world to launch a "jihad," a religious mission, to liberate their countries from
U.S. influence. A handful of suspected Hamas supporters have been raided, such as the Holy Land Foundation in
Texas, and officials caution several other suspected front companies are still under intense scrutiny. The Muslim
foundation in Richardson, Texas, denies financing terrorism, and has sued the govt claiming it has been falsely
accused. An FBI memo. used by govt to freeze Holy Land's assets and raid its office, claims a leader of the charity
attended a mid-1990s event where $207,000 was raised for Hamas and the keynote speaker urged the crowd to
"finish off the Israelis; kill them all."
Officials say their conservative estimate is that Hamas has raised several million dollars in the U.S. over the last
decade as its Hamas members have launched numerous attacks on Israel. They added they have developed no
evidence to date that Hamas has sent money back to fund terrorist strikes in America. Officials said the
investigation is complicated because the elaborate network of U.S.-based Muslim charities also engage in many
legitimate humanitarian efforts such as assisting Palestinians in refugee camps. "There also is a legitimate side. If
you really look at the services, some do a lot of good," Lormel said. "Then there are obvious monies that go to
nefarious purposes. That co-mingling of a sort is a challenge for us."
Separate investigations have identified some potential sources of U.S. money for al-Qaida, such as the al-Barakat
network of money transfer stores that were raided by U.S. authorities last fall. The disclosure of the broad, ongoing
FBI operation to disrupt Hamas fund-raising comes as one of the counterrorism agents instrumental in the Chicago
case is taking on the agency in a rare public dispute. Agent Robert Wright in the Chicago office alleges he was
prevented from pursuing leads that might have disrupted bin Laden's network before 9.11.01. Wright has filed
a complaint with 2 Justice Dept offices that investigate internal wrongdoing and has hired former House
impeachment counsel David Schippers and Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group. Officials say Wright was
part of the successful FBI team that in 1998 helped freeze more than $1 million in assets of suspected Hamas
fund-raisers in the Chicago area. But he was subsequently removed from counterrorism work and none of the
intelligence he developed points directly or indirectly to 9.11.01. "If Bob Wright is saying that had he been able to
conduct an unfettered investigation he somehow could have predicted 9.11.01, that is absolutely ludicrous," said
former FBI asst special agent Walter Stowe in charge of Chicago.
Judicial Watch declined to provide a copy of Wright's complaints, but said they detail interference &
mishandling of terrorist investigations and allege he endured retaliation when he pressed to pursue certain avenues
of investigation. "His position is he was obstructed from doing his investigation, and if he had been allowed to do
that, 9.11.01 may have been averted," Judicial Watch lawyer Larry Klayman said. Wright wrote affidavit used by
govt to freeze assets of 2 Chicago area men & their related entities in 1998. The affidavit said Hamas fund-
raising inside U.S. dated to at least 1989. FBI officials said Wright was removed from counterterrorism work and
that he disagreed with how to pursue additional investigations. The officials said FBI supervisors & Justice
Dept prosecutors jointly decided against some actions, such as prosecutions of smaller players, so that agents
would not jeopardize ongoing counterintelligence gathering operations authorized under sensitive national security
warrants.
NY atty general is conducting investigation to determine if the group diverted charitable funds to any improper
purposes. In papers filed with the court, Cordi said NY & CA investigations are similar, and NY already had
translations done of documents written in Arabic language. NY declined to turn over the documents without a court
order due to procedural requirements of govt codes, the documents said. Yaffe said he will sign the order Monday,
providing for turnover of the documents within 10 days. Holy Land is one of several charitable groups whose assets
were frozen by U.S. govt in wake of 9.11.01. Holy Land raised $13 million last year and claims to be the largest
Muslim charity in U.S., funding schools & other social services for Palestinians and others in the Muslim world.
American Muslim groups called on Pres. GWBush last month to unfreeze the assets of the Holy Land Fndtn, saying
govt actions create impression of an attack on Islam, an argument repeated by officials of the charity itself, who
believe Israel is behind the raid on their U.S. offices.
Are Mideast schools using U.S. $ to teach hatred?
GAZA STRIP In the Gaza strip, a Palestinian child asks fellow students in a classrom if they are
afraid. "No" they answer, adding "We ask Allah to destroy the Jews." It's part of an education experience funded
with tens of millions of dollars in aid from both the U.S. govt & the European Union. "We're talking about
blatant hate. We're talking about blatant incitement," said head of the NY based Anti-Defamation League head
Abraham Foxman . "We're talking about anti-Semitism." He is also talking about textbooks long used in Palestinian
schools, which teach 9th graders "treachery & disloyalty are characteristics of the Jews," and tell 5th graders
about "Victory of Muslims over Jews." Critics of these new books say that they essentially ignore Israel. "The state
of Israel doesn't exist. What kind of reality is that?" Foxman said. "Israel reexamined its textbooks because they
talked about only the past and not the present. The Palestinians are just finding excuses not to change it."
"It has to be a part of U.S. policy to make very clear that we will not in any way tolerate such words of hatred," said
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton D-NY in recent interview with Gabe Pressman in Israel on the topic. Palestinian
officials also bowed to new textbooks being introduced after some in Congress threatened to cut off funding. "We
have introduced a new course that will be taught to all Palestinian children: civics. And that is to speak about the
culture of peace," said chief Palestinian Liberation Organization representative Hasan Abdul Rachman. "There was
no need to change [our textbooks], there was no show of hate," said Public affairs Minister Moshe Fox at Israeli
embassy in Wash.DC. "It's a false allegation, it's a sheer lie... you're approaching it that each of the textbooks are
loaded with hate of the other side." Fox also said that Israeli text books were never in the wrong, but Palestinian
officials may not be happy with their political explanation. "Israeli text books never included any hate or any bias
toward the Palestinians in any way shape or form," he said. "Of course, they might not like the way we explain how
those territories were composed, but they are mentioned [in the texts] very clearly." "To begin with, none of [the
Palestinian textbooks] mention the state of Israel, not a word, or when it comes to the maps, they don't put Israel in
there, they put Palestine," he continued.
But Palestinian leaders say Israel's young people are taught that millions of Muslim refugees in occupied territory
are non-existent. "I want to see what change has been done on the Israeli side also," Rachman said. "Regardless
of the textbooks, this reality for Palestinian children speaks much more than any textbook." Lessons in the
classroom, however, are often underscored with messages from the media, like one ad on Palestinian TV depicting
the slain child entering paradise as a martyr. Students are seen throwing away books, and instead, embracing
weapons. But one U.S Congressman who's pressured a UN agency that dispenses American tax dollars for
Palestinian education, worries about the alternative. "If we cut off the funding today, who will fill the vacuum" said
Rep. Peter Deutsch D-FL. "Would the solution be worse than the disease?" Already the organization which claims
credit for dozens of recent suicide attacks on Israelis, Hamas, is running some of its own schools.
As for the Palestinian authority's program for replacing old textbooks with more moderate & modern versions,
U.N. monitoring of progress was suspended 17 months ago when fighting intensified. The Palestinian Authority
says revised books are already used in at least 4 of 12 grades. It says intolerant textbooks allegedly used in Israeli
schools should also be changed. The ADL responds that Israel has re-examined & modified textbooks. Israeli
children live every day in fear of bombings, but are not taught to blame or hate all Arabs, according to the ADL.
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Terrorists have a high tech shopping list and they are actively seeking to buy from U.S. companies, the Customs
Service said Monday. In an effort to thwart items contained in a secret "terrorist's shopping list," from falling into
the wrong hands and being used against Americans, the govt is actively recruiting makers of those items in its war
on terrorism by asking them to turn over the names of any suspicious customers. Dubbed "Operation Shield
America," the program now becomes the highest priority within Customs and targets some 100 items that federal
authorities "believe terrorists wanted to buy in country," said Customs Service Commissioner Robert Bonner
Monday. "I'm calling for nothing less than a U.S. Customs-business partnership against terrorism," Bonner said.
This week federal agents will begin canvassing about 300 U.S. manufacturers of the items on what Bonner called a
"shopping list for terrorist organizations," to educate about the program and encourage them to turn over names
& information on any suspicious customers. State & Commerce Depts already have defined lists of
controlled exports; however, Bonner indicated that the items on Customs'
list differed in some respects. The list also is apparently not subject to the same rigid congressional oversight
State & Commerce lists face. Bonner said he needed no special congressional mandate to create the
list.
The list also remains secret. Bonner refused a request to release an itemized list and instead gave only the
broadest of descriptions regarding the types of items on the list. The technologies range from fairly sophisticated
items that can be used to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and also low tech items, things that
could be used to help terrorists "evade detection or capture," Bonner said. "A lot of this is dual-use technology so it
has a legitimate use for certain purposes, but it can be used for weapons or weapons systems by terrorist
organizations," Bonner said of the items on the list. Bonner brushed off a question asking if the new program
essentially drafted American manufacturers into the undeclared war on terrorism, making them de facto agents of
the Customs dept. "We want to partner with American business," Bonner said. "We're not asking them to
investigate, that's the job of Customs, we are asking them to contact us," Bonner said. "Yes, we are asking them to
be alert, pay attention to who their customers are and if they've got a suspicious customer or something out of the
ordinary, something abnormal that might indicated that some equipt or technology that could be used by
international terrorist organizations and get into the hands of our enemies, to let us know about it," Bonner said,
adding, "the program is completely voluntary."
Operation Shield America is the spawn of a 1980's Cold War-era program, also developed by Customs, called
"Operation Gemini." In that program Customs agents also partnered with businesses asking them to report any
suspicious activity for products moving to communist countries. Operation Gemini has resulted in "some
spectacularly successful investigations," said a Customs spokesman. One investigation in 1998 stopped the export
of tons of thiodiglycol, an industrial solvent and also a critical ingredient of the nerve agent "mustard gas", from
leaving for Iran. And in 1990 the same program stopped 40 nuclear trigger devices from being shipped to Iraq.
One area that won't be cut back: drug interdiction. That program has seen some of the biggest successes in the
aftermath of 9.11.01because of the increased alert status along the borders, Bonner said. Just what constitutes a
"suspicious customer" isn't well-defined. A customer making a purchase that differs from a routine order, might trip
the "suspicious" threshold, or if a customer declines special warrantees or training for a product, red flags might go
up or if a buyer has little understanding of the product or if the customer pays cash for a high ticket item. All these
could be deemed "suspicious" and the buyer's name and information turned over for possible investigation to the
govt.
The lying of the Bush administration has become transparent to everyone around the world. It is only in the U.S.
that we, the people of the U.S., the great naïve flag-waving sado-masochists that haven't caught on yet. Despite
the fact that the value of our IRA & 401(k) accounts has diminished by 50%. Our response to hard times
& difficult situations (unlike the rest of the world) is to take more Prozac. For Rumsfeld to announce he wanted
to suppress a study that the DoD itself funded is astounding.
They're trying to accelerate their tax cut policies for the rich, not supposed to go into effect until 2004. GWBush said
we're going to try to bring those forward in order to "provide some economic stimulus." That's a lie because tax cuts
for the rich provide almost no economic stimulus and he knows it. Bush administration believes not only that it will
be one term, but also that the Bush cabal is coming to an end. Therefore they are simply trying to accomplish their
agenda. They have made the top 1% control two-thirds of the nation's private wealth; their second goal is to
turn the U.S. into a de facto tax-free nation for GOP Rich.
When everything falls apart in the U.S., money from Republican offshore accounts will be repatriated and Bush
cabal will simply buy up all American publicly traded businesses & industries for 10&162; cents on the dollar.
We see this massive conversion of GOP scam money into gold, in anticipation of further declines in the dollar.
Despite one-term regime, Bush cabal nevertheless are going to win because they control all of the money.
Meanwhile in Louisiana, Bush bragged that Homeland Security Agency has control over a 100 other federal state & local agencies,
most powerful agency in the land. He said we shouldn't be frightened of this (and I don't think he meant it to come
out the way it did), he said, "The Office of Homeland Security cannot be hampered by a thick book of rules." I think
it came out the wrong way. Bush also said now is not the time to worry about civil liberty issues because we have a
war to win against terrorism. He said that if we were defeated by terrorism their civil liberties wouldn't mean
anything anyway. He talks about the "terrorists," as if they're the Soviet Army of old. His audience, a lot of young
JC's & high school student rabid Republicans with flattop haircuts clapped. You know the kind with buttons
that say, "I support the electric chair." You can tell where these kids are coming from. He said we've already
captured 2000 terrorists, then he said there were 2000 more who weren't so lucky. They clapped for that, and then
these blond haired blue-eyed boys got up and started waving their hands yelling, "Kill them, kill them, kill them."
After that I think he tried to tone it down a little. When Cheney addressed the Calif. Commonwealth Club, essentially haven to right wing scams, students tried to heckle. Usually police try to escort them out. But the cops came in there in force and tackled these kids & pummeled them. They showed about 5 seconds then the tape went blank. Cheney said that those who refuse Bush policies on security are the "terrorists' best friend.", another story they like to weave now. Cheney said that when it comes to protesters let this be an example that the govt has decided that protesters will be treated with increasing severity, that they will no longer "coddle" protesters no matter how naïve & misguided they may be, that from now on they will take a very tough approach with all who would dare disagree with the State. |
CSPAN showed a National Association of Police Chiefs spokesman with new high tech non-lethal weapons
systems. New high-energy tasers aren't like the older models that use 50K volts; the new are 250K volt. He said it
was enough to take down an elephant. What he said was that it would actually scramble an elephant's brain. They
showed new stun gas to control people. He was talking about the co. making these weapons and mentioned Oliver
North's co. Guardian Industries. They're making a fortune because police chiefs are getting directives from the
Office of Homeland Security to purchase a lot of new high tech non-lethal weapons, a whole new generation of
weapons developed with longer ranges etc. He said there will be some casualties because as you make these
weapons more effective, you come closer to the edge of making them lethal.
Then there's also a commercial that's been playing on TV, which shows a college age kid goes into a library.
There's an old librarian up front, and the kid's got these book request slips in his hand, and he says to the librarian,
"I can't find these books anywhere." She types them into the computer and says, "Those books are no longer
available, citizen. May I see your national identification card." The kid doesn't understand and he walks out of the
library. She watches him and pushes a button underneath her desk and just as he's going out the door, these two
guys in govt issue blue JC Penney suits with Rayban sunglasses take him by each arm, and they tell him, "Citizen,
we want to talk to you." The caption at the end says, "Freedom. Defend it. Cherish it. Fight for it." The American
Arts Council sponsors the commercials. It's a good sign that they haven't banned the commercials yet.
After Bush's speech they said the Office of Cyberspace Security would be given the power to ban commercials,
which express any anti-State or civil libertarian attitudes.
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