A recent headline on CNN read, "FBI planting spies in U.S. mosques," Muslim groups allege. This outrage was sparked by revelations that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had sent an agent provocateur into a mosque in southern California who was coercing worshippers in becoming informants and inciting them to make violent statements. The planting of spies in mosques is just the latest in the FBI's long list of actions that have angered both civil libertarians and members of the American Muslim community.

In March 2003, FBI launched a mosque counting project whereby agents were asked to document the number of mosques in their areas, "to help measure the number of terrorism investigations that the various field offices should be expected to open and pursue." By their actions, the FBI needlessly linked terrorism to mosques despite the paucity of any evidence tying the 9-11 hijackers to the mainstream American-Muslim community and the mainstream Muslim community's absolute and unequivocal rejection of terror.

Ahead of the 2004 Presidential election, the FBI had launched a so-called October Plan indiscriminately "interviewing" Muslims. In 2005 FBI agents secretly monitored radiation levels at mosques to determine whether nuclear bombs were being assembled there. Nothing was found. In 2008, an American Muslim was arrested and tortured in the UAE at the apparent direction of the FBI.

My concerns also relate to a January 2009 Fox News story that reported the FBI's severing of its ties with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading American Muslim organization. It was more disconcerting, when a month later a FBI agent stopped by my office purporting to ask questions about my resignation from the Chairmanship of CAIR, an action I had taken eight months ago.

My reasons for leaving CAIR were no secret. In an interview with my local newspaper, I had noted that in order to make the organization a more effective voice in the American socio-political discourse, CAIR must empower a new and younger generation of leaders. My departure was clearly related to disagreements over governing philosophy and yet the FBI perplexingly found something nefarious in a matter that is not entirely out of the ordinary.

The FBI wants to avoid "formally constructed partnerships" with CAIR stemming from concerns over "distinct narrow issues" specific to CAIR's "national leadership." Such vague pronouncements have provided a pretext for some members of Congress to turn the ambiguity into a "government-wide policy." In order to remain consistent with the constitutional hallmarks of due process, it is essential that our lawmakers and law enforcement agencies do not make hasty pronouncements that can needlessly hurt innocent people. If CAIR has "terrorist ties" as some members of Congress claim then the FBI should shut CAIR down. However, if there is no evidence linking CAIR to any terrorist activity, then the FBI should re-engage with CAIR.

From 2005 to 2008 as the Chairman of CAIR, I participated in numerous meetings and press conferences with the FBI. I conducted sensitivity and diversity training for the FBI and at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. During this time, no one from the FBI ever alerted me about "distinct narrow issues." In all of my association with the organization, I was not aware of any unlawful activity.

The FBI Director Robert Muller recently said, "The communities from which we need the most help are those who trust us the least. But it is in these communities that we must re-double our efforts." It is unclear as to how the steps taken by the FBI will lead to a building of trust.

Perhaps tired of the growing list of provocative actions against the community or perhaps indignation over being side-stepped, CAIR led several American Muslim groups in asking members of the community to "consider suspending all outreach activities with FBI offices." Not all major Muslim groups joined this call perhaps realizing that such a call is counter-productive. Suspending dialogue can only make matters worse. Moreover, it is unclear as to what the groups meant by suspending "all outreach?" If the FBI comes knocking on the door of an American Muslim organization seeking diversity training should they be turned away? The groups seeking boycott went on to say, "The credibility of all Muslim organizations who maintain ties to the FBI that do not react decisively is undermined in the eyes of the community." Does this mean that the American Muslims who just won the 2008 Community Leadership Awards from the FBI are turncoats, if they accept the award?

Whatever legitimate concerns FBI has about CAIR, they need to give the organization's 11-member national governing board a chance to weigh the facts. During my tenure at CAIR, no such overture was made by the FBI.

Even if CAIR feels that it is unfairly taking one on the chin, it should not issue self-serving calls asking members of the American Muslim community to break off relationships with the FBI, especially when such relationships, in small measures, do help in promoting mutual understanding. While the results of such interactions are not always spectacular, these interactions are nonetheless helpful for building civic harmony.

Speaking from my personal experience, having conducted dozens of hours of training for members of law enforcement, such interactions allow outsiders like me to understand the myriad of challenges facing law enforcement. It helps to ensure that our demands are tempered by the recognition of the enormous challenges law enforcement officials face in an effort to ensure the public
safety of all. On the other hand, even the few hours that law enforcement officers spend in diversity training classes allow them better perspective on the concerns of minority communities, helping them to more effectively engage.

The FBI's hasty pronouncements and ensuing misguided responses by some American Muslim organizations have placed undue burdens on the American Muslim community. It is incumbent that both the FBI and American Muslim groups meet to work out their differences before their respective intransigence undermines security and civic harmony. The new Attorney General Eric Holder, who has called for, "adherence to the rule of law," and a cessation of "needlessly abusive and unlawful practices" must step forward to assure the American Muslim community that the Obama administration will break away from the bad policies that plagued the Ashcroft-Gonzalez Justice department.

This isn't the first and it won't be the last time that bodies such as the FBI create legitimate targets for themselves to police. American institution is larger than Americans. The only difference is that in the United States, such Agencies can only be held accountable to the extent that Americans are affected and have adequate legal recourse. If you don't resort to petitioning for your rights, then that is effectively saying that no rights were taken. If a culture is defined by how individuals claim their rights, if you have no right to claim then you have nothing to petition from the government. And if you can't actually petition anyone for your right, its the American governments directive when to hand it to you.

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1850

What deeply concerns me in all this is the very "nefarious" and vague use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism." Neither of these words, to my knowledge, have been legally defined in a manner that can be effectively used to describe anyone or any specific activities, beside, strapping on a package and blowing yourself up. But we know that the word is being used in far broader contexts and to refer to a much larger numbr of people than merely those who engage in over acts of guerilla warfare against both enemy combatants and civillians. Am I a terrorist merely because I openly oppose both the state of Israel and its expanding occupationist activities as well as western colonialism? I suspect I probably am. This is going to become very ugly in a very McCarthyean sort of way when TERRORIST! becomes the label du jour by which anyone can be dragged in or disappear for any reason that's in disagreement with American foreign policy regardless of how divorced from action those beliefs and pronouncements may be.

>>>> This is going to become very ugly in a very McCarthyean sort of way when TERRORIST! becomes the label du jour by which anyone can be dragged in or disappear for any reason that's in disagreement with American foreign policy regardless of how divorced from action those beliefs and pronouncements may be.

This whole persecution goes hand in hand with discrediting the "terrorist" enemy. Media and Government effectively join hands to promote the corporate interest and human beings are made into monsters and savages for being in their own countries pursuing their own interests. That kind of evil comes full circle and is beginning to be used against the American citizenry. The American citizens complacence in the face of its own Elites/Upper-classes abuse of government are now turning against them.

Effectively, America has been at war against the worlds non-imperial aligned peoples. Its own citizenry included. Its not some conspiracy of white supremacy or illegal imperial ambition. Its the exact nature of American institution that has lent itself to those abuses. The institutions need to change but nothing illegal is being done so how can it be changed? It is widely accepted that the CIA has been agency to murder/execution and repression around the world. But it only becomes an issue now that its a Federal institution in the US? What about those people who can't petition the American senate for their rights? Where do they fit in?

The FBI has a long and detailed history of abuse, intimidation and violations of civil rights. We're talking decades. The case in California where they used a schmuck with a 22 year criminal history to trap an innocent man over visa issues( real reason: his refusal to spy for them) is how they work. Speaking of visa issues, notice their total non-interest in deal with the massive immigration fraud Wafa Sultan(a non-Muslim pretending to be a Muslim zionist) committed..oh but remember she's on the judeofascist payroll.

>Am I a terrorist merely because I openly oppose both the state of Israel and its expanding occupationist activities as well as western colonialism? I suspect I probably am.<

Yep. the FBI's real "problem" with the Muslim community is our opposition to "israeli" terrorism.

>>>> The FBI has a long and detailed history of abuse, intimidation and violations of civil rights. We're talking decades. The case in California where they used a schmuck with a 22 year criminal history to trap an innocent man over visa issues( real reason: his refusal to spy for them) is how they work. Speaking of visa issues, notice their total non-interest in deal with the massive immigration fraud Wafa Sultan...

Its a typical abuse of law, and its more about who you'd prefer to apply the law to, rather than if it applies. That the US denied Tariq Ramadan entry is indication of very unfairly applied (and dare I say racist) immigration laws. Yet again, if there is no right to claim (as immigrants hardly have any), then in the practical effect of our modern law is that no right was lost. There is a large amount of reform and review that must go into our present-day legal system.

I still haven't figured out why George W Bush has not been impeached for lying to American public. Is there no case to be made? If he isn't held accountable, then he effectively hasn't lied.

>I still haven't figured out why George W Bush has not been impeached for lying to American public. Is there no case to be made? If he isn't held accountable, then he effectively hasn't lied.<

There's a very good case, but its not going to happen. The US has become a banana republic.

Ghulam:
>>(and dare I say racist) immigration laws

The immigration system is highly flawed and is a curious mixture of regulations intended to be standardizing agents and arbitrary individual judgments on the spot. But to call it racist it a little too much. Give that there are several million immigrant Muslims here, not to mention many millions of East Asians, and oh yeah, the Hispanic population is 15% (yes, 15% of a country with over 300 million people). A true racist system would be successful at excluding the 20% non-white immigrant population similar to the century-ago (and long-since repealed) Chinese Exclusion Act and so forth.

There's a very good case, but its not going to happen. The US has become a banana republic.>>>

And on top of that, given the frighteningly short American attention span, they have probably forgotten who he is. A lot of people I read, even those who hated him, are looking back nostalgically as though he were no more than a hamless bumbling little guy. After all, bikini season is on its way and we have NO idea who's the next American idol.

DrM >>> There's a very good case, but its not going to happen.

What are the mitigating factors for it not happening? Is everyone too busy? I would think there is enough anti-Bush sentiment to make that case.

Akenaubis >>>And on top of that, given the frighteningly short American attention span, they have probably forgotten who he is.

THEY? Entertainment TV cannot seriously be the reason that a president would be allowed to lie.

OmarG >>> and oh yeah, the Hispanic population is 15% (yes, 15% of a country with over 300 million people).

Wow. That's quite a significantly large number. These are wikipedia numbers tracing ancestry. But with Mexico on the border and Spain and Portugal having such a long history with the continent, its not surprising. The list reads Ancestry population and percentage

German 42,885,162 15.2%
African American 36,419,434 12.9%
Irish 30,594,130 10.9
English 24,515,138 8.7
Mexican 20,640,711 7.3
Italian 15,723,555 5.6
French 10,846,018 3.9
Hispanic 10,017,244 3.6
Polish 8,977,444 3.2
Scottish 4,890,581 1.7
Dutch 4,542,494 1.6
Norwegian 4,477,725 1.6
Scotch-Irish 4,319,232 1.5
Native American 4,119,301 1.5
Swedish 3,998,310 1.4

THEY? Entertainment TV cannot seriously be the reason that a president would be allowed to lie.>>>

Why not? If people are so more interested and preoccupied with TV that they can't be bothered holding so-called public servants accountable. But nothing is done. They are having a field day with the Blago thug because there's a lot of low-brow stuff for the public to sink their intellectual baby teeth into, while letting the more nefarious stuff go unquestioned.